Imsonia, who is dealing with it and how?

ddavidv wrote: My problem is my brain won't shut down.

I spent some time at the local sleep clinic. Mild enough case of Sleep Apnea to not be bothered to do anything about it sigh.

My brain does not shut off either. One of the things that helps me is to journal my thoughts. Of I get it down on paper, my brain thinks it has "dealt with it," and it stops re-analyzing it over and over and over.

Other things I do - start dimming the lights in the evening, so the house is quite dark. Get off the TV or computer - the lit screen keeps you awake, and the perpetual "search" on the net for whatever isn't out there keeps you awake too.

Whenever I get up in the night, I don't care if it's almost dawn, I tell myself it's 2am. Don't look at the clock. If you see how close it is till you have to be up, you'll get frustrated and not fall back to sleep. It's always 2am when you get up - plenty of time to fall back asleep.

I don't have quite the trouble you do but I do have some. Mine is mostly stress right now; 60 hours a week at work plus a cross-country move.

Ambien has always worked wonders for me and its getting cheaper. One of the things that I found out (mostly due to stress and cigarettes) is that my blood pressure was insanely high, like 180/120. I got on some blood pressure meds and I'm sleeping a LOT better.

Sometimes I medicate with a six pack and get right to sleep, but then I always wake up at 4am.

First of all try to identify if there is something external that is keeping your mind working. At my old job (running an auto repair shop) I would work all day and into the night with 6000 tiny little things to accomplish, then I would try to sleep and all I could do is race my mind with "did I order that part? did I remember to set the alarm at the shop? how are we going to fix this car that is giving us fits?"

If its something like that, find a good way of downloading your brain by making a list. I used google docs to keep it portable. If I write down a list, then I have multiple lists that get left behind, etc.

If its something chemical, try herbal stuff - chamomile, weed, a snip of scotch, etc. For a while you might have to break out the big guns like Ambien but I'm not a big fan of drugs. My naturopath wisely said to me once, "you don't get a headache because of a lack of Ibuprofen in your diet." In the same fashion, you aren't having trouble sleeping because of a lack of Zolpidem Tartrate in your diet. Try identifying and fixing the cause, not the symptom. I'm a highly introspective person, so identifying the cause comes easy for me, but taking steps to fix them is something I have trouble with.

I do, however take blood pressure medication. Instantly quitting smoking isn't easy, and my job (while stressful) is a means to an end. Once I get the move completed, I won't have nearly as much financial stress forcing me to keep a job I dislike, so in my mind I'll have more freedom. Hopefully that will fix the cause of my symptoms and I can stop treating them with prescriptions.

Really....diet and exercise. Don't eat after 9pm, lay off the sweets and caffeine, you're "creative exercise" only shoots up your body with adrenaline. Go for a run or bike ride every other day, on the days you aren't doing cardio do some weight lifting or push ups, sit ups, and pull ups. You can fit it in your schedule there is always time to exercise, it's your health and that should be paramount. I don't know if you do regularly exercise but just saying I used to have sleep issues until I started changing up my diet and working out like crazy

Inability to stop thinking/worrying (consistently racing thoughts - not of the car kind) and the inability to relax when tired and trying to sleep can be a symptom of anxiety and/or depression. I have known people (my wife for one) who have had depression/anxiety issues and suffered with the symptoms never knowing the cause until the condition worsened, sought professional help and were diagnosed. Just a thought. Regular exercise helps in this case as well.

To prove my ability to contribute to the thread, I woke up at 2 am after gettign to sleep at 11:30 pm and couldn't get back to sleep. Oh well. At least I got some reading done. I'm going to hit the gym tonight.