Insomnia: What do you do?

[Hyacinth]

I mean that literally. What do you do when you wake up in the middle of the night?

Do you toss and turn? Listen to an audiobook? Grab the phone and scroll? Take a little something to help you sleep? Give in to the wakefulness and start your day? 

Just curious what insomnia looks like for others.
 

[Carrie12345]

It depends on both the time and the trend.

For a period of time, I was waking around 3am every day (night). After a couple of nights, I decided to just start my day at 3am and either take a nap later or go to bed early. It lasted for probably a month or so and then suddenly stopped. A part of me misses my 3am chores/puttering/reading/internet catch up.

These days, if I wake up anywhere before 4am, I’ll usually put an old tv series on my iPad and an earbud in my ear. I’m usually back out within a half hour. It isn’t happening very often right now.

[Pawz4me]

I'm a natural early bird, so if I wake up around 4:00 a.m. -- Great! I get an extra hour of peaceful wakefulness, and get up and thoroughly enjoy the quiet time, drinking my coffee and scrolling the internet.

If it's much earlier than that, or if I have trouble nodding off, I try to do a little controlled breathing/mindfulness stuff. Often that will have me drifting off or back to sleep fairly soon. If not, and I've slept a bit but can't go back to sleep, I go ahead and get up. The very worst thing for me is to toss and turn for a long period of time. That tires me out much more than getting up and enjoying the peace and quiet. I'm old enough to have learned that a night or two (or even quite a few) with limited sleep isn't going to really hurt me. I might be dragging, but I'll make it.

[Katy]

Last night I got back up, took a couple melatonin, went downstairs to watch YouTube and have a slice of leftover pizza from supper, and went back to bed. 

[Ottakee]

It varies.   Some nights I can get back to sleep.  Last night I scrolled through my old blog posts and FB memories for almost 2 hours, then fell back asleep for 45 minutes.  The might before I turned on one of those Christian relaxation/sleep things on YouTube and did fall back asleep.

I so wish I could sleep through the night.  On the rare nights I do, I feel so much better the next day.

[regentrude]

I found that if I stay in bed and try to force sleep it never works. 

If it's midnight or 3am, I get up. Mess around on the computer, clean quietly ( i e no banging dishes), sometimes read. After about an hour, I can attempt sleep again. 

If it's past 4:30, there's not much of a point and I just get up for good.

[RootAnn]

Depends on if DH is home. If he's here, I'll try to stay in bed (tossing/turning), then get up & do something for an hour then try to sleep again. Takes longer to go to sleep If it works at all. If he's working nights, I turn on music or an audiobook & can usually fall back asleep within 20 minutes. This is my best option.

[PrincessMommy]

Most nights I try to go back to sleep.   I'll toss and turn then start listening to an audible (nothing stressful) to quiet my brain.  Lately that is all it takes.  Sometimes I'll pray a bit too. 

But, on bad nights I will also play a mindless game on my phone with my blue light blocking reading glasses.   Actually, I start using these glasses every evening well before bedtime  which has made a difference in helping me to get to sleep.  Lately, I've been using them all the time and I do notice an improvement with my eyestrain.

I almost never get up and start my day.  I also rarely take anything to help me sleep after midnight.

Taking Nature's Bounty Sleep3 has helped me to get better nights of sleep in the last few months.  But, I don't take it every night.

[Innisfree]

If I'm tossing and turning, I give up after about half an hour and get up. Usually my sinuses are dry and uncomfortable, so I get a cup of something hot and steaming: either some sort of tea, or sometimes warm milk with a bit of sugar and vanilla. I might eat something. Then I settle in a comfortable spot in the living room, read, and eventually get sleepy again. The whole process takes about two hours reliably before I can drift off again, so if this happens late in the night, there's no chance to get back to sleep. Earlier is better.

I miss the sleep, and feel much better when I can sleep through the night. But I confess to enjoying my solitary nighttime hours. If I did anything involving noise or many lights on, I'd wake people, so I get to just relax and read all by myself.

Melatonin helps short circuit the cycle by letting me get back to sleep easily, though.

[Acadie]

I meditate. On the meditation app Ten Percent Happier, I can download guided meditations for sleep. So I keep my phone turned off and in airplane mode by my bedside, and if I can't get back to sleep in the wee hours I turn it on (still keeping it in airplane mode) and meditate with Sleepphone headphones. They have a fleece headband with earbuds inside, so I can lie on my side and fall asleep with them on.

