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Thank you so much - yes I’m 63 and reading your reply made me feel better that’s it’s not all in my head!
I do take 250 mg of a high quality magnesium citrate before bed. I have tried the sleep meditation videos on you tube but since it happens intermittently I don’t always think to do it before I lie down - I’ll look for Jason Stephenson.
I have tried lots of supplements but not GABA so that’s one to try also. I really don’t want to go the route of benzodiazepines because everyone I know that’s used them says it’s hell to get off them.
I know we’ve discussed sleep problems before but I haven’t seen a thread related specifically to falling asleep. Thank you again for your input.
Actually, it's kinda normal, OP, after a certain age.
Ask your doctor to test your progesterone levels. It sounds like you're low on progesterone, which calms your system at the end of the day, preparing it for sleep, and helps you get to sleep. If your doc says, "no, estrogen is what we're prescribing for menopause/post-menopause", find another doctor. See an endocrinologist. The Pharma industry has been pushing an estrogen hormone cream, so a lot of the primary care docs have bought into that (the Pharma industry runs some of the Continuing Education courses medical professionals select from).
RE: magnesium-- There's a powdered magnesium product sold at health food stores, called "Natural Calm" anti-stress drink in a tall, cylinder-shaped canister. You put it in water, and it fizzes, and calms your system.
You're smart to want to avoid Ambient dependence, or other sleeping pills.
One more "natural" supplement: a product called "Theanine Serene", by Source Naturals. Pharmaca Pharmacies carry it, and you can find it from several vendors online. It supplements your natural amino acids, minerals, etc., that you're short on, due to lower progesterone levels. It has magnesium built in.
My Great Grandad had a dairy farm and kept bees which he felt kept the clover growing in the pastures.
His favorite sleep aid was an old folk medicine remedy....take a teaspoon of honey from the wax comb
just before bed time. Consume no liquids after that, just go to bed.
If you buy honey at the store that doesn't have the wax comb, read the ingredients to make sure it is 100% pure honey. You will find stuff that looks like honey that has been cut with sugar syrup now days.
Honey in the wax comb is the best but the honey that has been processed with heat looses many of it's most beneficial properties.
My Great Grandad had a dairy farm and kept bees which he felt kept the clover growing in the pastures.
His favorite sleep aid was an old folk medicine remedy....take a teaspoon of honey from the wax comb
just before bed time. Consume no liquids after that, just go to bed.
If you buy honey at the store that doesn't have the wax comb, read the ingredients to make sure it is 100% pure honey. You will find stuff that looks like honey that has been cut with sugar syrup now days.
Honey in the wax comb is the best but the honey that has been processed with heat looses many of it's most beneficial properties.
Honey works for some, because it causes an insulin spike, and insulin is a sleep hormone. Any carby snack can work. However, I think doctors who recommend an insulin-triggering snack for older people who can't get to sleep are potentially risking some of their patients developing insulin resistance, which some people are prone to, especially if there's middle-age weight gain. And in fact, this strategy causes weight gain in some elders, due to the insulin spike. Insulin causes the body to build fat.
There are safer ways to induce sleep without prescription meds or sweets. Patients who are pre-diabetic especially shouldn't take the carb route to fall asleep. In fact, for them, it can have the opposite effect, due in part to a pre-existing tendency toward insulin resistance after the dinner meal.
A friend has great results working with Calms Forte' homeopathic tablets.
I've used a few different brands, and had very good results with each!
They are designed to trigger the body into doing what it needs to, but isn't doing.
I especially appreciate that thy do not have any diuretic effect, like many herbs do.
The essential oil Lavender is often used in sachets under one's pillow, or a drop or so on the forehead before heading to bed.
I find that Sunflower seeds are very good to start me yawning & relaxing, and often eat them for a bedtime snack. They also have minerals that keep me from having charley-horses when I've been eating foods high in phosphorus, as do Almonds.
Prunes are also known for helping one relax & sleep.
The most natural things to do is to listen to some relaxing music to help put you to sleep. Or drinking Sleepytime tea by Celestial Seasonings. But the best thing is using Hemp Extract Oil. It does wonders.
From what I understand about Honey, it gets into your blood stream about seven times slower than foods made with refined sugar. This is why it doesn't trigger the insulin spike that refined sugar (sucrose) would cause. Honey comes from the flowers of plants as nectar and is a combination of fruit sugar (fructose) along with Dextrose (or glucose/blood sugar) with a smaller amount of water. It also contains some magnesium and potassium as well which are beneficial for good sleep.
But it's the work of the Bee's that actually benefits us. They secrete an enzyme that modifies that plant nectar so our digestive system can use it to our body's best advantage when we go to sleep.
As Great Grandad had a dairy farm I know he got plenty of sunshine on his skin and consumed the milk and buttermilk (which is good for your digestion much like yogurt or cottage cheese) that was produced on the farm. Vitamin D is also a key ingredient in getting good sleep. I could say he lived long & happy on his farm of milk & honey.
