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I tried hypnosis and it worked for me. I saw a hypnotherapist who also gave me a cassette/cd to take home with me to listen to. After having no sleep for ages, I had a few hours the first night and it built up gradually so I get a good night's sleep now.
Personally I would recommend it.
'Martin' wrote on '06:Thanks for getting this discussion started, Snookie.
I wonder if trawling the local library's collection of audio books could also be an unlikely cure for insomnia?
I find the idea of 'spoken word' CDs particularly interesting since all we normally hear about for insomnia sufferers are 'white noise' tracks, or 'meditation type' tracks. Have you given either of them a try?
Martin you could have a point there. As I said at the start I listen to David Tennant's audio cds because I have lots of them. But just listening to any audio cd story could have a beneficial effect to someone having trouble sleeping, like telling a bedtime story to a child. I think as adults we tend to think that various activities should only be for the children. But my husband and I don't agree. We like listening to stories at bedtime.
On reflection I am coming to the conclusion that this recent bout of sleeping difficulty isn't the same as the bouts I had before. I'm sure it is just the horrible flu virus I had which completely upset my system. I had completely got out of the normal bedtime routine, as I slept apart from my husband because of my coughing. Since getting back to the normal routine, which includes listening to the audio cds, I am sleeping better. Not quite normally, but definately better. Oh and I am drinking warm milk before bed too.
To answer your question I haven't listened to a 'white noise' track or meditation one either.
Jessalie, We have Paul mcKenna's Sleep Liike a Log cd. I didn't find that one very helpful for some reason.
Last night I carried on with my audio story, half drifted off part way through it and had some sleep the rest of the night. I am going to stick with it.
In UK anyway I think several famous people record stuff on audio cd. One that made me smile was just before Christmas I was in a book shop and in the children's section was a book with audio cd included, read by Bernard Cribbins, who several years ago did a lot of children's tv. The story was called Father Christmas (Santa Claus) needs a wee! Which when you think about it, having a drink of some sort at every home he calls at on Christmas Eve, must be a bit of a problem!
About 8 years ago, following a very stressful time at work I stopped sleeping at night. I just couldn't get off to sleep, as my muscles would jerk me awake again as I drifted off. The doctor wasn't much help. They either prescribed sleeping pills Nitrazepan (mogadon) for one course only because they are addictive. They did give me a few hours sleep, but like I say, I ran out quickly and wasn't allowed to have any more. I was also given anti-depressants after that. One lot made me sick and the second lot were the sort that build up in your system so would start having an effect in about months time, not very helpful when you need to sleep tonight! I was getting very desperate when my brother suggested acupuncture, as his wife had found it helpful for some problem she had been having. I found a practitioner and went to see him. He did a bit of acupunture on me, also something where he put some sort of seeds in my ears! And he also put me under hypnosis for a time. He gave me a cassette to take home with me. That night I slept for a solid three hours. I went back to him for a second session and again slept for three or four hours and so started to feel human again. With the help of the cassette I could listen to at home my sleep gradually increased each night until I was back to normal.
A few years later following a stressful house move it started again. Again I tried the doctors, but it was the same as before. I tried to find my acupuncture/hypnosis man, but he had left the area. So I tried another lady hypnotherapist. Again I went to her for hypnosis only. She gave me a cassette tape to take home with me. Again it started to work slowly, building up from a few hours sleep a night to a normal nights sleep. I used to listen to it every night, but reduced it to nighrt before work listening or when something stressful was approaching. Itcertainly helped me.
On the cassette, which is mainly aimed at relaxation and confidence, she starts by telling you to sit comfortably in a chair or on/in bed. Look ahead of you and focus on a spot. Count down from 5 to 1 and close your eyes. Then starting with the top of your head, relax your muscles and making all parts of your body feel easy and tension free. Once you have reached your toes, then think of a staircase with ten steps, covered in a lovely carpet of your favourite colour. Count down from 10 to 0, relaxing even more as you count down. After this she gives you relaxing and confidence building messages sort of saying how things that used to upset you and make you stressed will not upset you any more. 'Today you will feel better than yesterday, but not as good as you will feel tomorrow. And your sleep will also improve. You will fall into a blissful sleep and awake refreshed and more alert that you have in a very long time.' Etc etc.
It certainly works for me. What I like, when I have bad bouts of bad sleeping, is to play the tape and not actually hear all of it because I have drifted off to sleep before the end.
Thanks everyone for your comments and suggestions.
Marina, Here in the Uk you can buy Vicks Sinex nasal spray or spray mist that you squirt up your nose when you have a blocked nose through a cold. It works brilliantly at night, when you are lying down. It's not so good during the day, as because you are upright your nose tends to keep running. Can you buy Vicks cold remedies in USA or is there something similar? Now the productive part of my cough is almost past, at nighttime I am taking Phocodeine Linctus, which stops the tickly cough. If you can't take codeine medicines, isn't there a non-codeine cough medicine to help tickly cough? What I have found helpful with tickly cough is sucking boiled sweets. Not necessarily a medicated sweet for a cough or sore throat, but just a hard sweet/candy. Here we have something called Worther's original which is a sort of butter sweet tasting old fashioned sweet, which for a tickly cough is very helpful as the buttery sweetness goes down your throat and helps a lot. Do you have similar sweets/candy in USA?
Poor Bobby. Sorry you had a bad night again. Better luck tonight.
Thanks for the welcome Martin. Yes I will tell my experiences with hypnosis on that section.
Actually I had a better night last night. I'm not sure the breathing helped, but I listened to a bedtime story read by my favourite actor, on audo cd and that helped settle me down and I drifted off to sleep. I didn't get chunks of sleep, but slept for about and hour and a half, woke up, then went off again for about an hour and a half, and so on until just before 8.00 this morning. I am more than happy with that and was alert enough to go to see my friend and her horse this morning, which I usually do on a sAturday morning. I haven't been for three weeks because of this awful flu that I have had.
More bedtime stories tonight and I will report tomorrow how I get on. I will write more about this on the relevant topic.
Thanks again for your comments. It is surprising how many people suffer from insomnia.
