Insomnia.

Having one of those almost-reducing-me-to-tears spells of insomnia (for no obvious reason).

Melatonin worked for me until I read in Consumer goddam Reports how it's mostly a damn placebo and now I've psyched myself out of having it work for me.

Weed keeps me up. Benadryl and Nyquil work but basically annihilates me for the entirety of the next day

I've struggled with insomnia for years, and find it comes in waves: there will be weeks where I am up till 4 or 5am, and then weeks where I'm in bed by 10pm and wake up feeling rested and great. But no rhyme or reason as to why the change occurs.

No worse feeling than that "OK If I get to sleep riiiiiiight...NOW, I'll have a solid 3 hours. That's a sleep cycle, right??" thing

ask your dr for something like clonazepam (klonopin) or gabapentin (neurontin) - even it's just a small prescription, a sedative is good to have on hand. you build a tolerance to it quickly, but i find it helps in two ways: i take two kinds of sleep medication every night for insomnia, neither of which are great, but i save the klonopin for when i REALLY need to sleep, and also just knowing i have the option of klonopin reduces some of the stress that adds to the reasons why i can't sleep in the first place.

magnesium deficiency is also a cause of insomnia, so try a mag supplement, or rub mag oil on the soles of your feet. or even try soaking your feet in an epsom salt bath.

insomnia sucks and totally feeds on itself and makes you go crazy and also stupid.

gabapentin is a good suggestion

Those are very helpful suggestions, thanks! I have no experience with Klonopin other than that I've known people who've abused it.

I think my dad told me about magnesium, too. Can I just take it in pill form?

Yeah you can, but make sure you get the right one. I can't remember the explanation but there are two forms of it and one is better (lol that's vague but my memory is shit... bc of long term sleep deprivation!). It can cause stomach issues/diarrhea so beware of that too.

Other things to try: sleep phones - it's like a headband with flat speakers you can wear to bed. Try some podcasts designed for sleep, or rain sounds, etc. lavender can help - lavender candle, or linen spray on your bed and pillow, or a balm you rub on your temples. During summer a cold shower before bed helps me a lot.

One thing I really want to try is a weighted blanket but they're expensive.

Klonopin is very easy to abuse but for me it's like, if I abuse it it doesn't actually work. Taking it once a week or every couple weeks ensures that it stays effective. If you have issues with addiction I'd avoid it though. Gabapentin would be a better option as supposedly it's not habit forming.

Another thing: an old school white noise machine or even a fan can help if you live in a noisy neighborhood or near busy roads.

A sleep mask is the best thing I've found for signaling sleep to a non-sleep-inclined brain. My main issue was waking up in the middle of the night panicked, so breathing exercises and having my ipod by the bed helps to distract. Really the only thing that actually helps is learning to manage stress more effectively. My sympathies to anyone suffering from prolonged sleep deprivation. It really does ruin everything.

also just1n3 otm about using klonopin as a sleep aid -- only use it as a last resort or when you know you won't be able to sleep + need to sleep in order to perform xyz activity; it can be many times more useful as an emergency measure than if you overuse it and develop a tolerance.

I *think* this (Magnesium Oil) improves my sleep:

http://www.hollandandbarrett.com/shop/product/betteryou-magnesium-oil-goodnight-spray-60085190

That said, I only have a couple of nights a year of completely uninterrupted sleep (after which I feel I can take on the world).

Weighted blanket: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1620645203/gravity-the-weighted-blanket-for-sleep-stress-and

This is really good manual white noise generator: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HD0ELFK/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Ridiculous twitching in sleep. Should I be worried? Any obvious remedies?

I'm in love with the sleep w/me podcast, don't know why it works on me but it does. I also use sleep phones (wear them round my eyes so it doubles as a mask). I still don't get great sleep as I always wake up & have trouble getting back to sleep.

I'm not great at limiting exposure to screens just before bed, as I expect is the case for many of us. Also the advise is usually not to have a tv in your bedroom, use the bedroom only for sleeping & other rooms for waking activities &c, which always makes me think "well that's me fucked then" since my bedroom is my sitting room

quiet, boring podcasts and longreading in bed worked for me, which i realise arent two of the big recommendations

Djh - whole body twitching or just legs?

Whole body.

If you're still using the magnesium oil and it's not helping the twitching, maybe give your dr a call

My brother-in-law had bad leg cramping in his sleep. It turned out their well water had high amounts of heavy metals. They installed an expensive filtration system and underwent a metals detoxification program for six months. I have no idea if this has any bearing on your twitching problem, but decided I ought to mention it to let you know that the source of physical problems it isn't always obvious without seeing a physician.

Thanks for the advice.

Has anybody ever tried melatonin in the morning? Apparently if you take it after the sun comes up it actually helps you wake up. I have not tried this because I am worried it would have the same effect it has at night. Or, if it seems to work, my brain will compute that all melatonin is bullshit placebo sugar pills and it will stop working when I need it to help me sleep.

What does a sleep study actually involve (in the UK)?

?

Anyone find white noise helps for insomnia? I use it for anxiety and it helps greatly. Some online suggest it works wonders for sleep as well

Insomnia has been so bad over the last few nights I'm dreading even trying to go to sleep. Fucking fuck.

What have you tried so far?

Lots of things over the years. I'm kind of used to poor sleep but every now and then I'll have a spell that seems intolerable.

