hard to sleep
Posted by ampallang on Feb 04, 2010 · Member since Dec 2008 · 141 posts
Hi all
Im having a lot of trouble sleeping, im not doing so much.. so i wake up late around 12 and go to sleep betweeen 2 and 3 am.
Its snowing so exercise is little and all i have to help me sleep is camomile tea. I dont have very much money so i can pay to go to a gym but any suggestions would be great! It getting to my boyfriend, i keep waking him up!
Steph
I have the same problem.. it's 7 am and I'm still awake.. from yesterday. I take pills but I have a super high tolerance to everything. I have some lavender oil. I spray it on my bed. It's relaxing, but doesn't make me sleep.
Have you tried L-Typtophan? It is an essential amino acid that is typically missing from veg*n diets. It's the reason people get sleepy after eating turkey at Thanksgiving dinner.
I am a chronic insomniac. I need to take drugs to sleep but I always take L-Tryptophan too. Also if you can do some cardio indoors somehow, that will help immensely.
I just looked it up http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L-Tryptophan
i eat cooked soya things, lots of seeds and nuts.. so im not sure if i dont eat enough.
Hmmm... living in this old apartment.. jumping and what not is not so good... but i plan on biking a little more since there is less ice on the roads... walking too.. so maybe it will all be okay.. i generally ride around 10 kms a day.. but now im not really riding at all.
trying not to have much sugar, that is pretty easy... but i am not drinking alcohol... that helps my sleep but terrible to depend on.
I'm having some messed up sleeping patterns myself. I think it may be a symptom of this time of year and not having much to do. On the days I do fall asleep before midnight I wake up between 1 and 3 a.m. and am unable to fall back asleep until about 7 in the morning. Sometimes I force myself awake before 10 a.m. and make myself stay up until 11 p.m., but the cycle only repeats itself. If I let myself sleep as much as I can I sleep until 3 p.m. i the afternoon, which means I can't fall asleep until late the next night.
I need to figure out a way to let some natural sunlight into my apartment without letting in all the cold air, that might help regulate my inner clock. I've tried sleepy time tea as well to no avail. My sleep is usually pretty screwy, but not this bad. Are you under a lot of stress, ampallang? For me high stress = bad sleep. Working out helps some.
no stress, i dont do anything stressful... bored... just bored...
I put instructions to make an Herbal Pillow on VW, with rose petals and hops. You could try that.
http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=30835.0
Have you tried melatonin supplements? They can help too, temporarily.
I too am having trouble dropping off before 2 AM. In my case, I think it's hormonal changes due to age and menopause. But contrary to when I was breaking my addiction to OTC sleeping pills, I am comfortable lying there listening to audiobooks. Before I couldn't lie still and if I got up I felt like death and couldn't do anything.
Exercise, fresh air, daylight...all important, as SM says. As well as staying off the computer and turning off the TV about 2 hrs before bed. The flickering screen stimulates the brain...you don't see the flicker but your brain percieves it.
I have been waking up in the wee hours for no apparent reason, too. I have an iPod next to by bed with soothing classical/instrumental music and some easy read novels or magazines. It helps to do an activity that distract me from my countless thoughts. This usually gets me tired again and I fall back to sleep.
I took melatonin.. Did jack! But with my medication tolerance, it's not surprising. I didn't sleep at all the night before last. Amazingly, since I stayed up until 11 or 12 last night, I slept a full night! Woot!
I took melatonin.. Did jack! But with my medication tolerance, it's not surprising. I didn't sleep at all the night before last. Amazingly, since I stayed up until 11 or 12 last night, I slept a full night! Woot!
I tried melatonin and it didn't work for me either though i take OTC sleeping pills every night and they knock me out... one day i hope to stop taking them... but i want to sleep :(
hmm i used to use bach sleep herbal remedy.. .it was great. but i cant get it in denmark..
Im sure its mostly because im not doing much right now.. i think too much at night... my ezcema is giving me problems... so i just need to calm down. I actually got my sleeping pattern stable with accupunture, but its too expensive here.
But i used to work 3 jobs, go to uni and volunteer.. but keeping busy helped me. I hope to travel again soon and that always makes me tired.
I dont do medicine because i know it will just fuck me up, as you have all made clear statements that it does.
Its good to listen to music before you sleep.. that always helped.. but we live too close to a street light and i love sleeping in the dark.. complete darkness...
Ill try and keep off the computer about 30 minutes before i sleep, i dont have a tv.. so thats not a problem..
I guess ive been using the computer more too because we are not goin out as much... the winter blues haha
Last night or rather this AM I gave myself severe giggles. I was listening to an audiobook from Librivox of a book I had loved as a child...and I got so interested (haven't read it for about 30 years at least) that it was about 2.30 before I shut the stupid thing off and even tried to sleep! :)>>>
Silly yabbit! I do that with books, get too excited about what I'm reading and can't fall asleep until my eyes literally won't stay open any more and the words get all blurry :) I haven't read a book that good in a while.
Last night i turned off the computer and was laying in bed with the lights on for about 30 minutes or so and then turned the lights off. I felt much more relaxed. I think i slept better.
Im also not playing a computer game so much.. this helps.
Yeah, those darn computer games are addicting!
You may have tried all the things mentioned here http://www.womenrepublic.co.uk/health/sleep/ but it identifies the main reasons for sleep problems. I tried just about every technique i read about but to no avail. As a bit of a couch potato, I opted to try the exercise solution last.. and what do you know - a little light workout in the afternoon made me sleep like a baby every night
ive been sleeping better, less snow, more riding my bike :)
since i dont drink coffee or black tea, i eat mostly raw chocolate or raw cocoa in rice or almond milk.
Ive been riding 12 kms a few days and its nice. But still i have a hard time sleeping, just because im not doing as much. but also i will try and start reading books before i sleep.
I used to use recue remedy the sleep ease one, but i cant get it in denmark... I think too much when i am about to sleep.
I have recently discovered (on my own) that I had a magnesium deficiency and within just a month of supplementing my menstrual cramps disappeared, my digestion improved and I started sleeping better! It's crazy what a magnesium deficiency can do to your body, and apparently most people are deficient. Can't hurt to try a magnesium supplement.
Valerian has really helped me start getting to sleep. For a long while, I kept going to bed incredibly stressed, which was obviously impacting on my sleep routine. Valerian tea worked wonders (and I do take lavendar baths/showers before bedtime too). Perhaps this could help.
I've also started cutting out alcohol and coffee from lunchtime onwards, thinking this could also help me. Verdict's still out on that one though.
I heard that exposure to sunlight helps with sleeping ? Sometimes with the light-bulbs turn on on in my room i tend to feel sleepy and doze off.