I've used a few different brands, and had very good results with each!
They are designed to trigger the body into doing what it needs to, but isn't doing.
I especially appreciate that thy do not have any diuretic effect, like many herbs do.
The essential oil Lavender is often used in sachets under one's pillow, or a drop or so on the forehead before heading to bed.
I find that Sunflower seeds are very good to start me yawning & relaxing, and often eat them for a bedtime snack. They also have minerals that keep me from having charley-horses when I've been eating foods high in phosphorus, as do Almonds.
Prunes are also known for helping one relax & sleep.
Regular exercise also promotes better sleep.
I'm planning to buy some Calms Forte today. Very interesting about sunflower seeds - I'll try that. How much to you eat?
The most natural things to do is to listen to some relaxing music to help put you to sleep. Or drinking Sleepytime tea by Celestial Seasonings. But the best thing is using Hemp Extract Oil. It does wonders.
Sadly, I can't drink any herbal teas before I go to bed because I already have problems with my bladder waking me up several times a night. I have taken CBD but not hemp oil extract - is there a difference or what brand do you take? Like many other things I've tried, CBD works great for my normal sleep habits, but when I'm having what I term one of my episodes, so far nothing has worked except Ambien. Fortunately it only happens about 4-5 times a month but I'd really rather not depend on the Ambien for even that frequency.
Here's something completely natural that works for me (lost my husband a few months ago, and then had TONS of physical stress afterward, so my sleep pattern was DEFINITELY negatively affected and I was prescribed Tamazepam which I no longer take).
I do several things. First I take time every single evening before I go to bed to sit in a rocking chair and rock, focus on my breathing (slow breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth), and I cross my arms and slowly and audibly pat my upper arms with the opposite hand - think of hugging yourself and rocking a baby except you're rocking yourself. The first few times I did that all I did was cry, but now it's very peaceful and relaxing.
Then once I do that - typically only for about ten deep breaths but maybe a few more - I go straight to bed. I read in bed, which generally makes me sleepy. I do check my phone if it goes off, but it rarely does and if I do that, I make sure that I get some additional reading in before turning off the light.
If I can't sleep I don't lay there and try to sleep - I just get up. I have found that generally after being up about 30 minutes I get sleepy and I can go to bed and go to sleep.
Another all natural remedy that seems effective, if I have to get up, is drinking a cup of warm milk, or a small glass of milk with broken up saltine crackers in it. I don't know what it is about that, but it seems to really work.
I wear a FitBit to bed too, one that measures my sleep patterns, and I have found several things surprising about it. First of all, I am surprised at how many times per night I'm awake. Secondly, I am pleasantly surprised that I'm actually well within normal, healthy range for my age when it comes to cycles of sleep, and my heart rate during sleep.
So you may want to check that out too - the FitBit is also a pedometer and it just keeps good track of several health markers for us. It's about $100 and then $10 a month.
Here's something completely natural that works for me (lost my husband a few months ago, and then had TONS of physical stress afterward, so my sleep pattern was DEFINITELY negatively affected and I was prescribed Tamazepam which I no longer take).
I do several things. First I take time every single evening before I go to bed to sit in a rocking chair and rock, focus on my breathing (slow breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth), and I cross my arms and slowly and audibly pat my upper arms with the opposite hand - think of hugging yourself and rocking a baby except you're rocking yourself. The first few times I did that all I did was cry, but now it's very peaceful and relaxing.
Then once I do that - typically only for about ten deep breaths but maybe a few more - I go straight to bed. I read in bed, which generally makes me sleepy. I do check my phone if it goes off, but it rarely does and if I do that, I make sure that I get some additional reading in before turning off the light.
If I can't sleep I don't lay there and try to sleep - I just get up. I have found that generally after being up about 30 minutes I get sleepy and I can go to bed and go to sleep.
Another all natural remedy that seems effective, if I have to get up, is drinking a cup of warm milk, or a small glass of milk with broken up saltine crackers in it. I don't know what it is about that, but it seems to really work.
I wear a FitBit to bed too, one that measures my sleep patterns, and I have found several things surprising about it. First of all, I am surprised at how many times per night I'm awake. Secondly, I am pleasantly surprised that I'm actually well within normal, healthy range for my age when it comes to cycles of sleep, and my heart rate during sleep.
So you may want to check that out too - the FitBit is also a pedometer and it just keeps good track of several health markers for us. It's about $100 and then $10 a month.
Thank you Kathryn - I know you've been through so much. I'm pretty sure I'd be a complete basket case if I were in your shoes. I do get up and read when sleep is futile and many times it helps me get sleepy. I'd never really considered a FitBit before but that sounds like a good idea. Thanks again.
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