Solutions to Insomnia...?

[Mithra Reborn]

It's 4 am, just about. I'm curious what people do to make themselves fall asleep. This is not counting sleeping pills. I'm talking about the creative 'home-recipe' or quirky things. And don't tell me you don't have one! At some point in our lives, we will fall asleep to something very, very odd. Or at the very least, something that you don't hear of as a common sleep aid.


Mine: When I have trouble falling asleep(like now), I crawl in bed, and I only allow two words to enter my mind:

"Think Black."

I don't know why, but focusing my mind on just thinking of those two words seems to help me fall asleep when I can't. And images and crap don't pop up in my head, nor do voices or anything else that could be bugging me. I just see...black.

So, what's yours? =3

[Skie and Avery]

Lettuce tea. Hand shred some fresh lettuce, pour boiling water over it and allow it to steep for thirty minutes, strain and drink.

[Saxon]

I don't eat anything heavy before I sleep and I often read until my eyes get tired, and I also try to have a sleeping routine and stick to it. It usually works.

Also, alcohol before bed probably isn't a good idea either.

Other than that the best advice I could give a person is that if you're continuing to have problems sleeping go see a doctor and the kind of doctor you want to find is one who can actually give you helpful suggestions like these instead of one that believes there is no problem he cannot throw a pill at.

[Winterhair]

I do...
Nothing.
I've had insomnia for five years now, and I've found I appreciate staying awaked 22/24 hours a day. It gives me more time to do things I need to do.
But that's just me.

[Visla Eraclaire]

Why does this not include sleeping pills? They're pills for sleeping. It's like "I need to drill a hole, and I need suggestions on how to do it, but no drills."

If I can't sleep I either don't sleep or I take pills, usually the former. I don't mess around will bullshit "remedies". Or alcohol, that works fine too...

[Cash]

Alcohol works fine in small amounts

Same with weed if you're into that sort of thing. Again I emphasis in small amounts.

Nyquil also works.

Same with benadryl.

Others solutions work out hard for about 45-30 minutes before you plan to go to bed so that you're physically tired.

Also study hard, or read or do something that will make you mentally tired right before you go to bed. This works espescially well with the advice above since being mentally & physcially exhausted usually helps you sleep.

There's also the classic big meal + hot shower (or bath) combo.

[Breaker]

Get more exercise during the day/in early evening. Also, see a doctor and ask if they can refer you to a sleep clinic.

There's really no way to beat insomnia. I'll often go entire nights without sleeping; the best thing to do IMO is drag yourself through the next day so that when night rolls around you can finally get some decent sleep.

[A Nony Mouse]

Trying to count to ten without thinking other thoughts... if I do, then I start back at ten. You'll likely never get to ten, but it helps clear the mind.

btw, lettuce tea ftw... nice

[Saxon]

Why does this not include sleeping pills? They're pills for sleeping. It's like "I need to drill a hole, and I need suggestions on how to do it, but no drills."

There's a reason why I didn't put sleeping pills down and referred people to doctors and physicians who aren't pill-happy, Visla. There have been a wide array of studies done with sleeping pills that have shown that long-term dependency on them can cause greater exposure to sinus infections and colds, hang-overs during the next day, temporary amnesia, headaches, vision problems, diarrhea, constipation, vomitting, drowsiness, and even strokes and heart attacks.

Of course, this means you have to take a lot of sleeping pills over a long period of time, but the number of sleeping pills needed taken to achieve these side-effects probably isn't as high as you might think.


Sooner or later, BZDs lose their effectiveness if they are used on a nightly or near-nightly basis. This is because the brain receptors that respond to BZDs become less sensitive to their effects, or "down-regulated". In fact, most BZDS lose their efficacy and are no more effective than a placebo in as little as three to four weeks of nightly use. If someone reports that their BZDs give them a good night's sleep despite the fact that they have been taking the pill nightly for years, the effect is likely due to the placebo effect, not the medication.

