Advanced Sleep Phase Disorder - Plus

Commiserations, GK.
I can't offer any more advice, except that I think you can buy melatonin without a prescription.
I've tried it, but like other drugs, I found that its effectiveness reduces over time.
Piriton also works for me, with the same reservation.

You could be describing my sleep pattern. The only thing I didn’t know was that it had a name or was a disorder. I’ve just accepted it. It’s easier now that I’ve retired because I can take things at a slower pace or even have forty winks. I get support on the insomniacs anonymous thread on gransnet. It’s fairly common amongst a lot of my female friends. I feel resentful that what I took for granted and enjoyed up until my forties is now a problem. I still go to bed in the vain hope that I’ll sleep through the night and wake up at 7 and then be able to snuggle down and doze, but no it’s waking with a ping at some ridicules early hour. I hope thing improve if not I’ll see you on the insomniacs thread.

I was pretty desperate through lack of sleep due to waking with hot flushes several times a night and unable to go back to go to sleep. I decided to
listen to Guided sleep meditation (spoken - not music) on my tablet via
you tube to fall over to sleep with and again when I awake usually about 2am, 3am and 4am

I use an earpiece not to wake or disturb DH.

Sticking with the same one helps (It took a couple of weeks to find one that suited me and actually works)

The routine blocks out other thoughts and worries that play on the mind in the wee small hours.

Up until a couple of months ago I was using (drowsy) piriton.

Good luck

I’ve started taking half a drowsy anti histamine tablet, then if I wake up at stupid o’clock I stand a chance of getting back to sleep.
Have you checked if something is waking you up? the pigeons and birds start making a noise here around 4 am, DH sometimes gets up in the night and wakes me up.
Is your room too hot or cold?
Do you go to bed too early?
Hopefully you don’t have a nap during the day.
I was up at 3 this morning...... but now I know I have something with initials maybe I’ll sleep better?

There is an interesting article in today's Telegraph about sleep suggesting that it is just as good for you to be polyphasic as monophasic like other mammals such as foxes. This means that it is just as effective to have 3 to4 hours sleep a night with three periods of 20 minutes throughout the day as it is to have 8 hours per night. The problem is what to do with the rest of the night ?

Ping wide awake for over an hour now grrrrr, look at the time it’s the middle of the night. I’ll be grumpy tomorrow. I don’t think there is an answer.

It seems quite common to wake at 3.00 or so and be awake for a bit. Why not accept it ? I've taken to getting up making tea/toast & watching catch up TV. You need snuggly clothes & socks. Sometimes I write e mails. Others I know do a bit of ironing or prep dinner. Im not that wide awake. Then go back to sleep later when you feel like it. Dont punish yourself with forbidding wine coffee cheese etc if you like them. Its a new normal.

Why are you taking the tablet at 4am? I think it’s better to take it a lot earlier than that. Probably why you feel muzzy the next day because it hasn’t worn of. If it were me I’d take it a lot earlier when I went to bed or at least by 1 am

Changed my diet to low carb...had been having sleep problems for years...now go to sleep and wake next morning.....sometimes early but at least i get a sleep now!

This was me a few years ago. I went to the integrated medicine practitioner who had cured our daughter of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (he was a fully qualified GP). He recommended that I have a saliva test, which showed very high levels of Cortisol and DHEA in the evenings and low melatonin. He said it was as if I had consumed loads of espressos before bed.

To put it briefly, he treated me with various supplements but then emigrated to Canada. He referred me to a highly qualified nutritionist as they were no other integrated medicine practitioners in my area.

I now sleep 7-8hrs a night and am a different person. I do get the occasional night when I can't get off and if this acute I'll take half a Temazepam but it is a rare occurrence, less than once a month.

So, with me it was a hormone imbalance and it took many months on supplements to re-balance them. So I recommend a fully qualified nutritionist (at least 7 years) and a saliva test. Good luck!

I wake up coughing violently at least once a night. Then I get up to go to the loo, then I start trying to get back to sleep. Ten minutes later I put the light on and start reading. Last night this happened every few hours. Grrrr I wish I could sleep.

If you aren’t drinking anything after 5pm, could you possibly be waking because your body is dehydrated? By the time you wake at 3am you have gone without for 10 hours, which is a long time. Just a thought.

If nothing has helped I would now just live my life as if I slept like a baby
And do what ever I fancied....knowing that nothing I do will change my sleeping patterns
Stop fretting about will I or won’t I sleep
Just get on with living.....

Try listening to Radio 4 podcasts when you wake up. Dessert island discs is good, I find them interesting, takes your mind of any worries but soon send me off to sleep.

To find them download the bbbc radio app. Click on radio 4 and then at the top you will find a list of options, click on podcasts and choose which programme you would like to listen to.

I take Piriton (Chlorphenamine Maleate) in bed and then read for half an hour, by then it kicks in and sometimes I manage to get five hours and sometimes seven hours.
Have been doing this for a few years now, and it has helped me.?

