Trouble sleeping

try a hot milky drink.

are there things which are stressing you out/making you upset during the day time?

Tried that one too! I'm stressed about exams obvs but everyone is. For the past few years I had intense family issues involving my dad who I no longer see that only resolved quite recently. I have issues with the way I look too. Oh and recently I've been quite confused as to what career path to take. What are your thoughts on this?

Tried that one too! I'm stressed about exams obvs but everyone is. For the past few years I had intense family issues involving my dad who I no longer see that only resolved quite recently. I have issues with the way I look too. Oh and recently I've been quite confused as to what career path to take. What are your thoughts on this?

Try Nytol 20 mins before you go to sleep and that should make you sleep through the night. It might not necessarily make you fall asleep any quicker but you shouldnt wake up during the night. I have trouble sleeping as well and thats what I do. If that doesnt work I would advise going to the GP as there might be an underlying problem like depression or something x

i tried going to see the gp and they were no help at all. told me doctors don't bothere with thinks like sleep...

Sorry it's so long but I'd appreciate it if you read it and gave me some advice.

Atm I'm having a terrible time with my sleep patterns. I go through cycles of not being able to fall asleep for hours, then sleeping well, then having terrible nightmares, then going right back to the start. I've kept a note of my dreams - can anyone tell me what they might mean?

December 2nd 2010

I dreamed that my family and I had been captured and taken to a Nazi-style camp. I didn't get to see the camp as as soon as we got to our hut a man came to the door and took me to away - I was to be a slave for a horrible family. The woman was so nasty and I felt like I was going to cry all day long. I felt so sick inside and was constantly on the verge of tears. In part of the dream the daughter of the family went out with some friends and I accompanied them - she was a lot nicer to me than her mother was. We had a really nice time and as we were about to leave, a man walked in and recognised our group. He started kissing everyone on the cheek. He looked like he was about to kiss me too so I cried out 'Oh no, not me!' as I wasn't sure if he knew of my inferiority but he gave me an evil glare and moved on to the next girl; he knew how inferior I was and had no intention of kissing me. I felt so embarrassed. Then the mother arrived and started shouting at me, asking me what I thought I was doing. Then she shouted even louder when I didn't reply. I've never felt so beaten down - I know it wasn't real but it felt like it was. I actually felt broken. The dream itself (i.e. the story of the dream) lasted for months wihch is odd as usually my dreams take place in a relatively short period of time.

I woke up around 5:00am and when I fell asleep again my family and I were together but we were on the run. We ran into an expensive shop to hide and tried to buy a huge mirror but my debit card wouldn't work and whenever I typed in my pin the numbers blurred in front of me and I got it wrong every time. We ran out of the shop and we were still being chased when I woke up.

December 21st 2010

Had another dream about the Nazis. Some of it was plain weird but the upsetting part was that the Nazis had taken over the whole world. i was at school and some of us were escaping but I saw one of my best friends being taken away.

December 31st 2010

Couldn't sleep - went to bed at 1:15am, realised I was still awake at 2am so read for half an hour. Finally nodded off at 4:00am woke up at 4:30am then couldn't sleep till 5:30am.

January 13th 2011

I had a dream that I was completely shocked when my little sister got engaged to a man she had known for one day. This could be down to the fact that my cousin is marrying someone she met online who she's known for a few months. He gave her the ugliest ring I've ever seen. We were on a train and I was trying to convince her that she was being stupid but my mum told me to leave her alone. Her fiance ran a shop and my other sister and I rushed over there. He was eating lunch so we started to look around. Suddenly it transformed into a rec centre for the elderly and there was one man who was being picked on by the others. They wouldn't let him use the piano or the computer. he couldn't walk properly, so I pushed him to the piano in an office chair. he was really good at the piano.

