Husband has terrible insomnia

As other people have said we don't all need eight hours - I normally get about 4 or 5 and I listen to podcasts on my iPod and the Roberts Pillow Talker is good - you plug it into the radio, place it under your pillow and then you can listen to the radio without disturbing anyone else. The World Service used to send me to sleep.

I find Magnesium tea helpful from Tea+ (available in health food stores and on Amazon). Its a caffeine free blend of rooibos, lavender, chamomile, passion flower and with 56mg of magnesium in every tea bag. Also helpful is no caffeinated drinks after 11am (de-caff coffee has come on in leaps and bounds and in many cases its impossible to tell the difference), no screens after mid-evening, blackout blinds and curtains and an eye shade if I wake in the early hours, plus a white noise machine and ear plugs if the birds are singing. I usually eat at 6pm and then nothing later, but if I have to eat after that, for example in a restaurant, I choose vegetarian with no heavy protein and not too many cruciferous veg. I dont drink alcohol in the evening either. All of this helps but doesnt guarantee sleep. I have to say on days which have been more stressful nothing much works, so in my case trying to keep the stress levels down is important. Easier said than done I know.

I am thinking along the same lines as grandjanteJE65 as in, does your husband say what is causing it, does he think?
Is it he cant get off to sleep in the first place.
Is it he has thoughts running around?
Is he too hot/cold/tv on too late etc which you may have already thought about
Does he not need more than 4 hours sleep per night. etc
Are things too noisy/not noisy enough

I am a very bad sleeper and I listen on You Tube to "Pure Rasa" guided meditations, she has so many for sleeping, healing, anxiety etc. her voice is heavenly and I rarely get to the end of one before falling asleep. Others reading this may want to give her a try, I discovered her when I was very ill in 2021. Hope your husband will give it a try and it helps.

After many years of poor or no sleep, and my pain consultant advising me of the importance sleep plays in healing, I eventually gave in to his suggestion that I take a low dose of mirtazipine at night. Though prescribed as an anxiety reducing medication, off label it has been found to be very effective at quieting racing thoughts and inducing sleep, at 15 my or lower. I have to admit that it’s changed my life - most, though not all nights, I sleep soundly. I Aiken to use the loo but go straight back to sleep. I hope your poor husband finds something that works for him, OP 💐

I have to take steroids once a week . One of the side effects is insomnia. I find EFT tapping an enormous help. See The Tapping Solution app, where you can get many helpful guided excercises.

Anti depressants change over the day, keeping you alert in the mornings, then changing to help you sleep at night (I am permanently on them). Try to make sure to take them as soon as he gets up, or before 10 am. Having said that I have insomnia too, but if I take my tablets properly they do help. I also find pillow sprays help me too. Good luck xx

Mirtazapien at a low dose is a game changer for many insomniacs, it also can be taken alongside most other antidepressants, ask his GP if he can try it, well worth a try.

I have to work on my sleep and to follow my circadian rhythmn. It doesn`t just happen these days, not like when I was a child and I think the menopause did a lot of disrupting, as did life events such as being widowed, moving house etc. Also problems can infiltrate the mind and ends up with tossing and turning. Even loud battering rain can wake, we are attuned to sounds from babies

I had restless sleep last night, as I have something on my mind but I am working on the wind-down right now. Tv is off and I will be off my laptop by 9. I am drinking cbd tea at this very moment and I have noticed some r hip ache, from too much spinning on my spinning wheel. That ache would wake me so I am going to do a bit of lengthening exercise shortly

That is the rundown sorted, just to say that I am very much a lark and always wake between 5 and 6 with much energy, so I need to be tucked in by 10. I have a fantastic sleep aid called morphee, from amazon and I never hear the end of any session. I may well wake up at 3 but my last meal is by 4.30 pm and I do have some small oatcakes by the bedside, loo first, then eat an oatcake (avena sativa) to stabilise blood sugar. That usually zonks me but I have the radio remote handy too and if I have one of those `busy mind` nights, I will have the radio on very low

I have tried many things , cutting out caffeine after 12 mid day I have to say made a difference , look up Tom Coleman a sleep specialist from Ireland .

I’m lucky if I get five hours sleep a night.

