I don’t think anyone’s posted this yet, but if you’re having trouble falling asleep, don’t just stay in bed. Dunno if this is common knowledge, but I hear that staying in bed when you have insomnia - I’m talking general sleeplessness, not diagnosed - makes your bed “feel” aversive. You start to associate it as a place where you can’t sleep, and hence, you don’t sleep. Get out of bed and do something quiet, drink tea, whatever, and only go back to bed when you think you have a shot at getting to sleep…it’s worked for me (sometimes).
As for me, I have a hard time getting to sleep too, even when I am super-sleepy. I would say about 45 mins to an hour, 2-3 hrs on really bad nights. I have NEVER been able to get to sleep within 5-10 minutes that I can recall, unless I am rather drunk. And then it’s a wretched night of sleep anyway.
I’m solidly in the “several hour club”. I never know (or want to know) how long it took, because by then I’m finally asleep. I’ve tried every OTC sleep aid, melatonin, valerian root, etc. Then, I found Ambien, I was out in like 5 minutes which is unheard of for me. Only it can be habit forming, so now I’m back to swearing at the sun. Maybe I should get one of those Craftmatic adjustable beds…yeah that’s the ticket! My sleep problems will be over! (in 6-8 weeks).
It ususally takes me a half hour to an hour to fall asleep. I’ve always had trouble getting to sleep, even when I was a kid. There have been times when I’ve fallen asleep quickly, or even without trying, but those are few and far between. We had a wak-a-thon at school, and I still couldn’t really fall asleep when I got back home in the morning (though I could barely stay awake that afternoon).
What’s really annoying is that I just can’t sleep in. I wake up around the same time every morning no matter what time I go to bed (I think maybe having my alarm go off 5-6 mornings a week screws me up for the weekends when it doesn’t). I have literally gone to bed at 3 in the morning, and woken up on my own at 7. I have no idea how my friends do it. I can stay in bed as long as I want, but I can’t sleep past a certain time.
'Course, I’m 19, maybe that has somethign to do with things…
On average, it takes me about an hour, but it goes up to about three hours sometimes.
Sometimes it’s because I’m just not sleepy, but usually it’s because my mind keeps busy even as I lie in bed. I think about things I did during the day, things I need to do the next day, what it would be like if my family went on that trip this summer, what I would buy if I got a job, that time when my friends went to this place, what so-and-so is doing right now… It just does NOT stop. I don’t know why I think so much before I sleep.
In high school I averaged 4-5 hours of sleep. I’m 20 years old now.
Normally it takes me only a few minutes (probably under ten) to fall asleep if I have something to read. As much as I love reading, it puts…me…to…sleep. Otherwise it can take me a much longer time.
Ah, yes. I like to re-think every single problem of my life, everything that could go wrong tomorrow, etc… I can’t just free my mind or so. One hour is the usual time, but it can become any time up to several hours, if I find some really “nice” things to think of. The nights before Tests and similar stuff are very short.
To the “rolling my eyes up” part - is that normal? I do that involuntarily when I’m close so sleeping, but it feels very weird and makes me dizzy. Feels really weird.
I’m a self diagnosed Delayed Sleep Syndrome person. I can remeber being 4 years old and doing the nightly argument with my mom. I didn’t understand why I was to lie in that bed for hours “to sleep”. I thought my mom was just mean.
I am able to sleep naturally at around 5:00 - 7:00 am on any given night/morning. I am always tired by midnight. This was my hellish life until age 35 , when I spoke to my doctor about my sleep problem and how it was affecting my entire life.
Oh, and yes, I have tried every single method of tryin to sleep. No caffeine, no tv, no excercise at night, no eating late, hot showers, melatonin, all over the counter sleep meds, etc.
Now I am a perfect sleeper with the help of Ambien. Two solid years I’ve slept like all the other “normal” people. I bet it takes under 5 minutes to fall alseep now. It is wonderful, I wake up rested, I go to sleep like everyone else at 11pm. I know Ambien affects people differently, but this drug was made with me in mind.