I find that the dishwasher has finished by the time I wake up so I empty that and make a warm drink, take a paracetamol tell myself very firmly that it's a sleeping tablet , write a few emails and go back to bed. It works if the alarm has gone off. Sigh.

You could try going to bed a little later than you do and read a book for a while, this may reset your sleep pattern. I always sleep better after reading. Also try getting up for half an hour when you wake up very early, make a hot relaxing drink and then go back to bed, it's worse lying in bed tossing and turning about, a nurse suggested this to me once when I was going through a sleep deprived time, and it worked for me.

I am the same,i never go to bed before 12, sometimes 1am, and usually read for a bit until i drop off,
sometimes i have a little doze in the day, but not always and not intentionally, maybe just 20-30 minutes
i take Nytol or the generic equivalant, and still dont sleep more than 4-5 hours, but i dont feel too bad when i do wake up,

I toss and turn until about 2 or 3 in the morning and then if lucky go off to sleep for 4 or 5 hours and consider that's good, as some nights I don't go off till 5ish; But its better my way than yours I think. But I wonder if at our age - whatever that is! - we don't need as much sleep, and hopefully can have 40 winks after lunch. As one poster said get up and do something not just lie there fretting; I often do some colouring - not my best at that time of night/morning but it helps to pass the time!!

You are describing me! I use Valerian. It's a natural product so no hangover effect in the morning. It gives me between 5 and 6 hours sleep. I don't use it every night. You can buy it cheaply in Home Bargains type stores. ????

What pill can you take at 3 or 4 am that doesn't leave you muzzy in the morning?

Restricting fluids doesn't seem to make any difference to the number of times I have to get up in the night. One night it was every one and half hours - where does all this fluid come from?? Does anyone know?

I do su doku, listen to World Service, and sometimes I go back to sleep and sometimes I don't. It would be so lovely to go to bed and wake up refreshed at 7.30 wouldn't it?

Try McKenna the hypnotherapist's approach.
The 14 Golden Rules of Sleep

McKenna said he isn't opposed to short-term use of sleep medication. "I'm pro-medication," he said. "Any questions regarding medication, consult your doctor.

"What most will agree is taking massive amounts [of medication] long-term has side effects."

The 14 Golden Rules of Sleep

McKenna's book includes his 14 Golden Rules of Sleep, which, he said, can help everyone set themselves up for a wonderful night's sleep every night.
1. Get up regularly half an hour earlier than your usual desired getting-up time.
This may sound counterintuitive but, McKenna said, "the overwhelming evidence [shows] it's one simple thing that made a huge difference to a lot of people."

2. Go to bed only when you're sleepy.
3. Don't take any naps during the day.
Naps are fine for people without sleep problems, but "if you are having disruptive sleep, [naps aren't] going to let you sleep so well at night."

4. At least three times a week, exercise for at least 20 minutes.
"Things like the exercise clean out the stress toxins," he said. It makes people tired and "resets the body clock."

5. Finish eating at least three hours before you go to bed.
6. Don't have any caffeine after 2 p.m.
"A lot of people drink caffeine too late," he said.

7. Cut out alcohol.
8. Switch off the TV one hour before you go to bed.
9. Do only three things in bed: sleep, make love and use the "I Can Make You Sleep" book or CD.
10. If you are lie awake in bed for more than 20 minutes, do one of the exercises in the book or get up and do something boring.
11. Keep your bedroom dark at night.
"The amount of light in the bedroom affects the quality of sleep," he said.

12. Have a warm, comfortable bed in a room that is not too hot.
13. Don't watch the clock.
14. Use the CD.
By following his plan, "Some people will notice a difference in the first few days," McKenna said. "I say give it about 28 days.

"When you sleep well, your health is definitely going to improve," he said, along with your mood and efficiency.

There is an answer to this....it worked for me last nights and many other night with no pills or medication required! It's called a good dose of physical exercise in the fresh air!

Yesterday morning I woke around 7 am and got out of bed 15 minutes later. I played tennis with friends for an hour in the morning - after lunch went to work on my allotment - digging, raking, planting and weeding for about three hours. Came home and cooked supper for DH and myself, cleaned up and watched a couple of episodes of "Escape to the Country" before having a hot shower and getting into bed at around 10 o/c.

I was asleep fifteen minutes later and slept well all night - just one bathroom visit at about 2 am.

Fresh air and a good dose of regular daily exercise works every time .... and 7/8 hours of sleep every night will become the norm.

Like most women of a certain age, I go through periods of sleeplessness either at the beginning of the middle of the night. Everyone has their own solutions but a common thread seems to be that the more you worry about it and label it a problem, the more it persists. The secret may be to see it as normal and to relax into it. Get up, go to the loo, have a drink, do a puzzle, whatever you choose and then settle back, not to sleep but to rest, and welcome that rest. Then I start to list 5 things I am grateful for from the day that has just passed. If the mind wanders I bring it back to that list and really concentrate on feeling that gratitude. Usually I am asleep before I get to number 2. Give it a try. Sweet dreams.