How to shut my brain off so i can sleep properly?

Originally posted by Hopefromabove
Your sounding like those commercials that name every symptom till they get one lol

"-shaky feelings inside your body === only when i orgasm
-lack of concentration ==== only bored at work
-tiredness in the day (when you shouldnt be tired) === Sure since i can never sleep
-feelings of dread/anticipating the worst === This is ATS we all have feelings of dread and impending doom lol
-restlessness ===== Does this go with #3 lol?
-feel tense or jumpy ===== If sombody pops out of a closet"

just trying to help mate.. i only ask those things because i have a fair amount of experience and knowledge in the mental health sector.. you clearly have some sort of disorder, (from what i read in your op) its just a case of determining what it is and how to solve it.
alot of people are embarrassed at initially being told they could have a mental disorder of some kind (which soundls alot worse than it is), and alot of denial or jokes tend to follow..
it is nothing to be embarrassed about and completely normal.. most people on the planet have some kind of mental disorder.. can range from mild ocd to full blown schizophrenia..

anyway you should see a doctor if you cant sleep.. ive already said to much here..

I have noticed that when this happens to me on much rarer ocassions as I see here, I am going through some anxiety type situation. Like having a crazy man threatening my family or having to do something in front of a large crowd. My experience with those times was to find a way to quit thinking about whatever it is by praying about people that needed prayer, including myself. I am sure it knows no religious bounds either, meditation for those. I am sure we all have things on our minds that need resolving and that seems like a way for our biological units to solve our problems. I hope those of you who have this problem as their daily hell, find the relief you need.

reply to post by Hopefromabove


A glass of warm milk just before bed helps sometimes...

Though the best solution i have is meditation. This helps to silence the mind... I've had trouble with sleep all my life... Its not that i don't like sleep, i love it. I just hate going to bed, which usually leaves me over tired. Then i flip from side to side like a fish out of water.

Teach yourself to silence your mind. It works...

reluctant-messenger.com...

This isn't the best link for teaching it, but i assume some people here might have the internet

Learn meditation, practice it...

As usual, the solution lies within

Originally posted by Swizzy
reply to post by Hopefromabove

 

Real anxiety is nothing to joke about. I've suffered from it for over a decade. Thanks for making fun of it. That really really really helps.

i know how you feel swizzy.. its not a joke or laughing matter, its a real hard condition.. but to be fair to the op, sometimes when people are told something they dont want to hear, they sometimes make jokes about it.. its just a form of denial.. im sure he didnt mean to insensitive..

Stop drinking tea or coffee or anything else that has caffeine.

Originally posted by Misterlondon

Originally posted by Swizzy
reply to post by Hopefromabove

 

Real anxiety is nothing to joke about. I've suffered from it for over a decade. Thanks for making fun of it. That really really really helps.

i know how you feel swizzy.. its not a joke or laughing matter, its a real hard condition.. but to be fair to the op, sometimes when people are told something they dont want to hear, they sometimes make jokes about it.. its just a form of denial.. im sure he didnt mean to insensitive..

edit on 7/10/11 by Misterlondon because: (no reason given)

I appreciate your efforts i do and didnt mean to mock you at all. Ive already openly admit i had social anxiety disorder as a child and if i thought that anxiety was the problem i would agree now and be very open to it.

Qualified Clinical Aromatherapist here.....Try Dr.Bach Flower Remedy of White Chestnut. Brilliant....It switches repetitive thoughts going round and round in your head, you know like a song that keeps playing and annoys the heck out of you?! I use it when the need arrises if I can't get to sleep because my brain keeps going over the same stuff. Also excellent for those nightmares that wake us up, but can't seem to get back to sleep as every time you close your eyes, there's that visual again....excellent for kids who have had a bad dream. Good for ither stuff too. I recomend it to my clients when they have this.
Rainbows
Jane

reply to post by Hopefromabove


It sounds as if you have too many calories or foreign substances in your blood stream for your physical needs.

When you lay down, since the body cannot use them for physical purposes they only flood the brain with energy.

The same reason why our parents found that high dosages of sugar before bed contributed to bad dreams/nightmares.

DO you exercise at all ?

Exercise is the quickest way to burn off those excess calories from coursing thru your body and subsequently raising your metabolism preventing you from going to sleep.

Even crunches and/or situps in the evening instead of TV will help burn off those calories and allowing the body to normalize and relax.

reply to post by Hopefromabove

I appreciate your efforts i do and didnt mean to mock you at all. Ive already openly admit i had social anxiety disorder as a child and if i thought that anxiety was the problem i would agree now and be very open to it.

being unable to sleep is a hard thing to deal with, im sure most people here have experienced it at some stage in their life (even if only for 1 night)..

do some research online and see if you can find some self help exercises that suit you.. nlp techniques generally work quite well and as already suggested meditation can help alot.. personally i would try and avoid any sort of medication/drugs at first.. only resorting to that should everything else fail..

good luck mate.. i hope you find a solution..