I also recently started taking 3 mg timed release melatonin because my insomnia has been worse lately, likely due to stress. I started by taking it at bedtime, but this week my wakeup time has shifted earlier, to around 2 am, so I'm taking it then before meditating. If my wakeup time is 3:30 or 4 am, I don't take melatonin then because it makes me groggy in the morning.  

These two things have really helped. I still occasional have poor nights of sleep, but most of the time I can go back to sleep so one rough night is not a big deal. 

[mmasc]

Getting out of bed really gets me awake, so I rarely do that. If I wake up in the middle of the night and am having trouble falling back to sleep after about 30 minutes, I’ll read a book on my kindle (which is what I do to get sleepy when I first go to bed) and sometimes have a Ludens Lavender Melatonin. It’s only 1mg, which is plenty for me. 

[Scarlett]

I have been blessed to have very little insomnia in my life.  But in the last year I have had a lot of things going on.  I found it was better if I just got out of bed and went and sat in the guest bed and played words with friends or something mindless.  I try to avoid the boards or FB because my mind starts working even more.  Praying helps me.  

[PeterPan]

When I've had it happen on occasions (randomly, not as a constant thing), it's usually due to stress/anxiety. So like @Scarlett says, sometimes I get up and get it out by writing or dealing with it. I might take 2 calcium and a magnesium or an anxiety pill (prescription). Usually if I get up and get it out like that (writing, reading my bible, praying, whatever), I then go back to sleep and am tired the next day.

I started waking in the early morning and it was hormones. I had years (most of my life) with the doesn't get tired insomnia thing. That turned out to be a  5HTP thing where taking it ups my melatonin, allowing me to get tired naturally. 

So usually I sleep like a rock and if I'm not I want to know *why* so I can deal with the problem. 

[sbgrace]

If I get out of bed, I have a lot more trouble falling back to sleep.

So I generally stay in bed. 

Usually the wakening like that happens when I'm anxious or stressed. I try a few things.  I pray, I do progressive muscle relaxation, and then I do this thing where I take a deep breath, recall/image a room in my house--my bedroom or living room, name something  that is in the room , like a lamp (not out loud/in my mind), take a deep breath; imagine my room, name something, deep breath, etc. This naming thing takes enough thinking to keep my mind from spinning and is boring enough to make it more likely I can sleep again. 

If this is failing--and usually it's when I'm extremely anxious--I will give up and start my day. I hate those times. I try to frame it as extra time to be productive and get something useful done while the house is quiet. 

---

I will say there was a time period during this pandemic when I had persistent early morning waking even though I wasn't particularly anxious. I thought I might be getting a little depressed. I started back up with my daily exercise. It seemed to help. 

---

My MIL was having problems and got help from extended release melatonin. That might be worth a try. 

[Laura Corin]

In order,  I:

Go and have a pee

Lie down in bed on my back and do a full body scan with deep abdominal breathing

Turn on my side and imagine taking my dog for a walk in extreme detail: calling her, waiting for her, clipping on her lead, putting on my boots, tying the laces, retying to make them tighter....

Usually that ritual sends me to sleep. Very occasionally  I  will get up, read a book and drink herbal tea for an hour,  then go back to bed.

[Ditto]

I pop more Melatonin to go back to sleep.   My oncologist put me on a new med to help with hot flashes and the nerve pain in my hands (probably medial nerve entrapment, going to ortho next week to get a diagnosis and treatment) and it is actually helping me sleep deep and hard.  Bonus for sure!

[EKS]

I lie there and think about math.

ETA: I'm actually serious about this.  I don't do it because it's boring and puts me to sleep.  I do it because I find that lying there in the quiet dark is conducive to thinking deeply about certain types of problems.  

Edited December 4, 2020 by EKS

[Granny_Weatherwax]

I usually read a book or scroll on the phone. A couple of weeks ago, I began taking melatonin. It has helped immensely.

My insomnia leads to negative thinking and rumination and can ruin my day so I'm trying to get a handle on it for my wellbeing and the wellbeing of those around me. This is especially important during the holidays, which have never been an easy time for me.

Edit: Okay, here's the dirty truth - I have a 4 hour download of the engine of the Enterprise from TNG. If I can't sleep, I play it and the soothing sounds help me relax. I only do this if DH isn't home. If he is home, I resort to the above. Now, you know.  No haters, man, no haters.

