Try writing a pantomime, P, that'll do the trick. Are you just overexcited about Santa?
Seriously, though, insomnia's a Bu***r. If things get too bad, you can get overtired and be like a zombie, and that makes it even worse. Being tired doesn't mean you can sleep. At that stage I take an antihistamine tablet (Piriton does the trick), but I have to make sure I don't need to drive anywhere the next day, or get up early to go anywhere, or make important decisions. It takes at least a day to catch up, and I find myself catnapping for 24-48 hours, then I'm back to what is laughingly called normal. Last night (this morning) I was sleepless and online until 02.45, then went to bed and read for 30 minutes. Managed to sleep after that, but was awake at 04.50. Dozed for 15 minutes, then got up and made a cuppa, iced a cake, did a dishwasher load, stripped the covers off the chairs and sofa, cleaned the kitchen, swept and mopped the floors, cleaned out and made up the stoves, took two loads of ash up the garden (In my dressing gown) just as the sun came up (Gorgeous!) Fed the cats, put on a load of washing, wrapped two more presents, made the porridge, brought logs up from the cellar, went up to the loft to water all my overwintering cuttings and bulbs and now I'm knackered and going to have a nice long soak before I start again. I shall probably fall asleep and drop my book in the water. I have loads of damp, wrinkly books! I do hope you manage to get some sleep soon.

I drafted my latest blog at about 3.30 am ... early Wednesday morning... but I don't advise publishing at that hour... better to read it through in daylight first ! Lol.

I hope everyone gets good sleep over the holidays :o)

Is the bedroom too warm, Pimpernel? Like us, you probably have the heating set to winter level after the cold weather earlier in the month. Suddenly we have nightime temperatures equivalent to summer and it is much too warm. Due to cool down a bit in a few days time though.

I work at Tesco in the car park loving the mild weather but we have been struggling to sleep but tonight after what will be the busiest day of the year a few stiff drinks and hopefully I will sleep like a baby the fresh air and smallish drink will do the trick

You have my sympathy Pimpernel. I don't often suffer from insomnia so don't have much to add. Getting up and doing something useful (or lots of useful things) for a few hours before going back to bed seems like a good idea though.

If I'm being kept awake by worrying about all the things I mustn't forget to do I find making a list helps to get them out of my mind.

I have a couple of lavender bags that I put on my pillow so that I can just get the perfume. I always have a book of Sudoku by my bed and that takes my mind off things!!if I wake up. Bed socks can help if you are a cold person. Getting warm in your nightclothes before you go to bed.

Thanks all..I noticed you were up late as well Gattina. I'm a life long insomniac it's usually not that big a deal as long as I can get an hour or two. This is one of the long stretches though..eyes like saucers!

I've not had to put the heating on at all yet Bulba, the gas fire has been all that is needed on a couple of days. One of the benefits of being in a mid terrace, the neighbours heat your house. :0)

Probably something in the fresh air theory Steve. I've been off work all week, it does seem worse when I'm off.

We only put our heating on yesterday, and not overnight - we can't abide sleeping in a warm bedroom. If you can see your breath, though, then maybe it's a little TOO cold, although I remember that being the norm in childhood winters. We are fortunate, being retired, we don't have to worry about dropping off in the armchair after lunch, but it is a bit of a nuisance when one of you is snoring in the chair, and the other one wants to crash around being energetic! Last night's short sleep doesn't seem to have diminished my energy today. It is a serious problem, though, P., especially if you worry about it. OH makes lists, I do codewords and play computer games and write. Alcohol does help to send you to sleep, but it doesn't stop you waking in the small hours, and then you don't feel so good. As you say, a brisk walk in the fresh air may do the trick. Do some overtime! Sorted!

I don't go to bed most nights before 2 am - but I do sleep most of the time if I'm not in pain. Have the odd night here and there where I'm just not tired - and then I get up and find something to do, put the tv on quietly, do a crossword, write my diary, whatever, and wait till daybreak. Difficulty going to sleep is often because your mind's whirring - as somebody else suggested, making a list is a good thing to help with that. Though I have been known to put the computer on at 4 am to renew my library books while I think of it...
I've taken to listening to a portable radio through headphones when I first get into bed if I can't sleep - used to read, but my back's been bad for so long I can't read in bed now. The World Service usually sends me off to sleep in a reasonable amount of time - so long as the volume is only just audible.
One tip though - eat plenty of lettuce about 2-4 hours before bedtime. Contains a chemical that encourages a neuro transmitter in the brain to do with sleep... seems to work, but I find it has to be 2 hours before sleep, not 4.

