Here is another readers question and my reply. Name has been changed to protect her identity
Hi, Wendy my name Is Tina and I have got a very strange sleeping pattern that I need help with. It takes me a while to get to sleep most nights so often I’m not getting to sleep until about 2-3am every night, but my problem Is getting up In the mornings.
I sleep through my alarms and I don’t hear my phone ringing which Is not good when I have to get up with my 7yr old daughter for school. She is quite often late for school due to me over sleeping. I was wondering if you could help me in any way please. I really don’t know what to do anymore, its really getting me down. Thanks for listening x
HI Tina
You poor thing, there is nothing worse than tossing & turning half the night. You’ve probably already found that trying to force sleep only makes it harder to do.
When did this problem start? Was there a triggering event that caused you some stress? Sometimes Insomnia can become a habit even when the event in question has passed. Or maybe you’ve gradually started going to bed later & later because you’ve had a lot to do? Whatever! It sounds like you need to reset your body clock.
You can sometimes do this by taking 1-2 mg of melatonin about 1 hour before you want to go to sleep. When you do go to bed, don’t focus on trying to go to sleep, try to distract yourself by listening to a boring CD or try a CD especially formatted for sleep. Have a look at Insomnia MP3s for an example of these.
If this doesn’t work, you may have to take the extreme step of staying up all night and not going to bed until the following night. This doesn’t work for everyone but when It does It will reset your body clock quickly. Only do this before a weekend!
Hope that helps!
Wendy
