Originally Posted by Hains

Sorry to hear about your sleep. It's something I've struggled with for the past 2 years. I've had many stretches of sleeplessness, including a 7 day stretch once. I've ran the gammit of remedies that you have discussed, trying everything from pills, tea's, supplements of all sorts, mindfulness, breath training, sleep hygiene, blue light blockers, etc. It's dizzying and stressful trying to solve these problems. I'm happy to say though that I fall asleep every night now. I attribute the most weight of this success to a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia protocol that I found on the internet. It's a 5-week protocol that costs a grand total of $50. You get email interaction with a fellow named Dr. Jacobs who has you fill out a sleep diary and he basically tells you when to go to bed and when to wake up. The sleep times get adjusted as you progress through the program. There was a study published that compared his specific program to the use of Ambien, and his CBT-i protocol was found to be much more effective. I would recommend looking into it (http://www.cbtforinsomnia.com/). In fact, I ditched all of the supplements and tea's and stuff and rely on nothing other than my circadian rhythm to fall asleep.

In addition to this protocol, I practice daily mindfulness meditation. This helps me with controlling my emotions as I used to rage when awake at 4 in the morning. This has also improved my finances as I don't have to pay from broken drywall.

I also believe in magnesium citrate. I take it in the morning now. The stress from not sleeping causes the adrenal glands to produce cortisol, and when this happens, magnesium gets dumped out like a faucet. They used to prescribe magnesium as a mood enhancer, I don't know why doctors have forgotten this!!!

Good luck. Sleep Well.