Insomnia.

I have tried it. I hated it tbh; it left me groggy for a good 24 hours after taking it, I never felt rested on it and it leaves a horrible taste in your mouth.

That said, these things are personal and unpredictable. As I've said before, I had a fantastic time on Ambien, but my doctor says Ambien and Zopiclone are almost the same thing and will not now prescribe me either.

this benzodiazepine analogue works: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etizolam

it's currently legal in U.K. and can be bought pretty cheaply from many 'research chemical' sites on the internet

emil.y, I had exactly the same experience with zopiclone described by Surfing at Work. Dreadful drug.

Well, my first night on Zopiclone bought me sleep from 2am to 7am, and I feel relatively perky. Seeing as I suffer from depression-related lethargy as well, hopefully that's a sign that it won't make me too wonky on it.

Okay, so I have a question that is only sort of tangtially related to insomnia, but this seemed like a thread full of people that might be able to help. Do you have any tips or tricks for falling back asleep once awoken? This has always and forever been a big issue for me, at least as far back as grade school. I'm fine to wake up briefly, even to go to the batroom or w/e, but if I'm up much longer than 10 minutes my brain kicks in to overdrive and it takes me forever to fall back asleep.

Normally I've just kind of dealt with this because it happened so rarely, but now this issue has kind of come to a head. Now that we are slowly weaning our 4 month old son off breast milk and he is not needing to eat throughout the night anymore, my wife and I have decided to take turns each night getting up with him and soothing him back to sleep. Seems fair for at least one of us to get a decent night's sleep each night. Anyway, its going pretty well as far as me soothing him, but I simply cannot fall asleep again after waking up with him. Last night, for instance, I went to sleep about 11:00 and woke up when he did at 1:45 to sooth him. He fell asleep again about 15 minutes later and I tried to go back to sleep, but was wide awake, mind racing, when he woke up again at 3:45. Got him soothed again and finally fell asleep myself at about 5:45 before my alarm went off at 6:15.

Any ideas on how to slow down my racing mind to fall asleep more quickly? This is hard and I end up being a lot more grumpy than I want to be on so little sleep. Obviously drugs aren't really going to work because I still need to be aware enough to wake up with our son.

Sorry if this is tl;dr but I'm exhausted and frustrated with myself.

Hai. I don't know if this is the right place to ask actually, this thread being full of people who fail at sleeping.

Things people recommend that have not worked for me, ymmv:

- hot milk (contains tryptophan which is meant to help you sleep)
- putting the bare minimum of lights on when you get up in the night
- breathing exercises to help relax
- tensing and releasing each muscle group in the body
- counting backwards from 500
- sleep hypnosis tapes
- lavender essential oils

I hope you find something that works for you.

UGH! It is 6am and I am still awake! I never had a bout with insomnia until December...since then it is just about every night.

counting backwards from 500 may not work, but have you tried "99 bottles of beer on the wall"? when i do that, i'm usually out by 70 bottles.

signed,
awake at 4:26

I have tried that but notice they only bring on feverish and frustrating feelings that lead to more awake time. Tried a warm shower before bed, soothing music on low, pleasant thoughts. I try not to freak out or get anxious about the time and instead focus on just relaxing but it isn't working.

I remember ages ago receiving a sample of a valerian sleeping pill and trying it out even though I never had trouble sleeping. I was out at 6pm and did not wake up until 9am the next day and felt great. Can't have that now though due to pregnancy. Feel my insomnia is related to pregnancy. Oh but I would love that pill and to have that every night. I use to be able to sleep through anything as well. Earlier in my pregnancy I even had trouble staying awake during the day.

Now 9am aggravating!

Discovered the Baby First channel, just esoteric images with something that reminds me of hospitality Muzak playing. I started yawning right away! This could work but I can't get it on our room television set.

I'm trying to shake a nasty cold that's been going around my office all week and getting over a depression-induced 16 hour sleep on Friday night...not a good combination. Right now I'm all hunched up in a comforter kind of shaking and dripping snot and listening to hours' worth of Wiretap episodes.

cannot help anyone itt but I swear to god if I could have one super power it would be the ability to stay awake/fall asleep when I wanted. I'm often doing one when I should be doing the other!

next door chemists air con unit rattling away has kept me awake for the last 3 hours, don't think it can handle this fog.

