Can't sleep - any tips????

westhills

I STILL mean it!
Is this a side effect of losing weight and generally having more energy?? I find lately that I am just not tired until about 2 in the morning! I really would like to go to bed before this, but there's no point, as I just can't sleep. This is a new problem for me, I've ALWAYS been able to drop off anytime before.
Has anyone got any tips to encourage sleepiness????
baths don't help.
Ann xxx
 
Have a chat on the phone with my Steve about air conditioning systems ..... that's guarenteed to send any isomniac to sleep!!:rolleyes:

What about doing something that tasks the brain? Puzzle books; knitting (not just scarves!); or take up that course you've been thinking about.

Contact a local college or secondary school that does adult education classes: you could do an evening or daytime class in a subject that would challenge you .... there's plenty of homework and studying to be done with the vocational courses. Most of the courses will have only just started and it would be no problem catching up.
Hopefully, along with the extra physical exercise you've been doing, a bit of mental exercise could do the trick and help you to nod off. I'm not really one for early nights myself though and 11pm - midnight is the norm for me.

You have more energy since losing the weight ... why not accept it and put it to good use :D
 
Hot vanilla milkshake with a little nutmeg on top helps me sleep.

I am a bit of an insomniac so it depends sometimes on what has been going on on the day.

Linda
 
Ann,

Lettuce!

Lettuce has a long-standing reputation for promoting healthy sleep. This is due to an opium-related substance combined with traces of the anticramping agent hyoscyarnin present in lettuce. Lettuce should be an integral part of your evening diet if you are suffering from sleep disorders. The meal should also include legumes, peanuts, nutritional yeast, fish or poultry. These foods contain vitamin B3 (niacin). Niacin is involved in seratonin synthesis and promotes healthy sleep. Mixed with a little lemon juice for flavor, lettuce juice is an effective sleep-inducing drink highly preferable to the synthetic chemical agents in sleeping pills.

I have no problem whatsoever in getting to sleep (so you can't blame the weightloss as we've lost the same!) but if I am woken up in the night (generally by my boy getting into my bed:mad: ) I find it really hard to get back to sleep again. Whatever you do don't ask Anja for advice - she's a total insomniac (LOL Anch;) ).

Hope you find a solution that works, there's nothing worse than tiredness in my book!

Love,
A
xxxx:D
 
Thanks everyone.
I'm OK Ailsa, even when I only get 4 hours sleep, I'm still not tired the next day!!! (used to be a VERY different story.)
I had a really busy day yesterday, and you would think I would have been tired, but I wasn't. Went to bed at 2.30 and up again at 7.30, even though I didn't have to.
This is all very strange to me!
Debbie, your encouragement to study is noted! I have to be careful though, what with doing CDC training and spending a lot of time away between now and January.
Will have the vanilla & nutmeg tonight.
Ann xxx
 
Try melatonin tablets, you can get them at health food places, they work for me and they are non habit forming and all that good stuff. I'm a insomniac too...but they have really helped. It might just be that you don't need the regulation 8 hours, we are not all the same, some of us need 12 hours, some need 4 to function.
 
im sorry i dont know what to suggest, im always shattered these days, but melatonin is supposed to be great, and as heva says non habit forming, my son takes them as he is adhd and sleeps much better thanhe did,
 
Sound a bit like something your nan would suggest but boots do (or did ) a pillow spray which was lovely and put you into a lovely deep sleep.
 
Thanks everyone. This is all new to me. I used to need minimum 8 or 9 hours of sleep a night - preferably more - and then I likes a "lie in" if I could get one. If I didn't get my sleep I felt like ****, and used to have like an ache behind my eyes all day.
It's all changed now. I will get some melatonin.
Just thought - a glass of red wine would do the trick..........
only joking!
Ann x
 
something that helps me get off to sleep is to get to bed, get comfey, and visualise numbers. But...you have to do it a certain way.

Start by visualising a huge number one, which goes up really high, and stretches down really low. imagine slowly looking at it all the way up, then back all the way down, then go on to number two, again up and down.

repeat this til you nod off, then again if you wake up through the night. Apparrently by tracing the numbers your eyes move around as if you are in REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, which helps bring the real sleeep on.

Also I find that if i'm just focussing on the numbers I can't focus on work related stress and things like that which ususally keep me awake.

Let me know if it works for you!

Polly x zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz........zzz
 
Well I can't help on getting more sleep. It's a problem I have every night now (pain related). What I would suggest though is getting rest if not sleep. I have a mp3 player with my favourite relaxing music and when I can't sleep I listen to music..... the idea is to not fidget at all, then your body is getting rest even if your brain isn't. It's the only thing keeping me going. Of course if you're really getting about 5 hours sleep then you may as well get up and study or paint or knit or whatever. Which way you play it depends on how alert you are the next day.
 
One of my favourites to get to sleep is this

Lie in bed with dolphin or whale music and a dab of lavander on your pillow.

Tense your whole body and relax

Then tense your toes and relax and work up tensing and relaxing through out your whole body, then start at your toes and tense every muscle in your body till you get to the top of your head and slowley relax again from the toeas.

You will be so chilled out that youll just drift off.

It works for me nearly every time, its lovely to feel the tension going
 
Hi Ann,

I have found this also that I don't actually need the same sleep and I put this down to the over load of carbs I use to eat before as I was tired all the time.

Now I have loads of energy and I need less sleep and feel so good on it.

Some night I do feel tired and have to head to bed early about 11 or so, but then I would awake about 7...


Me thinks it is a nice side effect of the diet.

Love Mini xxx
 
My counsellor told me not to have any of the Cambridge diet foods to late as it may stimulate too much and make it hard to sleep. Don't know if this may be a factor for you. Dizzy
 
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