I can't sleep.

Ever since I was a child, when it comes time to sleep, my body won't let me. I could be doing hard work all day long and my mind just won't shut off. I will find myself laying in bed for up to six hours, being truly exhausted but, my mind won''t shut down. I have tried many things to address this issue. I don't drink caffeine after 2, I don't eat high sugar foods after five, I even got a prescription for a pretty powerful sleep medication. All the sleep medication does, is make me super out of it. I always feel anxious when laying in bed. As if something is going to happen or, someone is standing over me. I can go up to two day before falling asleep and it's horrible. Like I mentioned, I have had these problems since I was a child. I'm starting to truly despise it because I have to be up early for work and I NEVER get enough sleep. Does anyone share similar problems or, perhaps HAD them?

(not sure if this is the right place to post)

There was a story of a guy who hadn't slept in like 25 years. Apparantly when he was in the military he offered anyone a whole year worths of pay if they could ever catch him asleep. As far as I know, no one ever did.

There is a medical reason why you can't sleep so I would recommend switching doctors or going to a sleep study to find out what is at the root of your problem. There is an answer somewhere you just may need to look harder for it.

I would say go see someone as well because some of the causes are dangerous. Not to scare you, I think the dangerous ones are pretty rare. Maybe you have just become tolerant to the medication you have depended on, which is unfortunate.

I have trouble sleeping sometimes and it's all about having many, many, detailed thoughts. when I do get to sleep... I want to sleep and sleep and sleep.

I can tell you my sleeping patterns have been horrible for a while too.

I can get about 5 hours of sleep on a good night. Every other night I get 5 hours or less, due to me waking up every 2 hours or so. This has been happening for a few years now, its one of many problems, ohwell.

So I don't mean to bring on my problems, just point out your not alone and there may be a little something to help you.

There are some natural substances that may help you, like medicinal marijuana. Only in some states though, and it is still risky since Federal agents don't care and they can bust you anyways.

I know alcohol and a mix of that natural substance can make you sleepy and fall asleep relatively fast.

I've seen it work on people, but somethings aren't for everyone so its entirely up to you. And independent research.

Hope I helped.

Yes I've had some bad bouts of insomnia since I was a child. Don't just lay there thinking if you can't sleep. Get up and read or watch a movie till you are ready to sleep. I have conquered this by training myself to turn off that 'inner voice' when I lay down. I usually focus on a mental image while laying on my back while suppressing the urge for my mind to wander. Stretching before bed helps too.

I really feel for you. Due to a serious illness a few years back which became most painful daily in the early hours of the morning,, even though im well now, ive never been able to return to normal sleep pattern,im up every night until three, ive tried the warm baths, camomile tea etc, none of this has worked, even if my body is tired, my mind still races whilst im lying in bed. I wish i could help you because i know what your going through, can you sleep in the day? is there an opportunity for you to catnap then? I must be honest, i more or less rely on diphenhydramine to get me to sleep these days, however, when i was ill in hospital, i was given a sleeping medicine called zopiclone which was so powerful and effective then it got me to sleep even when i was in extreme pain. No one wants to take drugs,but you need to get some sleep friend, and maybe a short course of a strong sleeping drug may help. Hope things get better for you

reply to post by USMC-oorah


Here's a Cayce type approach that costs nothing! Get a sheet of paper and an envelope.

On the paper write in block letters SLEEP DEEPLY. Put it in the envelope and the envelope in the pillow case of the pillow you use. Don't laugh!

This could help you quiet your mind quicker. I use mentalist suggestions to help me sleep deeply and fall asleep quickly. I use the Cayce pillow note thing for other things in waking life.

Hey There,

I too suffer from mild Insomnia (its 5 am in Malaysia where I am) but so far it hasnt been too much of an issue.
For me its more about my body clock than any phsical or psychological issues.

I may have a few answers but I have a couple questions.

How old are U?
Are u male or female?
do you ever nap when its not bedtime?
How often are u physically active? do you exercise? what type?
How is your emotional state?

Ill reply as soon as I hear back from you

Me too have problems with sleep always, go to Dr. and they'll give you meds : / ; or deal with it, either way
good luck to you.

reply to post by kro32


I don't think that is physically possible.

I knew some people in the miilitary, they were personal friends of the family. He had some training and part of the required training was to stay awake for 7 full days.

On the 7th day hallucinations set in, if not earlier, and basically drive the hue-man mind crazy.

serendip.brynmawr.edu...

en.wikipedia.org...

exercise exercise exercise!

