I am sure it has been posted before, but how do you deal with lying in bed all night till the birds start chirping?
What do you do? Think, read, watch Netflix, play games?
I do not like sucuumbing to having to take a sleeping pill, but the next day I am shattered if I have had no sleep.

Just me, the moon, the stars and night crawlers....

I’ve suffered with insomnia for over 35 yrs but can’t offer any advice.....only empathy.

I’ve tried hypnotherapy, acupuncture, natural herbal remedies, meditation and a lot more with no success. I get by on what sleep I get but there are times when I do feel exhausted.

I have no problem getting to sleep but staying asleep is difficult.

Sorry to hear that I have just taken a sleeping pill. I need sleep ((sigh)).

Needs must. Sleep well

meditation. it really helps. cleaeing my mind from all the tension.

Perhaps try 1 of those jazz cigarettes, apparently they occasionally come in cake form, at least that's what Absolem the Caterpillar tells me, mind you apparently I'm the wrong Alice, so who really knows. Barring that, perhaps a brandy, a bath, and if single, a battery, cough, operated device

Back in the day...
A healthy dose of bourbon would help.

I have had to deal with it for a number of years now. The mind and thoughts simply will not turn off. Relaxing the body part by part helps a lot. Go back over and any remaining tension let go. I realize this is not enough for most people but it gets you a significant part of the way there

As for drugs, sometimes its needed but look for something natural without side effects. Melatonin works for many people. Try a very small dose at first like 1/2 mg or even less. If that works keep taking it when needed, you might not need it every night

CBD helps, also CBN, those are both derived from marijuana but are legal in usa and most countries. CBD is relaxing, good for health and helps sleep. Its a little expensive though I've found places that are cheaper. CBN is harder to find, some full spectrum cbd contains enough cbn to do the job. Both used together help

MJ itself helps a lot, especially if baked into an edible. This is legal in many states if you have a medical condition, some states anyone can get it. Its legal here and I use it every 3 days. It does the job but my tolerance is going up.

There are other things which are mild but might work for you. Oliamide, california poppy, theanine, and others. Prescription stuff that works but is dangerous include benzos, zolpidem, and others but they are addictive and often stop working and have side effects. There are many other things too

I dealt with it a lot too over the years, but haven’t suffered from it at all since I got away from wi-fi. Try turning it off at night, and make your sleeping area as free of RF (radio frequencies) and EMF (electromagnetic frequencies) as you can.

Also, watch your lighting. You don’t want much of the blue side of the spectrum in the evening because this mis-signals the brain to produce serotonin at a time when you need to be making melatonin, and thus throws off you circadian rhythm. So if you have to do screen time in the evening, get yourself a pair of blue-blocking glasses, because it is the eyes that signal the brain what hormones it should produce. (Don’t forget about your other lights in the house: fluorescent and LED are both blue dominant.)

1 hour stay away from tv, mobile phone & any digital devices before you sleep. You can do some meditation or just play some calm and relaxing music, clear your mind and put some lavender oil on your pillow, it might help...

The lavender oil is excellent in a hot bath. A few drops of lavender for relaxation and a few drops of eucalyptus oil to help the muscles relax. Plus a drop or two of the lavender oil on the temples is good as well.

Yes, it has been posted before but no worries.

There are sleep study websites which offer different solutions to insomnia.
Gotta try to realize insomnia is not a defining term of a single condition.
There are different reasons for insomnia.

To find your solution, you need to determine why you experience the insomnia you experience. It can be anything from emotional to mental to physical or environmental.

Stress is a major factor to inability to sleep. Stress doesn't necessarily mean jittery. Worry is a non-productive thought process. Worry and stress can disguise itself in other things like job performance, relationships and health. An example is insomnia over an impending test or upcoming presentation.

Believe it or not, environment is a major factor in proper sleep. To sleep well, you need to be in a place conducive to sleeping. Sounds simple, eh?
Believe it or not, most people's bedrooms are not conducive to sleeping.

The different websites dealing with insomnia go into details on environments.

Another significant factor in sleep problems is the physical body.
If you are ill or in pain, what you eat or drink and when, how tired your body is and how relaxed it can be all have affect on your ability to relax and fall into sleep.
Medicines you may be taking may also cause insomnia. I get that from time to time. Sleeping pills also become ineffective and require higher and higher doses as you continue their use. This is because you build up tolerance to those types of drugs.

If you have no need to rise in the morning, the best way to beat insomnia is to only go to bed when you are tired. Your body may not want to cooperate with your mind's schedule. I recently read a healthy human body requires at least 6 hours of sleep per 24 hour period. During sleep your body goes thru different phases of sleep of which REM is only one part.

I like to think of REM as the sleep which defragments our thoughts. It puts our memories away. The rapid eye movement is our brains moving memories.
Deep sleep is something different. REM does not occur in deep sleep because that sleep is meant to rejuvenate the rest of our bodies. It allows healing to take place and resets our muscles to 'relaxed' position.

