Does anyone have a good remedy for sleeplessness?

Question

If I can get to sleep I can't stay asleep! My Dr. prescribed a sleep aid but it only worked for a short period. Any simple suggestions?

Answer 1

How much do you do in a day? I found when I was walking 3 or 4 miles a day I was asleep before I got to the bed. Do enough in a day to make yourself truely tired out! And don't have any caffine after 12:00 (noon). Remember even chocolate has caffine in it, so beware of what you put in your mouth!

Answer 2

1) Learn & practice meditation. It will give you something to do @ 1:34 AM that will not interfere with your sleeping schedual or harm your liver. Also, it helps in the acceptance of whatever is coming, regardless.

2) The headstand posture from Hatha Yoga, followed by the shoulderstand has made me so sleepy that I have fallen asleep in the middle of the living room floor.

3) Whatever you do, get out of bed every 10 minutes as long as you are sleepless. This breaks the association of being in bed with being sleepless that starts to form, making the problem worse.

Good Luck!

;-)

Answer 3

Exercise is useful. If you are depressed, or if your serotonin level is otherwise imbalanced, it can cause sleep disturbance. SAM-e is a chemical produced by the liver, which helps with depression, joint comfort, and liver health. It can indirectly help insomnia by modulating your serotonin level. Some companies market substandard SAM-e. I recommend MoodPlus by Nature Made, which I buy at Costco. It costs $40 for 90 tablets ($30 on sale). Melatonin is a chemical produced by your pituitary which regulates sleep patterns. It helps me fall asleep and when I wake up, it is easier to fall back asleep. If I don't get 8 hours sleep, it's harder to wake up with Melatonin. Schiff sells Melatonin with Theanine(which is found in green tea and helps with stress relief). It is cheap: about $4 for 300 tablets. Joint pain often wakes me and I am finding that fish oil is a good anti-inflammatory. I also take a mixture of DHA(part of fish oil) and GLA(an Omega-3 oil found in Borage seed oil and other vegetables) with some success. I wouldn't recommend alcohol, because, although it can initiate sleep, it causes disturbed REM sleep, which is not restful. Dehydration has disturbed my sleep. Drinking a cup or two of water before bed helps. Caffeine, nicotine, sugar, and some medications cause insomnia. So does stress. Warm milk (tryptophane is a natural sedative and the calcium relaxes muscles) at bedtime, if you are not lactose intolerant, is a traditional remedy. Adding honey to the milk helps the absorption of tryptophan. Sleep apnea and GERD can cause insomnia. When my furnace is on, the air is dry and I can't breathe well enough. A room humidifier has helped. It produces a cool mist, rather than steam. Because of that, I use distilled water rather than hard tap water, to prevent calcium and other minerals depositing in my lungs. Some insomniacs use herbs, such as chamomile, valerian, and lavender, taken as a tea or as oil on your skin.

Answer 4

If you haven't heard the standard tips, they are things like:

no caffeine 6-8 hours before bedtime
no loud music 45 min before bedtime
no computers or TV or computer games or anything electronic 1 hour before bedtime
establish a good going-to-bed routine and keep to it
use your bed only for sleeping
relax deliberately and let go of your day

Some of the traditional sleep helps are chamomile tea, calcium, and kava kava root.

Answer 5

Sleep aides will make you more tired in the long run because it will not allow you to get REM sleep it puts you in a different stage of sleep what you need is to work on your nerves the best natural product is ROYAL JELLY it is produced by bees and very high in B-5 and Acetylcholine for transmitting nerve message and relaxing you naturally into a better state of sleep and giving you more energy during the day it is truly a miracle food you can read more about it on http://www.beeroyalproducts.com good luck

Answer 6

Better check that with your doc, but here are a few tips:
Don't eat anything 3 hrs before you got to bed.
If you watch TV before falling asleep, avoid news broadcast and action movies / series, they will only trigger your worriness.
Better watch comedies or something that relaxes you.

Answer 7

Well, my room mate found a simple solution. Might not be good for you, but he found that if he takes several shots of hard alcohol before bed, it helps him sleep. He has sleeping problems too and the medicine doesn't always help.

Answer 8

Well personally, I use lavender essentail oil. If you rub a little bit on your wrists it really helps. It is actually quite relaxing but i suggest going to http://talesofmagic.com/wordpress the author who does the blog has a wide variety of different subjects including aromatherapy and several other subjects too.

http://www.medicinalnature.com also has several informative pieces.

hope this helps! :)

Answer 9

In your local grocery store you can buy a tea called, "Sleepy Time Tea" It's made of natural herbs. It does help to relax me, I do think sometimes it does make me have strange dreams, but not nightmates just dreams.