Hey there.

You may know it, or not. Sleeping problems. I'm having them again.

With sleeping problems I mean: Can't sleep, wake up early or wake up in the middle of the night.

My current problem is that I'm sick (just a cold, but still.) and I just can't fall asleep. Last night the last time I've watched at my clock it was 2:38AM (I still have school)
And when it starts, I have that problem for 2 or 3 MONTHS.

Nothing has changed in my life and I just go to bed at 10:30PM like every schoolday.
Does anyone has the same problem or know what to do against it?

I have that problem, but every day. I have insomnia, and I can't sleep. It doesn't happen 2 or 3 months at a time. It happens all year long. I just can't sleep not anymore at least. And even if I do try, I am constantly waking up through the night. And there is nothing the doctors can do for me. I can't take sleeping pills.

So, yeah. I don't know what else to say. Besides, I am sorry that you can't sleep.

Damn, I'm sorry for YOU having it all year. ._.

I've been having similar problems recently, so I can really sympathize. It's basically light by the time I get to sleep virtually every night at the moment and nothing seems to be helping. I've tried tiring myself out during the day, sleeping pills etc. Apparently if you can't sleep you're supposed to get up and do something else for a while before trying to go to sleep again, otherwise you associate your bed as somewhere you don't sleep. However if you know you have to get up early the next day and actually function this is really hard to do, because you know you should be sleeping instead and you keep thinking, 'But I might fall asleep in the next five minutes', so you don't get up just in case. I hope things improve for you soon.

Have you tried melatonin? Generally that works for me when I can't sleep, and you don't get crazy ambien dreams. Try to take a couple pills, then read something to tire your eyes out. For me having the TV or some music on low helps me sleep, but that's just because I'm used to it.

Hope you find a solution, dude.

I have suffered with insomnia for years, i understand just how horrible it is.

I had to go to the doctors and get sleeping pills because it got to the point where i just wasnt sleeping at all, like up for 48 hours plus :/

Things you can try, take a bath with a calming bubble mixture, avoid caffine, write down everything thats on your mind before you go to bed, exercise for an hour during the day, avoid tv/computers before you want to sleep.

Don't be sorry. It happens. And I am just going to have to get used to it. I drink a lot of Caffeine. Lol. So that helps for a short period of time. So, yeah, Insomnia isn't fun.

I just have to ask, do you have nightmares or night terrors [as some would call it]?

Paksetti: I always have my mobile phone with music playing quietly under my pillow, but after 3 hours it's getting annoying
shoo: I already avoid TV/PC before going to bed, at least 1 or 1 1/2 hour but it just doesn't help.

Yeah I first try sleeping pills, if that doesn't help I'll ask my mom if we can visit the doctor.

Can I brag about how I sleep 12 hours or more each night, if I'm in vacation? No? Well, I already did. *hides*

Pity there's not a sympathy button to push because I sympathise. I'm notoriously bad for having problems sleeping (though doing pretty well at the moment - touch wood). You say you go to bed at 10.30pm or thereabouts? That might be part of the problem. You might be, like me, a natural night owl. Going to bed later might help you feel more tired and get off to sleep properly. I know you're young and your parents might not approve but you might give that some thought. Not everyone goes to sleep early at night. If I went to bed at 10.30pm, I would be awake WITHOUT FAIL by 3am. I just don't sleep well till later - and, as it happens, I don't need much sleep anyway. God knows what I'll be like when I get really old. So being awake at 3am means getting up for the day. Now, going to bed at 3am, OTH, though a little late for me, would mean a nice peaceful restful sleep till about 7.30am (at least at the moment).

My doctor goes on about sleep hygiene (that's what she calls it). What it involves is a schedule of stopping work and settling down for the night. Stopping work, having a bath, relaxing, drinking some nice sleep-inducing drink (involving warm milk in some form), going to bed at the same time every night. This is why I am bad at it. I'm crap at the schedule. And I'm not fond of hot milk. When she first suggested it, I got quite enthusiastic and said, 'oh right, so I could stop working at 9pm!' She rolled her eyes. She was thinking more along the lines of 6pm. Nevermind. The point is to try and train your body to accept that a certain part of the day means a wind down and settling down to sleep.