BZDs are benzodiazepines sedative hypnotics and are among the more common sleeping pills that are in use today. Examples of some would be Ativan, Xanax, Restoril, and Dalmane some of which you've probably heard of. Most sleeping pills begin to lose their effectiveness from long-term use as stated above. That usually is the hand-off we make when using medicine on a regular basis, and eventually we're just running off of it as a placebo.

You also have to worry about addiction to sleeping pills as well, which most of the time is due to withdraw and increased dependency. But, I don't imagine most folks would take sleeping pills on a regular basis because they just knock you out and don't really help you achieve a state of normal sleep. Right?

Don't get me wrong here, Visla, I'm not somebody who has a deep mistrust of western medicine, and in fact I frown upon the use of a lot of alternative medicines because they usually just generate false hope, which helps nobody. However, there is a darker side to our use of medicinal drugs and over-the-counter medicines, such as drug-resistant bacteria for example. But, that's an entirely different can of worms altogether.

Sleeping pills are not all bad. With short-term insomnia and the occasional fit of sleep deprivation, it has been proven that they can be used to treat them. But it is not a cure-all and shouldn't be considered to be. Sleeping pills at best are a bandage or a temporary fix, and in a lot of ways dependency on them cause you to dig yourself into a hole that is very hard to crawl out of.

But, then again, maybe you or I aren't really concerned about the side-effects or the risks taken when we use them. How and what you use sleeping pills for is entirely up to you. But in the case of sleep pills, I'd rather use a shovel over a drill to dig a hole. It might take a little longer, but we'll end up in the same place.

[Breaker]

All sleeping pills are habit forming, and thus you need to be wary of them. Despite this, I have a small bottle of zopiclone my doc prescribed me, and I take them once or twice a week. Using pharmeceuticals isn't my favourite method, but I must say it's nice to be able to lie down and actually fall asleep, instead of just rolling around for hours.

As long as you follow your doctor's indications and are conscious of the pros and cons, sleeping pills are probably a good idea.

[Slayer of the Rot]

Alcohol works fine in small amounts

Same with weed if you're into that sort of thing. Again I emphasis in small amounts.

Nyquil also works.

Same with benadryl.


We have similar methods.

[Visla Eraclaire]

Everything is habit forming. Human life is habit forming, and the mortality rate remains 100%. I'm not concerned.

[Terminus Mortis]

Working out doesn't work. It gets your blood pumping and releases adrenaline. Doesn't matter how hard you work out, you won't be able to sleep afterwards.

Meditate. It works, because even if you don't fall asleep you'll find that you feel rested after a while.

I can't read myself to sleep, because I can read for hours and hours on end. Never cross me with a good book.

Music works, too. Listen to something soft.

[Rebellion]

Music works, too. Listen to something soft.

Funny, if I really need to get some sleep, I just put on some Celldweller on repeat. Odd.

[Letho]

Manual labor 8 hours/day = sleeping like the dead. You people have too much time on your hands.

[Arsène]

I'm sexually attracted to the same-sex and have yet to have sleeping problems. I see a connection you should all follow.

Either that, or sleep in a room without distraction.

[Breaker]

Manual labor 8 hours/day = sleeping like the dead. You people have too much time on your hands.

If only. I can work all day, party all night, and still have trouble sleeping.

I too support weed as a sleep aid... although it's kinda hit and miss with me. Then again, so are pills.

[Nightstalker]

I advise listening to Dr. Jeffrey Thompson's Delta Sleep System.
Dr. Thompson makes instrumental music that is based on over 23 years of research on the brain and how it works, all done by him.
He composes his music in such a way, that sonic pulses and other hidden audio devices actually alter your brainwaves and cause it to function in a new way for awhile. In the delta sleep system he trains your brain to where it's asleep and your subconciousness is awake.

True enough it doesn't work for everyone, I admit. People are different, it's why he keeps coming out with new albums, partly because it works on alot of people, partly because he keeps refining his technique, and partly because he keeps being able to reach more and more people.

It's not a sleeping pill, but for me, it works every time without fail.