Never had a problem going to sleep until I did shift work for 8 years. Since then my sleep pattern is very different as I don't sleep until after 2am. I usually go to bed around 1am and play a game on my phone or read until I'm really tired yawning then I can sleep soundly. Have tried several times to go to bed earlier but end up awake for longer. I think getting into a regular bedtime routine works well and don't go to bed until you're really tired. HTH

As a sufferer of insomnia ….a measured 2-3 hours per night …..for 25 years…tell him it won’t do him much harm and he’s to stop finding ‘remedies’. I thought my sleep would improve when my very ill husband was finially in full time care …it’s been a year, and it hasn’t!… so I’ve thrown my hands in the air and given up. I now sleep when I’m actually exhausted only. I do have some success with the Audible app,…I have books downloaded which I persistently listen to….(I now can quote chapter and verse)…. the mere boredom of listen to the same book/speech/story is quite mind boggling and I ‘pop odd’ in no time …BUT…I am awake in an hour!! So I do it all over again, at least that way I get an hour here and there. I listen from my bedside echo show device …best money ever spent . Audible has a ‘sleep timer’ so you can ask Alexa to ‘set sleep timer’ for any amount of time . Of course this won’t work in your favour if you still occupy same room. Because of my lack of sleep my husband and me slept in different rooms….thst greatly helps the partner who can sleep to maintain their sanity.

…oh , and sleeping pills leave me laughing at them!!!

I take zopiclone tablets, one a night.
Although they are very good at getting me off to sleep, they are short acting, which means after five hours, I automatically wake up regardless of how tired I am.
Which is very annoying, as I need to sleep longer if I could.

If I can’t get back to sleep, then I listen to LBC radio station, but it’s so annoying having to lie there unable to get back to sleep.I dread looking at the bedside clock when I wake up.

Even dark mornings, still wake up early.

Anyone else have a similar problem.?

Saggi.

What do you mean about sleeping pills.
Don’t they work for you?

Audio books and podcasts get me through most nights.....hope you can find a resolution soon as there is nothing worse than sleep deprivation.

I go to sleep fir about three hours then awake fir a couple of hours it’s just ridiculous I’m still working and it hampers my performance terribly. Catnap when I get in can’t help it. I do think it’s my medication though.

Has he tried a different anti-depressant?

To put it in lay terms, some are "uppers" to lift mood but they can have sleep side effects. Other antidepressants have an anti anxiety effect, more sedating, it's worth a switch if he hasn't already tried.

There are other ~MH meds - such as Quetiapene (low dose - high dose is if you have psychosis)

but only some GP's have the confidence to prescribe this as opposed to a Psychiatrist. Quetiapene works by gently altering mind patterns but it is specialist prescribing.

Other excellent tips and experiences as above - laptop with undemanding TV on, gentle music, enough exercise in the day, meditation tapes, coming downstairs for hot milk and going online or reading for a bit..

but I do live alone and can please myself so I don't feel I am disturbing someone else.

I sleep badly and have never been able to sleep if I go to bed early. What works for me if I can't sleep is to get up and do puzzles for about an hour (and sometimes have a piece of toast) to engage my brain on something that takes it away from whatever must be keeping me awake (eg ... what to do tomorrow, shopping lists, what to have for dinner, my "to do" list and worst of all, if I need to get up at a certain time, will I hear the alarm/will the battery in the clock run out and mess up the alarm .... am sure you get the picture!)

DH had/has sleep problems because of a health problem and was constantly waking me up. I was at the time up with the birds very early to go baby minding and therefore disturbing what little sleep he did get. A few years ago we reluctantly decided to have separate rooms it was the only solution.

We completely revamped and made our rooms our own it took a bit of time getting used to it but what a difference it made. Plus DH took advice about changing meds and now manages to get a better sleep. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices as life without sleep is unbearable and adjustments can really help.

Apparently a stable daily routine helps, including meals at predictable times, not eating within two hours of bedtime and exposure to daylight early in the day. If anxiety is waking you up, the answer is to deal with the anxiety during the day.

I found that eating sugary food (especially after dinner) kept me awake so gave up processed sugar in December. If I want something sugary now I take the advice of The Glucose Goddess and drink a glass of water with a tablespoon of cider vinegar in it. This may not be your husband's problem. Prior to this when I couldn't sleep I used to find coincidently that if I ate marzipan before bed I slept really well, so maybe a handful of almonds would have a similar effect as marzipan not healthy.

Thanks to all you lovely people for your support and suggestions. I ordered Melatonin and we just got it, H slept well last night!
We are seeing the doctor again soon and I plan to ask about Mirtazapine.
Thanks again

Philippa60 which product did you get from Amazon. Can’t find one that is pure melatonin and the reviews seem to say the same. Desperate to sleep as I am a chronic insomniac.