Ambien has saved me from insanity. I feel for everyone out there who still lies in bed for hours trying to get to sleep. It’s horrible.
I was going to suggest if anyone had tried Ambien, then I researched it and found that it’s warnings say that it’s habit-forming. Not that I care if it’s habit-forming, I mean whaddya gonna do- lay awake all night? But I was just curious, because I work in a doctor’s office and the drug reps that sell it are always touting the fact that it’s “non-habit-forming”… what’s up with that?
It takes me however long reading 3 pages takes…uh, that includes reading that third page 3 times. I’m actually not joking!
Oddly enough, I am one of those people who sleeps about 6 hours each night, and I am a very light sleeper. But I don’t get sleepy until I go to bed. Sort of a conditioned response, I think.
I’m in awe at the number of people who take an hour or longer to get to sleep. In all seriousness…once I turn out the light and get comfy in bed, if I’m awake long enough to realize that I haven’t fallen asleep yet, there’s something wrong. I fall asleep so fast, it might as well be instantaneous. Definitely under 2 minutes.
I’ve always been this way, too…no trouble sleeping as a teen that I had to grow out of. On weekends, if I go to bed and allow myself to wake naturally with no alarm, I’ll almost always sleep for 10 hours, give or take 15 minutes. And, if I ever decide to nap, I’m out for a minimum of 3 hours unless I set an alarm.
i cannot quite comprehend how so many of you appear to take more than an hour to get to sleep… don’t go to bed if you are not sleepy! not considering those with a medical condition, is this commonplace or just simply that only those still awake are posting?
Before I quit caffeine, never before 2 am. My dad had the same problem. When I realized it was hitting me too I tried cutting down to one cup a day, and no luck. Now I can have one cup of decaf, or one cup of green tea, before noon, and I sleep normally. Any more than that, and boom. I’ve tried drinking myself to sleep, but I just end up being a gregarious drunk until 2 am.
Since I quit, unless I’m under serious stress, I read for 10 minutes and then my eyes are closing and I turn off the lights.
But that wakes me up even more. Especially if I get up and, say, go online or something. I’m a forum addict, and you know how they’re always available, no matter what time of day you decide to log on.
I don’t sleep right either. Just yesterday I slept from 5pm and 1:30am this morning. It’s 6am now.
When I take too long to sleep, I just get up and study or go online, and wait until it’s time to get ready for class. Once I get home I collapse, and then it takes me only 10 minutes to sleep.
exactly! did you mean to say 5pm to 1:30am? if so that would be 8 and a half hours of sleep. if you resist sleeping until say 10pm, then you would sleep until 6:30am. this way, you turn the tables around and try to fight off sleep instead of surrendering to it. the way i see it, better to suffer a day then have several sleepless nights. *
I fall asleep extremely quickly, under almost any circumstances, can sleep through anything, will sleep 10-12 hours if given the opportunity, and am always tired.
As a child, it took me hours and hours to fall asleep, but was always tired. The more things change…
I regularly take thirty minutes to an hour to fall asleep, but I’m getting faster. I have to, to keep up with my fiancee, who regularly takes only a minute or so to fall asleep.
The fastest I’ve ever known her to fall asleep, in fact, is two breaths. She answered a question of mine, then breathed in and exhaled once. The next breath was a snore. I was awed.
Yep. That happens maybe two to three times a week. It’d be more if I had classes on weekends. So basically, my internal clock has basically given up, because I practically give myself jet lag while going nowhere really.
Really though, because of my “lighter” university student schedule (my earliest class is at 8am on Mondays, but on other days, school starts either noon or 3pm), I actually do get a decent amount of sleep (I think I may have said otherwise in a previous post in this thread; if so, I was wrong). BUT… it’s either I get a good number of hours OR I skip sleep altogether, which I do once or twice a week.
This is bad for me isn’t it? I’m going to pay for it in health problems one day aren’t I?