Edited December 4, 2020 by The Accidental Coach

[TravelingChris]

If itisearly, it is usually because I forgot my bedtime medicines so I take those andwatch some Netflix and then get sleepy and go to bed again.

Much more often, I suffer from early waking insomnia. If it is4am or later, I just get up.  I never have any success with lying in bed trying to sleep.

[Spryte]

13 hours ago, mmasc said:

Getting out of bed really gets me awake, so I rarely do that. If I wake up in the middle of the night and am having trouble falling back to sleep after about 30 minutes, I’ll read a book on my kindle (which is what I do to get sleepy when I first go to bed) and sometimes have a Ludens Lavender Melatonin. It’s only 1mg, which is plenty for me. 

This.  
 

Except I take a Source Naturals melatonin.  Other than that, we are insomnia twins!

[Spryte]

3 hours ago, The Accidental Coach said:

I usually read a book or scroll on the phone. A couple of weeks ago, I began taking melatonin. It has helped immensely.

My insomnia leads to negative thinking and rumination and can ruin my day so I'm trying to get a handle on it for my wellbeing and the wellbeing of those around me. This is especially important during the holidays, which have never been an easy time for me.

Edit: Okay, here's the dirty truth - I have a 4 hour download of the engine of the Enterprise from TNG. If I can't sleep, I play it and the soothing sounds help me relax. I only do this if DH isn't home. If he is home, I resort to the above. Now, you know.  No haters, man, no haters.

That is genius.

Where did you find it?

[Selkie]

 I snuggle with my dogs (two of them sleep right by my pillow) and read.

[Carol in Cal.]

Go to the bathroom

Have a little drink of water (usually my mouth is dry when I wake up)

Write down anything that might have woken me up, like something I’m supposed to remember.  That way my stupid brain does not keep reminding me of it over and over all night.

Get in bed, get comfortable, and turn off the light.

Pray about lots of things, for a long time.

Get sleepy, turn over, fall asleep.  OR, if I’m still wide awake, maybe read a novel for a little while.  That usually is not necessary but also it usually does the trick.

I don’t get up unless I have had at least 6 hours of sleep and preferably 7-8.

Edited December 4, 2020 by Carol in Cal.

[mathnerd]

I get on the internet and stay online until I can fall back to sleep again. Nothing else works for me.

[prairiewindmomma]

Usually I get up, start laundry, make an online grocery order, ignore the dishes 😉, and putter about doing little tasks that I have put off all week.  I find that if I'm dealing with insomnia there's usually some low level anxiety going on about life stuff....so dealing with the life stuff helps my mind relax and I can go back to sleep. 

 

[PeterPan]

15 hours ago, The Accidental Coach said:

Edit: Okay, here's the dirty truth - I have a 4 hour download of the engine of the Enterprise from TNG. If I can't sleep, I play it and the soothing sounds help me relax.

Oh this is awesome! You think it would work on my ds? Or does it only work if you're a Trekkie?

[EKS]

15 hours ago, The Accidental Coach said:

Okay, here's the dirty truth - I have a 4 hour download of the engine of the Enterprise from TNG. If I can't sleep, I play it and the soothing sounds help me relax. I only do this if DH isn't home. If he is home, I resort to the above. Now, you know.  No haters, man, no haters.

Whenever I'm watching TNG and the shot of the ship with that sound comes on, it annoys me because there is no sound in space.  That said, I can see how it would be soothing.

[Granny_Weatherwax]

1 hour ago, PeterPan said:

Oh this is awesome! You think it would work on my ds? Or does it only work if you're a Trekkie?

Considering I would use it subliminally to indoctrinate him to be a new Trekkie...I'm not certain I am the person you should be asking.

[Granny_Weatherwax]

12 hours ago, Spryte said:

That is genius.

Where did you find it?

You Tube, the land of everything you'll ever need

[Layla]

On 12/3/2020 at 4:20 AM, Hyacinth said:

I mean that literally. What do you do when you wake up in the middle of the night?

Do you toss and turn? Listen to an audiobook? Grab the phone and scroll? Take a little something to help you sleep? Give in to the wakefulness and start your day? 

Just curious what insomnia looks like for others.
 

Can't fall asleep at all.....for days