I feel im a insomniac, I can easily stay awake 2 - 3 nights or use to anyway, I use to get so desperate for sleep I turned to booze and weed, worked for a few months and would get full nights sleep but then like the op said I would just get very monged out maby get 2 hours then wake back up and not sleep rest of night,

I then went to Dr got prescribed chlorodiazepoxide (this is for alcohol withdrawal not insomnia) but because I told Dr I was toking and drinking myself to sleep she thought I was alcoholic not insomniac!

Again prescribed downers worked for a few months but then I would just get monged out but not sleep!

I am not alcoholic (never feel I have been), I no longer toke drink or take prescribed downers to sleep! I tried all sorts of remedies from warm milk to mullein tea nothing would work!

I now sleep fine, I do 40 lengths in the pool at 8 oclock in the morning as soon as I wake, I then go to uni, I then go back to the pool between 9-10 oclock in the evening (would go even later if it opened later) do between 40 and 50 lengths totalling around 90 lengths a day!

I do this every day and my sleep is so better I can always drop of, if I miss this exercise I will well find myself up all night.

So my suggestion is exercise when you wake up and again before you go to sleep, do what ever exercise is most convient too you, I would imagine jogging is very accessibly to most (I swim due to bad knees from jogging)

This is the best cure I have found and not only am I sleeping better I have also shed of some weight and become a lot fitter!

I hope this info helps I know just how frustrating insomnia can be!

Good luck with finding a cure that works for you.

Peace

Here is another way, it's called NLP(Neuro-Linguistic Programing). This technique will give you full control over your brain. No need for any kind of drug, in matter of fact, get off the drugs and never get on them again (they shorten a lot of things the body can do). There is a book that I know that is call "Unlimited Power" by Anthony Robbins. This book has a lot of things like getting things done when you thought they were impossible. Well here is one way to help you to help yourself.

I don't ask for anything. The choice is yours. Either you can read this book and overcome your sleep disorder with little or no money, or you can go back to those psychiatric drugs that are filled out by a doctor and spend alot of money to help you overcome this ordeal with one's who seek ill will on all people.

There are other books that I know if you would like to know.


I suggest this to anyone with a mental disorder such as insomnia, or any kind of traumatizing memory that you have.

But hey, I'll say it once more, the choice is yours.

Man! I am certainly happy to see I am not alone here. I have a really bad back, all lumbar vertebra are fused and fixated, so sleeping is a problem anyway. Here lately, I lay awake most of the night. this morning I woke up at 4:00 am, got on my computer for awhile, and watched some news, and then went back to bed and slept until noon. I feel like I haven't slept at all. My wife and son have the same problem with sleeping.

I have always thought that when a person dreams, that person's Spirit leaves the body and plays with other spirits, and travels into other dimensions of time and space. To me, my Spirit is answering questions I do not know how to ask, if that makes any sense. Of late, my Spirit will not go, it stays right here in me. I used to be able to astral travel in a conscious mode, but not anymore. I dream only strange, fragmented dreams, people I know are in different stations in life. In my last dream, my sister in law was my wife, and I was having an affair with my real wife, and the two were fighting. In another, my wife and I had no children, and were young, and the same age. My wife, by the way, is 25 years younger than I am. Please refrain from the jokes.

Another thing is I, my whole family, and my internet contacts all have a strange, foreboding feeling, like something really bad is coming down the pike. I have seen planet Earth destroyed in a vision I had in '01, I really wish that had not happened, because of late it plays on my mind. In the vision, everything mankind had built was destroyed. The only things left were churches, and don't take offense here, but they were sealed tight, and I could hear wailing and screaming coming from them. People were trapped inside with no way out. There were large craft in the sky, really low, perhaps 50 feet off the ground. Out in space a big battle was going on, I could see flashes and hear explosions, and pieces were falling to the ground. There were these blue beams coming down from the craft, and people waked into them and were taken up into the craft. Not everyone could see the beams, I even pushed some people into them, but they were not taken, I have no real idea why this was. I saw my family, and my daughter and her family, they came up to the beam, my daughter said to me, "are you coming, old man?" This is what she calls me. We all went up, and it was a great big room, with round walls, and there were windows on the walls. There must have been 1500 people there, everyone knew each other, and we were drinking a cool, good tasting liquid, and laughing, it felt really great. Then the craft began to move, it lurched a little, and I went over to a window to look see. I saw that we were pulling away from Earth, and it was burning,and there was a lot of smoke. Just then a planetary body the size of the moon slammed into Earth, splitting it in two. there was a great explosion, and I could hear much screaming as many died at once. I was shocked at the sight of this. I wept uncontrollably. Suddenly I remembered that long ago I had seen this happen before, the world that was my home before I came here was destroyed too, but by a weapon, instead of an asteroid.

Of late that has come back to plague me, and bring me grief. I do not want to see Earth destroyed, I would gladly give up my right to live if I could change this. I love humanity with all my heart, we are a major force if we could all come together, we could, together, do anything. We could move the planet.

