Suggestions for insomnia? Anyone?

by Fitz K. (Subscribe to Fitz K.'s posts)
Apr 8th 2007 5:15AM

Categories: Healthy Habits, Womens Health, Diet & Weight Loss, Motivation, Men's Health

Ugh I'm am the pathetic victim tonight. I went to sleep at 11:00pm exhausted. My two year old son woke up at both 1:00AM and 1:45AM screaming. I calmed him down once, and changed his diaper once, but was able to fall back to asleep after each event. Then he woke up screaming at 2:30AM. Desperate, I bring him into my bed. He falls asleep and I stay awake. My husband comes home from fighting crime at 3:30AM and goes to sleep. I am STILL awake! It's 4:57AM and after three hours of lying in bed staring at the inside of my eyes, I've got my rear end up to ask for help.

Fortunately, I only experience this nonsense once in a blue moon. I can imagine though, that lots of you get stuck with insomnia far more often. What works for you? If you've found some spectacular way to get back to snoozing.....preferably without any sort of drugs, let us know! We've got a whole comment section available to share your thoughts. My kids are guaranteed to wake up at 6:30AM. I've just considered whacking myself over the head with a frying pan. That seemed to work so well in the old cartoons. Help!

Comments (7)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

rocket 4-08-2007 @ 10:22AM

Sex. Sex works. An hour to an hour of good, make-your-muscles-scream-uncle sex. Works every time.

As someone who's been awake for more nights than I can count sex is the only thing that can get me sleepy.

bk 4-08-2007 @ 1:31PM

As much as we don't want to admit it, virtually all chronic insomnia is stress/emotion-related. We can't turn off our minds at night so the thoughts and worries just keep replaying over and over.

A couple suggestions:

a) Find a therapist you're comfortable with and see him/her on your schedule. Remember I said 'therapist' and not 'psychiatrist' and 'your schedule' could mean weekly visits, monthly, bi-monthly or just whenever you feel like talking. There shouldn't be any pressure to go if you don't want to.

b) ABSOLUTELY NO CAFFEINE AFTER 12:00 PM (noon). Seriously. No coffee, no caffeinated drinks, no Red Bulls, nothing. Even a little 'pick me up' at 3PM can have bad consequences for your sleep that night.

c) Prioritize your problems (be they bills, family issues, work tasks, etc) into a list and make concrete progress every day. Even a tiny amount of progress (making a phone call, writing a check) on those nagging problems that worry us all can help you sleep better at night.

d) Exercise! Either work out or take part in some vigorous physical activity every day. Exhaust yourself (and accomplish something to be proud of in the process) and you'll find it easier to drift off at night.

michele 10-09-2007 @ 6:08PM

Lavendar water sprayed onto your pillow and wash in lavendar soap or similar products at night.

Lavendar will relax you and aid peaceful sleep.

Star 4-08-2007 @ 6:29PM

Natural supplements work for me; either Melatonin taken an hour before bedtime ( I take 3 , or Valerian, 2 tablets in a.m. and 2 tablets in pm.

mcewen 4-08-2007 @ 10:17PM

Golly, theres quite a selection above to choose from! Number 1 is a great idea, but would probably be 'better' if you wait for the worker to come home first, and if he crashes out immediately after a long shift, that's probably not the most practical solution.

I have the impression from your writing that this is more a one off [due to the little one] than a long term / recurring issue.

I certain agree that a trouble free, stress free, worry free existence is ideal for the perfect night's sleep - I wonder if anyone falls into that category these days?

Hope you catch up tonight.
Best wishes
http://whitterer-autism.blogspot.com

shelbspeaks 6-04-2007 @ 9:45AM

When I cant sleep, I try going for a run...usually that gives you endorphins which are meant to wake you up, but instead-i just get even more tired. I take a hot shower after wards and fall right into bed. For educational purposes, I recommend this read by Dr. Blaylock on insomnia.

manny 6-06-2007 @ 3:05PM

i dont really expect this to work for many people, but usually a warm drink works for me. usually some sort of tea, warm glass of milk, or even a cup of coffee works.

again, i dont really expect this to work for anybody, but it works for me.

http://www.medicalguideonline.com/Insomnia.html

that site has some pretty good info on how to deal with insomnia.