I can't sleep

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Even if I am physically tired, I usually feel like I have something more important to do than sleep, or my mind is just too active. I find it very hard to just make myself lie down in bed and try to sleep, my mind just starts going. I don't usually tell people this, I usually tell them I just have a hard time getting to sleep, because if I tried to explain it would sound like I just lack self-control. I mean, I guess that is what the problem is. But sometimes it isn't just because I want to stay up doing something, a lot of times the thought of going to sleep gives me anxiety, which would prevent me from sleeping anyway.

I know it doesn't make sense to not go to sleep, just sometimes it's hard because I get stressed at the thought of tomorrow and I want to delay it, and I keep distracting myself, and I lose track of time and eventually when I decide that I need to sleep I will get like 3 hours. I can usually get through the work day fine even if I've had not much sleep, I take Adderall for ADD and that actually wakes me up. But that's not healthy, plus I'm tired in the evening.

I think if I got into a routine of taking my sleeping medication at a certain time every night it would be good for me, I just got it yesterday and last night it was very effective, and without any side effects. The thing is on nights like this I want to avoid taking the pill too, I don't want to fall asleep. I don't quite understand my aversion to be honest.

I guess what I'm wondering is, does anyone else have this problem? If so, how do you deal with it? Or even if you don't have this problem, I'd still appreciate any advice on how to calm myself down about the idea of sleeping.

hmmm I've always struggled with insomnia too, but I must say I've never had the feeling of not wanting to fall asleep. I've got the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome problem so most times I'm so tired I want to fall asleep so bad... but hormonal issues come up, certain times of the month I have insomnia so bad.. I've read in a book on sleep at the library that a method of falling asleep when you can't is to try to stay awake all night... kind of a 'reverse psychology' on yourself... then you think 'piece of cake, I can stay awake all night no prob' then next thing boom, you're asleep

What I hate when I'm just about to fall asleep (this doesn't happen every night thank goodness, again I think it's hormonal) is when you're thisclose to falling asleep totally and you have a gasp of air and it feels honest-to-goodness like your heart stopped for a few seconds.. then I get a feeling that I'm scared to fall asleep but I still want to.... but I'm scared to!

When I worked at the coffee shop I would get home so stressed that sometimes my mind wouldn't shut off at night... I'd rehash some stupid BS that my idiot co-workers said to me or whatever.. or work myself up into a tizzy about what BS nonsense & impatient customers I'll have to deal with at work the next day.... I'm not in there anymore so that issue is all but gone...

Sorry I'm not more help!

That's ok, it was still a thoughtful response so thank you. And I don't know if that reverse psychology thing would work, I think I'd end up actually being awake all night To be honest I already know what would help me: if I could just make myself take that stupid pill I'd get so tired I'd have to go to sleep. That's what happened last night anyway, but it still took me til 1 am to actually take it. I am pretty sure it is because I have work in the morning that I don't want to go to sleep. I wasn't tired a few hours ago, but after 3 I started to feel tired. Yet I still don't want to sleep. If I had a totally free day tomorrow I probably would have gone to sleep 30 minutes ago; that's still kinda late though. I usually can't sleep until I'm exhausted, and when I have work it depends on how stressed I am if I can get to sleep at that point. Once I am so tired the dread I feel about sleeping goes away, because I just want sleep at that point. But that doesn't happen till very late. Maybe if I pile a bunch of blankets on myself it will calm me down, I haven't tried it yet. I used to have 2 mattresses as a kid, they were stacked on each other; sometimes I would get in between them and sleep that way. I also had a very thick heavy blanket that I liked, but it's so big that I've not been able to take it anywhere, so it is still at my mom's house.