Can't Sleep

Sheseeksstrength

Hi,
Recently I have not been able to sleep well, I am sleeping maybe 3-4 hours per night. I wake up around 3 am and then am unable to fall back asleep?
I need some natural ways to fall asleep and stay asleep. Any suggestions?

Orphia

My sympathies.

What do you mean by "natural ways to fall asleep"?

Are you eating enough?

Sheseeksstrength

Yes, I am eating enough. I eat around 2000 calories per day. 5'3" and 130 lbs.

Lostcoastline

Sorry you are having trouble sleeping. I take melatonin. Have you looked in to that?

tinascar2015

Melatonin is very good. I second that suggestion. Always follow the label dosing directions because a low dose works just fine.

A little quiet and meditation in the evening helps too. Watching TV, especially Game of Thrones -- always keeps me awake.

TimothyFish

Try watching golf.

livingleanlivingclean

Magnesium may help

lthames0810

I'm plagued by insomnia too, but in my case it's falling asleep in the first place that's the usual problem. In so far as I know, the usual remedies that help people fall asleep may not be the thing for staying asleep. Dehydration is sometimes blamed for waking up in the middle of the night, especially if you have had alcohol in the hours before bedtime.

If I wake up in the night, my mind will go into high gear worrying about all sorts of stupid things that don't bother me in the least when I'm awake. This happens when I first try to fall asleep as well. I get so agitated that I just have to get up and distract myself by reading until I'm sleepy.

Currently I'm using melatonin to help me get sleepy enought to fall asleep when I need to. It works maybe half the time. It doesn't help me for waking up in the night.

lthames0810

TimothyFish wrote: »

Try watching golf.

Hah! That's the truth. Also, bicycle races. I'm a huge fan of professional cycling, but even I can nod off in the boring middle parts of the races.

ThomasPM

I hate to say this but I had the same issue only 4 -5 5 hrs a night for years. On my last physical I told this to my Doctor and he prescribed me sleeping pills to be exact they are 10mg Zolpidem Tartrate.... They do the job last night I got home from work around 12:30 a.m. took 1 while I was getting ready for bed and in minutes I was out cold woke up this morning at 8:30 very well rested and ready to head for the gym once I finish my breakfast.

Sheseeksstrength

Thanks for all the suggestions. I do have melatonin and the dosage I bough is one pill for 5mg. But, I am just scared to take it because I don't want my body to become dependent on it.

kattypuss01

Melatonin is in bananas if that's any help for natural way of getting it.

macgurlnet

Sheseeksstrength wrote: »

Thanks for all the suggestions. I do have melatonin and the dosage I bough is one pill for 5mg. But, I am just scared to take it because I don't want my body to become dependent on it.

Melatonin isn't supposed to be something you become dependent on but your body will get used to taking it and its effectiveness will go down. Often it's recommended to take it for no more than 2 weeks at a time, then a week off, then back on if needed.

I take valerian root if I have trouble sleeping & it works great. Sleeping aids like OTC pills leave me lethargic and groggy. The valerian root does not

It would be also worth looking at what you've been eating and other things in your life to see if something may be disrupting your sleep.

~Lyssa

Sheseeksstrength

Thank for the advice!

tequila5000

Perhaps some exercise might help? I have had episodes of insomnia, similar to what you describe (no problem falling asleep, but then I would wake up and stay awake), and it got better when I exercised. If I was particularly stressed or anxious, vigorous exercise was best, but often, a light stroll right before or after dinner would do the trick. Probably not the greatest idea to exercise too close to bedtime, though.

Katiebear_81

Personally, I don't take melatonin (but have the same issues as you). There's something that rubs me the wrong way about it. I read a bunch of information that made me not fully trust it, but now can't find it... So a lot of good that does!

However, I have decided to try L-tryptophan instead. It's an amino acid (as opposed to a hormone, which is what melatonin is), and is the precurser to building your own melantonin and serotonin. It's not without it's own risks, and can't be taken with SSRI's or MAO's (anti-depressants). You should talk to your doctor about trying it, if you think it might help.

I did a few other things, too. I found that if I had one night of early waking, I would stay up late the next night, and then I would usually sleep through the night. I also found that it is worse during/near my period. I have done hypnosis on my phone, or guided meditation to help get me back to sleep. But most of all, I just tried not to think about it, or stress about how much sleep I was going to get. I would wake up, tell myself that it didn't matter if I was awake and that I could have a red bull tomorrow if I needed it. Then I'd roll over, put on my guided meditation, and drift back off to sleep. Playing on my phone was the opposite of helpful, and I didn't want to get into the habit of going to lay down on the couch to read a book. Sometimes, if my man didn't have to get up early, he wouldn't mind if I put NASCAR or F1 on the tv (I always fall asleep during racing), and that helped too.

I hope that some of this helps!