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over the last few weeks i have had trouble sleeping, i have tried herbal sleeping tablets and a few hot toddies and i still seem to wake up at 3am then cat nap till 5am and when i wake up i feel so tired, i have always awoke early to rise a 6am all my life, but i have felt great in the past but lately i feel exhausted, can anyone help out with a few remidies i could try, i'm open to suggestions please, thanks

Hi old tree man,
I cannot give you any solutions to your problem, but I hope you get a few answers as I have the same problem than you. It comes and goes, but I cannot say I have had a decent night sleep in probably the past 10 years. But during all this time I never had problems going to sleep, it is just that I wake up after midnight, generally around 3 and do just like you, when I don't get up and switch my pc on...

Has anything changed recently? I had trouble sleeping when they moved the street light outside my house. I bought some blackout linings for my curtains which sorted things out.

Then I started to wake up at exactly four o'clock each day and couldn't understand why. One day I woke a few minutes earlier than normal and realised that a large, noisy motorbike went past the house at that time. It's either stopped going past, or I've got used to it as it doesn't wake me any more.

My ex used to wake up at 5.30 every morning for no apparent reason. Then we realised that the hot water heater was set to come on at that time. The timer made a loud tick when it started which woke him up, he just never realised what it was that had woken him.

Are you worrying about something? Do you think about the same thing when you wake up? It may be your subconcious trying to tell you to sort something out. Try keeping a pad and pen next to the bed and writing down the first thing(s) that come into your head. Is there a pattern or a theme? If I have lots of things on my mind, I often think of things I need to do in the middle of the night, then worry that I'm going to forget. Writing them down makes sure I don't forget so I can go back to sleep.

Anyway, by the time you've read all this, you should be fast asleep.

Sweet dreams

Zoe

I've had trouble sleeping for years and years.

There is no one answer I don't think Lots of things work for others / for a short amount of time like herbal tablets, warm milk but yes, make sure your bedroom is dark, cool and airy at night.

Don't nap in the day... I know it's tempting, I fall asleep lots in the day but lately have forced myself not to because my body then gets used to being able to get it's own way and I don't get to sleep at night.

Are you particularly worried about anything? I tend to get nights where my brain just won't shut off and babbles on and on keeping me awake... I found that writing the stuff down sometimes helps me relax but unfortunately due to depression and not sleeping I am on a rather high dose of anti-depressant which also has a sleeping tablet effect so I take that at night... even so, sometimes even that doesn't work.

It might be worth having a chat to your GP if you're very worried and indeed worrying about it makes it worse.

(((Hugs and sympathy)))

I hate to sound crude but if masturbation/sex is possible i find it makes you sleep. Hope this helps.

Oh not you too southeast-isher . When I can't sleep my OH seems to think sex is the answer - it's his answer to everything ha! I'm a light sleeper and have had trouble getting to sleep in the first place, my OH is asleep in seconds and I lie there, listening to him blissfully snoring. I did have a nap in the afternoons but stopped that to see if it helps and it does but not always. I think it's too many worries keeping me awake - if only our brains had an 'off' switch!

I've just pm'd you Russ.

However, it occurred to me that I've had to send out my sleep leaflet to quite a few folks so I thought it would make sense to post it here.

All the suggestions above are spot on, lots of different things cause changes in sleep pattern and sometimes trying to work out what that is will help to resolve it - for others the problems becomes more long term and can be related to all sorts of things - and trying to untangle them all would keep you awake at night! The problem then is how to restore your sleep pattern.

Anyone having difficulty sleeping can pm me their email address and I'll send it to them.

I have some brilliant herbal tea bags called "easy night" which contain Valerian (I think that's how it is spelt). 1 is usually enough to send me off but if I'm really stressed I sometimes have 2 which is like anaesthetic!

If I wake up in the night I just get frustrated lying there and worry about things so I tend to get up and wander about for a bit. Often it helps to sit in the garden for a few mins then get back into a nice warm bed.

Hope you get a good night's sleep soon

Has anyone mentioned exercise? Get a good sweat up with some exercise during the day and you should sleep like a log at night. It'll help clear your head if it's full of mince and your muscles will look forward to relaxing.

Lots of sympathy to you, I have the same problem, I think it is very common. It has taken me twenty years or more to accept that I am just not going to sleep all night, and now I don't stress too much about it. I usually put the light on and play patience! Without meaning to be flippant, I have just had two wonderful nights sleep after having my 10year old grandson for the weekend! pbf.

Thanks everyone there are some great ideas there i'll run one by Jane i just got to try that one first scientificly you understand
thanks again

Hi Russ,
GA was kind enough to send her leaflet when I had exactly the same trouble and I can honestly say it works really well
All the best
Becks

Well what can i say last night i settled down and had a nice bath while reading my book, and an hour befor i went to bed i made some valerian tea and relaxed i drifted off and the next thing i knew it was 0700 , i did get up once that's just my age but a good nights sleep was had so thanks Maggie your help was spot on and thanks everyone i will try this again tonight.

Well I had the worst night's sleep in years. Entirely my own fault - we had a lovely evening making plans for our daughters and my new venture (tell you more about that when it's more concrete) over dinner, a few glasses of wine followed by two strong coffees (with a wee dram in each ) at about 10.30!

Not recommended - at 2.30 this morning, still wide awake I got up read my book and had a sandwich OH, of course, woke me up as normal this morning so I'm firing on fewer cylinders this morning (and they're few and far between to start with )

Glad the leaflet helped becks

Ide love it to Maggie :-) - the booklet i mean