Do you often struggle to fall asleep?
Sleep was something that never caused me problems until my mid-forties when several big complexities landed in my life and my sleep became fractured.
Now I use a prescription drug to ensure sleep. I went off it during the first long confinement in an attempt to see if I could get by without it. I turned into an insomniac – waking up after three hours, unable to surrender again to sleep, writing from three until seven in the morning, then sleeping until midday. After two months of fractured nights, and never once having a solid seven-eight hours of sleep, I felt like some sub-Dostoevskian character… and also just a little out of synch with life (but my word did I write a lot). Eventually I went to see my doctor in Maine – and she all but insisted that I went back on the pills that ensured eight hours of sleep. I said that I so wanted to live without pharmaceuticals. Her reply: ‘Then you will continue to have fractured night, and the health impact will eventually be severe”.
I went back on the pills. After two days I started sleeping seven-eight hours per night. I accepted that, somewhere twenty years ago, circumstances broke my ability to sleep unaided. I have friends who suffer from severe depression and whose lives have been made stable thanks to psycho-pharmacology. Just I can sleep thanks to the pills that do not leave me groggy or impact my life otherwise. Of course I would prefer to live without them. But I am also grateful to them for the sleep they provide. Do you ever tell yourself to be more vigilant about something, then keep making, from time to time, the same damn error? Here’s my ongoing flaw. As someone who travels a great deal I am frequently leaving items in those trays in which you have to dump the contents of your pockets when going through airport
security. A few days back I was traversing Logan Airport for a flight to Amsterdam – and an hour after clearing security (and making certain I’d picked up everything out of the security bin) I went to pay for a newspaper and realized that I had left my money clip (with about $40 in cash) somewhere. To say that I
was angry with myself is to engage in understatement. I am ruthlessly self-critical and hate when I do something stupid because I was rushed… and because I wanted to get through security as fast as possible (another of my phobias – long queues).
But then I returned to the security area and enquired if anyone had found a money clip with $40 in cash. To say that I was less than hopeful for this to be recovered was to engage in understatement. One of the TSA officers asked around. Suddenly I was tapped on the shoulder. I spun around. A woman TSA officer was behind me, holding up a plastic bag with my money clip and $40.
“Might this be yours?” she asked.
“Indeed it is” I said.
“Lucky man” she said.
And one who needs to be a little more thorough when going through security. What's your tactic for successfully falling asleep when you struggle? Are there people out there who also struggle to sleep? Do you just accept it?
I (female, 40) have been like this for as long as I can remember. Sometimes it can take me hours to fall asleep and once I'm awake that's it, I cannot get back to sleep even if its a couple of hours before I need to get up. I can't nap (I could when I had a baby but that was for about 15/20 mins tops and I had to be VERY sleep deprived), I'm healthy, not overweight, eat well (mostly), drink plenty of water, I exercise, dont have tea or coffee on an evening, rarely drink alcohol (my sleep is worse when I do). Are other people just like this too? Do you just accept it? It really get me down sometimes, especially as hubby can decide he is going to have a nap and be asleep within the minute, and will always fall back asleep even if he has been woken by the kids/dogs. I'd love to be able to do that and lie in but I can't. I've tried audio books, breathing/meditation apps, white noise, but when my brain decides its awake, it's awake. I can cope most of the time but other times it drives me mad. I've been up cleaning since before 7am on a Saturday because what else is there to do? Anyone else really struggling with sleep?
Personal experience
My sleeping schedule is truly destroyed. Because I’m not doing much of anything apart from film watching and video game playing (with a daily walk/jog of fresh air) I find that I cannot sleep until 4/5am these days and I wake up feeling like trash. I also feel like my anxiety is way worse at night. Anyone else? Does anyone else struggle to sleep because their mind won’t shut up
Pretty much what the title says. I can never sleep because my mind is always racing and thinking of different scenarios. Not even negative things, just random stuff. I’m a 21f and I’ve had trouble falling asleep since I was a little girl. One of my earliest memories is of asking my dad why it’s so easy for him to fall asleep. It’s gotten progressively worse over the years and it’s to the point where I have gone multiple consecutive days without sleeping on many occasions. I’ve always described it as not being able to slow my train of thought down enough to fall asleep—I feel like I just keep thinking, conjuring up imaginary worlds in my head, re-doing old arguments, stuff like that. It’s incredibly frustrating not being able to shut up your own inner voice.
The pandemic has only exacerbated the issue. I’m to the point where I do not get tired until the sun comes up, no matter what I do. I turn my devices off, play soothing music and lay there with my eyes closed for hours on end until my family wakes up, and then I go about my day. I’ve done this routine at least 4 times in the past two weeks.
