I know for a fact that I'm not the only person on Mene who suffers from this particular problem. That being said, how many of you frequently flirt with sleep, only to find that it's not meant to be? How many of you spend time staring at the wall, or the ceiling, or counting sheep, or glaring at a bottle of melatonin? Are you in camp 'has trouble falling asleep' or camp 'has trouble staying asleep?'

Here's a better question: What, if anything, helps you sleep?

I find that, while I generally have trouble sleeping, the whole process is made a bit easier if I have a window cracked open. Double points if it's raining. Being out in direct sunlight for long periods of time also tends to drain me something fierce, which helps (even if it doesn't entirely solve the problem overall). It's a pity that I don't care to spend long periods of time in the sun...

I've heard good things about melatonin. Unfortunately, it wasn't for me. Tried it during college for a few weeks (took a capsule an hour or two before bed), upped the dosage when it wasn't doing the trick, and finally abandoned it to look for other solutions. The goal here, of course, being to avoid the use of sleeping pills (I don't really relish the idea of becoming dependent on something like that).

Post insomnia stories and sleep strategies/aids below.

I have always had issues with insomnia, and it doesn't help that I'm an extremely light sleeper to begin with so when I do get to sleep I do get woken back up again. So while I struggle to fall asleep I also have issues staying asleep. So it sucks majorly. Although I've noticed that since my daughter is so good at keeping me on the move and keeping up with her, that when it comes time to sleep, sure I still have some issues, but I normally do pretty good with falling asleep, but I do wake up to any little noises still.
I've used melatonin, and it does work, sometimes, but not all the time, and I've never been a fan of taking sleep aids, because, especially since having my daughter, I'm afraid I'll not wake up when she needs me. I just try to make do with what I have, I suppose. Some nights are better than others, which help my days go smoother. :)

I go through bouts of having trouble falling asleep. There have been a few trends that I have noticed in what causes it, and makes it worse.

One of the big things that keeps me awake is caffeine. I recently learned that it has a biological half-life of 4 to 12 hours in the human body-- this means even one's morning coffee might still be substantially affecting them by bed time. Cutting my caffeine recently has been a huge help with this.

That may not be much help, since it doesn't seem like you drink much caffeine. Still, I mention it since it may help other readers.

One of the biggest things that used to keep me awake was worrying about insomnia. It sounds crazy, but I bet all of the insomniacs here know what I mean. "I have to sleep. I'm not sure if I will sleep. What if I don't have enough time to get a good night's sleep. What if I don't sleep at all." That alone has often been enough to keep me up.

I think the lesson there is that insomnia is a vicious cycle. It's easy to start the cycle, but hard to break it. Some miscellaneous cause will creep in (caffeine, stress, anxiety, a noise, etc.) to start the cycle, and I'll have to find a way to break it.

I have found a few ways to break the cycle. A lot of my favorites seem to be related to either sound, or a simple form of meditation.

My favorite is both, a "relaxtion tape"-- though the one I love right now is really a smartphone app called "Infinite Relaxation with Andrew Johnson". These tapes are basically somewhere between hypnosis and guided meditation. It helps clear the mind, distract from worry, and let things settle down so calm can find its way back in.

I love white noise, gray noise, brown noise, and nature sounds. A real thunderstorm, or an open window, can be the best.

I think what those all accomplish though, is the same thing that meditation (even pseudo-meditation) tries to accomplish. Sitting back, and actively trying to let my head empty, is the cure for so many things. Anxiety, stress, panix attacks, insomnia, you name it.

I rarely sleep through the night. I'm always tired. I have no idea why but I always wake up a few hours after I attempt to sleep. Some nights I just don't sleep and I'll be up for days at a time. My grandpa is the same way and so is one of my aunts on my mom's side of the family, which I find interesting.

Normally, if I need to sleep and can't, I eat something and make sure nothing can distract me. I turn my lights off, computer off, and my phone off. If that doesn't work then I just end up staring into the darkness until I need to get up. I can't take pills because I'm allergic and refuse to try to take anything for sleep since last time I did it almost killed me.

If I can't sleep and my hubby is up, I'll text or call him for a while until one of us gets tired. That normally helps calm my mind down and get me to sleep.

Insomia.... ah... my old friend...

