Fellow insomniacs...

I tell myself that daily exercise helps sleep and try to keep on top of it that way. If I'm too tired to do anything else then I can at least take a walk and get off my butt, get some fresh air.

One word: Ambien!

But when I wasn't taking it, I tried to force myself on a schedule. I would work out twice a day to physically exhaust my body so I would have no choice but to sleep. It actually worked for me, and once I was sticking to my "schedule," I calmed down on the workouts. Granted, this isn't going to work for everyone. And on the days that I was just so exhausted/crashed, I slept. Because that's what my body needed the most at that point in time.

Best of luck to you!

Mostly, I don't, but some nights when I get out of work I'm too restless and power through my workouts. Of course, then I can't sleep for another five hours.

My Doctor told me to take Melatonin and I must say it works like a charm....It is not a sleeping pill--it is somethign your body makes naturally, just some folks body doesn't make enough....you might still wake up but the quaility of your sleep will be so much better.
You can get it anywhere from 1Mg up to 10Mg....I started out with 3 and I have found that 4 MG work best for me....I like to go to bed about 11PM so I take it about 7. After a few days you will notice a 100% difference

Melatonin ... been using it for going on 23 years. I suggest you buy the smallest dosage you can find, you an always take more. If you take too much, you'll get the opposite effect desired.

I take it about 20 minutes before bedtime.

Melatonin is a natural brain hormone that is produced. As a child, your brain produced more, as we get older, we produce less. The effect is NOT like a sleeping pill. Ever go camping, and at 9pm you are tired and ready to sleep. That's because the light dimmed gradually (at sunset) and your brain did what it was programmed to do. Release Melatonin into your blood system, and put you to sleep. Today we have lights, and some of us stay up past dusk, flip a light switch and go to bed; and then are surprised when we can't sleep.

Melatonin is a SUPPLEMENT that aids. Think of a rainy day, a nice relaxing weekend. Ever notice how you can easily take a nap when it's a dark, gloomy and rainy day? That's Melatonin doing it's thing. Taking this before bedtime induces a feeling exactly like a rainy weekend afternoon. You want to sleep - but, if something comes up and you need to be awake - unlike a sleeping pill, you can fight it and do what needs to be done.

I love this stuff, and I rarely have insomnia since I started taking it over 20 years ago.

how do you gather up enough energy to exercise on especially rough nights/weeks?

I'm a crasher...I'll be doing good...I mean I NEVER sleep well, BUT I will have periods of time when I can still function and find the energy, etc...and then it's like all of the lack of sleep adds together and then I crash and all I want to do is sleep. I have to sleep for like a whole wkend to get caught back up. It's so dumb really.

Anyway...what's bad is during my crash periods...not only am I super exhausted, but I also just want to munch a lot because I feel unsatisfied...because my body is worn out. UGH!


How do YOU fight through it and stay on track?

Insomnia is a serious medical condition, and it has serious consequences for health and weight loss. You should talk to your doctor about a referral to a sleep clinic to find the cause of your insomnia. Some are easily treated, though others are not. I have alpha intrusion, which, unfortunately, isn't so easily treated. It's resulted in central pain syndrome and fibromyalgia--in fact, most FMS researchers beiliev ir might be "the" cause of FMS. SO see your doctor about a referral to a sleep clinic. It can help a lot.

There are some things you can do to improve your sleep yourself. You should go to bed at roughly the same time every night and get up at roughly the same time every morning, weekends and days off included, no matter how little sleep you've had. If you get kept up late, you still get up at your usual time. This is probably the #1 suggestion of every sleep expert. Sleep in a cool but comfortable room. Have a "going to bed" routine that you follow every night. If you're not asleep, get out of bed. If you're awake more than twenty minutes get up and do something boring, like reading a boring book until you're tired again, the go back to bed. If you aren't asleep in 20 minutes, get back up and repeat. (This is probably the #2 advice of sleep experts.) Don't do things that are stimulating, and avoid backlit screen like your computer or TV because it can trigger your body's "wake up" mechanisms--in fact, avoid backlit screens within 30 minutes of bedtime if possible. Make sure you have a comfortable bed and comfortable pillows.

These things are HARD, I know, I do them. Especially getting up early on Saturdays. I also wear a brainwave monitor to assess how well I'm sleeping. I'm also medicated for sleep, but these things have made a huge difference in how exhausted I feel during the day.

I don't know..I just do it...but...I also function pretty well on 4-5 hours of sleep surprisingly...

I did have to change my workout time from 6:45am to lunch time workouts tho...just couldn't wake up earlier than 6am! It's not until 7am that I hit my 4-5 hours!

The Mayo Clinic says "Although some people claim to feel rested on just a few hours of sleep a night, research shows that people who sleep so little over many nights don't perform as well on complex mental tasks as do people who get closer to seven hours of sleep a night. Additionally, studies among adults show that getting much more or less than seven hours of sleep a night is associated with a higher mortality rate." Is there a reason you can't get to bed before 2 or 3 am? 4-5 hours of sleep is really bad for you, no matter how well you believe you function.