Insomnia tips?

A

amy1985

New member
This one's health related, but not necessarily weight loss related.

I have a horrible time with insomnia- at the best of times, it takes me an hour after trying to go to bed to get to sleep. At worst, I'm up literally all night (whether I go to bed or not). I'm sure I can't be the only one in this situation, hence the thread rather than just moaning in my diary.

What do people recommend for insomnia (other than "just ride it out"- that's a recipe for horrendous sleep deprivation- I've had on average about 4 hours sleep a night for the last 2.5 weeks and this needs to stop)? The techniques I know are aromatherapy (use of lavender oil- burners, bath products, oil near your head where you want to sleep), "sleep hygiene" (keeping the room where you sleep for sleep and intimate activities, no work), mindfulness/ self-hypnosis (think about certain parts of the body, or think about the tide kind of thing), exercise of course, warm milk/ hot chocolate/ herbal tea before bed, herbal remedies, and a warm bath?

(That list is the stuff I've tried, with greater or lesser success (mostly lesser). I've also suggested "frying pan to the head" to my boyfriend, who works in a medical setting and is not amused, and I've been to the doctor who's basically told me to suck it up)
 
Are you taking naps? Or is your body just running on 4 hours a day everyday?
 
Are you exercising?
....
I also found this article that seems like it has some fairly reliable information.
Although it says it is not caused by obesity, there is a link.
I can see how not getting enough sleep might make you want to eat, especially at night.
 
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No, I generally don't nap unless I'm sick (I've napped once in the last 2.5 weeks after something really bad happening- for emotional reasons). That being said, I'm starting to feel pretty unwell. I know that napping is one of the things likely to disrupt my sleep (along with, say, tea or coffee after 3pm, which I tend not to do either). I get by on what I've had during the night (between nothing and one blissful 7 hours in the last 2.5 weeks- ideally I'd like to get 8, but I think I could function again if I was regularly getting 6).

I try to exercise every day or every second day, but I get less when I'm going through a bout of insomnia like this (as I know my judgment is probably severely impaired and I want to put my safety first)- I usually exercise in the mid afternoon. I think whatever factor or factors are causing difficulty in my sleep are more potent than whatever benefit the exercise may bring- I tend to go to the gym after a good night's sleep, then sleep really poorly, which makes me feel worse because I've exerted more energy. I do eat more on the days I don't go to the gym (~1300 calories when I do go, ~1500-1600 calories when I don't. It's all in range, I aim to get 1226-1776 a day)

I actually don't eat a lot, if anything, at night. I have my hours during which I feel I should be asleep and I don't eat during them. It's probably partly a calorie counting thing, but it's partly that I'm genuinely not hungry between, say, midnight and 8am, and even if I'm up all night, will only take in water. (I'm a night owl. Sometimes I will be eating at 11pm, but I generally don't eat before 8 or 9am, unlike most people- I also have a different schedule to most people and I work around my body clock to the extent that I can. If I had to be up at 6am/ couldn't eat breakfast as late as I do, I'd stop eating/ try to go to bed earlier).

Thanks for trying to help, I appreciate it :)
 
I listen to podcasts and audio books on quiet. That's worked for me since I was a child but I guess it's different for different people. Was on sleeping pills for a while as well. Insomnia sucks. Are you anxious about anything? I know that makes my sleeping worse.
 
Are you taking caffeine? Some people are more sensitive to it than others. Me, I have one cup of coffee at any point during the day, I'm gonna be up 1-2 hours later than normal.
 
Yes, I'm a tea and coffee drinker. My doctor told me no tea or coffee within 6 hours of bed (fully acknowledging that this was extreme for most people), so I've been doing that for several years now. I find that beyond that sort of frame I don't notice much difference- if I stop drinking tea at or before 5 and go to bed at 11, my sleep is as it would be if I'd had nothing (bad, but not as bad as it could be), but if I drink it within 6 hours I often can't sleep at all. I usually try to peter out the coffee earlier than the tea- I don't know if this makes any difference, but to me coffee feels like a bigger hit so I try to separate it from sleep as much as I can manage. (Plus when I have tea I usually have one mug at a time, when I have coffee I usually have 2-3)
 
Hmm, have you tried not having caffeine all day? I know it may not be a contributing factor, and it may not be something you want to do, so no pressure. It just might be interesting :) I've read that caffeine can take up to 12 hours to leave the body, so maybe even stopping around 11 am? Just as a test.

I know there can be many other things affecting insomnia, but if caffeine is present, I think it's worth testing.
 
I think that might be worth a go- not today though (I'm sitting here with a cup of coffee I just finished)- in fact, I might try a few days without any caffeine (well, ok, maybe except the caffeine in the very small amount of chocolate I eat) and see if it changes anything. I think there may be other factors in play here (I'm going to go back to my doctor and hope "I'm not functioning" gets them to sit up and pay attention) but anything's worth trying. (Heck, I've tried a bunch of things that are much sillier- not saying that's silly, just, I've tried some ridiculous things in an effort to help me sleep properly)
 
Thank you for the caffeine advice- I went completely cold turkey yesterday, and while it was miserable during the day (I started to feel especially tired at about midday and completely knackered by 6pm), I had my first sleep of over 7 hours (nearly 8) in months. Much less trouble getting to sleep than usual as well. It was awesome :)
 
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Yay! Congrats! Glad you were able to get a better night's sleep :)
 
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