What type of insomniac are you?

I am another one who drops off (usually fairly quickly) after reading for a while, but then wakes at about 2/3pm. I then toss and turn continually for the rest of the night, my brain rushing from one daft subject to another - until dropping off again, and dreaming heavily, at about 6.30pm.

I am sure a lot of our sleep problems have been brought on by our lives. Firstly children, and always having to have one ear on alert (one daughter was asthmatic in her teems which didn't help), and then the menopause and hot flushes, and then often by our partners and their heavy snoring - which seems to be very common. Many years ago my OH and I started sleeping in separate bedrooms, which has certainly helped as I am sure that part of my problem is that for so long I just couldn't sleep due to his continuous thunderous snores right next to me. There were times I seriously wanted to put a pillow over his head! Actually I have discovered that a large number of our age group do sleep in separate bedrooms to their partners - it used to be rather a taboo subject but once someone mentions it, it is surprising how many other women then hold their hands up and say they do too. As a famous actress once said: "Sex and sleep don't automatically go together - to have one it is necessary to have the other!"

If I wake up in the middle of the night I use my iPad or watch television and usually fall back to sleep. I appreciate having my bed to myself and no old Git snoring next to me shudder.

Definately a radio gaga. Of course some mornings the world service is replaced by schools programmes, so on my head I am running around like the north wind or some such. I find some programmes extraordinarily interesting but not interesting enough to remember them the following morning.
When I was working I certainly used to worry that I wasn't able to sleep but now it really doesn't matter. My biggest worry now is 'am a going to get a lane to myself when I go for a swim' but swimming issues would take a whole thread itself

I'll keep my festive fingers crossed as well, 23! I've found that resting my aching leg on my toscana sheepskin has helped. It soon holds the warmth. Makes me think sleeping in a cave or an igloo on animal furs wouldn't have been so bad. Cold getting up of a night wee though!
<wonders how Eskimos managed that>

Thanks Bags I was indeed sound asleep at 5.45 and slept on till 10.45 - bliss. I am scared to put this in black and white, smacks of tempting fate, but here goes - I have been using my Christmas Present Electric Blanket for nearly a week now and have had some really decent sleeps, i.e. bed @ 3.00 only up for half an hour walking during the night, slept on till after 10am. A vast improvement on the terrible broken nights I have had constantly since the clocks changed. [fFingers Crossed]

I'm like Gagagran I have a mixed sleep. I read myself to sleep and sleep well until about 3 am . Sometimes I wake up in the night for the usual reason if I'm lucky I go back to sleep easily. Sometimes, though I wake up in pain, have already taken my pain meds so can't top up until morning, and toss and turn in discomfort. The cat who sleeps on my bed in the winter, sometimes grumbles at me and if I'm really bad goes off in a huff.

granjura Your comment didn't upset me at all. Please don't worry. I can't clear out another room at the moment because we are redecorating the entire house so the paint pots etc. are not rubbish, but in use.

Actually, I would be quite happy waking up in the middle of the night if I could get up and get on with things without disturbing anyone. It's having to lie there keeping quiet that drives me nuts.

Yes worth trying hypnotherapy if you can locate a good one. Not someone who has done a quick course and promises to help you stop smoking etc
Personal recommendation is what you need.
I found it helpful with the thing I was doing - dozing, then having an anxious thought/dream, boosting my stress hormones and giving myself a hot flush. Wideawake!
I love my alarm clock that projects the time onto the ceiling. (Eyes to blurry to read a clock radio display without glasses). This helps me to think, Oh not morning yet and go back to sleep.
Also my kindle with a light.
Weight loss can reduce snoring - but the worst snorer I ever heard was a young fit ex BIL. What a racket! You could hear it all over the house.
I have though pretty much given up on trying to sleep in the same bed as DH. Large person with high metabolic rate whose v large legs sometimes do twitching or even practicing cycling in his sleep. Also when i need to drop off, I need to drop off. Then. And if someone is still reading in the bathroom, or says something or doesn't want the light off yet... etc etc
So at the moment we have separate beds and I am sleeping much, much better. Its a bit sad though. Cuts down on cuddling.

Gally and everyone having difficulty sleeping, have you tried guided meditation? There are plenty of examples on YouTube, but have a listen to a few until you find someone whose voice you like. If nothing else it might help to stop the fretting and worrying whilst you are awake.

Hope you're asleep as I write this, 23

Good morning, ariadne

Morning all! I am an intermittent insomniac, and this is one of my "intermits" - woke up at 3.45 for a wee, couldn't get back to sleep, came down here, finished a book, checked FB, now on dear GN. It is very windy outside, don't know if the noise is a contributory factor. But at least I don't have to get dressed now and go out in it. This is the time at which I used to get up when I worked!

I am surprised that there are apparently no other Restless Leg sufferers on Gransnet, as I believe it is more prevalent in older people. I used to have a few 'buddies' on, whisper it, Mumsnet who would post, standing up, during their nightly perambulations. On Gransnet it seems to be 'lights out' every night before 1.00am .

