I’ve had insomnia since being a kid, have been to a couple of doctors, taken drugs, etc. but nothing has helped. The problem is that I’m a VERY light sleeper and will waken at any noise, change of temperature, movement, etc. I wake up an average of 20 times a night. I probably sleep a respectable six to seven hours in total, but this is poor quality and I’m always tired the next day. The longest I’ve ever slept (uninterrupted) is three hours, after having been awake all night on a flight.
Has anybody had this problem? Does anybody have any suggestions? I haven’t found anything useful online, and of course I’ve come across all the suggestions about good “sleep hygiene”. (And just to clarify, I’m not asking for medical advice, just for personal experiences, etc.)
I have much the same problem, and no answer for it. Although, the older I get, the easier it is to sleep until the bladder wakes me. I do sleep continuously, for the most part, but I’m still extremely easily woken, and I fear I don’t get good quality sleep most of the time.
Don’t disregard sleep hygiene out of hand - I read somewhere that any light in your bedroom will make it difficult for your body to make the serotonin that keeps you asleep - even the light from your bedside clock is too much light. I sleep in a very dark room, with my clockface covered over, and I think it has made a difference.
Another thing that has made a huge difference in my sleeping patterns has been learning to meditate. I tell this to everyone who has insomnia/trouble sleeping, and I always get the same response - no real response at all. I wish I could make people understand how much meditation has helped my sleeping abilities - on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being chronic insomnia and 10 being sleeping like the dead every night, I went from about a 3 to about an 8.5. I still wake up in the night, but I don’t CARE any more, because I know I’ll fall right back to deep sleep again.
If you’re serious about sleeping better, get your room dark and try meditating.
Some types of insomnia are familial/genetic. (sorry, I don’t have a cite) I read a study, several years ago about the genetics of sleep patterns. It said that most people are “larks.” They sleep best from late evening to early morning. They take less than 30 minutes to fall asleep. They move, and turn without waking, and are unaware of stimulus in their environment.
Then there are the “owls,” who sleep best late at night to mid morning. They take from 45 minutes to 2 hours to fall asleep. Their sleep cycles are shorter than the larks’ and they have less tolerance for external stimulation. (noise, light, heat, cold) They tend to move less often during sleep, often awakening when they turn over. As infants, they don’t follow the normal pattern of sleeping through the night after a few weeks, but wake once or more a night consistantly.
Unfortunately, the article didn’t have any suggestions for turning an owl into a lark.
Thanks for the comments. Featherlou, about meditating - do you do it during the day or just before you fall asleep? In your opinion is going to classes necessary, or is it something I could learn myself (with a good book or DVD)? I agree with you about the dark room - when I sleep in a room that’s not dark it’s always much worse. I also like to have a source of “white noise” if possible.
I’m not a light sleeper – that is, once I’m asleep I do not wake up easily. My biggest problem for most of my adult life has been getting to sleep. If I’m not dog-tired such that even the counting sheep have retired before my head hits the pillow, I will have trouble getting to sleep. Any slightest noise, any minor physical disturbance (an itch, a hair touching my face, the wife moving beside me, etc.) will disturb me even if my body was seconds away from a good deep sleep.
One thing that I found that helps is having a desk or floor fan on. It doesn’t necessarily have to be pointed at me (though in that period of spring when it’s warm but before the building has engaged the AC, it’s really nice) as long as it’s on and in my immediate vicinity. The consistent white noise generated by the fan helps to drown out the vast majority of the little nocturnal noises you’d otherwise hear. (This is doubly good if you have nocturnal pets) The noise also gives my mind something constant to focus on, which drowns out all the mental meandering one’s mind sometimes does like a willful child who refuses to be put down for the night. I have mine pointed towards me most of the time (unless it’s too cold) because I also find that the light breeze is soothing and helps to allow me to regulate my body temperature better. If I’m slightly too warm I’ll expose a leg or arm from under the covers to help cool off. If I’m slightly too cold I’ll completely cover myself or turn the fan away.
All of this goes a long way to helping me actually shut out my own mind and the rest of the world in order to get down to the business of sleeping. YMMV of course.
Have you ever tried sleeping with earplugs or ear muffs? It sounds strange, but I’ve had to do it before and it helped, although those were just times when I was working nights and had to sleep during the day in a loud environment. I’ve even slept with ear plugs in, under ear muffs.
My wife can’t sleep if there’s any light or noise in the room. She often sleeps with an eyemask so I can watch tv (with sound off and subtitles on) before falling asleep.
Yes - I use earplugs almost every night. I usually try to start without them, but when my partner starts snoring in they go. And fans definitely help - that was the “white noise” I was referring to. But my problem is not just about these external things - I have read extensively about insomnia and tried controlling the environment, etc. I just sleep very lightly - almost as if part of my brain is still alert. It’s as if I’m in “sleep” mode on the computer instead of “shut down”. When I wake up I always know what time it is (usually within 10 minutes, but often down to the minute). Also, I always remember all my dreams, and even the order in which I dreamt them.
You can definitely learn to meditate on your own (there are tons of good books on mindfulness meditation), but a class wouldn’t be a bad idea, either. I don’t even meditate any more (which I should - there’s no better stress-reliever) - my mind and body have learned the relaxation response, and all I have to do is take a few mindful breaths, and my body relaxes from head to toe, and my mind stops worrying and allows me to fall asleep.