[Cash]

Working out doesn't work. It gets your blood pumping and releases adrenaline. Doesn't matter how hard you work out, you won't be able to sleep afterwards.


Thats why you should end your work out an 30-60 minutes before you go to bed. That way your body will still be tired but your heart rate and andrenaline levels will have had significant time to go back to normal.

[Mithra Reborn]

whoaly shit o.o hold up guys, I couldn't sleep last night, yes, but I don't have any chronic problems. I was just curious as to how other people deal with it. (that, and it was something to do at 4 am.) but these are all pretty sick ideas, i'll have to try them out! ^^

[Kially Gaith]

A pacifier and my MP3 music box collection works wonders for me. *Shrugs.*

[Skie and Avery]

A pacifier? Either your teeth are in horrible condition or you're a baby that can type exceptionally well. Either way, if you're using a pacifier, you literally suck.

[AdventWings]

Read the dictionary.

It work'd for me.

>_>
<_<

But generally, I can fall asleep anywhere in the world if my mind and body says so. Insomnia is a non-issue for me. (Sleeping regularly, however, is a whole 'nother story.)

[Kially Gaith]

A pacifier? Either your teeth are in horrible condition or you're a baby that can type exceptionally well. Either way, if you're using a pacifier, you literally suck.

TBDL actually. *Shrugs.* Not ashamed of it. Paraphilic Infantilist is the scientific term for it.

If you wanna know more, drop me a PM, I'm open to personal discussion.

[Visla Eraclaire]

Vile.

[Smuggler's Run]

I don't know what just happened here, so I'm going to steer this shit back on track.

"Workin' on Leavin' the Livin'," by Modest Mouse is a great song to fall asleep to. Repetitive, soothing, very calm. It's almost a sort of lullaby.

[Equation]

This is some great advice I'd never used, for those with recurring insomnia:
Don't do anything in bed but sleep. If you can't sleep, get OUT of bed, and don't get back in till you think you can fall asleep. If you can't fall asleep, get back out and start over. When you consistently can't sleep, you begin to associate your bed with negativity and it isn't a place of rest for you anymore. It becomes a place of battle (eg "Iow many hours must I toss and turn this night before I finally sleep?"). The idea is to reverse that effect.

For my insomnia, which is chronic, I just deal with it until I eventually pass out for 14 hours. Sometimes I'll take sleep aids - over the counter, I'm too paranoid of prescriptions. Benadryl is (or was) popularly recomended by doctors as a sleep aid. I've always thought it kinda funny that a little pink allergy pill was recommended for insomnia more often than over the counter sleep aids like nytol & unisom.

Also:
You can buy Lavender scented pillows, and lavender is said to be a sleep aid.
Melatonin, which you can buy as a sleep aid, works well for some.
Chamomile Tea

[Ashiakin]

I had problems with insomnia for years and I never could figure out how to solve it. Normally it would take me 2-4 hours to fall asleep and prescription sleep meds would only cut that down to about an hour and a half. But I used to be really lazy (and I still am) but I started making myself get up every morning and run in addition to exercising during the day and what it did for my sleeping was pretty amazing. I can go to sleep in like 30 minutes to an hour now. Also, I've found getting up and going to sleep at the same time every day helps a ton (this is less doable on weekends, but getting it close helps.)

That's just what worked for me, though. Dunno if it'd help anyone else.

[Amaril Torrun]

I had insomnia for about two years, where I couldn't fall asleep until about two hours before I had to get back up. (Those were my most productive years during my membership to Althanas!) The staying active remedy works very well. I was in high school during those two years, and also worked a 40 hour work week. The only problem was that I was always exhausted and laying around during school, occasionally dozing off. It was always enough to offset me falling asleep at the right time.

Now I've gotten to work 16-17 hour days, seven days a week, and I find that it makes it pretty easy to sleep. So, for all you insomniacs out there... start a business or work three full time jobs! :D

Oh and exercising, eating a lot, or a hot shower makes it even easier to shut those lids.