Then my alarm went off. I went back to sleep and this time I was an elderly man (probably the one from the first dream) but I could move around fine. For reasons I don't know I was being chased through a huge department store. I ran outside through the faculty area and into a huge crowd. I pushed my way through and suddenly found myself on stage surrounded by an 'almost sober' cast of 'Grease'. They started to sing 'summer nights' and at the end of the song I was supposed to kiss Sandy on the cheek. I did so and suddenly I and all the female characters began to cry. I turned round to see everyone in the crowd staring at me and gasping. I saw a policeman come forward with handcuffs and a brown suit in his hands. I tried to run when someone cried 'No, martina! Don't! I've seen this all before!' I stopped trying to run and walked towards the policeman who nodded and smirked as I drew near. I jumped down from the stage... and then my mum woke me up.

February some time?

Had a dream in which my toes were extremely deformed.

February 7th 2011

Went to bed at 11:15pm couldn't sleep - listened to relaxing music - didn't help. Fell asleep at 2:45am. Woke up at 6:30am. Had to go to school.

February 10th 2011

Couldn't sleep again. Had the worst dream yet. I don't remember the details but there were two main figures: one good, one bad. The good one was a sort of presence rather than a figure. Neither of the two were human. The good figure was a blue, shimmering wave. It would speak to me and comfort me - its voice was that of a well-spoken Englishman. The evil figure was red and black and did not speak. Whenever I saw it fear struck me. It was more of a physical being than the good figure, although it seemed to appear from nowhere, as if it was there everytime I turned around. The whole figure was hidden by a huge, heavy cloak with a hood covering its face. The hood was shaped in such a way that it almost looked like the head of a bird of prey. The start of the dream was the most haunting - it began with all three of us in a room. The good figure was to the side of me, the evil figure was leaning over me as I lay on a bed. Suddenly, the evil figure pulled out a hand-held gun - its hands were those of a man - and it rammed it into the left-hand side of my stomach. I wrestled with it but it was far too strong and it kept pushing the gun harder and harder. I started begging, crying 'Please, no!', desperately trying to get the gun away from me. The good figure had disappeared and there was no one to help me. Then, all of a sudden, the evil figure withdrew, and vanished. I can't remember how the dream progressed but essentially the good figure returned and it told me that it would try and protect me. It wrapped itself around me in a cloak-like fashion. At first it remained blue and shimmering but when I saw my reflection, it had transformed me into the evil figure. I was not the evil figure itself - it only looked that way and I realised that this was the only way I would be safe.

February 22nd 2011

Couldn't sleep.

March 18th 2011

Was so afraid of not being able to sleep that I started crying. Eventually slept.

March 20th 2011

Was so afraid of not being able to sleep that I started crying. Eventually slept.

Can someone please suggest something that'll help me sleep. I've tried breathing techniques, feeling different parts of my body, counting sheep, letting a song go round in my head, having a long bath, reading before bed, writing down my fears before bed, and many other things. But it's got to the stage where I'm so worried I'm not going to sleep that I start psyching myself up for not sleeping early on in the day. Plus I'm so tired from not sleeping that I HAVE to nap during the day which doesn't help. Help please! It's desperate - I have A levels to do!

...

well i'm no psychiatrist ...

even if you've recently resolved issues with your dad, the damage has still been done. That could still be playing on your mind.

being stressed out with exams on top of difficult career path choices can't be any help either. just because other people seemingly cope on the outside, doesn't mean they aren't struggling on the inside. maybe some of your friends at college/uni are going through a similar thing?

as for the looks problem, well i can't really offer anything useful since i don't give a flying banana about fashion

is there anything specifically that pops into your head and doesn't leave before you sleep or when you wake up?

I used to have a mucked up sleeping pattern... but after i started exercising more frequently my pattern is back to the normal. Now I jog almost everyday and I sleep like a baby :P

Best of luck

At first I wouldn't think of anything in particular but just couldn't sleep. Now all I think about before I sleep is 'I hope I can sleep. What if I can't sleep? What's the time? OH MY WHY CAN'T I SLEEP?'

take some of that calm stuff and/or that nytol stuff. Hopefully, that should make you sleep well!