Ive had insomnia since maybe high school off and on, and its definitely not fun
Sometimes I swear it feels like theres three different voices, or at least thought processes, all trying to fire off at once, and my brain just refuses to shut off until they shut up
Theres also always a song stuck in my head for some reason, too, but I think thats just a quirk of my mind lol
At its worst Ive laid in bed for 8 whole hours without any success
And all the pills Ive tried come with some kind of side effect that makes it pretty much worthless
With melatonin I wake up feeling like I havent slept at all, I end up taking naps through out the day that still dont make me feel rested
With diphenhydramine it helps a lot at first but then it triggers my restless leg syndrome really bad and I find it almost impossible to get it to go away, or it just flat out stops helping and the more I take, the worse the RLS
I wish I had some advice but honestly not a single thing has worked for me, even prescription meds still had bad side effects
Still, Ill share everything Ive heard or tried, maybe itll work for you
I have heard that reducing screen time a few hours before bed can help, or in general reducing the amount of blue light youre exposed to- if you spend a lot of time on the computer and have windows theres an option to turn on a 'night light' that will automatically change the lighting to be warmer during a certain period, my phone has an option for that too I think
Exercising before bed can also apparently help
There was a bit of success on my end listening to white/brown/pink noise or rain while I slept but sleeping with headphones on- or any alternative- just wasnt comfortable enough for it to be significant for me, and I basically get the same affect just from having a fan or something running anyway
I also had a therapist suggest a breathing technique that Ill try to share what I remember of, it didnt work for me but it might for you;
Basically you focus on one body part starting with your fingers or toes, and you breath in a deep breath while clenching that body part, hold it for 5 seconds, relax that body part as you slowly release the breath over another 5 seconds, then you move to the next body part and repeat until your whole body is relaxed
Im not sure it helps with the mental aspect though and maybe thats why it didnt do much for me
But just slowing your breathing down can help in other situations too
Regardless
I know for me the tiredness has made my depression and day to day in general much much worse, so I hope you can find a way past it
You deserve to feel well-rested and given a break from those overloading thoughts
Good luck finding something that works for you
