random insomnia?

Hello, I've had an interesting past of insomnia. About 4 years ago I had problems staying asleep. I would always have to wake up in the middle of the night and then have problems falling back asleep. I saw doctors, took some meds, nothing worked but then after about a year and a half it went away and I was insomnia free. However, my insomnia has come back in the form of not being able to fall asleep. It happened last year at the end of the semester. I was under a lot of stress with classes and college life so I attributed the couple nights a week I couldn't sleep to that. but then this summer, I had trouble sleeping every night I had to go to work. I could fall asleep fine on the nights I didn't work though. I had to wake up early so I think the anxiety of worrying if I was going to be able to sleep affected me. Now back at school, I have insomnia again. Maybe because I do so much at school I get worried and get anxious about not sleeping so then I can't sleep.

Does anyone else have.had this problem? Only having difficulty sleeping on certain nights? I have good sleep hygein for living in a college dorm. I've tried relaxation techniques but I feel so wired at night none of them work. Any advice on how to help me get my mind off things when I feel so awake and aware when I try to sleep?

Thanks for reading!

Hi,

I've never had any problems sleeping but I think that I can offer some help. Firstly, try not to stigmatise the actualy event of you going to sleep. Just see it as something that you do each night because you're body needs a rest; and when you get into yiour bed, curl up, pull the duvet over your head, and then close your eyes to dream away to sleep. If you start panicking before you get into your bed, then you're 'putting' stress hormones into your bloodstream, and these are obviously going to keep you awake. If you cannot beat this by pure psychology, then try drinking a cup of decaffeinated tea before bed, or even eating a sandwich. Food triggers hormones to be produced that divery blod-flow to the stomach region, and this has the effect of making us tired.

Hey,

I don't have, I guess, classical insomnia but I definitely go through some of the processes you do. I tend to stay up real late and for the most part, it's not because I can't sleep but more so that I don't want to sleep. Especially when my whole mindset is that if I sleep less, I'll have more time to finish work for university. Much of this is the anxiety and stress that comes from workload. It's debilitating because I never end up being productive during my extended wakefulness and end up oversleeping.

Now it's become a habit that I can't seem to change. I want to sleep early but always relapse to the same old routine and feel lethargic the next morning (for me, being 1-3pm). It's not as bad as insomnia but meh.

Anyway, I think that the theory behind getting to sleep is to, exert yourself mentally and physically before the time you want to sleep. Stimulate yourself as early as you can after you've woken up. Get everything done. Make sure you are resolute to getting to sleep when it comes to the point where you should go to sleep. Just don't overdo it.

As for not thinking before you go to sleep, partly this is about compartmentalisation and ensuring that you do the thinking during the day. When it's daytime, commit yourself to completing all the work you need done. At night, clear the mind. Perhaps delude yourself that it's time to go to sleep and subconsciously you might be able to fall asleep without thinking too much. This isn't so much about your ability to sleep but more about stress management. Don't let stress envelope your mind.

Hope this helps.

I am not an insomniac myself, but I have a friend who is, usually, he sleeps best when hes happy or contented (which is in-keeping to what you say about yourself, (not being able to sleep because of work related stress). Why not try and take a break for a while and sorting yourself out. Maybe if you can get rd of the ugly little black clouds that seem to be surrounding you, you'll find it easier to sleep.

Or this works very well for me... pic up a book and read, but do it lying down in bed, (make sure your in a really comfortable position too). Do all this after you've had a nice long relaxing bath, or even a steaming hot shower. If you don't think about sleep but you're in a comfy and relaxed state, I'm sure you'll find it a lot easier o sleep.

Good luck, I hope this helps.

Thank you all very much for the responses. I appreciate it!

I haven't replied in so long because I've been trying various techniques and trying to almost test my insomnia scientifically to see exactly what causes it. I've come to the conclusion that it is most likely stress or anxiety related. The problem is that it's not always conscious anxiety which makes it hard to combat. The dorm I live in coupled with business of college creates a solid baseline of stress. But for the most part I feel as though I can handle my stress well. My insomnia occurs though when conditions are not ideal for sleeping. Even if they are not that severe it seems anything like my roommate will coming back late (i've talked to him about this but he's not the most considerate person ), people being loud, or lots of stuff on my mind will trigger a sleepless night. The main problem is once this thing happens I can't sleep at all. For example last night, my roommate got back around 12:45 and the dorm was loud until about 1 or so. I didn't fall asleep until after 4 even though I was relaxed and calm around 1. It seems like once I miss my ideal time and context to sleep the subconscious anxiety builds up and I can't sleep even though nothing at that time is bothering me.

