Middle Of night insomnia

Fall asleep fine around 9:00pm. Wake up some nights at 1:30 am and cant go back asleep. Try getting out of bed for 20 minutes till feel tired again then go back to bed. Sometimes it works but most of the time it doesn't. it is usually Sunday and Monday nights. Two weeks ago it was 4 nights in a row then i sleep for 9 nights in a row from 9:00pm to 4:30 am.

Been doing the exercise ,cut back on beer after work and not eating to late. Doc said i have anxiety and to try melatonin, did nothing for me. Anyone experience this?

 

Lately my stress level has been off the charts and I’ve been dealing with insomnia as well.

What I do:
Physically be in bed 1 hours before you need to be asleep.
Do nothing strenuous before bed.
Go to bed at the same hour every night.
I have a diffuser in my bedroom that pumps out lavender oil (shit works I promise)
Regular exercise is great
Cut out all refined sugar out of your diet.
No caffiene after noon.

Work to reduce your stress and anxiety. This will be number 1.
Identify what is making you stressed out and deal with it.

Hopefully it improves soon. Insomnia is torturous.

 

Try staying up later. 9:00 pm may be too early for you, even if it means getting 7 hrs sleep instead of 8 hrs!

 

Wow thanks for the tips. Never heard about the lavender oil. Wife and I cant figure it out. Go 4 months with out it then boom get it. 90% of the time its Sunday nights. I slept great two Sunday nights ago when we had Labor day off on Monday. My stress level is high too

 

Lavender oil works dripped on a pillow too if you dont want to get a diffuser.

I’ve been so stressed I started sleep talking and walking. I think I sleep but the quality is so bad I get zero rest.

I have noticed what I eat matters. If I eat anything with sugar my BP gets so high I can’t sleep. I did the keto diet here recently which helped with that. I’m off it now but I still eat low carb.

 

i have had it off and on for 6 years now. I have never had it Friday ,Saturday night or on vacation. Must be work related. I tried Melatonin that did nothing for me. if nothing works soon ill go back to the old ways 12 pack of Miller lite hahah

 

What mg of Melatonin?

I have to take about 20mg at a time AND be perfectly relaxed lol

A lot of melatonin is 2-5mgper pill. Not sure how much you are taking at a time.

And research shows you should actually take Melatonin about 12 hours before you need it. Sounds odd but if you have the low dose stuff you can always try taking it around lunch and see if it works
I’ve never tried it even though I know that.

 

have you considered acupuncture?

 

Alcohol is a depressant.

While folks use it to 'self medicate' anxiety and stress, it too often creates other problems, especially if in excess. And excess varies by person/chemistry.

Diet matters too.

However, the real key is finding the root cause of your anxiety/stress and dealing with that. Multiple ways to get there, but regardless of path, it's your best shot.

 

How old are you ? The older you get the less sleep you need . Try ZMA , it helps to relax and stay asleep better . Also will raise your testosterone and help you recover if you exercise !

 

I took 5 mg Sunday night and 5 mg last night. took the pill about 30 minutes before bed. i swear i had a hangover from it today along with not sleeping great. Might try a Advil PM tonight

 

Have cut back on the beer over the past 3 years. Exercise and diet i think is good. I agree its anxiety and i am trying to figure out the cause

 

Just turned 47 and ill look into it. Thanks for all the advice

 

If you find yourself awake, watch something on TV you've seen over and over. Whether it be a movie or a TV series.

Your brain isn't worried you're going to miss something, so you drift off. It's worked well for me to turn my type a brain off for years.

 

Don't be afraid to use a good therapist if need be. You might find that just 3-4 visits will do it, and it will likely be covered by your insurance.

 

I know what doesn't work, being on your cell phone or tablet (or computer of some kind). The light from screens is well-known to accentuate insomnia.

For me, reading usually does the trick...or playing a crossword or sudoku game (the pen and paper kind, not on your phone/screen). I keep a couple books of those in my nightstand and it usually knocks me out either right away or within a half hour or so. It also helps take my mind off of whatever might be stressing me out and keeping me awake.

Alcohol does make it worse...not only can it make it hard to fall asleep, but the sleep you do get isn't as deep or restful as it should be if you pass out while intoxicated. Also waking up a few times to take a leak makes it even worse.

 

A few things here regarding insomnia....

I saw you mentioned melatonin and I won't harp on it too much since you're doing so under the direction and guidance of a medical doctor but there's a real issue with the # of people who are taking it regularly. Melatonin is a hormone that is produced within the body and if you introduce it exogenously as a pro-hormone & continue to do so you will cause your body to decrease the amount it produces naturally... possibly permanently if you do so for too long. I'm sure you can see where this could be an issue especially when you look at how many people just take it every single night before bed and have done so for years. Who knows what other issues they could be causing as a direct result of melatonin supplementation. The dosage people take also tends to be very high when compared to how little your body needs to have a noticeable affect. In short, I'm not a fan of taking melatonin.

