Unable to sleep at night. No matter how tired during the day

I had a very bad stomach sickness last week. It left me away from work for 3 days. After that, it was the weekend where I usually like to sleep in.

My normal sleeping patterns were about 12 midnight until 7:30am. I start work at 8:30am.

I have a BIG problem now. I cannot sleep. Last two nights I fell asleep at 3:30-4:30 am. Still having to get-up for work at 7:30am. Let me tell you, I am so tired the whole day. The first time this happened I had a nap at about 6pm when I got home. But then I still couldnt sleep until about 4am. So today I forced myself to stay awake and went to be at 11pm. I slept until 12 midnight and then woke up again. Now I cant sleep again and its 2:30am.

I tried drugs which send me to sleep at about 11pm but then I wake-up 30min-1 hour later and cant sleep.

I looked at all the self-help on the net. I tried reading, I tried bath, I tried wiggling the toes and meditation. Nothing helps. I'm not sure how long I can go on like this.

I need a good nights sleep. I feel so fatigue at work.

Did your insomnia begin after your stomach sickness? I had food poisoning last month and right after that my sleep went from bad to WORSE. What I believed happened is: Most of the serotonin is created by our gut. Serotonin converts to melatonin which helps us sleep at night. After gut warfare our serotonin may be wiped out. Another reason for your insomnia could be the high cortisol levels caused by the stress of your illness. Cortisol is a nasty anti sleep hormone. I'm now taking Tryptophan which helps replenish serotonin and I'm slowly sleeping better though I still wake up in the middle of the night.