Meadow you sound just like me!although I am not abstemious. I've tried tat route and it doesn't work!
I have the world service on most of the night.
I do find 'today in parliament' the most likely to send me to sleep.
Also if I'm awake in the morning, the inshore forecast makes me drop off about st Catherine's point!
When I used to sail, the most important area was the following one :- Lyme bay to Isles of Scilly
Now! Isles of Scilly to st David's point

I have blackout blinds and thermal-backed curtains - no light can get in - but still I wake at 3, 4, or 5. Quite often I'll drop off at about 7.30 but then I have to get up at 8 to go to work....sigh, [martyred emoticon]!

Gally your description sounds just how would write it, all over the place. I'll go out like a light and sleep for 8hrs, or I'll wake at 3am and stay wide awake for 2hrs, then I can wake at 12:30 and so on every hour till its light.. I sometimes get up have a warm drink , read or watch tv downstairs for a while.. my good nights just about outweigh the bad and has certainly go worse since I retired. There seems no rhyme or reason to it.
I did read somewhere that as we get older, the skin on the eyelids thins, thus letting in more light, and the morning light is what wakes us. I keep meaning to try an eye mask to shut out the street light that shines in my bedroom window see if that helps.. I'll try most things..

My insomnia started 20 years ago when I was expecting my 4th baby I was 40. How I enjoyed the crash into the black hole of sleep in between the night feeds. Also in trying to manage a full time job and four children and a failing marriage I would often work late at night and was a serious coffee drinker. Since then whenever I am worried about anything ( usually money worries or my Mums dementia and how to care for her and my children) I wake up at 4 am. I have also had hot flushes for more than ten years which wakes me up two or three times a night. I am also sensitive to the slighted noise at night after about 3am. Caffeine whether it is even a strong brand of tea will now wake me up and although I love coffee and alcohol they also affect my sleep so I can only have them rarely. Daily exercise and daylight exposure is a must but perversely whenever I am exhausted from very heavy gardening or a 3 hour walk I tend to sleep badly that night. The World Service is my refuge in the dark hours of the night or podcasts although I get annoyed by the wimpy voiced presenter on Farming Today. Why they can't have a presenter who sounds authoritative and as though she grew up on a farm is beyond me! I hope to doze through Farming Today and then enjoy the first City News. I always thought that when I retired and no longer had to worry about work the next day I would sleep but no. If anything my sleep is worse since I retired! Why is it that when you need your sleep more than ever to cope with the tiredness of being older you get less sleep?

I used to sleep like a log - but I could always wake up for the children. Over the last few years I have found sleep a strange thing to deal with: 3 am is the optimum time but since J died this year I have been all over the place. One night I will go straight to sleep and then, suddenly be awake and imagine it's about 5 - not so, more like midnight then I am awake probably until 4 am. The next night I sleep all night long and then the next night I'm back on the wake up thing. It's soooo frustrating. I'm too tired to get up and make tea or eat a banana or whatever, but if I turn the telly on (OMG there's such c * * * on in the middle of the night) it doesn't help nor does playing Classic FM. Eyes are too tired to read and then I go over the whole of the last year in my mind and get upset and round I go again. Having a bath in the evening wakes me up and I get too hot and bothered, milk makes me thirsty, sleeping pills make me feel zombie-like, alcohol occasionally does the trick but I really don't know the answer - perhaps I should try hypnotism?

absentgranna, sorry if my comment upset you. I fully understand the wish to SLEEP with your man - but if he stops you from sleeping, it can affect your health and more, and a solution needs to be found.

For us, the idea of 2 separate beds, but together, works really well. My OH used to snore badly, but now he does not longer, since he has lost weight. But due to my arthritis and insomnia, I would disturb him, and him me - so we can visit each other for a cuddle and hold hands- but have our own space. Even if he did snore, the fact he would not have his nose right against my head/ear, would still help hugely. How about clearing another room and putting a bed in it for when it gets very bad- or every 3 or 4 nights to at least get a good night's sleep from time to time? Just a suggestion

I may fall into the 'list maker' category. I have no difficulty falling asleep but at any time after 2.30 I'm to be found tapping away on the iPad, emailing myself at work with to do lists. Roll on retirement

I pinch the end of my snorer's nose ,getting harder until it stops,or the elbow and shut up works

The other man might be an even worse snorer....

I'm not actually angry – or at least not about the snoring (see other threads). Sleeping in another bed in the same room with a professional snorer is a bit of a hide into nothing. Meanwhile, every room in the house is full of dust sheets, paint pots, pasting tables and chaos. Does anyone really think there is the slightest oddness about wanting to spend the night with another man???????????????????? [hgrin]

Mine starts with a 'ngha-uh, ngha-uh'....then there'll be a little whimper (bless him ). Sometimes when it really gets to me I trail through to the other room - my room - which I really should have done in the first place.

absentgrana