I know this sound like the ravings of a lunatic, but I assure you I do not do drugs, or even drink to excess, and I am not crazy, at least I do not see myself that way. Something big is coming, people, really big, and really bad, and there is not one thing we can do but HOPE. Hope springs eternal, some wise person once said.

reply to post by USMC-oorah


Sounds like an over active mind, you need to find a way to calm your mind/body down. Drugs and all other substances are not going to help that much, but depends on how you are really. When it happens it will happen, you need to find something to release your energy on and just find a pattern of sleep and stick with it. I get this sometimes and I get really cranky and pissed when I don't get my sleep, and it's annoying, but I don't really have a set pattern of sleep.

Though I try to keep it within a pattern, sometimes I will go to sleep early sometimes stay up basically all night. And it's really about releasing energy in whatever forms and recognizing things that are in your mind that you need to exercise, "to sort of say" you can try lifting weights or exercising, or read a book till you fall asleep, or just TV or internet surfing, or a hobby that you can do before sleep, or even meditating.

Really it comes down to trying to quiet your mind down, and whatever works for you to achieve that. Though since you say that even when you do hard work all day your mind still wont shut down, that could be because you get your second, or third wind going, and your body goes into a little overdrive, sometimes when you keep doing something and pushing yourself over and over be it physical work or exercising, or even mental, your body kicks it up a notch if you over do it and you will have a hard time sleeping, because it goes into overdrive.

I know I get that sometimes when I go hardcore at the gym, I'f I over do it, then when my second wind kicks in then it just keeps me up and gives me more energy then if I were to do it within a set pattern and way, and not pushing the limits, which it makes you tired enough for sleep but not enough to make your body and mind go into second wind/overdrive mode. It's something I think that comes from hunter gatherer times were you had to go for days sometimes without sleep or very little sleep in critical situation's such as life or death, your body know more then your mind tells you basically, so whatever you do don't over do it, patterns are helpful and there for a reason.

Hmmmmmm.....

she must have fallen asleep

a breathing technique used for slowing the heart similar to the box srategy below works well for me when needed and lavender essential oil on the pillow is another

The best way to help an anxiety attack is to breath. Slowing your breathing will also help your pulse get back to normal. Try a technique called "square breathing." Practice this before your next anxiety attack so that you can easily do it when you are anxious.
1. Imagine a four step by four step box that you are figuratively climbing up. As you "climb up" the four steps on the left side of the box breathe in and count to four.
2. As you "walk across" the top four steps of the box hold your breath for another count of four.
3. As you "climb down" the right side of the box breathe out to a count of four.
4. As you "walk across" the bottom of the box back to the left side, hold your breath for another count of four.
5. Repeat this a few times until it works.

Originally posted by IkNOwSTuff
Hey There,

I too suffer from mild Insomnia (its 5 am in Malaysia where I am) but so far it hasnt been too much of an issue.
For me its more about my body clock than any phsical or psychological issues.

I may have a few answers but I have a couple questions.

How old are U?
Are u male or female?
do you ever nap when its not bedtime?
How often are u physically active? do you exercise? what type?
How is your emotional state?

Ill reply as soon as I hear back from you

Hey, sorry everyone. I haven't been online long enough to make a appropriate response. I really appreciate everyones willingness to help me out. It's awesome when you know people want to help you out! I have been working on trying to calm my mind and stop thinking. What I have been doing is, simple, yet effective right now. I have been just counting until I fall asleep. I find that it makes my mind concentrate on one thing, rather then just go all over the place. It hasn't been working perfectly but, I have been thinking about getting into meditation. Truly learning how to clear my mind would be a feat for me. I have done the boozing myself to sleep and of course, that will work but, it's not healthy!

I am a male that is 21 years old. I exercise every day for one hour plus. I do body weight stuff like push ups and pull ups, along with running and plyometrics. I am also pretty active because it's the nature of my current job. The weird thing is that during the day, if I have any down time, I can sleep like a baby. Literally just hop into bed and be out in five minutes. This is going to sound way stupid, but since I was a child, the darkness has given me anxiety. I feel insecure about it. My emotional state right now is fragile. I lost my son last August and that is never easy.

reply to post by autowrench


That is a very crazy vision to have. My friend always has a dream that he is standing on the moon, with his cousin that passed away. While he is standing there, his cousin that is a child, points to the Earth. My friend looks and a huge comet hits it and the Earth is destroyed.

Smoke some herb....Hahaha in all seriiousness try and do something else like get up and read a book for a bit or watch a little t.v. and try and sleep again

reply to post by ElectricRed49


Oh believe me man, I have had my fair share. I know the ins and outs of that like my neighborhood lol. I am currently watching tv right now lol.