What I am a fan of is making sure you are getting the nutrients and minerals that your body needs to do things properly. Most Americans tend to be deficient in plenty of these and I highly recommend taking a ZMA before bed as it supplements minerals (Zinc & Magnesium) that you are likely already deficient in anyway. This can also lead to issues with insomnia and taking a ZMA is not only healthy for lots of things but has been proven to help those with depleted levels get better sleep. Just don't be shocked if you have weird dreams from time to time as this can be an indication of REM sleep which many use as a reason to discontinue taking it since, to them, they think they're getting worse sleep caused by bad dreams when in reality the better sleep is what's actually causing the weird dreams. The best part of ZMA is that it's a mineral supplement rather than a pro-hormone sot here's no reason to fear taking it at recommended dosage long-term. There are dozens of manufacturers and most all are the same so finding the cheapest one is usually the best bet.

I saw a mention of alcohol earlier and this is a terrible thing to do for sleep. While it is a depressant that can help you feel tired as part of it's affects in the short term it's bad for sleep long term because once it's affects wear off (usually a few hours after consuming & falling asleep) your body will actually have a difficult time staying in a deep sleep and your sleep won't be very quality as your body produces lots of things to counteract the alcohol in your system and once the alcohol is gone it takes a bit for those things to settle back down again. So you may fall asleep faster but the sleep you get will actually be much worse than had you fallen asleep later for less time.

Speaking of things the body produces naturally.... Taurine. The funny part is that when people see that they think of energy drinks so they think it gives you energy. In reality it's the opposite. Your body produces small amounts of it naturally to help calm you. They use this stuff in energy drinks in order to lessen the uptake of the caffeine so that it doesn't spike as much which will also create less of a crash later. People see Taurine and think energy but what you should actually think is relaxation as that's what it actually does. You can also supplement a little of this before bed at the same time you take your ZMA and the two combined should help quite a bit.

Speaking of caffeine... if you take any at all at any point in the day... stop. Until you get your sleep back on track your body can be affected much later in the day even if you only had a little bit in the morning. Your body becomes use to the levels you drink quite rapidly and you will soon be up to an amount that you might not even feel in the morning but it's affects could remain with you well into the evening. To be safe, cut all caffeine until your sleep patters are back on track. Once you do that re-introduce it very very gradually and you'll likely be surprised by how little it takes to have an affect. The human body builds up a tolerance VERY rapidly and cycling off every three days or so is a good idea to reset the body's reaction to it.

If you lay in bed at night to watch TV I would recommend not doing that. Hang out in a living room, sitting room, theater or whatever room you have to chill in that isn't your bedroom. You can begin to train your body/mind to NOT fall asleep in your bedroom if you hang out there enough. Again, probably not something you'll need to do permanently but something to try. If I can't sleep I will get up and move out to the couch in the living room. There's an aquarium that has a quit pump that I find soothing that can help me sleep sometimes. I grew up with aquariums near my bed so that white noise may trigger something for me specifically but a constant white noise like that may help you too. Sometimes a change of venue throughout the night will help if you have various areas you can shift to and don't spend more than 30min awake at each location.

One last note I'll touch on is temperature. It's been scientifically proven that your body responds better to colder temperatures while you sleep. Often times what can happen is that your room may be a good temperature when you're first falling asleep (even a little cool) but as the night progresses the bodies inside the room can cause the temps to increase especially if you sleep with the doors closed. Your bed holding heat can have the same affect. This increase in temperatures will affect how deep you sleep and the quality of sleep that you get and this is a common cause of people waking up between 2:00-4:00am and not being able to get back to sleep. If this sounds familiar find a way to keep the temps lower throughout the night and you may notice a difference.

I've had my struggles over the years too and I was once someone who didn't sleep much at all. I didn't even try to though really. If I had a night where I didn't sleep I would usually feel fine the next day and wouldn't worry too much about it. I was also 300lbs and in terrible overall shape. I realized once I started getting into shape how much of a role sleep plays and I started going out of my way to get more & better sleep. This is where I found most of the above information and I've told a few people over the years who have all reported having success with this information so I thought I'd take a few minutes (thankfully I type fast... lol) to type up the info in case it helps anyone because not being able to sleep blows.

Good luck!

p.s. I'm not a doctor nor is just about anyone else online so everything you read should be taken with a grain of salt and you should research it yourself and consult a doctor before following any random internet dude's pro tips.

 

Funny, I just recently tried melatonin (10mg) after suffering bouts of insomnia much like you're describing. I woke up pretty groggy, felt much like a hangover. It wasnt a pleasant addition to my morning routine

 

CBD boys. Look it up.

 

This. I started taking 250mg, then 500mg, jumped to 3k, now I'm taking 5k. It's just so damn expensive! I was hoping for a cheaper alternative as I use it almost primarily for a sleep aid.