How do you make yourself sleep when you can’t seem to get to sleep?

Bretrick

Bretrick

Well-known Member
Location
Perth Western Australia
I was searching to see if I had already posted - "How do you make yourself sleep when you can't seem to get to sleep."

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fuzzybuddy said:
How do I make myself sleep?
Not very well. It's 4:55 AM , and I went to bed at 1AM. Now, I'm wide awake.
If I'm not sleepy, I'll just lay there. I've got to be really tired to nod off. For most of my life I've only slept 6 hours/night.
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Sleep can be so elusive. I myself never get more than 5 hours unbroken sleep. The rest of the time, I too just lay there until I get out of bed.
 
Once I hit 50 I started having real difficulty sleeping through the night. The real problem is that if I want to go back to sleep the rest of the world won't let me...starting at 5:10 AM with the neighbor with the loud motorcycle and continuing with one thing or another for the rest of the day. I resisted taking anything for it for a few years, but finally relented. Ambien works pretty well for me.
 
I consciously clear my mind of thought, or try to as much as possible, while holding my attention on my breathing. Then once I get that going somewhat, I begin relaxing my muscles starting with my feet and moving upward.

It's my mind you see. It won't stop with the rehashing of old memories and this is the only way I've found to turn it off.
 
Take potassium. You can find it in pills that are about 2% of your RDA of potassium. I don't know why they help me sleep, but usually they do. I'll take only one or two tablets.

If I have pain I'll take and ibuprofen, but not on an empty stomach. It helps with pain but also helps me sleep.

Camomile tea can also help.

If I am so anxious that none of those help, I will not fight it. I'll just stay up and watch TV or read stuff until I feel like I might be able to fall asleep.
 
To turn off my mind, I listen to a dull podcast. The timer is set for 30 to 45 minutes. When I waken in a few hours, I resume playing it. If I just want soothing, it’s rainstorms or similar.

Just found I Can’t Sleep. He reads, in a monotone, something from Wikipedia or similar.

Count backwards from 300 by 3s.

These are things I do. They don’t always work.
 
I try to lay still and not keep looking at the clock (never works!). My sleep issues were terrible for many years mostly due to stress, thankfully I sleep better now, yet I still have those ocassional nights of insomnia. I've never found any one thing that always works so I just suffer through.
 
Ruthanne said:
I take a pill and listen to ocean waves 🌊 on my sound device. I have had sleep problems most of my life due to PTSD.
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I have PTSD also and any unexpected loud noise can make me feel like I've been shot out of a cannon. I adjust and slow my breathing. I take aspirin if I have pain. Sometimes, I just hold someone's hand until it gets better. Getting up is pretty much a last resort.
 
chic said:
I have PTSD also and any unexpected loud noise can make me feel like I've been shot out of a cannon. I adjust and slow my breathing. I take aspirin if I have pain. Sometimes, I just hold someone's hand until it gets better. Getting up is pretty much a last resort.
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I, too, have that strong startle response. When there is a loud sudden noise I feel like I jump out of my skin and sometimes like a huge bomb went off. I'll try slowing my breathing too, thanks for that. It also helps me to pet my dog intensely. She's gotten a lot of body massages from me!🙂🐕

I take muscle relaxers for pain and I had to take 2 naproxens for awful pain in my knee yesterday.

Progressive relaxation is something else I do to help me sleep. Have you ever tried it? You tense a set of muscles and then release them one after another . I usually start with my head muscles and relax each one or set one after another until I've reached my toes.

Meditation helps too. I have to get back to that It would be much better for me than unhealthy coping ways like eating a lot. It relaxes and helps me sleep. I have fallen asleep many times doing it. There are some videos on YouTube about all the healthy relaxation strategies and meditations.
 
Ruthanne said:
I, too, have that strong startle response. When there is a loud sudden noise I feel like I jump out of my skin and sometimes like a huge bomb went off. I'll try slowing my breathing too, thanks for that. It also helps me to pet my dog intensely. She's gotten a lot of body massages from me!🙂🐕

I take muscle relaxers for pain and I had to take 2 naproxens for awful pain in my knee yesterday.

Progressive relaxation is something else I do to help me sleep. Have you ever tried it? You tense a set of muscles and then release them one after another . I usually start with my head muscles and relax each one or set one after another until I've reached my toes.

Meditation helps too. I have to get back to that It would be much better for me than unhealthy coping ways like eating a lot. It relaxes and helps me sleep. I have fallen asleep many times doing it. There are some videos on YouTube about all the healthy relaxation strategies and meditations.
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Yes, in fact I teach meditation at a healing arts center. PTSD is another level of stress and I have no issues with sleeping pills to help if that is what it takes. Breathing issues during PTSD can come from too much oxygen so you can exhale into a bag and breathe it back in to decrease oxygen intake. I would rather see someone eat before bed even if it is sugary than go to bed hungry.. Hunger can wake you and keep you awake until you eat something.
 
I fall asleep to a fairly boring veterinarian tv or nature show on Disney Plus, volume turned down so low I can barely hear the words.

If I"m not asleep within 30 minutes and know it's going to be one of those nights, I take half an over-the-counter Unisom tablet (doxylamine succinate) and chew it. Tastes terrible but a couple of mouthfuls of water solves that. Chewing it gets it into my system faster. If I don't fall asleep within 45 minutes of that, I take the other half. I keep a few on my nightstand in a childproof bottle.

I do the same thing if I wake up before the 4 o'clock hour. Later than 4 AM? I cut bait, get up to start my day, and hope for a better sleep the following night.
 
when I can't sleep, I also read until my eyes start to close. Having complex PTSD I have often woken screaming, which has not happened in years, thankfully. A cup of warm A2 milk helps, as well as moving on to bigger guns like medication. Sometimes a Benadryl tablet will knock me out, but then I am hung over the next day.
 
I have some lavender balm and I got some lavender spray at the farmers market yesterday. That seems to help. I'll open that little container of balm and just inhale it and then put a little under my nose which is kind of gross but that's what you are supposed to do with it.
https://www.vitacost.com/badger-organic-sleep-balm-lavender-and-bergamot-0-75-oz

Sometimes if it's really bad, which is gratefully rare, I turn the TV back on. I don't believe in that sleep hygiene crap. My only TV is in the bedroom and that's what works for me. I have a white noise CD that has a low droning continuous AC sound. That helps. And then try to get my mind on something that isn't negative.
 
A half of a Tylenol PM always worked for me, except on nights when I would put in 12-18 hours, then nothing worked. When you work that many continuous hours, it’s only because of a major issue and that caused me to lay in bed and just replay whatever it was over and over again in my mind.
 

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