Strategies for deep sleep when you have insomnia

Student sleep pattern

A.I. from Boston

I like to sleep as much as possible. I go to bed late and I sleep late. When I don’t get to sleep late, I am very tired, and am susceptible to falling asleep randomly whenever I am bored. This can happen when I am in class, on the train, talking on the phone, or reading.

When I fall asleep, it is detrimental to my studies because I not only miss out on the lessons I need to be paying attention to, but the professors and my classmates think I am lazy and don’t care. The situation is quite the opposite.

I generally stay up late because I am preparing my work for school and I take the time I need for the end result to be as close to perfect as possible. I need to sleep for at least 7 hours to feel well rested. If I get less or more sleep than 7 hours, I feel very sleepy.

It isn’t ever hard for me to go to sleep because I am always tired. I do have a hard time staying awake when I am tired. Tricks like coffee, chewing gum, doodling, and daydreaming work to help me try to stay awake, but they generally loose their effectiveness over time.

Sometimes I like to play the radio or TV in the background when I am feeling restless. It is also very hard for me to wake up in the morning. One time, my dad put a live lobster in my bed to try to wake me up. He had received a gift of 4 live lobsters that were shipped to my house in a pot ready to be cooked. He put the lobster in my bed and started shouting until I gained some consciousness. Soon after I realized the lobster in my bed wasn’t a toy, I hopped out of bed. That was the quickest I have ever waked up.

Better sleep when is cold

A.R. from Houston

I usually get about seven to nine hours of sleep a night. I am typically a night person so I do not usually go to sleep until around two or three in the morning. I will get up anywhere from 9am to 11am. I stay up reading or working on the computer. Sometimes if I’m reading a really good book I won’t go to sleep until five a. m. In that case I’ll sleep until 11am or noon.

There are several things that cause me to need more sleep. If we have been watching our grand children for several days in a row (even if they don’t spend the night), when I get a few days without them I will sleep more. Chasing them around is exhausting. When they do spend the night, I really will need more sleep when they go home because my grandson does not sleep through the night yet. I have to get up with him several times a night.

The other thing that requires me to get more sleep at times is a reoccurring virus that I get. It flares up once every few months. When that happens I usually will sleep for 12 to 14 hours for three or four days in a row. After the virus goes away, I usually only sleep for about 5 or 6 hours a night for several days.

I don’t usually have difficulty falling asleep but I do have a hard time staying asleep. I get night sweats. I have to have the room at least 70 degrees and have a fan blowing on me or else I will have a very restless sleep. I sleep better during the winter when I can have my window open and I’m covered with a nice thick blanket. My bed is right under the window. That is when I sleep the deepest and feel the most rested.

Sleep length pattern

Sleep is the one thing I crave the most and get the least of on a daily basis. I work a normal 9-5 day, but my social life is very active and on most nights I get home between the hours of ten and eleven. It’s at this time that I get some chores done around the house, work on my own projects, or just relax with my husband.

On a normal night I get 6-7 hours of sleep, if I am lucky. On most weekends I sleep in, but I never seem to reach that “caught up feeling.” I actually feel more tired after I sleep more which limits my activity on those days. I opt to wake up at my normal time so I actually feel more energized instead of being completely lazy.

On holidays where I have an extra day to recuperate, I generally sleep in more and don’t feel the need to be productive. I know I have an extra day to recover. Most nights I need the television to fall asleep. It relaxes me and forces me to lie still. My minds races constantly so the TV helps ease those stresses I create for myself.

I always need a house fan on to fall asleep, I get warm during the night and if I don’t have something blowing on me I am restless all night long. My husband has a very warm body and the bed is always so hot I definitely need some assistance in keeping cool.

I love being cold at night, but I hate being cold during the day. He laughs at me for my temperature variances. I rarely have difficulty falling asleep, I am pretty exhausted on most days and I fall asleep pretty much after I lie down. No need for sleeping pills or warm milk here!

I always have trouble going to sleep after I eat ice cream so I tend to avoid it in the evenings. I am lactose intolerant and most milk products don’t affect me in the evening like ice cream does. Cheeses and yogurt have no ill effects. Ice cream on the other hand keeps my stomach active which makes me roll around while I am in bed.

Sleep obstacles of a woman

K.T. from London

I usually get about 2 hours of sleep max. If I got anymore than that it would be a miracle. I have too much to do to actually get any more sleep than that on a daily basis.

I need less sleep when I am angry or hungry. I barely need sleep when I drink tons of coffee or pepsi without my caffeine I would be a zombie.

After watching my 2 month old son or when I cry. I always feel completely worn out mentally and physically when I shed tears. While watching my son exhausts me for obvious reasons… he is beginning to teeth and he still wakes up to eat at night and many of his daytime naps are very short lived. Sometimes if I eat too much I feel very sleepy and also when I workout or swim. Especially when I swim, I sometimes go swimming for 4-5 hours straight and I could go home and sleep for 6 hours. It’s kind of insane.

It is extremely difficult for me to fall asleep. It usually takes me an hour or more to drift off to dreamland. Staring at the wall or the ceiling. There really is no set thing that helps me I just have to ware my brain down and make myself bored enough to shut down.

