I had insomnia from age 8 to age 23. Anxiety, too many stimulants (coffee, drugs, medication)napping in the afternoon, and a screwed up internal clock made it impossible for me to get into bed at a normal hour and go to sleep for 15 years. I went to a sleep clinic but I could not fall alseep, and left in tears in the middle of the night. As it would get later and later I would get anxious that I would miss my classes or be late for work, and I would count the hours I had left. I even had the dreams that I was still awake presumably because I was anxious about my insomnia.

Then I graduated college, moved in with my boyfriend and got a grown up 9 to 5 job, and my insomnia disappeared.

Make your bed a desireable place to be (for me it was my boyfriend) never stay in bed if you cant fall asleep, you will just cycle downward into dispair, and get your ass up early at the same time every single weekday and do something all day. I had been given this advise by doctors over and over, and I thought I had tried it, but nothing will make you fall asleep faster than a hot boy in your bed and a boring office job. Also one tylenol PM really helped even while I was in College, two will make it hard to get up, but one will get you to fall asleep and still be fine the next morning. Oh also if you live in New York, a good set of ear plugs are sometimes needed.

Simple Solution: Bong Hits

masturbate. period.

i have a book on quantum physics that's way over my head that i read from when i absolutely cannot fall asleep. it usually works but when it doesn't at least i'm learning something.

sometimes i drag out the art history volumes that bring back memories of being a sleepy overworked art student in a warm dark room during a boring lecture to the sound of the clicking slide machine.

if all else fails, take art history classes.

I had ghastly insomnia for nearly a year. One thing I learned while up late surfing insomnia sites: Apparently there is an association between a drop in body temperature and falling asleep. So now, when I wake up at 2:30 and have trouble falling back asleep, I have a drink of cold water from the fridge and wait until I'm feeling chilly before getting back into bed. I curl up under the covers and fall asleep within minutes. Works *every* time. Also, a yogurt snack seems to help. (Yogurt has the same enzyme as warm milk.)

why hasn't anyone asked for Insomnia's sleeping pills yet?

get yourself twelve alarm clocks all set for the time you want to wake up. You could be awake because you're fearful of waking up late. (It's called Hypersomatophobia.) I have three alarm clocks, and I've never been more at peace at bedtime.

Also, The late nite re-run of the O'Reilly factor. That nut can put anyone to sleep with his mindless rants!

Whoa there, Restless...what's the matter, woke up on the wrong side of the bed? Ha!

You people aren't doctors. A genuine sleep disorder isn't solved by some hippie meditation method or herbal remedy.

I personally have DSPS (delayed sleep phase syndrome).

Read about it here.

I thought I had severe insomnia, but I actually found that my body has a lag with responding to the stimuli that triggers sleep. It's like having permanent jet lag. It's really annoying.

Unfortunately my job isn't sensitive to this disorder (because people are ignorant, or think it's no big deal), so I am alway tired and never get enough sleep. The fact that people think that meditation, hot milk or counting sheep can fix it is what makes people with DSPS continue to suffer.

Some ways to counter DSPS is to put a timed light in the bedroom a few hours before actual sunrise, and to darken all windows a few hours before sunset. Unfortunately, sunset happens while I'm at work, so I can't go around the office and blacken the windows and tell everyone to be quiet because I'm going to sleep.

Interestingly, DSPS also occurs in reverse (where people wake up way too early and go to bed way too early).

Melatonin works wonders for me.

If you can't fall asleep after 30 minutes, get out of bed. Go to another location - the living room if you can, the other end of the studio if you can't. Read a book by dim lighting - a boring book, not a thriller - until you feel drowsy. Go back to bed. Repeat as necessary. Key here is leaving the bed - don't make your bed a hateful place to be - and getting your mind off the fact that you can't fall asleep. Have a special "insomnia book" for this purpose.

Pardon my French, but is it physically fahking possible to go a week without sleep?

First, you need to define sleep. And, then you have to ask yourself if you are just DREAMING that you can't sleep.

This may sound funny, but, I read a study of some guy who went to a clinic because he couldn't sleep. The doctors monitored him and then when he fell asleep they woke him up to tell him that he was in fact sleeping. The guy got pissed off and stormed out of the clinic.

You can get REST from meditating, and it is argued by some that you can actually get a deeper REST by meditating than from just falling unconscious.

I think the TRICK is to (a) eat right and find out what foods you have an intolerance for (listen, it wasn't that long ago that Europeans had never ate corn or anything else New World - the most common allergins are corn and milk); (b) when you go to bed, STAY in bed even if you THINK you're not sleeping; (c) learn to meditate or to simply FOCUS you mind on something to simulate meditating.

Sex usually does it for me.

I had insomnia as a teenager, and melatonin tablets were the only thing that worked for me. Now I have the opposite problem- I fall asleep at the drop of a hat (my most famous example being while at a Cannibal Corpse concert).

i think exercise is the best way to ensure a good sleep. stretching before bed also really helps me.

ooh! use a fan. white noise is great and blocks out a lot of background noise.

i find showering (not a bath) before bed does the trick - alternate between hot and cold water at the end (as hot as you can stand it for 30 seconds, then only cold for 30 seconds, and so on). it's not for the faint of heart, but it's worked every time for me.

My trick is sort of a variation on the white noise thing. If I can't sleep because my head is buzzing from an especially busy day or something, I'll turn on a small fan on my bedside table. I concentrate on the sound of the and it pushes the static and other buzz out of my head. I also find the light breeze on my face (if it's winter I snuggle on the covers so the fan only hits my face so I don't get too cold) is very relaxing added bonus.