Get some books on sleep hygiene and see if they have suggestions on things you haven’t tried yet.
One thing that occurred to me: if you’re lying in bed and can’t fall asleep, do you get up after a short period of time and do something else? The sensation of “I’m in bed, got to sleep, CAN’T sleep, stressing about it” can be very counterproductive.
It looks like a lot of the time, you’re waking too early. Can you think of anything that specifically triggers the wakeups? full bladder? unusual noise? something else? Try to think of, and address, anything like that.
I used to have a lot of trouble with waking up at night for a bathroom break, then staggering back to bed - and my mind would start cranking on something stressful. Nowadays, I keep my iPod on the nightstand, and turn on a podcast. Nothing too interesting or that will keep me awake. I find that science / history podcasts work well. This is similar to the suggestion another poster made about using a talk radio station.
Watch for caffeine (or analogues) hidden in places you don’t expect. Chocolate, for example, or combination painkillers that include caffeine as a booster (e.g. Excedrin).
Avoid alcohol. While it may make you fall asleep more quickly, it’ll give you poorer quality sleep and you’ll wake up sooner. The handful of times (literally 2 or 3) I tried it for this purpose, I found this to be quite true.
See the doctor and consider a short course of a sleep aid such as Ambien or Sonata or one of the others. Those can backfire of course - either unwanted behavior while on the medication, or rebound insomnia when you stop. However - it’s possible that a few days of one of these will let you get a couple of nights of decent sleep - breaking the cycle of “gotta sleep, gonna worry about sleeping, gonna keep awake because I’m so worried about sleeping, now I’m trashed and even more stressed”.
Yes - there are sleep doctors - and I agree the OP should look into finding one.
However :::dons devil’s advocate cap::: a sleep study might not be the right thing to do right off the bat.
I suspect the OP has trouble sleeping when things Aren’t Quite Right. And as a veteran of quite a few sleep studies, when you’re in a strange place on an uncomfortable bed, unable to move around, with wires everywhere and someone watching and listening in on you… things are most definitely Not Quite Right. I found that this limited the usefulness of the data they got for me. In my case, they failed to detect my apnea - despite knowing I tended to quit breathing at night - through 3 separate studies.
A specialist will, however, have you keep a sleep diary including noting when you are in bed, when you’re actually sleeping, any medications you may take (and when), etc. and look at those patterns. I found that enlightening.
I’m considering starting to take melatonin after reading this article: http://www.purematters.com/herbs-supplements/m/melatonin I’m not the most sciencey person in the world, so don’t assume I know a lot or anything, and maybe “hormone of darkness” is a little melodramatic, but it’s worth a shot, right? Either way, don’t ever give up!
Get up and do some housework. It’s probably been a while since you washed the shelves in the refrigerator or scrubbed the baseboards, right?
I have literally done this. If you can’t sleep, at least you get a clean house! But honestly, just the thought of getting up and doing some work is often enough to cause me to lose consciousness.
Stress can be a sleep thief, you might not even realize your stress level, but your subconscious does. Also, as stated above, being physically tired goes a long way.
I have the opposite problem, I sometimes have trouble telling myself I need to go to bed, usually 'cause I don’t want to have to face what I have to do the next day ;).
Other things to try could be to change mattresses or nightclothes. Perhaps there is a level of discomfort that is interfering with sleep. See if you can try the night in someone else’s bed (sleepover!), especially if they have a different mattress (harder, softer, different material, whatever). Also consider what you are actually wearing to bed (nothing, pajamas, nightgown, etc). Try something different (e.g. if you normally wear pajamas, try a nightgown or try to sleep naked). Try a different fabric than what you normally wear (e.g. silk instead of flannel).
I used to take forever to fall asleep, wake up a few hours later and take forever to go back to sleep.
I started falling asleep listening to an audiobook (something with a low-key narrator*).
If I wake up, like I did at 4 this am, I listen to more of the book until I drift off. And if I don’t, at least I’m entertained while I’m waiting.
I’ve figured it out: the book (or podcast) keeps me from thinking about my problems (with the resultant adrenaline rush).
** stay away from readers that shout or vary their volume a lot. But anything read by Tony Britton or Simon Prebble (any Dick Francis novel) or George Guidell (“The Cat Who…” books) or Frank Muller (does a somnambulent Tale of Two Cities). As for podcasts, anything from How Stuff Works.*
Works for me perfectly – my doc is pleasantly surprised that I can wake up with no residual fogginess.
But I keep trying to sleep without it, and going with straight audiobooks.
Seriously - I’ve known for years that if I have something not-TOO-fascinating on the TV (Discovery Channel and the like are good), it helps me fall asleep. Since getting an iPod, that’s my drug of choice. I too would wake up in the middle of the night to make sure the toilet still worked, go back to bed, and the mind would start racing.
I actually use podcasts vs. audiobooks (though I’ve used them as well). My sleep specialists actually recommend stuff like this. Has to be something, like the TV, interesting but not fascinating.
One thing I don’t generally have trouble with is falling asleep at bedtime, now that my RLS is adequately medicated (that is if I take the med early enough to stop the twitchies). Otherwise I’m in that twilight zone, not quite asleep, and tap dancing.