I’ll give you an example of how powerful this is - my husband and I went through a rough patch a little while ago. We were having an argument while lying in bed, and I got so mad I was lying there shaking. I decided that I had had enough arguing, being mad, and being awake, so I started mindful breathing, and in about ten minutes I was asleep. And I slept just fine.
I’m just like you Alex_, well, sleep-pattern wise anyway. I am also a VERY light sleeper, just the dog shaking his head and flapping his ears will wake me up. I bought an “air purifier” ( I know, but it makes good white noise) and that has helped a little, but I am lucky to get 3 hours of uninterrupted sleep in a row.
I’ve always been a fairly light sleeper , but it has definitely gotten worse in the past 6 months.
I know you’re not looking for medical advice from the internet, which is wise. You might, however, want to seek medical advice from a doctor. There are medical conditions which create disturbed sleep, including sleep apnea and depression. It’s generally best, IMHO, to rule out any physical, medical problem before looking to “tips ‘n’ tricks”. Not only is a dark room, white noise machine and earplugs not going to cure sleep apnea, trying everything under the sun BUT a sleep study may delay treatment of the actual problem.
That’s not to say I think people should run to the doctor for everything without trying to help themselves, but you do sound as if you’ve tried several things without great response, and sleep problems just aren’t really self-diagnosable. If the docs find nothing, oh well. At least you know you’re not going to die from an undiagnosed condition and can then try other things.
My mom’s been an ultra-light sleeper for years (like 30 years or more of trying masks, earplugs, white noise, different sleep schedules, etc), and has recently found great sucess with Lunesta. My mother-in-law found out she has sleep apnea, and a CPAP makes all the difference in the world. Neither of these are do-it-yourself fixes.
Herbally, there’s nothing better than a nice cup of chamomile and passionflower tea before bedtime. Soporific (“make sleepy”) without being sedative (“make groggy”).
I support the idea of talking to a doctor. If you have a Sleep Disorders clinic in your town, see if you can get a referral for an overnight sleep study. I am also a “light sleeper” and, from my sleep study, I found out that I have moderate to severe sleep apnea, waking up 25 times an hour because I stop breathing. My oxygen level gets down to 74% several times a night. I have none of the typical “risk factors”: I’m not overweight and I don’t snore. So you might want to check that out. It could be one reason you aren’t getting a good night’s sleep.
Another light (that’s rather oxymoronic, since I can NOT sleep if it’s light!) sleeper here, and my way of dealing with it:
I remind myself that I’ve had sleepless nights before, and have survived with no ill effect.
I remind myself that rest, while it isn’t as effective as actual sleep, is better than not resting at all.
And then I try to find something interesting to think about – possible quilt designs? a new way to turn a sock heel? potential game changes (on an internet game I favor)? – to keep my mind from angsting about the lack of sleep.
note: When I say “interesting”, I explicitly do NOT mean anything work related. If I find my brain drifting into “serious” areas, I yank myself back to “pleasant”. Heck, if I’m going to think during what should be sleep time, it may as well be about something fun!
Sorry for the late response - I’ve been away. For WhyNot and and JillGat, I already have been to doctors about the problem (I mentioned this in the intial post, but guess I didn’t elaborate enough - this is actually my first thread and I wasn’t sure how much of the boring details to go into). Anyway, all physical things such as sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, narcolepsy, etc. have been ruled out through a sleep study. The last doctor said this was a learned response (the way new parents sometimes sleep very lightly) but the only solution he had was to write down anything that was worrying me and leave the paper outside the bedroom door. I tried that and it didn’t help, but that didn’t surprise me as I don’t usually have sleep-onset insomnia; it rarely takes me more than an hour to fall asleep, and when I wake during the night I usually fall right back asleep after a few minutes. In fact, as I wake up about 20 times, that means that I must fall asleep 20 times as well, so I am an expert at getting to sleep! I just need to stay that way long enough for deep sleep to occur and to have that HGH (human growth hormone) released.
Thanks quilter and August West for your comments - it’s nice to know I’m not alone in my suffering!
I’m another person who sleeps with a fan on as it provides a nice low white noise that prevents external noise distracting me from dropping off but doesn’t trigger my tinnitus. I also made myself a sleep mask to block out every single last speck of light, which has really made a difference. I experimented with mattresses and found that foam mattresses suit me better than sprung, and help me drop off sooner, so bought a cheapy rip-off version of a tempur mattress on eBay - Foam mattresses are supposed to prevent people having to change position as much when trying to sleep, which has been my experience. I’ve invested in good, high threadcount sheets and pillows that support me in the way I like them to (buckwheat all the way for me). I had to do all this in dribs and drabs as I couldn’t afford it all in one go but my aim is ultimate bed comfort that helps me drift off all the sooner and keep me asleep as long as possible. So far, it’s made a huge difference.
For nights when absolutely nothing’s working, I use my Brain Machine. They’re fairly expensive so again I searched on eBay till I found a secondhand one for cheaper. It doesn’t exactly send me off instantly, but definitely leaves me feeling relaxed and turns the million thoughts keeping me awake off. It’s supposed to be a form of instant deep meditation, so learning to meditate is probably a more cost effective option.