Insomnia. Hyper-focusing late at night.

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I have REALLY bad insomnia. I do not know how to "turn down my thoughts”, relax and go to sleep. I have tried so many "remedies"...sleepy-time tea, honey, milk, lettuce, herbal sleeping pills, melatonin etc, and so many techniques for sleeping better. Nothing seems to work.

Sometimes I lay in bed for four hours just thinking...or fantasizing. When this happens I usually get up and do something, as conventional wisdom seems to dictate, rather than forcing myself to try and sleep. The problem is that it is I tend to start hyper-focusing on reading, or surfing the internet late at night, because no-one is around to disturb me. I end up staying up all night half the time! I am SO tired during the day because of it, and when I don't have school, I sleep in past noon. I know this throws my whole circadian rhythm out of whack, and makes my insomnia worse, but I can't seem to escape this bad cycle

Can anyone else relate to this? Any suggestions?

My insomnia used to be terrible. I used to stay up for days at a time and just not be able to sleep. I am pretty much like what you describe now, except that it happens for about a week on and a week off. I wish I could be of help on remedies, but I have tried them all so I am not much help to you.

I have had insomnia for most of my life. I find that I get insomnia more often if I am stressed, but diet also plays a part. Today I think mostly it was too much sugar, or at least too much of it over the span of a few days.

It is hard to slow down and sleep if you have a lot of nervous energy. Instead of taking the advice I am about to give you, I have been watching shows on Hulu... not helpful. So, to sleep... Well, the best thing really is drinking a warm drink with little or no sugar in it. Listen to some very relaxing music (relaxing to you, it really depends on the person and even sometimes on that person's mood at the time). Get comfortable in bed, not to go to sleep yet, just to feel relaxed and comforted. Slowly starting with the tips of your toes imagine your whole body relaxing. You let go of the tension in your toes, up to your feet, from your feet to your ankles, to your calves. Just slowly but surely release the muscles in your body.

It is not a race, you are not in a hurry. Just do that all the way up to your head, relax the muscles in your face. The whole time just breathing normally as if you were not in a rush to do anything.

Sometimes that is the only way I can make myself pass out. Sometimes I am stubborn and do things the hard way staying up all night websurfing and talking to random people on the internet. *boggle*

I have this same problem, although to a lesser degree than you, i can usually manage to get to sleep by midnight, or 3am on my worst nights, but that combines with my iron deficiency makes me very tired during the day. Although probably not helpful to you, i find caffeine(energy drinks, coffee) several hours before i would like to go to sleep to sometimes help, caffeine affects me really badly, and the 'crash' can help me sleep. As i said though, not always helpful, sometimes makes it worse (as you'd expect caffeine to), and probably not in your case.

I am exactly the same, at around 8 pm I come back from work, relax, try to empty my head, then start playing videogames but with poor attention, then I usually watch some TV to try to de-hyper and go to bed. I try to sleep at abouy 1 and boom, no sleep at all, I feel as awake as ever and I start playing videogames full focus forgetting everything else. I usually quit at 5 / 6 because I force myself to, wake up at 11/ 12 half stoned and afternoon at work. Idk, the night feels so good, it's like all the nuisances are off and I can really do what I want.

I can definitely relate. I have the most bizarre sleeping patterns. For example the past few weeks I have been sleeping at the most random times; i.e. one day I go to bed at 1pm and wake up and 8pm, or I may sleep after being awake for two days. I have spent many nights just lying in bed for 3 hours or more trying to fall asleep.

But here are some suggestions that seem to work for me, hopefully they are helpful for others:

1. Keeping a schedule. I find in the summer time when my school load is greatly diminished and I do not have to wake up early for classes that my sleeping patterns become very random.
2. Physical exercise. 20-30 minutes a day of some physical activity (early in the day, NOT a few hours before going to bed) seems to get me physically tired and helps with my stress levels.
3. Set an eating schedule. I know this may sound absurd, but going to bed on full stomach doesn't work (since your body is actively metabolizing the food). But I find that if you go to bed hungry that can be even worse. Make sure you've eaten (something snacked sized) a few hours before going to bed.
4. Turn off and preferably unplug all electronics. They emit a frequency which can be detectable to those with more sensitive hearing.
5. For those sensitive to sound, for me unanticipated bangs or any other sounds give me a rush of adrenaline making it almost impossible to continue sleeping/falling asleep. For this problem I counteract it by a water fall I have in my room (it's a consistent and soothing sound for me)
6. If all these tips don't work for you I'd suggest getting the Natura sound therapy program. It has a bunch of different programs (i.e. falling asleep, lucid dreaming, relaxation etc) that emit sound waves (ie. alpha waves) with other soothing sound effects.



Hope this helps!

My mom decided, while she was pregnant with me, that I must be from another planet, since I didn't have a normal circadian rhythm..

I haven't having sleeping problems but I think I have gotten better when I started taking sleeping medication. Now I'm out but I hope I can still sleep without it. I just need to get to bed when I'm tired and not stay up but I get so into the computer I don't want to stop. It was easier when I was a kid to stop what I was doing because I had a mother who pushed me and threatened me with punishments if I didn't get to bed so it made me do it. As a teen I used to stay up until I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore. Now I don't have that anymore so I have to make myself go to bed. It helps to lie down and close my eyes and I eventually get tired when I'm on the couch.

I also have to take medication to go to sleep. my body and mind just do not accept the concept of sleep being good for them.

Yeah I've had this problem a lot of my life, lately has been really bad so had to get some meds to help out.

I usually put on a 60 minute TV show, from the Tivo, that I really like, but that I've already recently watched. I keep the sound down to where I can barely hear it. It distracts me from thinking about other things, but doesn't keep me awake trying to follow the plot.

I always fall asleep part way through.

Or, I start a really really difficult sudoku puzzle, get to the part where you just stare at it for an hour trying to find the next move, and then pass out drooling on the puzzle.

The TV trick is usually the best way for me.

Anything that's relatively engaging, without actually requiring engagement.

If I'm in hyperfocus, it can take up a lot of initiative to up and go to bed. If I'm coding something, I'll make a deal with myself that if I just get it "working," I can go to bed. On nights like these, my mind does have a tendency to race if I don't have some wind-down time before I try to sleep.

I've never had chronic insomnia, though.