Advice for insomnia

[Sidhe]

Well I'd been an insomniac for some years until I learnt to deal with it with a few techniques and a deal of wisdom and hard earned tricks.

But in the last week I've began suffering from it again it's 4:09 AM here and I can't sleep, luckily I don't have to get up early at the moment so it's not an issue.

Anyone got any tips or tricks I don't know about?

I'm hoping this might help out others who have periods of insomnia too.

Here's a few tips I know:- I wont put it all up as it's fairly involved and some of it is a little x rated but anyway some good grounders.

1) excercise, wear yourself out, go for a run, do some weights whatever then come home have a hot relaxing bath and try sleeping then.

2) meditation, try doing it before you go to bed, plenty of books on it learn it, I don't do it regularly myself but it's a wonderfull way of relieving stress and lowering your blood pressure.

3) Relaxation techniques breathing shallow will lower your heart rate, it'll also take your mind of what's keeping you awake which in my case is usually my mind racing.

4) Don't go to bed until you feel tired, if your never tired your not getting enough of number 1) I find going to bed before you're tired pointless, it means you lie there for two hours wishing you could sleep and generally makes it harder to get to sleep, also try and develop an attitude that it doesn't matter whether you sleep or not, getting worked up about it is really counterproductive, not easy this one, but as you can see I've already convinced myself of this.

I have a deal more but anyone got anything that really does the trick, noi matter how unusual.

Oh I just want to say that alcohol is a real bad idea, it may help you sleep but as a long term solution it'll have the opposite effect generally, he says whilst sipping on a glass of wine, what? I'm not working tomorrow, 3 glasses tops honest

 

[Godwynn]

I use to have insomnia, but I found a cure for it. Work 8 hours carrying milk and eggs in a grocery store. Then come home, and you'll sleep for 11 hours, and when you wake up, its time to go back.

 

[Sidhe]

Indeed that's half the problem I'm use to be damned tired when I come home from work, I normally walk about 8 miles at a brisque pace on a good day at work and involves shifting alot of heavy equipment while I'm at it, but as I'm off for a week I'm finding it hard to sleep, I'm just not physically tired at all. and excercise is out atm because I have alot of coursework to catch up on, although saying that I could make some time.

 

[Godwynn]

Coursework makes me tired because it is boring and exhausts my mind.

 

[Sidhe]

Ah but I'm stuck atm and waiting for my turtor to get back to me by email, it's a good point though. It's maths stuff and although it isn't dull it does sometimes make my brain ache although atm I'm just uncertain so no help there.

 

[Godwynn]

Do they have benadryl or triaminic over in England? I have allergies so I take those two and they make me drowzy.

 

[FreeTerminus]

Isn't exercise bad if your trying to get to sleep? Thats what I heard

 

[Sidhe]

Do they have benadryl or triaminic over in England? I have allergies so I take those two and they make me drowzy.

Yeah they do but I tend to avoid taking drugs to help me sleep, we have something cauld nightol an over the counter medicine and a mild sleep aid which uses an antihystemine to make you doze off, it's fairly mild but it does leave me struggling to wake up for a few hours and with a coursework workload I'd rather not use drugs that make me drowzy. I've use them before and they are a real boon if you have long term insomnia the only drawback is they tended to make me oversleep so that I was late for work :/

Good advice here, keep it coming

Isn't exercise bad if your trying to get to sleep? Thats what I heard

Erm only if your doing it whilst trying to sleep, sex is an excellent excercise that also helps you sleep, men tend to feel drowzy afterwards, if you don't have a willing partner I've heard there are other ways of inducing drowziness but they sound mythical and are probably sinfull

 

[Pyrite]

What works for me is trying to blank my mind relaxedly (instead of forcibly shoving all thoughts aside) and then closing my eyes and trying to move my eyes under my eyelids. I have no idea why, but it's sort of relaxing and gives me pleasant dreams and restful sleep.

 

[Sidhe]

Good tip, close to meditation techniques, do you know in England it's against the law to explain how to meditate, in any media form.

So if I 'say clear your mind of all thought and Imagine that your mind is a blank canvass' I'm breaking the law, at least if I mention it in a publication in England. It's to do with an act about explaining mind altering practices.

Anyway I'm off to bed now, if I don't post again assume your advice worked or I got lucky at least until sunday when I have to work in the morning :/

 

[CaptainF]

Cures (I can testify to the effectiveness of each):

1) Play 13 hours of paintball.
2) Listen to lounge jazz music.
3) Drink some chamomile tea
4) Play a 5 hour game of tennis
5) Do lots of brainbending homework
6) If all else fails, stay up really late, because the next night you will sleep like a baby.

 

[Pyrite]

uh....why are meditation explanations against the law?

) "If all else fails, stay up really late, because the next night you will sleep like a baby"

This really doesn't work for me, I just end up having 2 hour nights of sleep for a week till I can crash, I get into a habit of stayin up all night

 

[Scratcher]

@ Sidhe,

Read the OT thread "Quantum Query", and if that doesn't work you have serious problems

 

[History_Buff]

Get yourself a really boring book. If you don't know exactly the book you need, I can recommend Great Expectations, or just a dictionary. Get into bed, and start reading. If it's uninteresting enough, you're out like a light. And avoid TV/Computers etc for an hour before you go to bed, it tends to get your brain all excited (or so I've read).

And if you want a really relaxing sleep, take a Gravol right before you sleep. Just make sure you have 8 hours to sleep. My Mom tipped me off to it one time, and I got up 6 hours later. I was in a daze the next couple hours on the way to school (thank god I didn't have to drive) and slept through more classes than I usually do.