I also have a tendency to fall asleep in the middle of the day and not wake up for 5 hours. This usually happens after two or more consecutive sleepless nights. I don’t have control over those naps, I sit down on my bed and next thing I know 5 hours have passed. I wake up in a terrible mood because I’ve just thrown the day away against my will and I’ve gotten enough sleep that I won’t be able to sleep again that night. I’ve tried melatonin once, it didn’t help me sleep and it made me horrendously sick to my stomach the next day. Diphenhydramine doesn’t affect me at all. Auditory solutions don’t work (white noise, etc). I tried to tell my dad about it and he laughed it off. I can’t afford medical care for something like this. I feel like I have no options. Can anybody here offer some advice? Is this dangerous? I would really appreciate some insight on my situation. I don’t know anybody that struggles with sleep like I do and it’s hard feeling alone in it. Thank you all so much for reading. Thank you guys for all of the helpful comments you’ve left here! I won’t be replying to all of them, but I’ve read them all and I’ll be taking all of your bits of advice into consideration. I am so grateful to have gotten so many helpful replies. I hope you all have a great holiday season. Anytime I sleep somewhere new (hotel, Airbnb) that first night I may get an hour here and there of sleep. I usually drag the rest of the day while we go out and explore, and I’m usually so exhausted by the end that I crash the second night. I’m not sure if it’s just my brain aware of being in an unfamiliar place..listening to new sounds, etc.
I am really tired, but I can't fall sleep. I can't focus on studying either.
I am really tired, but I can't fall asleep. I also feel that I don't have enough energy to do anything productive like studying.
I feel like my time is just slipping away like this. For the last few months I’ve been unable to fall asleep, for example if I wake up at eight in the morning and stay busy throughout the day, get into bed at 10 pm I still find myself awake at around 2 am in the morning, I wake up the next day at six, work all day and then the same thing happens. By the weekend I’m unable to start making efforts to create habits or facilitate any hobbies. It feels pointless. My mind is flooded about random thoughts, Music, and embarrassing memories. It’s left me sleep deprived and extremely stressed. Should I see a doctor about this? Or are there any other measures that I can take. Before you ask, I tend to keep my caffeine take to one cup of coffee as soon as I get up and nothing else throughout the day. I also tend to avoid screen time before bed. Any help is appreciated, thank you.
If any can relate, what are some things you’ve done to help you get to sleep? My wife has the ability to fall asleep within ten seconds of laying down and closing her eyes. My falling asleep process requires specific events before I may or may not fall asleep. Such as drinking a glass of water, reading a chapter of a book, using the bathroom, drinking a few sips of water, read some more of the book until I start dozing, turning off the light and praying like hell a random thought doesn't pop into my head keeping up for another hour.
Now I use a prescription drug to ensure sleep. I went off it during the first long confinement in an attempt to see if I could get by without it. I turned into an insomniac – waking up after three hours, unable to surrender again to sleep, writing from three until seven in the morning, then sleeping until midday. After two months of fractured nights, and never once having a solid seven-eight hours of sleep, I felt like some sub-Dostoevskian character… and also just a little out of synch with life (but my word did I write a lot). Eventually I went to see my doctor in Maine – and she all but insisted that I went back on the pills that ensured eight hours of sleep. I said that I so wanted to live without pharmaceuticals. Her reply: ‘Then you will continue to have fractured night, and the health impact will eventually be severe”.
I went back on the pills. After two days I started sleeping seven-eight hours per night. I accepted that, somewhere twenty years ago, circumstances broke my ability to sleep unaided. I have friends who suffer from severe depression and whose lives have been made stable thanks to psycho-pharmacology. Just I can sleep thanks to the pills that do not leave me groggy or impact my life otherwise. Of course I would prefer to live without them. But I am also grateful to them for the sleep they provide. Do you ever tell yourself to be more vigilant about something, then keep making, from time to time, the same damn error? Here’s my ongoing flaw. As someone who travels a great deal I am frequently leaving items in those trays in which you have to dump the contents of your pockets when going through airport
security. A few days back I was traversing Logan Airport for a flight to Amsterdam – and an hour after clearing security (and making certain I’d picked up everything out of the security bin) I went to pay for a newspaper and realized that I had left my money clip (with about $40 in cash) somewhere. To say that I
was angry with myself is to engage in understatement. I am ruthlessly self-critical and hate when I do something stupid because I was rushed… and because I wanted to get through security as fast as possible (another of my phobias – long queues).
But then I returned to the security area and enquired if anyone had found a money clip with $40 in cash. To say that I was less than hopeful for this to be recovered was to engage in understatement. One of the TSA officers asked around. Suddenly I was tapped on the shoulder. I spun around. A woman TSA officer was behind me, holding up a plastic bag with my money clip and $40.
“Might this be yours?” she asked.
“Indeed it is” I said.
“Lucky man” she said.
And one who needs to be a little more thorough when going through security. What's your tactic for successfully falling asleep when you struggle? Are there people out there who also struggle to sleep? Do you just accept it?
