I take melatonin before I go to bed, and it helps me fall asleep. It does not keep me asleep, but when I wake (between my feet, my hands, and my Crohn's, that can be 6 or more times during 8 hours of sleep), the melatonin does help me fall back to sleep. Before I began using melatonin I could find myself awake for an hour or more several times a night.

Oh . . . and I also found I dream on melatonin, which I think is a good sign that you are getting deeper sleep. And I have been lucky that my dreaming has been actually pretty pleasant . . . not the kind you wake up from feeling tired!

I also use medical marijuana for my Crohn's (it relieves cramping and nausea) and it helps me relax to get sleepy. I find it also relaxes me enough to lessen the atrocious pain from spasticity.

For several years I have learned how to use deep breathing to help lure me back to sleep when I am awakened by pain or other physical "signals." I actually trained my breathing to follow the rhythms of songs so when I hear them my breathing follows almost automatically. I rarely hear the last few songs on my favorite CD doing this breathing exercise, and I have increased my lung capacity to boot! I choose music with gently rolling, oceanic wave-like rising and falling rhythms . . . and then imagine myself floating along in a buoyant bed of kelp, rising and falling with the swells.


Oops! Time to get into my wet suit . . .