Weird sleeping

I track my sleep on a Fitbit and find it very reassuring

Are you on any drugs that might be disturbing your sleep pattern?

I would try the herbal Nytol - they do work. And lavender drops on your pillow.

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The last two nights I have slept until 12.30 then I am awake until about three, then I over sleep, it happens every few weeks I then feel dreadful all day.

A couple of points: Don't read your devices in bed, apparently the blue light causes sleep issues. Fitbit can also show how little sleep you get so might cause more worry. Also it assumes you are asleep if you are not moving! Worry is a frequent cause of insomnia so distracting your mind may help. If you can recite something, poem, song times tables etc which you know well but just need to think about a little may take your mind off whatever it is. Also a notebook by the bed to write down the worry can help. Things always seem much worse at 2 am.

Having made those suggestions, they don't work for me!

I recognise the 'not knowing if I'm asleep or not' feeling. I have had that sensation when life has been particularly stressful. I also get weird dreams that are so life like....as in I'm dreaming I have woken up, everything is normal at first but then something happens that is not quite right I then realise I'm dreaming and struggle to wake up....but am still actually dreaming. When I finally really surface I am exhausted and disorientated. Thankfully it does not happen that often!
I agree that the quality of sleep is far more important than the actual time.....when I was having some counselling we talked about my poor sleep and I was advised to stop trying to sleep - get up and do something fairly unstimulating but do not view the getting up as a failure. See it as a choice.....try to enjoy the alone time, the time to potter about or just to read and relax. Once you are not fighting the wakefulness is does seem to diminish.

If possible try not to stress about not sleeping. Try to establish a pattern.

TV for me these nights is rubbish so I have an early shower and go to bed to read for up to 2 hours. I switch off my light before midnight and try to sleep in the same position every night and it seems to work for me.

My attitude is I am no longer working- it does not really matter if I have the occasional night awake.

I agree with all of the above. I too have occasions when I struggle to wake up, I dream that I cannot open my eyes and only see through a tiny gap. Then eventually wake up with a start. Occasionally I also feel I can't breathe, I believe I sleep with my mouth open and this is causing the feeling. Then the troubled sleep, nothing like when I was working and just crashed as soon as I touched the pillow. But when you don't have to get up early in the morning it doesn't matter. Same as if you feel you then need a nap during the day. Just take it easy and do what your body wants instead of fighting against it.

I've posted this before - I decided a while ago to have a drink of warm milk with honey and a pinch nutmeg around 9 p.m. and since then I sleep much better, deeper, more soundly. Then by chance I read that nutmeg is a sleep enhancer.

I have no idea why I started doing this, excepting somewhere in the far recesses of my memory, I think my mother would give it to to us as children. (Note to self, I must ask my sister).