I have always had problems sleeping - I am pretty sure it came from being abused as a child - I always had to keep one eye open, so to speak.
One would think that eventually, your body will kick in and you'd pass out from lack of sleep - but I suppose in my case, survival was more important than sleep.
One time, due to a number of factors, I went about 2 weeks without sleep.
I ended up in the ER, and they assumed it was psychiatric with psychotic features - even though I told them repeatedly that I had not slept or eaten for about 2 weeks, and all I needed was help to sleep and food. I also knew why I was struggling so badly - I had been taken off benzos suddenly (no taper) after having been prescribed them for 9 years at a pretty hefty dose (and my doctor should have known better, I even suggested it to him.)
So I was told that if I did not voluntarily commit myself I would be forced into a psych ward. And in my country, despite strict HIPPA laws, being involuntarily committed will follow you for life. Once there, within 24 hours, they threw drugs at me that I did not need, and I ended up having a grand mal (now more commonly known as a tonic-clonic) seizure and my 4th or so severe head injury - it was the final straw on my being able to function.
Sorry for the long post - but I so feel your pain when it comes to insomnia.
Off the top of my head, some things I have found on my own that help include the following: ~Black-out curtains so that the room is pitch dark;
~hypnosis (as mentioned above) - you can find this for free and listen to it on YouTube as you are trying to fall asleep;
~100 mg diphenhydramine (alone or in combination with 10 mg melatonin);
~10 mg melatonin (alone); and
~hydroxyzine.
Hydroxyzine is like diphenhydramine on steroids - it helps with both anxiety and sleep. I have also heard of prazosin use for PTSD. It is prescribed off-label to prevent nightmares from waking you up all night long, but I am not sure it helps one to fall asleep.
Trazadone helped for a couple of days, but then became like a placebo for me. I also tried natural remedies other than melatonin - these did not help so much. One other thing I have heard that helps (I have never tried it but it might just help) is a CPAP for sleep apnea.
As an aside, I will never go on benzos again - the withdrawals almost killed me, and despite so much documented evidence of the long-term danger with the use of these meds, doctors in my country (or area) have no clue how bad it really is - plus IME a doc can pull the rug out from under your feet on a whim (ie, stop prescribing a med on a whim, with no recourse for the patient when they actually damage someone cause docs are allowed to use medications off-label here without impunity - same in psych wards here, they can throw any med they like at you without impunity - the system is truly messed up).
These are just some ideas that helped me, but I have to preface this by I do not know what (if any) meds you are on now - so it is important to always check with your doc for potential interactions.
I am so sorry you all know of how horrible insomnia really is. I wonder if there is correlation between long-term, slow sleep deprivation and development of severe health/psychiatric problems (on edit - I mean this in the sense of more than is already known about the health effects of inadequate quality of sleep).
<3