[Breaker]

Oh I almost forgot... once in awhile you can take a couple gravol or other name brand of the same product. Your body will build up a tolerance very quickly, so it's only good for on occasion, but it does work.

EDIT: Equation's first paragraph there is solid advice, my psychology prof talked about that a lot in our sleep/dream unit.

[Skie and Avery]

TBDL actually. *Shrugs.* Not ashamed of it. Paraphilic Infantilist is the scientific term for it.

If you wanna know more, drop me a PM, I'm open to personal discussion.

HAAAHAAA.... No. Just...no. Although now I know who my friend was talking about with the big baby fetish... You have fun there, sport.

[Rebellion]

I'll go with what I said earlier. Maybe its just I'm so tired nowadays that I feel awake and cannot sleep, but for sleep seems overrated. It may be a mental decision just not to sleep, a subconscious choice to avoid resting in order to have more time to get things done. But I've found that by staying awake 21-22 hours of the day you can get a whole lot more done than those without insomnia.

[Moonlit Raven]

I have three different cures for my reoccurring insomnia.

1. I often play FF7 if I can't sleep, the repetitive nature of the game (minus boss fights) normally numbs my brain into submission.

2. Play DDR until my legs are too tired to hop around any more then take a nice cold shower.

3. I also stare at the ceiling or walls and don't think. It's actually pretty easy for me to just blank out and wait. Unfortunately, this method often leaves me sleeping with my eyes open. Come, well, later it's not very pleasent to wake up to dry eyes.

[Mithra Reborn]

huh. I did not think it possible to sleep with your eyes open.

[Winterhair]

I've slept-walked into the shower, took a shower, got dressed, ate something, and was walking down the road to go to school when I woke up in the middle of the road. No shit. Just bam! Right there, I was awake. One of those "ooooooh crap." moments. So yeah, its pretty possible to sleep with your eyes open.

[Letho]

huh. I did not think it possible to sleep with your eyes open.Gandalf does it!!! Haven't you seen The Return of the King? :D

[Moonlit Raven]

Oh it's possible, my mom has several pictures of me sleeping with my eyes open or half open. I'm not sure why though, since the fact that my eyes remain open while sleeping freaks her out. It also helped out in Goverment class. The teacher never checked to see if my eyes were tracking anything or I were just REALLY involved with my paper.

It's just a quirk, like any other person talking or walking in their sleep.

[The Bloody Son]

There have been a wide array of studies done with sleeping pills that have shown that long-term dependency on them can cause greater exposure to sinus infections and colds, hang-overs during the next day, temporary amnesia, headaches, vision problems, diarrhea, constipation, vomitting, drowsiness, and even strokes and heart attacks.

Holy smokes. Those are almost worse side-effects than Alli ... but alas, I don't think anything beats oily anal discharge... HAhhahah... >_x

As for my insomniatic nature, I found the cure was to goto a foreign country, as weird as that sounds. I used to stay up until about 4 or 5 in the morning, maybe 6 at times, sleep for 2 hours if I could and then goto school, whether it be middle school or high school. In 2001, I went to India for missions with my entire family and the cultural shock kept me up for about a week, literally.

We were over there for 10 months until 9/11 happened and then we were forced to come home because civil unrest occurred and we couldn't remain in the country because we were Americans. So, for 10 months - I didn't sleep much at all because of the insane culture change and the time shock and I think it burned out my internal clock. Lol...

When we got back, I haven't had the problem since.

My cures, in transition:

- Benedryl, has been mentioned. Good stuff. Just don't get dependent.

- You're all writers here. Imagine yourself in a scenario where you're the bad guy and you're trying to do things the right way - not like the moronic baddies you see in movies. You're ruthless and just role play yourself out in your dreams. Usually, I get through my sniper position starting point of my dream to a chase scene after I've popped some high ranking official and I'm out cold... lol

- My English teacher told me when she was little, try to make a pizza in your head when you're laying there. Where to get the ingredients, how much to use, how to make it, step-by-step. She said it worked for her.

