What do you do when you can't sleep?

I know I have to be up early so I can't fall asleep..

Other times, reading, valerian tincture in some chamomile tea, or just staying up a little later and dealing with the fatigue once I wake up.

By the way, I love your avatar :D
I was laughing at it the other night as it was in perfect sync with some music I was listening to

I get up, and play on DU for awhile...

Or I read.

I do NOT stay in bed, and toss and turn...

I try not to think about all the things I need to do tomorrow...it's not easy.

Hope you get some sleep soon, sweetie...

:hug:

Usually puts me out pretty quickly.

but once it gets to be 5am, i generally head out to mcd's for a suasage mcmuffin w/egg meal.

But, if I set the timer for 30 minutes, I usually find that I fall right back asleep before the TV shuts off. If not, I set it for another 30 minutes. More often than not, I fall back asleep when something I want to watch comes on. If I don't set the timer, the tube stays on, and it wakes me back up again.

when i know i have to be up for something, i get so wound up that i can't sleep.
a lot of times i just ride it out doing this or that, stay awake all night, and then crash once i'm done with whatever it is i had to be up for in the first place.
but then- i'm retired, so i have more options/free time when it comes to midday naps.

if i HAVE to sleep, and it's already too late to consider the lunesta...i'll smoke a bunch of pot and take a couple flexerils and a vicoprofen. but that's only for if i don't have to be up and at'em come morning time.

have you tried a warm bath with candles and gentle music...?

Never found an answer. If I get 3-5 hours a night I'm doing good. x(

I work 12 hours all night long and very often I do it on three or four hours sleep

We're both fucked up! ;)

they're not even having to put up with the weedeaters :mad:

one message I've taken to heart is, if you've been trying to sleep forty minutes and haven't slept forty winks, then stop trying. Read a dull book. Make some warm milk. Do something not-especially engaging for ten to twenty minutes and then try again to find your quiet space. Otherwise, the "trying to sleep" makes your mind "engaged" in the process, which doesn't really help.

If you sleep "partnered", sometimes you have to self-segregate in another room because you focus on the other's breathing or snoring or moving. (My hubby has actually rolled on me--he is no lightweight. This sends me to the sofa!) It helps to have a portable alarm--like a watch or programmed cell phone.

Peripheral arterial disease, one of the symptoms is "rest pain".

Which meant that I experienced excruciating pain when I tried to lay down to sleep, and it was only partly relieved by standing or leaning on something while standing up. There was no Rx painkiller strong enough that could significantly ease the pain, either. So until I had surgery to place a stent in my leg, I would guess that I might have gotten about an hour total of sleep each night for about two months.

I have also worked the graveyard shift, often w/overtime for most of my adult life, nothing is worse, IMO, than needing to go to sleep, especially on a sunny summer afternoon and being unable to do so, or being very sleepy while on the job.

My remedy for combating sleeplessness is to get enough exercise every day to make me breathe hard, which has helped me the most w/o relying on sleep aids, OTC or Rx, but stress and anxiety are usually the cause behind most of my bouts of insomnia, which means I will be forced to take my Rx of xanax.

I just concentrate on the noise, whenever my mind wanders to something else, I try to just shift my attention back to the noise and my breathing. Something like meditating, I guess.

I will either fire up my Kindle (or a good book) or check out all the lulz on the Cheezburger network. Did you know they have 30 websites?

Also, caffiene will help. And back when I was working 80 hours a week, I found that brushing my teeth would wake me up for a while, as would getting up and walking around every so often.

You make the conscious effort to stay awake, and it tricks your brain into thinking you should be falling asleep. Works about 70% of the time for me.

I'll read or compute until I crash.

The best thing, for me, is to anticipate that I'll have trouble falling asleep if I have to get up early, and to go to bed a couple hours earlier with sleep meds on board.

Tucker

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lcu7OCIqlqE ;)

I've learned not to worry about it. That's the single best aid to sleeping when you need to. I figure if I'm not sleeping, it's because I don't need it.

That being said, when I can't sleep, I pick up a book and read.

also tensing muscles and relaxing them to reduce muscle tension usually works.

the only way i can eventually get to sleep is if i get up for a half hour to hour then try again. went to bed about 1.

i just know i will be tired the next day. coffee helps for a while

That seems healthier than getting drunk.

often helps