 

[Narz]

Advice for insomnia

If all else fails - Enjoy It!

 

[C~G]

I could give few advices but cannot say they will help.

There are some medication which you can get even without recipe from drug store. I recommend checking them out.

If you get 3-4 hours sleep for long time it eventually start to tick you off. When I have suffered from such in past I usually become either passive or hyperactive unable to concentrate into anything. Finally you become so tired that you cannot get sleep because you feel so tired. Thoughts run in circles and everything starts to feel insane and unnecessary.

When it is really serious, no meditation, fresh air or exercise will offer long term solution.
Then there' s hardly anything else to do than wait that it goes away or visit a doctor.
It's important to acknowledge what are the reasons behind the insomnia. It might be stress-related.

If you really suffer from serious sleep deprivation you can hardly concentrate into reading book so it doesn't offer solution.
When you are tired enough you cannot hardly remember the last sentence you just read or the meaning of it.

At start it might feel like bliss but later on it will feel like hell on earth.
Nothing makes sense. You won't be sure which side of the world is up and which down.
People suffering from Insomnia are living in the world of their own.

 

[Stylesjl]

Watch a really boring movie and you'll be sleeping very soon

 

[Sidhe]

@ Sidhe,

Read the OT thread "Quantum Query", and if that doesn't work you have serious problems

You know for the average physics fearing person that would work, but I love physics and all the debates the theories provoke so it's more likely to keep me awake, that course work it's maths because I need it to study for a degree in physics, anything that increases my knowledge of physics, slim as it is is always a boon, I happen to be a member of a couple of physics forums, I tell you what though there were some philosophy threads were people went on for so long on a point that I felt like drifting off, some threads do get off the beaten track.

If all else fails - Enjoy It!

Not easy when as c~g says it becomes chronic, I've gone for 72 hours without sleep because of insomnia before, it is very cripling when it's that bad.Not been that bad since I was a teenager and that was before I learnt to do anything about it, Luckily atm I don't have to worry about it I can sleep in 'til noon if I wish.

uh....why are meditation explanations against the law?

Mind altering techniques such as meditation and hypnosis are forbidden from being represented in print, it's because when the law came in I suspect people didn't understand exactly how they worked or if they could cause harm, ignorance of it, thus when my Dr advised me to read a book on Transcendental Meditation to help with insomnia and stress the book described everything about meditation and it's practice and effects except how to actually meditate which is quite ludicrous, you can go to classes to learn so I guess it's of benefit to the economy, I just taught myself from inferences gleaned from various sources, as to whether these are in fact correct is anyones guess it does work though. If you meditate for an hour you feel extremely relaxed afterwards, it's like being at peace completely until the world moves back in and takes up residence, an added benefit is that if you meditate for say four hours then your not likely to need much sleep because it is a similar but conscious state of experiencing your sub conscious thought processes, I've said too much, I expect the old bill will be round later to cart me off .

Watch a really boring movie and you'll be sleeping very soon

Good idea what's that film with Omar Sharif? Real chick flick set in Russia with lots of angst snow and long winded dull scenes about god knows, I kept flipping the channel in an attempt to stay awake, last time I forced myself to watch that - apparently it's a classic - I fell asleep, beautifully shot does not mean interesting.

Thanks Google: Dr Zhivago zzzzzzzzzzzzz

I know why I'm not sleeping it's related to course anxiety, I have a TMA(tutor marked assessment) due in at the end of the month and I'm not sure I can answer many of the questions, it's quite worrying, luckily my current average after 2/4 asessments is 75% and I only need 40% to pass, so should I stuff it up provided I don't stuff up the exam I'm ok. That and the lack of physical excercise means I'm not usually tired atm when I go to bed, so of course any stress factors tend to run through your head as I'm much more alert than usual when I go to sleep and it makes sleeping difficult, I slept for five hours last night though, so it's hardly serious.

 

[The Last Conformist]

I've found that alcohol, in moderate to large amounts, is a sure-fire cure to insomnia.

However, it's not a good long-time solution; why is left as an exercise to the reader.

 

[IglooDame]

Mind altering techniques such as meditation and hypnosis are forbidden from being represented in print, it's because when the law came in I suspect people didn't understand exactly how they worked or if they could cause harm, ignorance of it, thus when my Dr advised me to read a book on Transcendental Meditation to help with insomnia and stress the book described everything about meditation and it's practice and effects except how to actually meditate which is quite ludicrous, you can go to classes to learn so I guess it's of benefit to the economy, I just taught myself from inferences gleaned from various sources, as to whether these are in fact correct is anyones guess it does work though. If you meditate for an hour you feel extremely relaxed afterwards, it's like being at peace completely until the world moves back in and takes up residence, an added benefit is that if you meditate for say four hours then your not likely to need much sleep because it is a similar but conscious state of experiencing your sub conscious thought processes, I've said too much, I expect the old bill will be round later to cart me off .

Aw jeez... no hypnosis literature AND no guns? Now I'm definitely not visiting there in the future.

I find that when I can't sleep it's because my mind just wants to run a while and my thoughts go on a long-distance trip covering a lot of ground (debates, issues, things I need to figure out tomorrow, whatever). Best way to kick it is to have sex, or at least think about porn. It's something my whole brain can get distracted by.

Self-hypnosis might work as well (the eyes moving under the eyelids sounds like a bit of an induction technique), but I'm not particularly susceptible to trance.