Can I fix my sleeping problems on my own?

Question

Can anyone (teenager) relate to this sleeping problem?

I'm 16 and a semi-busy student in High School. My sleeping habbits have gotten rapidly this year in particular. I can never get to sleep at night and am always wanting to fall asleep in classes. I've tried everything and I can never get my sleep back to normal. I think I might have some sort of abxiety. On weekends and vacations I'm able to fall asleep fine at a decent time, but for some reason I think the thought of knowing that I have school the next day keeps me awake. I'm always thinking, "ok fall asleep...now" and glancing at the time. Why do I only have trouble sleeping during the school year on weekdays. Can I solve this problem on my own?

Answer 1

Have a routine before bed e.g. warm bath, reading, milky drinks. When you go to bed, turn your clock away so that you can't see what time it is! Relax and realise that it doesn't matter whether you are asleep or not. You are warm and comfortable and spending time reflecting lazily on what was nice about today or what you have that is good e.g. friends, pets, sunshine....

Answer 2

Sounds like you are suffering anxiety from your school work - it's quite a common problem for a lot of people. They can't sleep for tossing and turining thinking about the next day whether it be school or work or whatever. You can help yourself and the first thing you should do is stop the "i must go to sleep now" routine! Make your bedroom and bed as comfortable as you can, temperature, smells, duvet, pillows, lights, what you wear - everything should be made as comfortble and pleasant for you as possible. This is so your brain associates the bedroom with nice comforting things, it's a pleasant place to be not the nightmare it is at the moment. Set a reasonable time to go to bed everynight, even if you are not tired and stick to the routine. If you go to bed and do not feel sleepy, grab a magazine or put on some relaxing music with the volume low. Get in a comfy position and concentrate on your breathing, nice and slow, deep ins and outs, concentrate on that for a while until it becomes natural to breath slowly. Next, think about the muscles around your eyes and forhead, imaine they are little lights and swith them off - you will be amazed at how this little exercise relaxes your eyes and forehead almost immediately, its a nice feeling too! Then start to count backwards from 200, really slowly and almost in a sighing relaxing letting all the aches and pains go voice, keep it up and the next thing you know you'll be alseep. These techniques come from a Paul McKenna tape (I had exactly the same problems) and when I follow this little easy rourine I really do go to sleep! Keep it up and you will help yourself get back to a good nights sleep - sweet dreams!

Answer 3

It seems like your mind is too busy to fall asleep. When my job was very hectic & busy I couldn't fall asleep at a decent time as I kept thinking what I had to do at work the following day. So, maybe you can try and take a nice warm bath and try to relax, let your thoughts of school go. There's a natural product you can buy at a pharmacy store called melatonin. It will help you get your sleep schedule back on track and it's not addicting and there isn't any side effects.

Answer 4

that's exactly what i do. i was told that the fact tht i don't always go to sleep at the same time, or around the same time, affects it.
also, since i wake up kind of late almost every day, when i wanna go to sleep, i cant cause im not tired. a couple months ago i had this problem solved, and i would fall asleep ok. but it's started again, so i'm gonna start doing what i did then- going to sleep every night arounf the same time, and waking up early

Answer 5

your problem seems to be like many of us when we put our head on the pillow all of our thoughts come together and we play em in sequence like a documentary. TRY THIS when you go to bed start counting backwards from 10 to 1 but add to each number one thousand EXAMPLE 10 one thousand ,9 one thousand ecc. until you reach 1 one thousand when you start all over again and again GOOD LUCK but you must insist most of the time the numbers work.

Answer 6

yes you can .saturday no school right just spend nice day with your friend at night get a good massage to relax during week end.it worksim also working student my self before. ask your mom or freind for masage

Answer 7

meditation my man, and tea and liquor also help, but mostly meditation.