Being a psych major, I'd like to think of a psychological way to beat this but it's always hard to "cure" yourself.
So does anyone have advice on what to do when I'm in a situation like last night where its about 1 and I missed my ideal time to sleep but I still stay up for 3 or more hours when nothing is overtly keeping me awake? I've tried lots of stuff before I go to sleep and sometimes it helps. But what should I do while I'm laying there after I realize I won't be able to sleep for some reason? Getting 7 hours of sleep is fine. Getting 3 or less is terrible. So if I could just fall asleep before too late that would be ideal.

Thank you!

Hi

Firstly are you still sleeping till around 1 in the afternoon? Because that's definitely something you need to change if you're not able to sleep, when i used to get insomnia the most important thing would be to make sure the next day you still wake up early.

If you do wake up early though it is important not to take a nap later in the day. If you end up taking a nap that will prevent you from going to sleep later at night. Although you will have had more sleep, you will probably wake up feeling worse than when you went to sleep. On top of this you're disrupting your routine and it will have an impact on you mentally.

If you are getting up early, what happens when you lay there, do you just stay in bed for a long time tossing and turning? I would advise that instead of just laying in bed you get up and perhaps read a book after half an hour or so. Laying in bed thinking about it will only make it worse.

Do you allow your body and mind to shut down between college and going to bed? Take a break and try to relax between the two, don't just be doing something mentally stimulating and then jump into bed. Your mind needs time to stop being active. There are many things you can do to assist this.

There's much more information on the website in my signature if you find any of this helpful.

Energy Psychology ("Acupressure for the Emotions") is extraordinarily useful for dealing with stress. Gary Craig, founder of the Emotional Freedom Technique, is retiring and taking his website down soon, but http://www.emofree.com is partially archived at http://www.archive.org, and there are now countless EFT guides available on other websites.

-James Knochel
http://www.teslabox.com

kevin_d'_lion wrote:I am not an insomniac myself, but I have a friend who is, usually, he sleeps best when hes happy or contented (which is in-keeping to what you say about yourself, (not being able to sleep because of work related stress). Why not try and take a break for a while and sorting yourself out. Maybe if you can get rd of the ugly little black clouds that seem to be surrounding you, you'll find it easier to sleep.

Or this works very well for me... pic up a book and read, but do it lying down in bed, (make sure your in a really comfortable position too). Do all this after you've had a nice long relaxing bath, or even a steaming hot shower. If you don't think about sleep but you're in a comfy and relaxed state, I'm sure you'll find it a lot easier o sleep.

Good luck, I hope this helps.

I do agree with you Kevin as relaxing bath with essential oils must be very good way to get that sound sleep as it is very necessary to try all the alternatives that will be helpful for any person who is somewhere finding difficulty in sleeping, whether it is insomnia or not or any kind of sleeping disorder.

In case of random insomnia, one has to be very careful of what they are eating and what are their schedule of sleeping, taking natural medication will be the best way to get over all that sleeping problems.

Thanks

*Edited by admin - Chucky

I think I'm going through what you are talking about right now. For me the main trigger is the simple fact that I know I have to wake up early. It's dumb, but as soon as I tell myself I need to sleep or I'll be tired, I can't sleep.

I don't quite understand it myself... But I always want 8 hours of sleep and I tell myself that I'm fine with 6 if I can get that. But as soon as I near those benchmarks, I get stressed and I can't sleep. I need to start finding a way to not care about how much sleep I have, so that I can get sleep.

I don't know if that helps you, or not, but good luck.

My insomia hasn't been consistant/persistant either (thank goodness!) I had my first and worst bout when I was 17 and still at school. That went on for a couple of months with me only being able to sleep when I was super super tired, meaning I'd be deprived one day and catch up the next. Since then my insomnia flares up at times of stress and on nights where I have to be up the next morning to do something. So any time I've had tests, classes, or I was just plain worried, there's been insomnia involved at some point.

Actually, my insomnia had been quite manageable for a while, with me getting at least some sleep. Enough to do what I had to do. But this week I got back from holiday with a cold and ended up not sleeping at all on monday night, having two decent nights rest and then not sleeping again last night. I've taken two days off of work this week because being ill and exhausted isn't a recipe for working competently. I feel pretty stupid for having to take sick leave when the problem is mostly down to me being worried about being ill and tired and having to work. Now I made myself worry so much that I didn't sleep at all and so I can't work.

Anyway, for me, since this doesn't happen all the time it's a case of riding the flare-ups out. For example, this week I know being ill had a huge part in me being off balance and not being able to fall asleep properly. So I just have to wait until I get better and down melatonin and supplements in the meantime.