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Insomnia

Its tiring.

I get it often, typically go to bed, fall straight asleep. Wake up about an hour later and thats me for at least four hours.

I have not discovered a cure yet, its kind of strange, when you do eventually go back off, it can be a weird sensation, not unpleasant actually kind of a zombified state.


The obvious candidates apply, don't drink, to much rich food etc. But hey what you gonna do.
 
Read a good book(s). I used to have sleepless nights many years ago and found it was usually because I had something on my mind that was bothering me. By reading a good book, I could submerse myself in the story and I'd read until I couldn't read anymore and then book down, light out and asleep within minutes.

Apparently TV's and iPads etc. don't help as 'blue light' stimulates the brain and will keep you awake so I'm sure there was some advice to not use these devices an hour to so before trying to nod off.

A friend listens to stuff on headphones to help him sleep.....not necessarily music though. Sometimes a droning voice in the background from a news broadcast, political show, talk show etc. can help. Politicians are particularly good at this.....buy a politician and install it in your bedroom ;)
 
Play some Phil Collins. Alternatively watch the Hobbit movies in sequence.
 
Seems like a very high percentage of us aging males have some form of insomnia. I have no trouble falling asleep, but staying asleep is a challenge. I seem to enter deep REM far too quickly. I fall asleep, have seemingly long, complex dreams, and then wake up to find out that only an hour or two has passed. Takes me a while to fall back asleep, then it's rinse and repeat.

Asked my doc about sleeping pills. Besides being physically addictive, she said that they only help people to fall asleep, not stay asleep. I'm going to make an appointment with a sleep disorder specialist. Am tired of waking up feeling tired!
 
I find the over-the-counter Nytol (not the herbal thing off the shelf) helps me both fall asleep and stay asleep. I rarely take it, but it's worth a go. Boots do their own version, Sleepeeze I think. 100ml of water, take the tablet around 20 mins before beddy byes, and Bob's your live-in lover.
Also, with Nytol, if I wake needing to squeeze the weasel, I easily go back to sleep again.
 
Personally, I don't like the idea of pharmaceutical solutions..... there have been suggested associations and/or increased risks of contracting Alzheimer's with sleeping pills (amongst other prescription drugs) and nearly every drug no matter what it's for seems to have side effects....some minor and some associations with other ailments quite concerning.

Don't get me wrong, if my life depended on it, I'd take whatever was necessary but for anything other than life threatening/continued life management, I'm inclined to look for non chemical/pharmaceutical solutions for day to day stuff.
 
I don’t know if it’s strictly insomnia, but as I get older I find my sleep patterns increasingly follow the sun.

In the summer, like now, I don’t sleep much before midnight and I’m wide awake again by four or five o’clock in the morning. I wouldn’t mind except I’m often sleepy in the afternoon and need a siesta.

Come the winter I won't be waking much before eight o'clock.
 
Gary,

I had your problem (waking up for 3-4 hours every night, then fall asleep again at 5:30 only to wake up totally knocked down an hour later) for many years and it is now more or less solved. There were two causes:

- Stress induced be a person I was in regular contact with. Strangely it took me some time to admit it, then I did a few things that had to be done and both of us feel a lot better now.

- Sleep apnoea. I have had this for decades, but my new GF happens to have a fairly thin sleep so one day she had enough of my 100 dB snoring and near-death-asphyxiation (35 times per hour, which is an awful lot). She dropped me at the local lung doctor and now I am using a CPAP air pump, which isn't exactly a sexy-looking device but now I sleep like an angel. Same thing for her. Bliss, I tell you.
 


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