Insomnia. What seems to help?

I have terrible insomnia. I’ve tried Benadryl, melatonin, acupuncture, and magnesium supplements. Nothing seems to work for me. I’m lucky if I get 2 hours a night of sleep. Has anyone tried something and it worked? Please let me know. Thanks

Hi @loveofdogs, I moved your message to this existing discussion on insomnia.
- Insomnia. What seems to help? https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/josephene-i-am-having-terrible-insomnia-as-well-nothing-seems-to-help/

I did this so you can read previous posts to see the helpful tips members have shared and so that you can connect easily with members like @128128terry11t @josephene @cmd @passenger @aethos @raye @amlak @strawboy12 @rocketjs.

Have you been to a doctor who specializes in sleep medicine?

I tried all of these and unfortunately ended up taking ambien; I now sleep well.

Really happy for you to find ambien and find what works for you. Best wishes, JleeG

Ambien works for me as well. I’m a hardcore insomniac. I also take three muscle relaxers (tizanidine) at the same time.

I developed insomnia after taking a steroid (budnesonide) for two and a half weeks. I immediately could not sleep, lost 13 lbs,etc. So I had to go off without weaning. I am taking trazodone to sleep and getting no rem and only 3 to 4 hrs of deep sleep. Unfortunately I will now have to wean off that as it is an antidepressant. Then I have to find a sleep aid. My cortisol level is still high. Any help would be appreciated.

My Fitbit tracker shows I generally get anywhere from 10 minutes to one hour of deep sleep. I don’t know how to get more. And my heart rate variability goes from 60-90 much of the time.

you might have sleep apnea ?Do you have anxiety?

Yes, I have severe anxiety. I’ve had sleep problems for most of my life. For the past few weeks I’ve had a 9 ear old granddaughter under a suicide watch so that weighs heavily on my mind. ITs totally destroying my stomach.

Hello @dustycat52. I can ID with you on the severe anxiety. It's absolutely brutal! As far as the sleep problems and anxiety, if it was me, this is what I would try: I think there is a lot of benefit from seeing a good sleep doctor (I would research that choice too. I wasted 9 months in pain because I had a bad doctor). I use a sleep doctor and also a psychiatrist to work with me on anxiety. Although I have a different sleep disorder now, I believe that principle remains very helpful.

Secondly, before taking any supplement or even a prescribed medication, I would get on Google and search for scientific evidence that the substance actually works for your problem. You don't need any scientific knowledge, but just look to see if it's been studied and look at the summary to make sure they found evidence that it really works. I'd say there are many more supplements that get pushed by advertising (big money there), than ones that really work. In my opinion, I would say that "holistic" remedies are labeled that because they can't get approved to become real medicines. That's a controversial thing to say, but I stand by it 100%. I do have advanced education and research in that area.

Whatever you decide to do, I wish you the best, and a very, very happy life to follow.