I (female, 40) have been like this for as long as I can remember. Sometimes it can take me hours to fall asleep and once I'm awake that's it, I cannot get back to sleep even if its a couple of hours before I need to get up. I can't nap (I could when I had a baby but that was for about 15/20 mins tops and I had to be VERY sleep deprived), I'm healthy, not overweight, eat well (mostly), drink plenty of water, I exercise, dont have tea or coffee on an evening, rarely drink alcohol (my sleep is worse when I do). Are other people just like this too? Do you just accept it? It really get me down sometimes, especially as hubby can decide he is going to have a nap and be asleep within the minute, and will always fall back asleep even if he has been woken by the kids/dogs. I'd love to be able to do that and lie in but I can't. I've tried audio books, breathing/meditation apps, white noise, but when my brain decides its awake, it's awake. I can cope most of the time but other times it drives me mad. I've been up cleaning since before 7am on a Saturday because what else is there to do? Anyone else really struggling with sleep?
Personal experience
My sleeping schedule is truly destroyed. Because I’m not doing much of anything apart from film watching and video game playing (with a daily walk/jog of fresh air) I find that I cannot sleep until 4/5am these days and I wake up feeling like trash. I also feel like my anxiety is way worse at night. Anyone else? Does anyone else struggle to sleep because their mind won’t shut up
Pretty much what the title says. I can never sleep because my mind is always racing and thinking of different scenarios. Not even negative things, just random stuff. I’m a 21f and I’ve had trouble falling asleep since I was a little girl. One of my earliest memories is of asking my dad why it’s so easy for him to fall asleep. It’s gotten progressively worse over the years and it’s to the point where I have gone multiple consecutive days without sleeping on many occasions. I’ve always described it as not being able to slow my train of thought down enough to fall asleep—I feel like I just keep thinking, conjuring up imaginary worlds in my head, re-doing old arguments, stuff like that. It’s incredibly frustrating not being able to shut up your own inner voice.
The pandemic has only exacerbated the issue. I’m to the point where I do not get tired until the sun comes up, no matter what I do. I turn my devices off, play soothing music and lay there with my eyes closed for hours on end until my family wakes up, and then I go about my day. I’ve done this routine at least 4 times in the past two weeks.
I also have a tendency to fall asleep in the middle of the day and not wake up for 5 hours. This usually happens after two or more consecutive sleepless nights. I don’t have control over those naps, I sit down on my bed and next thing I know 5 hours have passed. I wake up in a terrible mood because I’ve just thrown the day away against my will and I’ve gotten enough sleep that I won’t be able to sleep again that night. I’ve tried melatonin once, it didn’t help me sleep and it made me horrendously sick to my stomach the next day. Diphenhydramine doesn’t affect me at all. Auditory solutions don’t work (white noise, etc). I tried to tell my dad about it and he laughed it off. I can’t afford medical care for something like this. I feel like I have no options. Can anybody here offer some advice? Is this dangerous? I would really appreciate some insight on my situation. I don’t know anybody that struggles with sleep like I do and it’s hard feeling alone in it. Thank you all so much for reading. Thank you guys for all of the helpful comments you’ve left here! I won’t be replying to all of them, but I’ve read them all and I’ll be taking all of your bits of advice into consideration. I am so grateful to have gotten so many helpful replies. I hope you all have a great holiday season. Anytime I sleep somewhere new (hotel, Airbnb) that first night I may get an hour here and there of sleep. I usually drag the rest of the day while we go out and explore, and I’m usually so exhausted by the end that I crash the second night. I’m not sure if it’s just my brain aware of being in an unfamiliar place..listening to new sounds, etc.
I am really tired, but I can't fall sleep. I can't focus on studying either.
I am really tired, but I can't fall asleep. I also feel that I don't have enough energy to do anything productive like studying.
I feel like my time is just slipping away like this. For the last few months I’ve been unable to fall asleep, for example if I wake up at eight in the morning and stay busy throughout the day, get into bed at 10 pm I still find myself awake at around 2 am in the morning, I wake up the next day at six, work all day and then the same thing happens. By the weekend I’m unable to start making efforts to create habits or facilitate any hobbies. It feels pointless. My mind is flooded about random thoughts, Music, and embarrassing memories. It’s left me sleep deprived and extremely stressed. Should I see a doctor about this? Or are there any other measures that I can take. Before you ask, I tend to keep my caffeine take to one cup of coffee as soon as I get up and nothing else throughout the day. I also tend to avoid screen time before bed. Any help is appreciated, thank you.
If any can relate, what are some things you’ve done to help you get to sleep? My wife has the ability to fall asleep within ten seconds of laying down and closing her eyes. My falling asleep process requires specific events before I may or may not fall asleep. Such as drinking a glass of water, reading a chapter of a book, using the bathroom, drinking a few sips of water, read some more of the book until I start dozing, turning off the light and praying like hell a random thought doesn't pop into my head keeping up for another hour.