If we can't relax or can't stop thinking, we can't sleep.
Substituting thinking with television or radio may not work because it keeps our brains active in the foreground.
Exercising, eating and drinking cause our bodies to work to deal with those physical processes. This is why stretching is important before bedtime.
This is why TV and radio in the bedroom are no-nos.

People often sleep with their eyes open a slit. This is why some people must have it as dark as possible in the room where they sleep. Our ears do not have flaps which close so noise is always a factor. Some people use what is called white noise when they sleep. White noise is a concentration fixation which becomes so constant it is easily ignored.

Physical fatigue is a symptom of physical sleep deprivation.
Mental fatigue is a symptom of REM sleep deprivation.

You can feel mentally sharp yet physically drained and vice-versa.
Noting the frequency of each over a period of time can tell you which part of the sleep process is being interrupted.

As I said earlier, there are many websites which deal with beating insomnia.
Here are a few:

http://www.nhs.uk/live-well/sleep-and-tiredness/10-tips-to-beat-insomnia/

http://www.pennmedicine.org/updates/blogs/health-and-wellness/2020/january/how-to-conquer-insomnia

http://www.sleepfoundation.org/insomnia/treatment

http://www.webmd.com/women/guide/insomnia-tips

All have common denominators. Focus on the commonalities and examine your habits to determine what works best for you.
Good luck!

Note: Everyone has insomnia from time to time. If it is happening enough for you to be concerned about it, its a problem.

Limit caffine early in the day and none after 9 a.m

Watch for foods with hidden caffine such as chocolates

Caffine free does not necessarily mean no caffine, just means it has 3% caffine or less. Some caffime free products have more caffine then caffinated products

Take up excercise such as yoga, power walking, or even weight lifting but do it earlier in the day as excercise can amp you up

Notlooking, Its been a few months, how are your sleeping habits developing?
Are you making progress? What seems to work best for you?

Sleeping pills Tom. Nothing else works...
And all last week I helped a friend in nocturnal hours by chatting by the sea... It ruined my sleeping patterns, silly me.

Usually it means your brain doesn't produce (enough) melatonine.
Not sure what exactly you do at night. It is helpful to chill at night before bed. That includes not being too active on the internet.
Use blue filters in the evening on any screen as the blue light will keep you awake.
Specific music can help, water sounds, nature sounds.
You can try any of these clips by Motivational Doc to see if they work:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=motivational+doc+insomnia

You can find more from other people too on YouTube, like this Chinese man who does Chinese medicine. I'm implementing some of his stuff for myself, it works.
You have to switch on subtitles as the narrator speaks Russian.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUrti9TU-no&ab_channel=ZhenGongfu

YouTube search 'insomnia' to find more stuff. I guess it may be trial and error.
Technically you should be able to restore the balance of the brain hormones but it depends on what you do to achieve that.

If all else fails then yeah... melatonine pill.

PS none of these things I posted -or any alternative way- will work right away. You have to give it time as it takes time for your body to shift out of its current state of being.

I take Melatonin (over the counter) and it helps.
I also take a range of vitamin supplements according to my blood tests and the doctor's suggestion.
I have sleepers for 'those nights' but I try not to take them because they get habit forming and less effective over time. I also keep a bottle of cherry Nyquil in the cabinet for when I must get sleep. (I have terrible sinus pressure issues)

I'm now averaging 5 - 6 hours of sleep a night but I am inactive during the day so I need less energy. I can also nap whenever I need.
Pain is what usually wakes me.

SparklingCrystal is right - it takes time to change habits and sometimes it can be pretty difficult. When I was working I did shift changes fairly frequently - seemed like I was always tired at first but after the new sleeping pattern took hold I was fine.

Yes, it takes time, also for alternative things like Chinese medicine using pressure points and meridians etc to take effect. Many then give up after a few attempts, but you have to persevere. Often you DO feel something right away.
It depends on the cause as well, like my tinnitus. Not found anything that helps with that yet but not giving up hope :)

Also, stress is a biotch and can also keep you awake at night. ANd you can think you don't have stress but as good as every westerner has stress and produces too much stress hormones, non-stop.
Any organism can handle stress short term, problem is with us it's constant, a way of living and it has become so normal you often don't even notice anymore.
This is why meditating can help big time.
Or focusing on feeling gratitude for 10 mins, 3x a day. This will begin to shift your body out of stress and into healthier state and can also help sleep patterns and sleep / wake hormone release.
But again, that doesn't happen with a few attempts. So if you want a natural change and cure you have to stick with it.

You can also go see a Chinese medicine / herb healer. This often can cure a helluva lot that medical world has no solution for. Well, sleeping pills but that ain't a cure.

Play light orchestra music all night. It works for me.