I’m here….I’m new….but what’s not new is I can’t sleep

[Sideways]

I’m trying everything yet I’m still waking up in a blind spin heart racing unable to get back to sleep

Once you've got your sleep environment sorted out, it's time to look more broadly at sleep hygiene.

I've spent most of my life swinging between insomnia and hypersomnalence, so I've become reeeeally pedantic about sleep hygiene. Because yeah, good quality rest is so important.

Looking beyond what's happening during sleep hours can make a huge impact on our sleep quality. The big ticket items with sleep hygiene are things like:
Diet (a good diet, throughout the day, but also making sure things like refined sugar go waaaay down);
Tweaks to caffiene, alcohol, smoking and other substances (talk to your doctor about your meds, and if you need to make any changes, which may be as simple as changing the time of day you take them);
Exercise (the more the better - more activity during the day vastly increases the chance of good quality sleep);
Relaxation (at least half an hour of quality relaxation every day).

"Sleep hygiene" is a whole-life approach to improving sleep quality, recognising that it's often what's happening during the day that is impacting our sleep during the night.

Try ditching "I need to sleep" for "I need to rest". There's nothing more shitty than waling up and not only having trouble getting back to sleep, but then adding anxiety about needing to get back to sleep. Quality rest, when you can't sleep, can make the nighttimes a lot less stressful.

I use the Sleep Better app every single day for my guided relaxation. When I wake in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep? I loooove doing one of the yoga nidra sessions (Sleep Yoga!!). Takes a bit of practice, but it now almost always gets me to a place where I can get quality rest, even if sleep isn't going to happen.

Hope something in there helps:)

Mod Note: I moved this thread across to the Sleep Forum. If you have any questions, drop us a line at Contact Us!

 

[notsurewheretoturn]

I'm a really bad sleeper, I have been for over 40 years, mainly because I woke up when I was being abused. I can survive on 2 hours, but surviving is all you can call it. I've had nights when I've had less than 30 mins - I wasn't even safe to be out of the house those times!

I've read all the literature on insomnia and they all tell you how to fall asleep, but no one tells you how to stay asleep, and that's my problem. Earplugs worked great for a while, so did st John's wort, valerian root kept me awake all night which is the opposite of what its supposed to do. I have to be really careful with prescription meds as I have kidney problems, and most are secreted via the kidneys, hence the herbal route. There's no point taking meds to help you sleep if they're going to put you on dialysis in the process. I've tried CBT, still no joy. I've now resigned myself to being a bad sleeper.

I have no magic cure for it, no words of wisdom, except to say that you may need to try different things at different times, but you are not alone.

Someone told me once that there are two types of insomnia, sleep onset where you can't get to sleep and sleep maintenance where you can't stay asleep. Unfortunately I have the latter.

 

[Issie]

Notsurewheretoreturn I’m defo a sleep maintenance type then. I was told that if I went to bed and could t sleep to not lay there, get up and do something. Useless advice as then I’m occupied and wide awake. Then I’m told to stay in bed regardless. Again useless my mind goes over and over. Finally I’m told to get sleeping tablets. So now they want me in tablets to get through the day with and tablets to sleep through the night with. This is a life, seriously?