Thanks guys, this is so awful. Last night I went to bed at 10:00 and the little one woke up at 12:45. Got him back to sleep easily, but that was it for me. Was awake until my alarm went off at 6:15 this morning. Hoping I can muddle through my two big meetings today without making too large of an ass of myself.

The big issue for me is that my mind absolutely races and just will. not. stop. I've tried all sorts of breathing exercises and counting, but its like my mind knows whats going on and just shifts its racing to the background while I focus on the breathing or counting or w/e. Music doesn't really seem to help much either.

Do you focus on the music? Like really listen to one part? And then if you feel your brain slipping, focus on another part?

That's the only thing that works for me, aside from drugs.

Thats what I was trying, but my racing brain was pulling me away. I'm not giving up on it just yet, but the last three nights I've tried didn't give me much hope.

have you tried really really boring podcasts? that also works for me. sometimes.

Noticed a bowl of oatmeal will put me out and keep me out. Got an uninterrupted, solid eight hours...finally!

interesting! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16964783
on the downside, i am so tired-looking today that someone noticed :(

(article is about "segmented sleep")

interesting! this past week i have been waking up in the middle of the night every single damn day (which is unusual for me b/c once i'm asleep i usually sleep so deeply i can't hear any alarms). but maybe it's a sign of...something. my sleep patterns tend toward the 16th century?

For some reason I've been hearing about this for a really long time, maybe b/c my mom read lots of pioneer journals? It makes sense in places where it might be dark for 12 hours or more--it would be hard to be asleep for that whole time, every day! Personally I wd like to segment my sleep to 6 hours at night and 2 hours in the mid-afternoon but my stupid employer frowns on my personal circadian rhythm.

Ficking night flights aaargh Heathrow I keel u.

Unisom, Passionflower syrup, Rescue Remedy, oatmeal, a glass of milk...everything works once or twice and then never again.

People got to synchronize to animal time

(that was for iiiijjjj btw)

Also those animals are domestic cats

Do any of you chronic insomniacs take Tylenol pm or sominex or some other kind of non naturopathic OTC medicine?

generic nyquil

Yeah I take generic "sleep aid" OTC shit but it usually gives me insanely bloodshot eyes the next morning for some reason.

so it's after 7, is this the point where i give up and see what i can do with my day until i collapse?

Waiting to get sleepy to sleep. Please happen.

I have been having regular nightmares involving my or another person's body either decomposing or morphing into something incredibly disgusting (ref. the tryptophilia thread for a general idea). They are waking me up at 3am and I'm waking up with my pulse racing and feeling sick. Now I don't even want to go to sleep!

not insomnia as i usually know it, but have been waking up at precisely 4am at least a few days a week unable to stop racing thoughts. this morning i couldn't stop thinking about the sounds that comprise "reince priebus" and it just went through my head over and over and over. awful!!

I couldn't get his name out of my head on my way to work this morning either! What is it with that guy?? At least it didn't wake me up, though. :(

http://images.spoof-media.com/thespoof/pdi/231206-0030prince.jpg

It doesn't look like we're going to get a break from hearing his name uttered aloud anytime soon either, unfortunately. I wish he would go with a symbol.

TCotRNCfkaR

I know it's uncharitable and not his fault, but his name is sound vomit to my brain. The sound of the beast.

I think I want it to be Prince Rebus.

wash Prius, rinse Prius
hit head on pavement
REINCE PRIEBUS

i haven't heard his name in a week! but i did have trouble sleeping last night.

oh man LL I had this same thing happen to me!

a friend of mine posted on FB about how he "reinced his priebus" and I couldn't get it out of my head. And now that I've written it down I fear it'll be back again. :/

the only thing you can do is not think about it and if the toxic priebus gets under your skin, wash it off.

wait, i mean

REINCE IT OFF

aaaaaaaaaahahahahhahahahahahahah

Reince Reince lemonade round the corner Preibus made

Aagggghhhhh

http://media2.kshb.com//photo/2012/05/13/mtp_20120513120336_320_240.GIF

it's 6am, i might as well stop pretending and get up to do things. but god do i hate this, especially the fact that i go to bed feeling reasonably tired, like my entire body is telling me to go to sleep but then my mind starts focusing on silly things and i can't seem to switch it off. tonight for example i started thinking about hemingway and his six word story (which may or may not be a true story) and my mind just couldn't stop making up 6 word stories.