i think alot aswell, but i learned to focus my thinking on breathing and fall asleep within few mins

if you play chess, watching chess videos (live screen shots of chess online - either via youtube, chessvideos.tv, or chessFM) put me out in 5 minutes - I put the netbook on my chest, start watching a 5 minute blitz game and I'm snoring before it's done (after I remember to remove the netbook and turn over)

Replace "play chess" and "watching chess videos" with "masturbate" and "watching porn".

Ya sometimes I do a meditation counting backwards from 100 to help me out with sleeping but it seems to have a coinflip chance of working. If I reach 1 I know I have a long night ahead.

I have loads of problems getting to sleep, but I have it to a manageable point now.

1. Ambien, Temazepan. Can't get Ambien in Canada AFAIK, but I have used Temazepan with a fair amount of success. It's the only sleeping pill I haven't built up a tolerance to in a couple days and I don't get the random crazy hangovers like I do from benzos.

2. Take a bath or a shower. I work as a cook, and after a 12-14 hour day of standing on a hard tile floor, I'm usually pretty sore and this helps relax my muscles and stops my brain from running fifty million miles a minute.

3. Nature sounds. I don't know why, but the sound of thunder storms is ridiculously calming to me. I never sleep better than I do in the middle of a big storm.

iv had bad sleeping problems since high school, iv had some scripts of ambien but you build up a tolerance and stop staying asleep for long. The last couple months have been brutal for me, i pulled like 2 all nighters in my life till this year and this year things have just been awful twice in the last 2 weeks iv had 2 nights in a row where i literally didnt sleep for one sec just layed in bed forever it was horrible. I think maybe it has something to do with benzo withdrawal i was taking alot of xanax (recreationally) to chill out and it always made me sleep eventually, but the tolerance in that got built up quicker than anything in my life by far, i went from passing out on one bar (2mg) to literally taking 5 bars and not feeling it hardly at all within a month of pretty heavy use..once that happened a couple times i stopped getting them obviously I don't want to od or anything (im a small guy), but the really bad sleeping problems started around the same time. I got prescribed lorazepam but that is basically just weak xanax so obviously i was out of that in like 5 days...it will be back to ambien in a month but i was on that for 6 months before and iv always felt bad about taking it because i usually just end up waiting for the high feeling and by then the medicine is wearing down..the best solution by far is making sure to exercise, its always been that simple for me, its just really hard to exercise after a night of not sleeping at all, my body is exhausted and my mind literally hurts, I just took a test today after not sleeping for past 2 nights and i could tell I couldnt recall things very well..its definitely a self fulfilling prophecy RE laying in bed forever I have nights where i just sit there and try to close my mind i do pretty good just breathing heavy and counting down from 500 but by the time i get to zero im just pissed off that im still awake..i dont have any answers basically

o yea and i remember getting trazadone (sp?) in hs and it knocked me out real well when i took it but i felt groggy in the morning and it didnt get me high so being the dumb **** i am it wouldnt do of course. I might try Seraquil next iv heard good things


csb

Both these posts touch on meditation-like techniques, which I've found to be key for getting to sleep. The trick is to learn all sorts of them and to switch it up every now and then.

I've found that focusing solely on breathing can work if I'm mildly stressed, but not if I'm anxious to the point of having a headache, sweating, heart racing, etc. The only solution at that point, for me, is to do what Jon Kabat-Zinn calls a "body scan."

The body scan is essentially a process of focusing on individual muscle groups in your body, noting any muscle tension, and consciously 'letting go' of said tension. You do this for every 'sector' of your body in sequence -- a full 'scan' if you will. I usually go foot to head.

While focused on a particular part of my body, I'll imagine that that part is actually doing the breathing, not my lungs. For headaches, I visualize a big hole on the top of my head. Every time I breathe in, a blue stream of air enters my skull and swirls around my brain; and when I breathe out, the blue stream turns green and flows upward through the hole, carrying muscle tension out along with it. Same sorts of imagery for other body parts. The point of this is to really get into the moment. Counting is fine, but it leaves room for the mind to wander. The visualizations require more focus, which encourages deeper relaxation.

By the end of a scan I'm so relaxed and my mind is so calm that I have no issue getting to sleep. I've heard tons of positive feedback from friends about this technique, too, so I'm pretty sure it's not just black magic.

If you want to learn more about it I highly recommend Kabat-Zinn's book Full Catastrophe Living. This is not cheesy new-age bull****, and Zinn is well qualified to speak on stress reduction. Professor of medicine @ UMass, ran a stress/pain reduction clinic there, and based the entire program on 'mindfulness'. If you read up on the success rates at that clinic you'll find an excellent record.

I'm sure if you just google "body scan" you will find all sorts of stuff too.

the psychiatrist at my school gave me a cd to listen too that has someone explaining the "body scan" thing in a soft voice with a buddhist chant at the end..its about 15 mins long, i didnt know it was a common technique. Has not worked for me although it does make me feel more relaxed. But like I said before my lack of sleep lately might be some withdrawal issues that are inevitable idk

I was recently prescribed ambien. If you have ever had problems with addiction or substance abuse I would highly recommend staying away from ambien. I built up a tolerance pretty quickly and it didn't take long for me to cross the using it recreationally instead of medicinally line.

Now I'm just trying my best to follow the tips earlier ITT. The biggest for me is just making myself wake up after ~8 hours. Since I don't have a real job and don't have to keep a certain schedule (tough life, I know) it's easy for me to sleep 10 hours and then stay awake for 20 hours.

Yeah drugs are a game-changer. I'm speaking as someone who looked into this stuff specifically to avoid the meds route, so YMMV if you're already past that point.

I put in-ear headphones in that I find comfortable, listen to an audiobook at a very low volume, fall asleep pretty quick. Its like have someone read you to sleep. And ipod/iphone have an off timer so that it doesn't play in your ear all night.

Smoke a Doob.

In my early twenties several years went by where I was unable to go into a deep sleep and never have dreams at night. I saw a psychiatrist and he gave me Trazadone. It's an old school anti-depressant that is rarely used for depression anymore, but was widely prescribed off-label for insomnia. I used it off and on for a while with amazing results and finally started having dreams again. I don't have sleep problems anymore, but I suggest looking into it.

When I was depressed in college after breaking up with my gf, I couldn't sleep for a whole semester. It was pretty hellish.

anyone have experience with ambien on planes? i've never taken it before and i have a bunch of 5mg pills and a ten hour jfk to israel on monday. one or two of the 5mg (5'11 158)?

so if i wake up a couple hours before i have to but am wide awake, should i get up or go back to bed?

listening to sounds helps me fall asleep quite a bit, sometimes i fall asleep listening to ebooks

probably could find something narrated by morgan freeman

two..iv never been prescribed the 5 mg and im smaller than that

This has been working pretty great for me for the last week. Sleep timer is a must though.

solid, thanks. i'm gonna take two tonight too just to make sure everything goes ok.

I like to let audiobooks play all night while I sleep. I think I'm absorbing information.

I would recommend Cannabis. If you live in California you can get a medical card from a doctor.