Many people with insomnia have no trouble getting to sleep initially but they tend to wake up in the night and cannot get back to sleep again. This kind of sleep problem is called “sleep maintenance insomnia” and it is a most frustrating type of insomnia to suffer from.

I f you have sleep maintenance insomnia the first thing to do is to eliminate anything you are doing that might be causing your sleep problem Sleep maintenance insomnia can be caused by smoking or by nicotine replacement therapy and by drinking coffee or a lot of alcohol in the evening. Another, rather surprising cause is insomnia medications. Yes, prescription sleeping pills can actually cause sleep maintenance insomnia!

But if none of this applies and yet you suffer from sleep maintenance insomnia these tips may help you to overcome your insomnia problem.

1. Consider how many hours sleep you have already had. Is it possible that you have had enough sleep? If you went to bed early it is quite possible you have already had all the sleep you need and are simply not tired. If you think this could be your problem try going to bed later bed later and see what happens.
2. When you wake in the night and after 20 minutes or so can’t get back to sleep, get up and read a book. It is important not to use a bright for reading as that could be a signal to your body that morning has arrived.
3. Sometimes you may wake and feel hungry. If so do get yourself a small snack. You won’t be able to sleep if you are feeling staved. A glass of milk, a cookie or small sandwich is the ideal snack. Milk will encourage your body to produce tryptophan to help you get back to sleep and anything containing carbohydrates will make you feel sleepy.
4. Another thing that is important in overcoming insomnia is to make sure your bedroom is conducive to sleep. Is the temperature comfortable? What about your bedding? A mattress with a dip in it can easily be the cause of interrupted sleep.
5. While lying in bed use relaxation techniques. There are various well known relaxation exercises that can help. Try this: take a deep breath down into the base of your lungs. Hold for a moment then very slowly exhale while saying in your mind “Relax” or “I feel sleepy” or “I am falling asleep, or make a phrase up for yourself that feels right for you.

If none of this helps then I do have another really solution for your insomnia. Actually this is a fantastic answer to any kind of insomnia. Its called brainwave entrainment. Brainwave entrainment is an amazing sound technology that has the ability to send you to sleep quite fast. This sound technology uses a particular beat or tone to coax your brain to slow down its activity and sink into a relaxed mode.
Brainwave entrainment can be purchased on a CD that you listen to as you lie in bed. After several minutes of listening while relaxing in bed this sound will send you off to sleep. There are several audios that use brainwave entrainment and its a fascinating field to explore. Brainwave entrainment can be used for more than just insomnia but if you do have trouble sleeping you may want to start there. More information about brainwave entrainment for sleep.

I have just returned home to New Zealand from from the UK. The main flight was 26 hours which included a 2 hour stop in Hong Kong. I then had to fly South to my home a 2.5 hour flight. All this plus many hours hanging around at airports.  We were going forward in time so although it was my birthday on the 15th I completely missed it!  I think this means I am still the age I was last year  . 

But what a hideous assault on the circadian rhythm and on my sleep. Have any of you had a similar experience and if so how have you dealt with it?

I was given various pieces of advice from friends and family which included "take 2 valium (diazapam) and a couple of glasses of wine and sleep" 

The best advice though was to take melatonin. I bought a packet of slow release melatonin at the airport pharmacy in Hong Kong, as we can't buy it over the counter in the UK or in NZ. I had my meal, and yes I did have some wine, then took the melatonin to coincide with night time at my destination. I slept non-stop for 7 hours.  I have done this trip many times before and have never experienced such wonderfull uninterrupted sleep before. My jet lag, usually lasts a week but this time it has been minimal.

I think this is the perfect solution to flying accross time zones and can recommend it very highly. One thing though, make sure to get a good brand of Melatonin in a reputable pharmacy. I have had melatonin before to see if would help my insomnia and it did nothing so now I am wondering if the brand I bought was not the best. Maybe it didn't even contain melatonin.  The brand I used this time was called MelaPure Dual Release Melatonin and came in 3mg tablets. Click on the 2 below to see more information on Melatonin.

I haven't been around tiny newborn babies since mine were at that stage. So I had forgotten how sleep deprived they can make you.

My daughter's baby is 3 weeks old and I am staying with her to give her a hand. I can't help her with the feeding though, only she has the right equipment for that! The baby is not letting her get much sleep and seems to take an age to feed and then to settle after her feed. I don't think there is any solution to this except time and someone to help you manage during the day. It isn't insomnia its "asomnia". No that isn't a word I just made it up!

Meanwhile I have jet lag. I travelled 13,000 miles to be with my daughter and the time is 12 hours difference. But my sleep has been amazingly good this time. I took Melatonin each night since I arrived and it has made a huge difference to my sleep. Usually when I make this journey I just can't sleep properly for a week or even two weeks. This time I am asleep as soon as I put out the light. Its great.

Melatonin, in case you are not familiar with it, is a hormone that is secreted when it gets dark and which tells the body that it is time to go into sleep mode. When you mess up your body clock by changing hemispheres abruptly, sleep time isn't triggered until your diurnal rhythm catches up. Melatonin helps to speed up that transition by sending you off to sleep at the new bedtime.

I used the long acting variety of melatonin that gives a total of 3 mgs over an 8 hour period. 

NOTE: Don't give melatonin to children or teenagers though. It is a hormone and has other effects than triggering sleep.