Question by Red Death 266: I have the hardest time falling a sleep I’ve taking sleeping pills?
But it still takes hours to fall a sleep what will help me fall a sleep The pills keep me a sleep once I fall a sleep but they don’t make me sleepy
Best answer:
Answer by Bailey
Its not healthy to take sleeping pills for more than a few nights.
Your body is getting used to them, so they will be even LESS effective than they are now.
Try doing some strenuous activity before bedtime. Workout, go for a run, etc. Then take a warm bath.
It works for me, and I have the worst insomnia ever.
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if you want to feel sleepy read something until your eyes is tired and do not go to bed unless you are about to sleep and when you feel that you are not sleeping watch television shows or read something
Here’s a few things to try…
1. Try exercising an hour before going to bed. Tiring yourself out is a good way of getting sleepy.
2. Reading can also be helpful. Reading strains the eyes and will naturally tire you out, which will also make you want to go to sleep.
3. Try listening to some relaxing music. It will help drown out any thoughts that are swirling around inside your head that’s keeping you awake.
4. Drink a glass of warm milk before going to bed. Warm milk contains tryptophan, the same substance found in turkeys that makes you sleepy after eating it. It should also be helpful.
5. Cut down on your sugar and caffeine intake. That may be one of the reasons why you’re awake.
I am sympathetic. I have the same problem. I have recently been taking natural sleeping pills which seem to help. Dr. Whitaker on the Internet. Look into his catalog. I also take a small dose of Melatonin which helps. This too is natural. Good luck.
If you have been taking alot of sleeping pills, or taking them for a long time, they may be part of what is keeping you up.’
I only have a few suggestions because there could be 1000 reasons that someone can’t sleep, but the first would be to take an inventory of myself and see if something is bothering me that I feel guilty of, hurt about, responsible for or really need to do. If everything is all good there, then maybe you could try to exercise about a 1/2 before your normal nighttime ritual (brushing teeth, etc). (3) Reading works for me, it is a strain on your eyes and after a long day it usually doesn’t take long for my eyes to get tired and off I go. (4) Meditate, don’t think of “things to do”, you can’t get them done right then so don’t worry about them right then. (5) Watch Infomercials on television, they are sure to bore you to sleep. lol
I really can’t think of much more but I hope you get some good sleep soon.
I have a few other questions for you.
1. If you delay going to sleep will you go to sleep eventually?
2. If left alone would you then sleep from say 3 am till mid day?
If either of the two above are true you may have sleep phase delay, a circadian rhythm disorder. The best way to combat this is to go to bed 1hr later every second night until you have worked you way around the clock, ie you go to bed at 3 am for two nights then 4 am for two nights then 5 am etc.
Some other things, despite suggestions above do NOT excercise any closer than 2 hrs before going to bed, infact excercise in the morning will improve your sleep.
Only go to bed when you feel sleepy
If you have been in bed for more than 45 minutes and still have not fallen asleep get out of bed and do something boring and return to bed when you feel sleepy.
Keep your bedroom as dark and as quiet as possible
Try a hot bath or shower before going to bed, as we fall asleep the body’s inner core temp drops having the hot bath or shower fools the brain into thinking there has been this temperature drop.
Yes the old wofes tale of warm milk before bed does work as well.
Have a regular routine same time to bed and (more importantly) same time up each day even on weekends.
Keep the bedroom for the three S’s, Sleep, Sex and Sickness, if you have a TV, computer etc in the bedroom take them out of there. Also read in a comfortable chair not in bed, you are training the mind to realise that when you go into the bed you are there to go to sleep.
Recent non sedating sleeping pills have been approved for long term use make sure you are taking such a sleep aid.
Stay away from melatonin, it is impossible to know just how much melatonin is in the capsules, we did an assay a few years ago and found pills all the way from no melatonin to three times the stated level. They were then banned in Canada.
If the problems persist get your doc to refer you to a sleep specialist, and make sure it is a psychologist that deals with insomnia, you also need to make sure that there is no underlying medical condition that is delaying your sleep one example is restelss leg syndrome (RLS), the signs of this are a creepy crawly feeling in your legs in the evening, with afeeling that you have to move your legs, this can cause insomnia.
Also check out the national sleep foundation web page at http://www.sleepfoundation.org make sure however that on the internet you are reading things from reputable sites anyone can put up a web page and put anything that they want on it. Sleep unfortunately is becoming a huge business and snake oil salesmen still prevail with many of them gravitating towards sleep.
Don’t eat late and exercise helps.