Does anyone else here have trouble STAYING asleep?

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I'm 16 and I have pretty much had trouble sleeping my whole life. It's not so much a problem falling asleep, but I wake up every 2-4 hours during the night and sometimes I have trouble falling back to sleep. I think that my sleep problems is making me more stressed, anxious, and depressed. Someone suggested melatonin to me and I took 3 mg last night with no effect at all.

Does anyone else have trouble sleeping? I've heard that it's common with people on the spectrum. Would this be considered insomnia? If you have the same problem as me, can you tell me how you deal with it and if you have tried melatonin before? If so, how has it worked? I'm sorry if this has already been talked about. I did a search first, but alot of them were specifically on falling asleep.

I actually do take a while to fall asleep, but I'd say that my problems staying asleep are more of an issue. If I can get so much as four hours of uninterrupted sleep, that's pretty remarkable for me. Usually, I can't go that long without waking up. On a good night, I may only wake up twice. There are nights when I wake up every hour, or even more often than that. I'll sometimes take the generic of Simply Sleep, which is basically Tylenol PM without the acetaminophen. It really doesn't help. Right now, I drink coffee to keep myself semi-alert through the day. That's probably not a good idea at your age, when you're not completely finished growing. I also take a short nap during the day whenever I have time for that in order to take the edge off the fatigue.

I haven't tried melatonin myself, so I don't know how quickly it takes effect. If you keep on taking it, you might notice a change in the near future. It's probably also a good idea not to eat for a few hours before bed. I tend to do this, as I'm hungriest in the evenings, but it's really not a good idea. It might also be a good idea to do something that relaxes you before going to bed. Heh, I should take my own advice.

I wish you luck. I know the frequent awakenings can be exhausting.

Thanks. Well, I've pretty much been drinking coffee since I was 10 years old (not good, I know), but I only have one cup in the morning. I try not to have any more caffeine and stick to water the rest of the day. I've actually been trying to keep a schedule going with my sleep and eating patterns since I was talking to someone before and they said that the fact they are all over the place might be what's making me more anxious and depressed than I need to be (ok, I would rather not have either there, but I have a feeling they aren't going to disappear completely especially since I'm a teenager and all.) I'm not too fond of taking a bunch of pills and stuff, so I would like to find something natural that would help (other than weed. lol.) I've heard melatonin could help, but I've heard it's not good to take it all the time...

I've been trying to get a handle on my sleeping, because my greatest irritation in life is not getting enough sleep. So long as I have a total of 6 hours of sleep (not necessarily consecutive hours), it should be a good day. I prefer 7+, but 6 is my minimum threshold.

I have much more trouble falling asleep than staying asleep, though. I try to understand what circumstances lead to difficulty falling asleep, but usually thinking too hard about that causes trouble of its own. Basically, I just have a hard time not thinking about something I'm excited about, or worried about. It helps A LOT if nothing important is happening the next day. Usually, once I'm asleep, I'm fine. If I do wake up (usually to go to the bathroom), I try to stay in as much of a sleep-like state as possible. I won't open my eyes more than I need to, and I try to think as much as possible about whatever dream I was just having, if I can remember. Thinking about my dream prevents my mind from wandering to "real life" matters, which would probably put me back into a cycle of restlessness. If I'm successful in my attempts to stay as close to sleep as possible, I fall right back asleep as soon as I get back into bed.

By the way, my doctor recommended taking Benadryl as a sleep aid. I don't take it every night, but if I'm worried I might have a tough time falling asleep, I will. It doesn't always work, and it can kick in anywhere from 1-2 hours after I take it, but if I take it at the right time, I'm feeling pretty drowsy by the time I'm headed for bed. I'm not sure if it would help much with waking up in the middle of the night, though.

Everytime I wake up, I end up using the bathroom. I've had bet wetting problems on occasion, so I try to go to the bathroom everytime I wake up. I try not to drink TOO much water before bed or when I'm supposed to be sleeping, but it's really hot and I get thirsty easily. Also, I pee alot in general (they checked for glucose at my last physical and everything came out normal).

Oh, I didn't think to mention, there is one tip I've come up with over the past year or so, which does help me when I wake up. Maybe it could help you too. I've stopped looking at the clock when I wake up. If I do, I start thinking, "OK I've already slept three hours, if I fall asleep again within the next hour, I should be able to sleep at least three more." If I start thinking that, then it is almost certain that I won't fall asleep by the "deadline," and then I'm doomed. That's all kind of part of trying to keep myself in the dream-like state, like I said above. Anything that jars me too strongly back to reality is the death kiss to a good night's sleep.

I have the same problem. Melatonin helps people fall asleep, but it probably wouldn't help you stay asleep. You might want to get checked out for sleep apnea, which can cause people to wake up a lot.

I had trouble staying asleep, for the longest time, and I couldn't figure out, why. I've tweaked a few of my habits. I've quit drinking coffee, and I've banned YouTube, from my apartment, and I've had a really good sleep, last night.

I think I've read that waking up several times a night, or rather half-waking up, is pretty normal, and what causes most distress is the fear to not get enough sleep when you come to in the middle of the night.

I currently have more problems with falling asleep and waking up on time, but what I found out it that simply resting and daydreaming when I can't sleep does help. It doesn't count as much to my sleep time as real sleep does, but it does count. But I can't allow myself to worry during that time!

It could be many things, i've been to a doctor and had my sleeping habit examined, they basically hook you up to a puter that measure breathing, snoring, your body movement, muscle activity and pulse. If you are having severe problems staying asleep you should ask your doctor to do a similar examination.

First thing that comes to mind is sleep apnea. It is usually caused by snoring, and laying on your back which makes your tounge "fall down in your throat" making you wake up and gasp for air. The solution is surgery to move the jaw forward a bit. Or training to sleep on your side.

Second thing: Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS), caused by muscle spasms.

Third thing: Environmental factors such as loud neighbours, vehicles outside your window, intermittent humming from a fridge or whatever that makes a sound.

Fourth thing: a irregular day cycle. If you play games or watch movies deep into the night then you may have problems sleeping during the day because the brain may think it's supposed to be awake.

My doctor said that it was normal to wake up about 5 times each night.

Really? I didn't know it was normal in wake up 5 times in a night. Maybe I'm not too bad after all. I tried 6 mg of melatonin last night instead of 3 mg and I think I slept a little better. I went to bed later than usual though. I'm trying to go to bed at 11 PM, but I went to bed at midnight. I woke up around 4 times I think and 1 or 2 of those were to go to the bathroom. I don't think I ever really woke wide up like I tend to do, so that's good. Oh...and I think I generally do sleep on my side. Or maybe my stomach? I think it's somewhere in between the two...For those of you that have had a sleep study, how was it? Because the idea of being hooked up to a million wires and having people watch my sleep frightens me.

i do

I get "terminal insomnia," which is waking up too early and not being able to go back to sleep. Mercifully at the moment it's only around 6am when I wake. At least I'm not late for work, but it reduces my total sleep time and after a few days like that I start to feel drained. Doesn't happen a lot.....no idea what causes it. Usually lasts about a week.

No problem falling asleep in the first place, usually, and if I do wake it's just to go to the bathroom and I soon fall asleep again.