Insomnia! Ugh!

[W2R]

+1 I don't have a problem sleeping, but DW does. Seems to me that exercise and staying away from electronic devices for a few hours before bedtime would be better than taking a pill.

That makes sense to me. I also try to stay away from caffeine after lunch, and to avoid loud high tension music. I try to calm down and just do peaceful, happy, slow things for a couple of hours before bedtime.

It seems to me that as I grow older, some nights I don't need more than 4-6 hours' sleep so I try not to get upset if that happens 2-3 nights/week.

Some people may have worse sleep problems than I do. I try to keep that in mind. But personally I wouldn't touch sleep medications with a ten foot pole. I did take one prescribed hydrocodone at bedtime the day of my tooth extraction, even though my pain was probably too minor to justify it. It was great and I slept like a baby, but I haven't repeated doing that.

 

[mpeirce]

I tried 3mg of melatonin last night and had horrible violent nightmares that were so unsettling I had to turn on lights for an hour.

Not nightmares, but I experience vivid dreams when I drink beer. Not whiskey or wine, just beer. Go figure.

 

[redduck]

^
If the vivid dreams are unsettling, you may want to consider cutting off the beer drinking at noon.

 

[Helen]

^
If the vivid dreams are unsettling, you may want to consider cutting off the beer drinking at noon.

What do you call the first beer of the day? Breakfast!

 

[DrRoy]

I have tried Melatonin before and it did absolutely nothing for me ... I guess everyone is different.

People must really vary in the effect. I have never had the bad dreams posted above. Melatonin has a very mild effect for me. Not zero, but often not enough either.

 

[bmcgonig]

People must really vary in the effect. I have never had the bad dreams posted above. Melatonin has a very mild effect for me. Not zero, but often not enough either.

My doctor told me that less was more with Melatonin. Use less than one milligram, not the 3mg they sell.


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[bobandsherry]

I've suffered from insomnia in some form since high school, typically mind not turning off and random thoughts popping into mind. Now at 54 that's been quite some time, and it seems to get worse. I now find myself waking up several hours after falling asleep. It's very frustrating. And even when I do get to sleep, according to my fitness band my sleep is mostly light.

I've tried all the suggestions, exercise more, drink less caffeine, warm milk, ramp down an hour before sleeping, etc. I've also tried using white noise but that doesn't do it. Nothing has really worked for me.

My Doctor has prescribed Ambien CR and I take that 3-4 nights. Even with that I can't get to sleep on some nights. I have also taken Lunesta in the past, find that Ambien seems to work better for me. I also find that some nights taking a OTC night time sleep aid (doxylamine) works (half the 25mg dose). I've also tried melatonin, but only 3mg dose or less or I have headaches the next day. I have also found that taking 5HTP also helps to relax me.

When all else fails what works for me is getting out of bed, go to the couch and watch some light TV (house hunter shows seem to work well, Pawn Stars too). Within an hour I'm usually sawing logs. I'll get up and then can go to bed. Seems the TV creates enough distraction to stop my mind from going down paths I don't want it to do when I'm trying to catch some Z's.

What I've determined after all these years is everyone's cause/symptoms are different, everyone's solution will be different. I'm hopeful that with ER this year I'll be less focused and not give my mind a reason to think after hours.

After last night I found that several Stormy Night martini's seem to work wonders, but don't think I want to take that regularly