Another night of restlessness. Sleep is a precious commodity that I’m having trouble acquiring.

Like too many people, recently I’ve started having problems sleeping at night. It’s not a problem going to sleep. That happens usually about 20 minutes or so after my getting in bed and starting to read, even though the book I’m usually reading is really good. and I’m really enjoying it. 

No, my problem is STAYING asleep through the night. And I know I’m not alone. Unfortunately. By 2:30, or usually 3:00, my eyes open and I’m awake. Then it’s trying to go back to sleep, usually tossing and turning for the next several hours until my husband gets up at 5:00 and takes the dogs out. Then by 6:00 I’m just falling back to sleep when my alarm goes off.

Who else has this problem?

It’s not fun, is it? 

And if one more person asks me why I can’t sleep, including my husband, I think I will literally scream. If I knew why, I’d be able to sleep!!! Right?

As I said earlier, reading in bed usually helps me go to sleep. Even though the so-called experts say you shouldn’t use your electronic devices right before trying to sleep, to me that doesn’t do anything. My kindle doesn’t prevent me from falling asleep and sometimes I wake in the night to discover I didn’t even put it down before I fell asleep.

Melatonin works for a night, maybe two. And then it gives me nightmares. Which wake me up. So no more of that! And I don’t want to take Rx meds.

Soft music or some type of white noise…doesn’t help. 

I still wake up around 3:00 am. And toss and turn until I start to fall asleep when it’s time to get up.

I’ve tried the proverbial counting sheep, but those darn sheep don’t cooperate. They sometimes run around and mess up the counting so I have to start over. Or they start baa-Ing loudly until they wake up the cows who start mooing; the horses who start whinnying; and then the chickens, which wake up the rooster who starts crowing. By then I’m done!

And after three or four nights of this, I’m totally exhausted early in the evening, so tired that I’m asleep by 9 PM. And sometimes then I actually sleep til 5:30 or 6, which is a good night!

Yes, I’m sure stuck in a pattern…a bad sleep cycle that I can’t seem to break out of.

It’s amazing how infants seem to sleep so much. Two or three hours at a time; wake up to eat, and then back to sleep. It seems the first year of their life they’re sleeping more than they’re awake.

Are they unknowingly preparing for their later years when they’re lucky to get five hours of sleep per night? Saving up a storehouse of precious sleep to be called up when it just won’t happen?  

Then there are cats. As kittens, they play all the time, chasing balls, rays of sunlight, and just running around everywhere until they pass out and sleep for hours. As they get older they sleep more. Anywhere they want. As my favorite cartoon cat Garfield likes to say, cats sleep 23 hours a day and it’s really not enough!

Can I just have something in between?

So this blog is actually about me asking for help. I’m looking for answers and suggestions. Anything that can help me get a good night’s sleep!

Can anyone give me some ideas? Please?