Insomnia - what really works?

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Thanks for your replies everyone, I've not posted for a while because I'd been hoping to post how I got on with the melatonin - I ordered it a week ago and it's still not arrived so hopefully it'll come in the next few days.

While I was googling melatonin I found quite a few pages coming up with autism and research that's being done regarding melatonin and children with autism with sleep problems, the theory being that for some reason AS affects either the production or sensitivity to, this chemical. Interesting.

Anyway, I've bitten the bullet and started taking the anti-depressants again, just a small dose every other evening. I don't think they're meant to be used this way but it's the only way I've managed to get any sleep. So far, hops don't work (and smell like something's died in the room, hehe) Diffused lavender oil does work a bit but not in a major way, it seems to be more relaxing than soporific. Painkillers work but I wouldn't want to take them every night as they are strong.

I've had longterm problems with insomnia and done a lot to solve them over the years. It's taken care of now. Here are my tips --

Get up early and stay up. Doesn't matter if you stayed up too late. One day you will find yourself going to bed earlier.

Do some heavy exercise during the day. I find if I do it late it relaxes me, though others find it stimulating.

Lie in bed and do deep breathing while concentrating just on your breath and letting go of other thoughts.

Use the lavender oil for massage on feet and just below your neck.

Sleepytime or other chamomile based tea helps. I make it strong and keep the leftover in the fridge for the next night.

Herbal tablets such as valerian or mixed sleep herbs are helpful occasionally.

Melatonin was useful but gave me insane dreams at first. Now I save it for travel situations and avoiding jetlag.

Most days I may use one technique or another, never all of them. I do find that it's possible to think you are relaxed when you are really not. I would suggest you do some stretching and efforts at conscious relaxation and breathing to see if you can get more relaxed. Think about the most relaxing thing you've experienced, like lying in the sun or getting a super body massage.

Wow, glad I checked out this thread. Some great ideas in here that I never heard of before. I will need to try them.

I too, use a melatonin supplement. I have a local shop that sells what I use. Before I found my current sleep aid, I tried the warm milk and the Chamomile tea. They would relax me, but my brain just kept going.

Then I tried the sleep aid with Melatonin. Wow, big help. I went from 3-4 hours a night to about seven. Of course what I use has many other things in it besides Melatonin. You can check it out here: Snooze-In

The product says to take just one, but i have found I need to two to fall asleep. That is 6mg of melatonin a night for me. I hope I am not taking to much. If I only take one, I don't sleep, or stay asleep.

When the weather gets warmer, I am going to start exercising more and see if that helps me sleep better. I hope so, I would rather not have to take any supplements.

...Lavender on the feet... I am going to have to try that!

Diet.

Cutting out dairy seems to be the most important for me, but any food that you're intolerant to could be disturbing your sleep.

Oddly enough I find raw garlic provokes heavy sleep, a couple of hours after eating it. About two cloves ( not bulbs ) of finely chopped raw garlic mixed into avocado mush, or in viniagrette with a salad, or a bean dip. It has an almost knock-out effect on me.

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try valerian passionflower hops skull cap camomile 5 htp gaba glycine magnesium calms forte hylands nerve tonic

a good quality omega 3 is whats going to help you over the long term

a good combo is dr holt sleep md

a good site for discount stuff is vitacost

Just a quick update, I started the melatonin as soon as it arrived and it doesn't make any difference at all. I am very disappointed as I've read such positive reports about it and it's helped others here too. I decided to go to the doc (a big deal - I don't really like doctors) and he gave me melatonin on prescription - his idea, I didn't mention it as he's one of these who doesn't like patients trying to treat themselves - he gave me 2mg slow-release, but that doesn't work either.

Does it have to build up in the body for a few days before it starts to work? I'll try doubling the dose.

Again, thanks everyone for the advice. I'll try the lavender on the feet at the same time too. I don't want to try everything at the same time or I won't know which thing actually works, if anything does - I'm getting to the stage where I'm thinking of hitting myself on the head with a mallet to knock myself out, lol. I'm wondering if my brain chemicals are seriously screwed up after years on anti-depressants. That's why I started taking them in the first place, insomnia lead to depression eventually, although no-one believed me when I said that, the doctor insisted that it was the other way around depression=insomnia. That's one reason I don't trust doctors. They don't listen. (I've been reading about some new reseach that confirmed what I said, so ha! I was right...not that that helps .)

Anyway, mood's still OK, quite cheerful, but I can feel it's going to start going down if I don't get some sleep soon.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/48622 ... lness.html

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg2 ... s-mad.html

and this from 2005 - so the insomnia-depression link has been suspected for a few years -

http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/200505 ... _sys.shtml

> I started the melatonin as soon as it arrived and it doesn't make any difference at all. I am very disappointed as I've read such positive reports about it and it's helped others here too.

How do you take it? I see you have slow release. I had it in gel capsule form, and would open the capsule and put the powder under my tongue. I read it can work faster that way and it did for me. Also, if I recall correctly, eating a little high-carb food at that time was recommended, too, like some crackers or something just high in carbohydrates.

By the way, it works very rapidly, like 15 minutes. Does not build up in the body.

weed

When I was on Melatonin (which I stopped, 'cause it's hell when you're woken up by someone while you're on it... and I still haven't found an environment where I can try it again), it always hit me like a sack of bricks within 30 minutes of taking it. It was the normal (quick release) kind.


I would imagine that the controlled release version would help you stay asleep, but wouldn't do much in getting you to fall asleep. My problems have tended to be with staying asleep, rather than falling asleep, so I'd be a good candidate for the controlled release version.


When using it, make sure that your room is VERY dark when you use it. Even small light sources can be problematic. Also, be sure to get bright light in the morning, or you'll be groggy. The big thing that melatonin does is make you much more sensitive to the night/day cycles, making you tired when it's dark, and waking you up when it's light.

My current room is too bright for me to use melatonin, even if the 5AM roommate wasn't an issue... damn street light just across the street.

I just face away from the window and try to put the blanket over my head. If I owned the place, I'd just put a curtain up and be done with it (there's just a cheap walmart shutter on it right now... better than nothing).

Having suffered from insomnia for as long as I can remember (The quote goes something like "Go to bed at ten, get to sleep around five, then drag myself out of bed at seven. I spent the day wandering around feeling like a bit-player in someone else's nightmare") I have found listening to audio books helps. They either distract me enough for my mind to slow down enough to sleep, or if that's not working, at least I'm not lying there bored and frustrated - that just makes it worse.
The anti-depressants prescribed as sleeping tablets were pretty bad. They helped with the "slow-sleep" element, but didn't stop the waking every couple of hours thing. The side-effects were pretty bad nightmares (constantly) and feeling even more "spaced out" during the day.
Naturally this only helps if you can tolerate that kind of thing in the background (and/or have a sympathetic partner!), but it might be worth a try...

I have suffered from Insomnia my whole life. I tried Melatonin before and it made no difference for me. My solution isn't much of one... I work at night and sleep during the day, for me, this seems to be a natural schedule. Many people also take Benadryl (it is an anti-histamine so will help allergies too) to help them sleep, and this works for everbody I have talked to about it (which is quite a lot- I work night shift in a Hospital and the lack of sleep is a common subject). It's doesn't quite do it for me, so I take a prescription sleep med, Ambien. I don't know if Benadryl is available in the U.K., but I sure there is a similar anti-histamine. All of the ideas posted on here are good ones, so I hope one of them works for you.