Nights are horrible

[l1n7]

How do U guys get through the night? It's 3 AM here and I can't sleep. And well this is how most nights are for me. I'm always paranoid something is wrong with me. I keep the tv on for the light also. I'm 18 and scared of the dark. Anyone else go through this?

[Buttercup]

I suffer from insomnia so can understand what you are going through. Luckily for me, the majority of the time I am awake at night I am not freaking out, I just can't sleep. Being unable to sleep is exhausting and isolating as in the middle of the night everyone else is sleeping and you are stuck on your own with nothing to do apart from worry. When I can't sleep I get up and watch tv, listen to music, play the ps3, read a book etc until I become sleepy. Problem for me though is that the sleepy feeling usually doesn't come until around 5am. I have used medication in the past but it does little for me but is really helpful for others. Try a herbal sleep remedy from the pharmacy and if the doesn't work then you can try an over the counter sleep aid. If that fails then the doctor can prescribe something to help you sleep like temazepam (these are only for short term use though and they stop working after a short amount of time). I know you do not like the dark but sometimes it can be hard sleeping with lights on- the body is designed to sleep when it's dark and be awake when it's light so artificial lighting can be a hinderence when it comes to sleeping. Do you have a low wattage night light you could use?

[Amy1986]

I feel your pain. I haven't slept properly in weeks and I could normally sleep for hours on end without waking but lately with so much going on I can't shit my bloody head up!!!

Buttercup--- how are you? Isn't this THE week for you if I remember rightly??

Amy

[Buttercup]

Hi Amy, yup- work meeting tomorrow. Maybe that's why my sleep is more messed up just now! How are you getting on with your work?

[Amy1986]

Got a couple of shifts this week. Last week was okay. Just stood in a corner and got on with it :)

Your probably right about that, my head hadn't shut up at night since I started back. I hope your meeting goes okay though buttercup. Will keep my fingers crossed tomorrow.

Let me know how it goes

Amy :)

[dazza]

Just a quick note from me...

I've never really had serious sleeping issues, but there have been times when there's so much going on in my head that getting to sleep has
been difficult.

Things that help are:

1/ Cut out energetic foods & drinks. Especially caffeine after 7pm.

2/ Exercise quite hard in the evenings. A game of squash would knacker me and boy did this help me sleep!

3/ Try to learn to relax before bed. Playing a gory, shoot-em-up video game at night for example does not help with sleep.
Instead, read a boring book or watch some boring TV (in bed) - this helps get you off.

Also, try to get rid of any anxious thoughts (like money worries, etc)

I tried NightOL sleeping tablets. Although they do get you off - I felt AWFUL the next day. This awful, drowsy feeling made anxiety worse.
You should try to avoid sleeping tablets.

However, anti-anxiety tablets are brilliant for sleep. Diazapem is awesome and doesn't leaving feeling rubbish the next day.

I don't encourage drugs, however - so try to avoid them if you can.

[Buttercup]

Thanks Amy! But had a call today to say my meeting has been postponed until tomorrow due to flooding in the office, lol. In some weird way I was kind of looking forward to the meeting just to get it over and done with!
Good advice for sleeping from Dazza. But for me drugs like Diazapam don't really have a great effect on me and tend to leave me groggy the next morning but over the counter drugs like nytol/sominex etc work pretty well and I feel no after effects the next day. Everyone reacts differently to drugs though so see what suits you. And as Dazza said, avoid if possible- I view them as a last resort after all else has failed. x