• Replies 1 reply
  • Subscribers 79 subscribers
  • Views 507 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

How long does it take you to get to sleep?

Hope

It usually takes me up to two hours before I fall asleep, and I am a light sleeper - easily woken. Age 9/10 I had a period where I struggled with sleep, but this resolved itself. As a teenager, I began sleeping normally again on most days, apart from when I was extra stressed due to exams.  However, in the last couple of years I have never seemed to fall asleep easily, and am often quite tired. This could be put down to anxiety, but my mind cannot switch off at all easily.

 

  • Hi Hope,

    I too have very similar sleep problems and have done since my teenage years. It usually takes me at least an hour to fall asleep, sometimes two or more, and I too am a light sleeper suffering "nocturnal wakenings" (often around 3 or 4 in the morning).

    As a teenager I tried counting sheep which was semi-successful. I could tell when it was working because as I visualised the sheep jumping over a style, my mind would start playing tricks like making them trip or bounce off invisible glass (which I interpreted as my mind getting so bored with the repetition it was trying to create something interesting). However I found if I reached 100 it wouldn't work, and I also found it very boring and an effort.

    I also tried self hypnosis, which again was semi-successful sometimes.

    I am aware it has something to do with not being able to "switch my mind off", and is also stress related (although even when unstressed it's rarely less than an hour before I nod off). When I awake in the middle of the night, sometimes I am afraid I will not be able to get back to sleep (and that is always a "self fulfilling prophecy!).

    I have found the best way for me to return to slumber is actually to lie there and think "I am so grateful to be awake right now in this total silence, it is blissful". That can send me back to sleep almost instantly. Unfortunately if I can hear my neighbours television, a clock ticking or a fly buzzing I really struggle.

    Fortunately since the mid 90's my psychiatrist and then GP have prescribed diazepam, which I don't take habitually but do take relatively regularly. I can't say it provides the best of sleep, and sometimes creates the strangest of dreams, however I've learned to accept there are some people who are asleep as soon as their heads touch the pillow whilst people like myself have to add extra time to get to sleep in the knowledge that it's a "process" for me.

    Also at times of very severe stress I find I have walked in my sleep, it is very rare, but apparently according to my mother, my father was also a somnambulist.

    Best wishes,
    Dream