# Trying to Sleep



## thatoneshygirlnmt (Mar 23, 2015)

I have a lot of trouble falling asleep at night. It's not because I'm not tired, because I'm exhausted by the time I get in bed. It's like my mind goes hyperactive and I can't shut it off to get some sleep! I wake up a lot and never feel like I get a good nights sleep. Any suggestions?


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## slyfox (Nov 18, 2007)

Don't really have any suggestions. I have the problem with my mind being hyperactive, especially when I have something I have to be up for. Caused a lot of trouble when I worked because I couldn't relax knowing that I was losing time to sleep before I had to wake up. Could start out with 8 hours to sleep but end up sleeping less than 3  Still happens with doctor's appoiintments, etc


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## thatoneshygirlnmt (Mar 23, 2015)

slyfox said:


> Don't really have any suggestions. I have the problem with my mind being hyperactive, especially when I have something I have to be up for. Caused a lot of trouble when I worked because I couldn't relax knowing that I was losing time to sleep before I had to wake up. Could start out with 8 hours to sleep but end up sleeping less than 3  Still happens with doctor's appoiintments, etc


Did you ever try talking any sleeping medicines?


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## nubly (Nov 2, 2006)

Don't nap in the daytime.


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## sqiee22 (Jan 27, 2015)

nubly said:


> Don't nap in the daytime.


this is a big one, even if you are tired try not to nap makes it worse. Other than that try some chamomile?


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## slyfox (Nov 18, 2007)

thatoneshygirlnmt said:


> Did you ever try talking any sleeping medicines?


Only over the counter ones in the past. My psychiatrist gave me medicines that he said would help with sleep in addition o my other problems. They made me sleep all the time. I don't really have trouble getting sleep if I'm not working. Just have trouble calming down and not worrying about losing sleeping time if I have something scheduled. Doesn't help that I'm usually a night person.


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## zrichardson1 (Jun 29, 2012)

Try a melatonin supplement
or a Epsom Salt bath before bedthat always gets me to sleep


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## Miranda The Panda (Apr 5, 2015)

Diet and exercise can really have an affect on how much/the way that you sleep. Do you take in a lot of caffeine (energy drinks, coffee, tea) and sugar throughout the day? This was one of the main causes of my insomnia and anxiety. Try to be active throughout the day as well to get rid of any built up energy.


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## starrlamia (Mar 28, 2015)

melatonin, valerian root (if you arent on other psych meds) or passion flower would be my first suggestions. I've had good luck with passion flower however I find it doesn't work as well when things are really bad, then I rely on a benzo.


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## Kakumbus (Mar 27, 2012)

there can be dozen of reason why, one thing that would help might be to sleep with relaxing music with headphones, thats how i do it, helps me tremendously. That way i dont focus on all the outside noises.


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## seung (Feb 7, 2015)

melatonin 10 mg worked great for me


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## jessicaashley (Jul 16, 2015)

hi,
my own suggestion is try to take sleeping medicine like ambien.ambien is used to treat insomnia(sleeping disorder). they work by slowing the activity in your brain, which allows for a state of sleep.


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## kageri (Oct 2, 2014)

Belsomra. It works on a previously unknown receptor that causes narcolepsy. No dependence, addiction, tolerance (once you find the necessary dose), withdrawal, and no side effects in studies except daytime drowsiness at the higher doses. All meds that can impact sleep have the potential for increasing things like sleep walking. You can take belsomra for weeks or even months and then just not take it and nothing happens. Not even rebound insomnia. It's just like you never took a sleeping med before. The FDA approved half the dose the company wanted so daytime drowsiness is usually not at all comparable to the max doses of things like ambien. In study it worked 100% but real life is not so perfect. The problem probably lies in people having poor sleep hygiene since most people can probably stay awake through belsomra if they really want to and they make no effort to try to lay down and sleep. I find pairing it with valerian root gives that tired sensation I need to make myself want to lay down and sleep. Otherwise I am unaware if I took my belsomra that night or not until I either get sleep or never eventually get sleep. It doesn't have any drugged feel of other potential sleeping meds.

If you get next day drowsiness on any sleep med lower the dose. If you are already at a very low dose such as cutting the smallest size pill especially less than half or a lower dose does not put you to sleep then you need a different med. When doctors try to prescribe things like SSRI's (paxil, zoloft) or antipsychotics(nearly always seroquel) as first line insomnia treatments you often run into problems of excessive drowsiness and sometimes not even sleeping despite going through the day with drowsiness. But there are loooooots of potential sleeping meds for trying.

As a fix in emergencies a shorter acting benzo can help reset your sleep schedule and get sleep on days you will definitely need it. I probably wouldn't go quite as short acting as xanax. It can mess up your sleep cycle and cause vivid dreams that leave you unrested if the benzo wears off in the middle of the night too sharply like xanax tends to do. It can feel like you are drowsy from the med the next day but instead you are tired from the med not letting you sleep correctly so contrary to your first instinct moving to a stronger benzo may actually help. I always liked lorazepam/ativan. It wears off by the next morning for me but doesn't ditch sharply in the middle of the night messing up the stages of sleep. Like the zdrugs (ambien, lunesta) the benzos will develop tolerance quickly if you take them too many days in a row so as needed is better. If you want a big gun without major side effects flurazepam is a heavily sedating benzo, mostly unheard of because it's only good for sedation, with typical benzo side effect potential and annoying harmless things like metallic taste. I can take it for about 4-5 days and stop cold without any problems. I take it when I need to reset my sleep schedule, it will _make _you go to sleep, or I have some long day of events coming up. All of those will generally not work long term because of tolerance. They are best for a few days here and there.