Mate, I suffer of same thing. No teas or natures sleepystuff helps, Ive tried everything..so far only good old sleeping pills seems to help. And Im serious about those natures products..have tried and even with high overdoses.
Nothing else than pills doesnt help and I refuse to eat pills all the time! So, I suffer..

reply to post by Hopefromabove


I used to have the same problem, no quiet in my head at all, couldn't even begin to fall asleep, but I found an interesting mental exercise that helps a lot you might consider trying. When I start getting all of those crazy thoughts in my head, I do the opposite of what you would expect; I listen to them. All of them. I just let them run through my head and examine them as they pass through, but don't dwell on them, kinda like watching a conveyor belt at a junkyard. I just kinda pick things up every few seconds and throw them back in. At first, it's a rather weird sensation as you have a LOT more thoughts going through your head at once than you probably think about ever, but it's oddly soothing when the roar of your mind gently rocks you into sleep. If you can keep yourself calm and allow your body to relax while simply letting the thoughts run wild, you'll find sleep isn't as far away as you think. As I stated at first, this is not a be all end all insomnia solution, only something that happens to work for me. I hope you find this helpful.

Unless you get falling down drunk, don't drink alcohol shortly before bedtime.. Drink a little alcohol and your body starts to counteract it with stimulants. You end up hyper instead of relaxed.

Exercise. Do something like take a walk or do some kind of exercises just before bedtime. Exercise gets rid of all kinds of stress. A little physical tiredness (not mental fatigue) goes a long way towards relaxing.

Melatonin does help. Kava Kava can help but may be illegal these days. Meditation can help too.

Electronic music or any kind of music with a strong repetative beat, at first distracts you from all your thoughts and then can bore your brain to sleep. lol

If the crazy motion in your avatar is any indication of your agitated state; then I understand your problem. Maybe u should find ways to slow down throughout your day. Learn to pace yourself and meditate to help figure out whats worth worrying about and what isn't.

It is possible to slow down on purpose. I have. It does take a little practice tho.

Do you drink tea or coffee? If so I really recommend you cut it out.

I love my sleep but this year I've been having problems - waking up in the middle of the night and tossing and turning till daylight.

I'm a tea drinker and normally have a cup around 7- 7.30pm. One night last week I was thirsty so I took a cup of tea to bed with me and ended up awake the whole night with thoughts zipping through my head non-stop. It was a flippin nightmare.

There's nothing worse than wanting/needing a sleep then you can't do it. I'm starting to think they're adding extra caffeine to tea. I have a cup in the morning now but nothing with caffeine after midday. It hasn't solved the sleep prob yet but I think it's getting better.

reply to post by ShadowMonk


Right on! I agree with you 100%

"Attending" to the thoughts and to the fact that you are thinking, is in fact a form of meditation. Watching or listening to them kind of matter-of-factly; without fretting ends up being a soothing thing in the end.

One of the tell tale signs that sleep is near is when you start to visualize your thoughts instead of just thinking them. Your body's own naturally produced '___' starts the mild version of hallucinating. I have learned to attend to this phenomenon and tell myself, "OK. sleep is near"; and usually it really is.

The occasional bout of sleeplessness is normal and not to be worried about, it should not be happening every night. Doing whatever works for you is important as good sleep is very good for our health.

unplug all of your electronics, your likely being hit with electromagnetic frequencies.

look up S.S.S.S

silent spread sound spectrum.

Currently, I listen to a dramatic reading of Jane Austin's book, Mansfield Park.
You can download the MP3 files free at librevox.
Mansfield Park
I have my player connected to a set of computer speakers, and set them on a table close to my bed.

reply to post by Hopefromabove


Once you fall asleep, do you have a problem staying asleep, or is it just the falling asleep part that is the problem?

I had the same problem for years; the falling asleep part. The more I thought about the fact that I couldn't fall asleep, the more anxious I would get. I would go days without sleep; eventually having to get drunk so I could pass out. Acknowledging to myself that something wasn't right, I finally went to the Dr. and was diagnosed with sleep anxiety.

Anyhow, The Dr. put me on a combination of Sonata & Klonopin. FINALLY, I was able to get some sleep. I was on that stuff for about 6 months; gradually weening myself off of it. I can now say that I have no problem falling asleep and have also discovered that I function perfectly with just 5 to 6 hours of sleep per night.

Seriously, go see a doctor for this. Sleep disorders can lead to much worse health problems....even death.

reply to post by ShadowMonk


very nice shadowmonk.... be the silence watching the thoughts

reply to post by Hopefromabove


Try one of these. Works great for me. I had the same problem.

mobile.walmart.com...

Here's one you can try. (you don't need to register to play the samples)
I will link to a good one on a site I use, to get sound affects.
Sounds great if you have a good speaker system with a sub-woofer.
thunder storm
You need to register your email in order to download but you get really great free audio files , which people submit and share. There are some seashore recordings that are very long. You could edit a track to play on an MP3 player.