"Sleep hygiene", alcohol, no alcohol, sensible coffee drinking (helpful), magnesium spray (usually helpful), Z-drugs (waste me the next day to the point of ... pointlessness), silence, music, sounds. Not quite sure what is out of kilter.

i dont usually have full blown insomina but i do have trouble getting to sleep sometimes. a GABA supplement has really changed that. i actually fall asleep against my will sometimes. no idea how/if it's working or just a placebo but there's definitely been a change. worth a shot if you're desperate.

xps are you still suffering from the body-twitching?

have you tried weed? or a sedative prescription from your doc yet?

Twitching is bad at the moment.

Not a massive fan of sedatives (just feel groggy the next day); have occasionally found them useful to get back into a sleep pattern but resisting for the moment.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/sep/24/why-lack-of-sleep-health-worst-enemy-matthew-walker-why-we-sleep

rip ilx

I think I've lost the ability to sleep without drinking. I've twice taken a day off recently and been up all night. And my dog mocks me by loudly snoring by my side all night...

try taking more than one day off -- idk how much you are drinking, but alcohol is very disruptive to the length and quality of your sleep even if it seems to plunk you down into sleepsville faster than nothing.

I'm an alcoholic - it has just been a long time since I've gone without. I managed six months a few years ago, but a manic episode felled me. Which is actually what I think is going on now - there's a bunch of stuff I'm noticing that tends to happen when I'm manic. Hopefully just a bump, though.

Sorry, I just need to vent. I woke up at 2:30 this morning. About an hour and a half before my alarm at 4. Laid there in bed for half an hour before I decided to drop a melatonin and reset my alarm to 4:30. Melatonin never really kicked in even though I washed it down with some chamomile tea. Decided to get up at 4 anyway. Finally on the bus into work around 630 I started feeling sleepy again, but couldn't give in and let it wash over me. Now I'm just sitting here at my desk slothful and miserable.

fucking hell

i haven't slept through the night in weeks

idgi

I listen to podcasts — it takes my mind off of stressing about not being able to
sleep and also I feel like I am learning something. Right now I’m listening to The Fall of Rome but I always fall asleep in the middle of an episode and am not sure where I should start again. This one is pretty straightforward but I’ve listened to more creepy/ engrossing ones and it still worked. I often get really interested and then the next thing I know I can barely stay awake.

GP has referred me to a sleep clinic and I have the options of "Home Sleep Studies" at the Churchill, Oxford or "Overnight Sleep Studies" at the John Radcliffe ... Genuine question: what's the difference?

This comes with the usual disclaimer of: I know here isn't the right place to ask this.

For me - home sleep study = self-placement of all the monitor electrodes (upper torso/neck/head), bad night's sleep in my own bed; overnight sleep study = technician placement of all monitor electrodes including leg monitoring, semi-decent but short night's sleep in a hotel room-like setting.

gaaaaah

Jesus fuck I am going insane.

Never been a problem in my life before now. the problem is multi-faceted:

1) I cannot get my brain to settle down enough to go to sleep. I lay down and a myriad of issues and worries just flood it, which even despite me being an anxiety patient, never happened pre-COVID. it's like a stream of permanent dread and sadness.

2) Sleep aids, which used to be the solution, have outright stopped working. half the time they do nothing.

3) time of sleep doesn't help either. I go to bed early, I go to bed on time, I go to bed late, it makes no difference...it still takes me until very late to get to sleep if it happens at all

4) i have a real hard time pulling myself away from things at night to go to sleep, as well. I become a news junkie at 12 am. sometimes I have to find articles that put my mind more at ease.

5) Part of it is also that I don't do things anymore to tire myself out. I was a night owl prior to the pandemic, so in a given week, I used to go out 4-5 times, if not more. concerts, movies, hangouts with friends, bars, etc....so I'd be mentally and physically spent. now, it's just...sitting in my room working, not much else. I think i'm going to try exercising before bed to tire myself out.

any other suggestions?...I'm going on like 3-4 hours of sleep in 3 days.

do you meditate? do you go for long walks to exhaust yourself like a dog (i do)?

learning some meditation practices and focusing on breathing is the only thing that has worked aside from drugs, and if they don't work anymore i would suggest trying to practice some meditation techniques to re-focus your brain on rest.

also exercise helps

or even having a sleep cue, like the smell/taste of a certain type of herbal tea or an essential oil. you're trying to retrain your brain to read the cues so you need to establish some cues that indicate to your brain TIME 2 REST NOW

Sympathy, I have this very badly right now too and it's the same dynamic... I sorta stopped fighting it for a bit because that's even more draining. I just stay up until I drop from exhaustion. I'm lucky in that I talked to my boss about it and have the sort of job where I can work any 40 hours in a given week so she is OK with my random schedule. For me it's just hopeless to address it until the election is over and the course of COVID-19 is a little more clear... those external stressors are just too strong. I'll revisit attempting to "fix" it in January.

I also figured out if I go out for a walk there are places outside (on our college campus mainly) that I can sleep for an hour or so. I can't really sleep in my bedroom anymore.

also be careful exercising before bed, it can have the opposite effect. calm, slow stretching works very well but as a runner, I learned that going for a run less than about four hours before bedtime means my body is still too jazzed from aerobic exercise to fall asleep.