If your body is rested I don't see why you need to go back to sleep. Anyway, if you must sleep, you can try emptying your mind of any thoughts, you'll fall asleep within minutes. Or try reading a very boring book.

On the past occasions when I couldn't sleep, I'd take 1 or 2 Benadryl since the antihistamine makes me sleepy. The Diphenhydramine in 1 standard Benadryl is the same ingredient and dose used in almost all over-the-counter sleep aid pills, including Nytol, Sominex, Tylenol Simply Sleep, and in a lot of the nighttime cold medicines.

I have avoided taking anything currently outside of actually treating the occasional allergy flare up because of my pregnancy. But boy howdy, there have been many nights when I'd love to take something.

I have insomnia as well - it typically takes me 1 to 2 hours to fall asleep, no matter what I do. Melatonin works well, but lately I've gotten paranoid that I wouldn't be able to get up in an emergency or something.
Other things that have worked for me are only having coffee/soda/tea in the morning or early afternoon (something I just violated today by having coffee at 6! oh well haha); getting off the computer at least an hour but preferably 2 before trying to go to bed; exercising for at least 30 minutes in the day; and not getting too much sleep the night before or on the weekends (I am very bad with this; I tend to deprive myself of sleep all week and then 'sleep binge' on the weekends, sleeping until 12 in the afternoon. But then it's nearly impossible to fall asleep during the next week!)
And I think getting up and doing something else is actually better than lying in bed - for me, at least. Sometimes I just need to take my mind off of things because the number one reason I can't sleep is because of worrying and ruminating. Reading helps a lot, but read a book and not a magazine (well magazines wake me up anyhow.) Music does help, but sometimes it helps to turn it off if it's just making you more agitated after playing for 2 hours (happens to me sometimes.)
Good luck!

Yes, efolger, I have to limit myself to two coffees a day and only in the morning. I love coffee too. And getting up, if you're wakeful, is by far the best thing to do.

I sometimes have problems too, but usually I have been working on the computer and then go straight to bed, I try not to do that. I also avoid coffie after 7 in the evening, and I get up if I can't sleep, even if I need to go to work in the morning I do. It's no point just lying there in bed not sleeping, then I can do that all night, and I need to sleep. I often have problems if I have been working late and have to work in the morning. Then I'm in a rush to sleep, nothing as sleep deprivating as having to sleep fast.

PrinceOD: No, I don't have nightmares.
Croco: Empty my mind is another big problem, I'm not able to do that.

Well, took a sleeping pill yesterday. It has one pro and one contra.
Pro: I fell asleep pretty fast. Last time I watched my clock it was 22:50PM.
Contra: I slept like a stone, didn't hear my alarm and so I missed school.

Edit: My parents can't wake me up because they both go to work early (6AM)

Okay. I was just wondering, because I do have night terrors. And its never good. And they usually keep me up. And now I am wide awake, due to what happened an hour ago. So, I will be staying up for the rest of the day.

But usually when I have a night terror, I can never get back to sleep, no matter how hard I try. Another reason I stay up is because of my insomnia. I wish I could take sleeping pills, but it wouldn't help me

I have nightmares too and quite often, though I can always fall asleep easily after having them. They most often involve natural disasters, attackers, and chasing.
Zandvoort: The same thing happened to me when I took Melatonin one night. You really need to set aside 7 to 8 hours to sleep before taking it. I took it at 12 AM and was literally not able to get up at 7--I missed school until 10. If you are put to sleep by a pill, people waking you up won't help - at least with me anyway, my mom tried.

Well, I had my pill at 10PM and I should've get up 6:30AM.. round about 8 hours between.

I have the same problem with not being able to sleep. I found that If I take a hot bath/shower about 15 minutes before going to bed and drinking hot tea with honey instead of sugar really helps.

There are a few things you can try to help empty your mind. Meditation is obviously one - don't try to not think while meditating, use it as a time to deal with all the thoughts queued up in your brain so that once you're done, there's nothing left that pops up in your head unless you want it to.

Another option is to read an engaging book - I use this one when I'm stressed out: if I can get really involved in the book, then I'll fall asleep thinking about the events in the story, the characters, and their problems; which keeps me awake much less effectively than thinking about my own problems does.

^ This has helped me a few times