It’s actually very annoying; I always wished I was just one of those people who could fall asleep as soon as their head hit the pillow. I am envious of those people. I love to sleep with tons of blankets and pillows; the more the better. I don’t care how hot or cold it is I need to be surrounded by those things. It’s like I wrap myself in a cocoon.

Difficulty falling asleep and sleeping habits

M.K. from New York

My sleep habits: I usually get between 6-7 hours of sleep per night. I usually need less sleep when I’m happy and energetic, or when I’ve just come back from vacation.

I have insomnia, so I have great difficulty falling asleep. I have to take a prescription sleep aid to help. Stress keeps me awake, as well.

I hate those nights when your mind just won’t turn off. It would be best if I could get 8 hours per night. I feel much rested after 8 hours. However, I have two small children, and they like to climb in bed with me early each morning. I love this, but it interrupts me sleep, and affects how I feel for the rest of the day.

I can’t seem to get to sleep any earlier than midnight. Some things that keep me awake are lights, noise, or the awareness of some activity going on. Again, stress keeps me up as well.

Along with my sleeping pill, I fall asleep faster if the TV is off, the lights are off, and if my room isn’t cluttered. Keeping a neat and peaceful environment is very calming for me. Cuddling with my husband certainly helps, too!

Although this isn’t the safest approach, having a candle burning is very calming and conducive to sleep. Just-laundered sheets are great, too.

My bed is very comfortable, and comforting. I love to snuggle into clean sheets under my down comforter. I have a great mattress, too.

I have a bizarre sleepwalking story: When I was a teenager, I had my best friend over to spend the night. It was extremely hot out, and I remember complaining about it. We each wore a T-shirt and underwear – as little as we could to stay cool. The next morning, I woke up in a heavy winter bathrobe. My friend and I were crackin up over it: I must have gotten up in the middle of the night, put on the robe, and gone back to bed, despite the heat. It was bizarre…and hilarious!

Sleep deprivations after having kids

I have suffered from sleep deprivation. My first experience with it was after having my first child. Two years later, my second child arrived, and I experienced it again. I now take prescription medication to help me sleep.

I feel incredibly frustrated when I can’t fall asleep. I keep thinking about the day I have in front of me, and how much energy I’m going to need. This, of course, makes it worse. When I’m feeling stressed, my mind goes into overdrive and won’t stop humming. This makes it very difficult to fall asleep.

Extreme sleep deprivation can make me feel psychotic and out of it. I can’t think straight. The sleep medications help me to fall asleep. However, there have been times when I’ve stayed awake for hours after taking the pills. What helps is having complete quiet; keeping the TV off, no noise coming from outside, etc.

Of course, I have the lights off. I try to ease my mind by focusing on breathing in, out, in, out. If I’m truly able to focus on that, I can fall asleep pretty quickly. If this doesn’t work, I may turn the TV on for a while or read a book for a few minutes. This helps sometimes. I tend to sleep better if I’ve had strenuous exercise sometime during the day.

I went to my general practitioner to discuss my sleep problems. He originally prescribed Ambien, which worked well.

I eventually switched to Lunesta, which I use now. It feels gentler to me. I explained to my doctor that I couldn’t sleep, I had two small kids and a job, and I was desperate for sleep. He said that I had a lot going on and that stress could be a big factor.

He also said not to eat too late at night. I took his advice, and it worked. I’d prefer not to stay on sleeping medication forever, but I’m staying put for now. I love to sleep!

I control insomnia with Ambien-CR and Zolpidem

I’ve had insomnia for several years, at first it wasn’t every night, but it kept getting worse. I used to just give up trying to go to sleep and find things to do around the house, pay bills, go online, watch television or read. Most of the time I would eventually get tired enough to go to sleep.

My problem was trying to shut off my mind; I couldn’t stop thinking about my day or what I needed to do the next day. Then when I did fall asleep I would often wake up after just a few short hours and not be able to go back to sleep. In addition to all that I also have nightmares, I have had them since I was a little kid and everyone said I would grow out of it. I never did.

Like everyone else I had an especially hard time sleeping when stress levels were high. Finally, I had enough and went to see a doctor. He prescribed Ambien-CR, to help me stay asleep.

First, I used the lower dose (6.25mg), but I would still wake up, so I switched to the higher dose (12.5mg) that worked great for me. I took Ambien at that dose for over a year, I am definitely dependant on them to get a good night sleep.

Now, due to new insurance changes, I have switched to the generic Zolpidem (10mg) and it seems to be working pretty well. I do wake up most days around four or five a.m., but I can deal with that. For me, I feel that medication was the right decision.

Insomnia is pattern of my life

Most people who suffer from insomnia can not get off to sleep, not me. Oh I have insomnia all right, but it is not the getting to sleep that is the problem. It is staying there. I do all the things that are meant to help. Warm bath, clean cotton pajamas and bedding, warm milky drink, herbal sleeping tablets, the lot, all to no avail.

I go to bed at ten o’clock, read a little, nothing to demanding just a little light fiction and never TV and then at ten thirty lights out, sleep by eleven, then awake by three.

It is not that I do not need much sleep I just wake up and I am tired, bone weary tired, but sleep will not come.

Any more until the following night and I know it. I do not even try any more, I get up and know I am in for another exhausted day. This has been the pattern of my life for the past couple of years and I can see no end.