Has Anyone Conquered Insomnia? page 5

[namelesswonder]

Update: it's been a week now. I've cut my caffeine back from ~120mg to ~60mg per day, and I'm planning to taper it off completely by next week. I also started taking ~8mg of iodine daily (8 drops of 2%). And ... the insomnia is worse than ever!! I started at around 5-6 hours of sleep and now I'm down to 2-3. I'm going to have to cut off this little iodine experiment before I totally lose my mind from lack of sleep!

When do you take the Iodine?

[yodiewan]

You might find the info about segmented/bi-phasic sleep in this thread and the linked articles and MDA post useful: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/forum...tml#post726926

I wake around 3 am every night, but go back to sleep very quickly. Maybe if you change your mindset and see your sleep pattern as normal you can relax and go back to sleep for a few hours.

[KimInGA]

When do you take the Iodine?

I take it first thing in the morning, in a glass of water.

You might find the info about segmented/bi-phasic sleep in this thread and the linked articles and MDA post useful: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/forum...tml#post726926

I wake around 3 am every night, but go back to sleep very quickly. Maybe if you change your mindset and see your sleep pattern as normal you can relax and go back to sleep for a few hours.

I've read about that, and for awhile it was kind of like that - sleep 11-4, awake 4-6, sleep 6-7. Then it's been getting steadily worse until last night it was sleep 11-1:30, awake until the alarm went off at 7. No racing thoughts or anything, just wide awake while feeling too crappy (almost sick) from exhaustion to want to get up and do anything. I noticed that if I wake up and start to feel really hot, like kick-off-every-sheet kind of hot (and I'm normally freezing), that's a sure sign I'll be up for a long time. It's weird, like some kind of reaction that should hit you when it's actually time to wake up, but my body is misfiring and it's going off at the wrong time?? (If that makes sense at all...)

[spuggygirl]

I generally have the same problem.

Valerian tea helped, but then I'd wake up in the night needing to pee.
A low dose of valerian in tablet form didn't work, but a higher dose made me groggy the next day.
Melatonin also makes me groggy.
Cherry juice didn't work.

....however I started taking vitamin D3 a short while ago, firstly in the morning and then I started taking it morning and night (because I couldn't decide which would be best).

It could be complete coincidence, but I've had 3 full nights of sleep on the trot - for the first time in many months.

[KimInGA]

I generally have the same problem.

Valerian tea helped, but then I'd wake up in the night needing to pee.
A low dose of valerian in tablet form didn't work, but a higher dose made me groggy the next day.
Melatonin also makes me groggy.
Cherry juice didn't work.

....however I started taking vitamin D3 a short while ago, firstly in the morning and then I started taking it morning and night (because I couldn't decide which would be best).

It could be complete coincidence, but I've had 3 full nights of sleep on the trot - for the first time in many months.

I will try ANYTHING! How much vitamin D3? I take 2000iu every day.

[dmc]

Someone may have mentioned this already (I didn't read all the responses) but I would recommend acupuncture. I used to wake up between 2-4 am every morning without fail. Also had bad night sweats. Now, I sleep like a baby. I do think that I had adrenal fatigue, which was contributing to my bad sleeping.

[Laconophile]

When do you eat? Try eating smaller meals during the day and one large meal a couple hours before bed.

[tfarny]

I have had off and on sleep problems my whole life. My last SAD year it was awful, and interfering with daily function. I now feel that #1 is booze, #2 is not going to bed upset, #3 is general stress levels. Super dark and quiet bedroom are necessities of course. Finally, if I am WIDE awake at 4 am, knowing I won't get back to bed, I just get up and start my day.
Coffee, magnesium, melatonin, blah blah, tried them all. If I don't drink and go to bed feeling good about my world I generally sleep like a baby until I naturally wake - sometimes 9 hours. I'm still on magnesium most every night but I don't actually notice a difference with it. I also feel that the hangover from sleeping pills is not worth the extra sleep unless it's an extreme case.

[KimInGA]

Someone may have mentioned this already (I didn't read all the responses) but I would recommend acupuncture. I used to wake up between 2-4 am every morning without fail. Also had bad night sweats. Now, I sleep like a baby. I do think that I had adrenal fatigue, which was contributing to my bad sleeping.

That sounds just like me!! So you attribute your sound sleep now to acupuncture? I've never tried it. How often, and how long of sessions (assuming it's like a massage where you choose 30 min, 1 hour, etc.)?

[athomeontherange]

nixing the caffeine and a new mattress have done wonders for me