<p>Get a fan or sleep noise machine and use it, the sounds of waves or rain are both soothing. The white noise will lull you to sleep. You can also try taking 1 Tylenol PM. It’s the same ingredient as benedryl and is non-habit forming.</p>
<p>Could it be that you don’t necessarily have insomnia but your body clock just makes you fall asleep too late? For example, nowadays I have trouble falling asleep earlier than 4am but come early dawn, I start to get sleepy and have no trouble sleeping. This isn’t considered to be insomnia because you can still fall asleep but just at a really late time. I think if you have problems falling asleep at a desired time but have no trouble falling asleep really late at night, it’s a circadian rhythm disorder, not insomnia. The circadian rhythm disorder where people fall asleep later than what is desired is called Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome.</p>
<p><a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_sleep_phase_syndrome[/url]”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_sleep_phase_syndrome</a></p>
<p>After a few weeks on break, my body clock shifts way late so that I fall asleep usually around 5-6am and wake up at around 3pm which is really annoying since then the day’s over. I don’t consider this to be insomnia; however, it’s really hard to adjust back to sleeping at normal times and I feel wide awake when most are drifting off to sleep. Could this be what’s going on with you?</p>
<p>Claritin could be causing your problem. I stopped taking it because (after taking it almost daily for a few years) I started getting edgy and keyed up. I switched to Allegra, which doesn’t cause side effects in me. Remember that a medicine that didn’t bother you CAN suddenly start to cause problems. If you want to try 48 yours without Claritin I seriously doubt it would cause you any harm (although I AM not a doctor and my medical advice is worth what you paid for it).</p>
<p>A relevant recent article with suggestions:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.bcm.edu/news/item.cfm?newsID=780[/url]”>http://www.bcm.edu/news/item.cfm?newsID=780</a></p>
<p>As a former insomniac, I agree with all the above suggestions and will also add:</p>
<p>Take some calcium/magnesium - there is a powder called ‘Gillman’s Calm’ or something like that, available in health food stores, that works well. Also a B-complex vitamin which is essential for relieving stress. And, what finally helped me a lot was light therapy. Insurance might even cover it. It’s called a golite from <a href=“http://www.apollolight.com/golite_p2.html[/url]”>http://www.apollolight.com/golite_p2.html</a>
This site has the info but you can get it a lot cheaper on amazon.com. It’s a remedy for circadian rhythm disorder/insomnia. I found it very helpful but you have to follow the protocol (certain number of minutes per day at certain times).</p>
<p>Try melatonin which is used for jet lag…works for a lot of people and is generally very safe. 1 hour before you want to go to sleep.
A glass of warm milk-- has tryptophan which induces sleep.
Do not vary your sleep schedule during the week (this was suggested before)- you can’t really ‘catch up’ on lost sleep, you should not expect to be able to go to sleep at 2 am on a Saturday night and at 10 on a Tuesday night…same time, roughly, every night.</p>