Some days (quite rare) I can get to sleep just fine but very often 3-4 in the morning I'm finally exhausted enough to get to sleep. The ONLY thing that has EVER helped my insomnia is a pattern. I have to CONSTANTLY go to bed at the same time, wake up at the same time (exactly 7.5 hours of sleep) and I have to continue this pattern indefinitely. If I break it because something is interesting I spend weeks fixing it...

I used to struggle with insomnia until I got on Lexapro. I was suffering from racing thoughts and unrestlessness. Now I sleep pretty good and don't wake up during the night, but sometimes I rarely do. I suffered from extreme insomnia and would stay up until the next day (sunlight) sometimes. I don't take sleeping pills, Lexapro just helped me get my serotonin level balanced since I had chemical/horomonal imbalances in my brain.

Nights that I haven't done some sort of exercise I will be awake on and off every other hour... I've learned that I must take at least a walk or do some stretches before bed. I also learned it's hard to go to sleep if I am on the computer. So before bed I go off and do one of two things:
1: listen to music
2: read a book

Those things help clear my mind. Being on the computer before bed gets me all energized and I can't seem to slow my mind down enough to sleep. Caffeen is also a nono on trying to sleep list. I usually just drink water or sleepy time tea before bed. Concerning how bad I can't sleep.

I don't know if I have actual insomnia, since I do sleep, but my sleep cycle is very thrown off... I stay awake for a long time, and also sleep for long time.

However, if I try to sleep at a normal time after waking up at a normal time, I'll not be sleepy enough to sleep... and either get back on the computer til next afternoon, or spend all night with my eyes closed and unable to stop thinking about random things, and wasting all the time I could have had having fun, just laying bored and helpless in bed.

Posting this past 4:00 am, I realize that when I can't sleep it's often because I can't bring myself to go to bed.

@ Tam - Likely computer insomnia then?

I'm pretty sure I've been a borderline insomniac for a long time.

When I was young I would often creep into my parents bedroom at around 3 in the morning and wake up my dad to tell him I couldn't sleep. When he'd ask why I'd say that I was thinking about bad things (I'm a chronic night-time worrier, and spend most evenings thinking about things I've done wrong throughout my life). And then he'd tell me to think about "good things", and just hearing that advice over and over helped me for some reason.

I eventually out-grew that though, thank goodness. Now my "sleeping medication" are children's books. Something about the innocence in the way they're written distracts me from all of my problems. Warm milk always helps too.

Anyone else have the problem with "I'm too tired to fall asleep"? I get that a lot when I fall back into a sleepless cycle. Owl City talks about it too, in his song about insomnia

I used to have a lot of trouble falling asleep, but this is what helps me.

If you've been lying in bed for a half hour or more, get out of bed. Get up and do something, as long as you're not watching TV or Redditting or playing a video game or otherwise staring at a glowing rectangle. Read a book or listen to music. After about 15 minutes, go back to bed. If you're still not asleep in half an hour, repeat until you do fall asleep. This will train you to get sleepy the moment your head hits the pillow and you will never have trouble sleeping again.

That's almost word for word (minus the last sentence) what my psychology teacher taught us XD
(With added emphasis on not staring as a screen)

I do think reading a book helps. Particularly long wordy novels.
I noticed that in middle school whenever I would read Harry Potter, I would always get so sleepy from reading so much. It probably has something to do with a calming effect, or tiredness from reading so much. Even though I am hesitant to read, I get really into storybooks once I start.

I'm too lazy to keep reading every night, though, so I just try to fall asleep naturally. For me the only way to fall asleep at the right time(night time, instead of morning/noon), is to wake up early(3am to 8am usually works). So I do have a few alarms set in my phone.

Reading used to make me sleepy. Now, I tend to do it so often that it no longer registers as the thing I'm doing before sleep, so it doesn't tend to do the trick anymore...though I'm still known for being a little off after I've just finished reading for several hours straight, not exactly tired, but in a sort of lethargic state that has come to be referred to as my post reading cocoon.

Environment is very important to sleep. If at all possible, have a place (or perhaps another "setting" like a sound or music) that you're only in when you sleep. Sitting in bed reading (for instance) can teach you to associate being in bed with being awake.