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## Noca (Jun 24, 2005)

Use sleep music
blackout all the light in your bedroom (you shouldn't be able to see the other side of the room)
dim lights in hours before bed
do not use your phone for the last couple hours before bed
avoid watching bright screens in the hours before bed
don't nap during the day
Use your bedroom only for sleep or sex
avoid caffeine 
avoid alcohol 
take some magnesium at night (150mg to 300mg)
Take an epsom salt bath
go to bed at the same time everyday
get up at the same time everyday
keep your bedroom cool
do some cardio during the day
expose your eyes to sunlight for a good 20 to 30 mins or so in the morning immediately upon waking
sleepy time tea


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## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

Belsomra is pure crap. Anyone who wants to personally confirm this can go to www.Belsomra.com and get a coupon that will provide them with free samples -- 10 pills each in three different sizes.

If you check drugs.com you'll find that a stunning 38% of patients who rate it gave it the lowest score possible, a 1. (I bet they wanted to give it a zero, but that's not offered.)

I've been using Saphris as a sleep aid for the last 2.5 years. I highly recommend it. Your insurance company won't like it, as it costs a whole lot, but I don't really give a damn.

Go to www.saphris.com and you can get a discount card that will get you your next 12 fills for only $25, far less than the $75 my insurance company would charge for this drug. To further save money, my GP write the script for 2 pills, even though I only use one per night. So it lasts twice as long and effectively makes what I'd use in a month only cost $12.50.


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## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

Noca said:


> Use sleep music
> blackout all the light in your bedroom (you shouldn't be able to see the other side of the room)
> dim lights in hours before bed
> do not use your phone for the last couple hours before bed
> ...


Both are highly useful and avoiding them is entirely unrealistic.


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## Amorphousanomaly (Jun 20, 2012)

Story of my life!
Even huge doses of klonopin never let me have any rest. I'm pretty used to feeling like **** all the time by now.
Sometimes a bunch of muscle relaxers and a solid bang sesh can afford me some sleeps.


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## DerrickOdea (Aug 17, 2015)

You can try hot bath in the night before sleep, I also suggest you to take your meat at least an hour before going to bed. I had same problem in the past, Ambien pills work best in my case. You can try! Just ask your doctor first.


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## AllyBally (Aug 23, 2015)

I have problems getting to sleep too, and I use Melatonin and it works great!


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## naptime (Aug 20, 2015)

For the past few years I've had problems falling asleep. At one point I would go nights without sleeping. The problem is that my mind goes a hundred miles an hour when I try to sleep and that keeps me up. My only cure was trying to tire myself out during the day.


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## aquarin (Feb 17, 2015)

I have experienced the same thing. The thought of getting up early caused enough stress and ended up screwing my sleep. I suppose you already have a pattern ie wake up at 7 to go to work. Having a pattern fixed it for me.

Also cut out all caffeine intake. Try working out intensely before bed as it naturally makes you feel better and wears you out a bit more.


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## WillYouStopDave (Jul 14, 2013)

thatoneshygirlnmt said:


> I have a lot of trouble falling asleep at night. It's not because I'm not tired, because I'm exhausted by the time I get in bed. It's like my mind goes hyperactive and I can't shut it off to get some sleep! I wake up a lot and never feel like I get a good nights sleep. Any suggestions?


 Yer profile says you're 24. I think it's pretty common for young people to have tons of energy. When I was that age, my mind didn't want to stop working at the end of the day either.

The only thing that worked for me was getting older. Now I just wait until I feel like I'm gonna fall over, flop down on my bed and go out like a light. Blissful nothing that doesn't last long enough because I don't dream that much.


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## Leechwater (Aug 2, 2015)

I find that poor sleep at night/insomnia really tends to exacerbate symptoms of social anxiety/depression during the day, at least for me anyway. Worst feeling in the world is the tired but wired feeling you get from prolonged insomnia! Anyway just remember that all melatonin brands aren't created equal and if the first couple you try don't work all that well then try some others. I find the GNC brand sublingual melatonin to work really exceptionally well compared to several others i've tried previously.


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## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

kageri said:


> Belsomra. It works on a previously unknown receptor that causes narcolepsy. No dependence, addiction, tolerance (once you find the necessary dose), withdrawal, and no side effects in studies except daytime drowsiness at the higher doses.


I'm glad you finally found a sleep aid that works for you. I've read about how your have the most severe sleep problems.

Belsomra didn't even make me the least bit tired at 180 mg. Didn't make my elderly mother tired at 30 mg.

http://www.drugs.com/comments/suvorexant/belsomra.html 3.8 (out of 10) on 77 reviews. I'm not aware of any med that gets a lower rating from users.

I had high hopes for it, but it was the ultimate failure.

I've been using Saphris for a couple years for sleep. jim morrison (in Australia) is using it too. I'm pretty sure I gave him the idea.



> It doesn't have any drugged feel of other potential sleeping meds.


I can take 10 Ambien and I wake up without any drugged feeling at all. Ambien would be a fine sleep aid if they made it in a 100 mg dose.



> As a fix in emergencies a shorter acting benzo can help reset your sleep schedule and get sleep on days you will definitely need it. I probably wouldn't go quite as short acting as xanax. It can mess up your sleep cycle and *cause vivid dreams* that leave you unrested if the benzo wears off in the middle of the night too sharply like xanax tends to do.


I probably have more experience with Xanax than anyone else on SAS. From 2003-2012 I took 10mg per day, a dose that never made me drowsy. I never had a vivid dream. In fact, I almost never recall any dreams. I don't know if I don't dream, or if I simply can't recall them.


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## Robot the Human (Aug 20, 2010)

Drawing pictures in my mind or writing/solving math problems seems to help me sometimes. It takes a lot of energy for my mind to do that, all inside of my head, so maybe find something that just burns up a lot of your minds extra energy? 

I guess now I can see where the whole counting sheep thing comes in.


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