- In school, when trying to sleep (not recommended, but if you must...lol), I imagined a black box on the farthest reaches of my eyes and imagination. And then thinking that the box was folding slowly in on itself. Believing this seemed to me that my eyelids grew thicker to block out the light that was coming from the ceiling? But the more the box closed, the darker it got in the room and by the focal point - I was out.*

* Note:
1. I don't take responsibility for you sleeping in class. Lol.
2. Watch out for the SNAP. Your brain gives off a falling feeling because of equilibrium and balance because it's not meant to sleep sitting up - and then it SNAPS. Beware, you'll yell in class or make a huge scene......... D:<

[Winterhair]

- In school, when trying to sleep (not recommended, but if you must...lol), I imagined a black box on the farthest reaches of my eyes and imagination. And then thinking that the box was folding slowly in on itself. Believing this seemed to me that my eyelids grew thicker to block out the light that was coming from the ceiling? But the more the box closed, the darker it got in the room and by the focal point - I was out.

You son of a bitch. You're talking about partitioning your mind there. No wonder us writers are so fucked up.
Anyways, if I really have to sleep, what I do is this:
Go outside and lay down. Either that, or have sex.
Thats it. It may be a mental thing, like partitioning, but I've always slept better outside. Sweet, dreamless sleep thats lasted up to half a day. Side effects may vary from embarrassment to dependency. (uses your imagination.)

[Moonlit Raven]

Oi, language kiddo.

[Taskmienster]

Coming from a hardcore (HxC, lol) insomniac, I have only two solutions.

One: Become a raging alcoholic and just drink too much nightly till you pass out. I don't get hangovers though, so if you do that probably wouldn't work too well.

Two: Have a lot of sex, for an hour or three, and then pass out from exhaustion. That seems to work too..

[Winterhair]

Oi, language kiddo.
Just surprised me as all get out there. When I'm really emphatic about something, I tend to just let everything loose. Thus, I can be a real a-hole sometimes. Anyways, off topic crap over.

[The Bloody Son]

Just surprised me as all get out there. When I'm really emphatic about something, I tend to just let everything loose. Thus, I can be a real a-hole sometimes. Anyways, off topic crap over.

Quite alright, in reality. ;) I know he's just kiddin' and I know I'm not a son of a bitch, cause my mom is pretty damn Saintly. ;)

[Storm Veritas]

Sex works great.

For guys, anyway. It makes the wife positively murderous to come back to bed after going to the bathroom quickly to find me passed out as though hit with a dart.

[Mithra Reborn]

Um...sex wouldn't work for me. I'm Fourteen, almost Fifteen. I don't wanna have sex with my boyfriend right now...xD

[Breaker]

Sex doesn't work for me either. I mean, it works for me, but it doesn't help me fall asleep. My libido is equivalent to a case of red bull and a pack of viagra.

Lol storm, nice simile. Very appropriate ;)

[Storm Veritas]

14? Sweet buttered Moses!

I didn't know you could -be- insomniac at 14. Go outside and mow my lawn, that will tire you out. Don't forget to weedwhack the edges.

...I do it all for the kids.

[Rebellion]

...I do it all for the kids.
Michael Jacks pleads the fifth.
I've had insomnia since I was twelve. Beat that meat with a rubber band at th end of a stick why don'tcha.

[Visla Eraclaire]

I feel like you don't call it insomnia when you're a kid. Shit, teenagers don't or can't sleep all the time. Like it matters when your life is barely constrained or defined.

Start calling it insomnia when the firm's senior partner is staring you down the next morning at 8 AM asking why you just cited a dissent in your brief. Then it's a real problem.

[Slayer of the Rot]

Scream the most racist, filthiest things you can think of at your room mate for an hour or until you get light headed. It's what I've been doing for the past month.

[Terminus Mortis]

Slayer, around my area people get iced for doing that...
I want to LIVE...

[Slayer of the Rot]

My trick is that my room mates are all potheads, and don't really seem to know what's happening most of the time.