Try to avoid doing anything that needs much thinking about for an hour before you go to bed, and try doing some gentle stretching and relaxation exercises with deep relaxed breathing.
Try not to think about going to sleep as that keeps you awake.
Practice breathing so your diaphragm expands downwards, rather than your chest expanding outwards, but only gently - this takes some practice but is worth teaching yourself as it is very relaxing. Go though your whole body starting with the forehead looking for tense muscles and relaxing them- forehead, tongue and jaw, shoulders, stomach, arms, abdomen etc.

Getting up even it its just going to the loo can help. You can buy non addictive herbal pills to aid sleep from health food shops.

Think quiet music to yourself if you know it well enough to go though it without having to think what comes next.

And have your blood pressure checked, as raised bp can cause insomnia.

These are my remedies and I hope some of them work for you.

Sorry to hear this Pimp. I have been prescribed sleeping meds but do not recommend this as you not only become dependant, but you also don't get a good nights rest. Have found the same with alcohol.
Recently I have been re-reading some of STT's blogs and find this inevitably puts me right to sleep, though often inducing strange nightmares. :)

No doing anything that requires mental thought for at least an hour before bed (no watching TV, being on the computer, playing internet games), just listen to some 'gentle' music, do a few yoga type stretches, assuming you drink milk have a warm milky drink, see an alternative therapist for advice on herbal type sleeping aids, learn auto hypnosis - works wonders for putting you out, and most importantly accept that you do not sleep for long at a time and allow for that in your life.

awww, I know how you feel, I have no solutions but have recently reduced computer time before bed and gone back to a book! This has helped a little.

The upside is I have no idea how many 'sleeps' before Santa comes... ;-)

Thanks again..I have tried most of those suggestions, not the meds though Lil , sorry you have trouble with them. I think that they should never be prescribed for more than a week , if at all. Same with STT's Blogs ;0))

Got rid of the TV over 8 years ago MG, just Radio 4 on low, the shipping forecast is soothing but I find myself waiting to hear what's happening at the Faroes. Tried meditation and breathing exercises at the Buddhist centre my mind fills up and races away...Lol

It's only these times when it goes on for days on end..I may try the Piriton Gattina.

Buy yourself an ipod. Download stories and podcasts and you'll drift away. There is Gardeners' Question Time, Gardening with Tim and Joe from Radio Leeds and Gardeners' Corner from Radio Ulster. The Omnibus Edition of the Archers is about one and a quarter hours long, all free from the BBC. When I had an allotment and woke up at some unearthly hour, I used to go and dig the plot. If all else fails, then why not take up fishing? With a comfy chair, I find I easily drop off.

At least you know that it's not addictive, but I personally try not to rely on it for everyday use, just when I badly need it. It seems to re-set my internal clock quite well, and is very gentle.

I find if I have a list of familiar things to work through mentally, I'm usually asleep before I get to the end (in my case it's football league teams).

The other thing that works for me is counting the roundabouts in Bracknell - I'm always asleep by the time I get to 60!

That does happen when you start meditation Pimpernel. you "just" have to note the thoughts but not follow them up. Wasn't suggesting meditation as such though. My OH makes lists of things beginning with consecutive letters of the alphabet and says it works for him, but it drives me bananas as he sometimes does it out loud or asks for suggestions when he gets stuck.

Lol...still awake. I would end up walking round Bracknell to make sure I missed non Andrew

Hello, P. You still awake? Me too. I shall be wrecked tomorrow. I was up very early, too. Don't forget it's an hour later here. I don't feel very sleepy at all yet. The heating's off now, though, and the room's getting distinctly chilly, so I'm off to bed to read if only to keep warm. Try not to get stressed about it, it won't help.
Night, night.

Well...\0/ Hooray! forced myself to stay in bed. Result about two hours of lovely sleep...woken by fireworks, but feeling much better.

Sorry that you are having the same trouble G..Should be such an easy thing sleep, you would think.

Hooray!! I think now you've broken the pattern, the rest will follow.
Don't be sorry for me, P. I'm quite relaxed about it, and us oldies - what else have we got to do with our days but catch up with missed sleep? (Daughter's words, who thinks she's the only person in the world who has ever worked) OH and I have the same problem as each other, luckily we have the luxury of a spare bedroom, so if the going gets really rough, neither of us has to wake the other with our night-time activities. I have to say, in the more active days of spring, summer and autumn, when the gardening weather is good and we are out every day in the fresh air, digging and hauling barrows full of compost, etc., we don't have nearly such a bad problem, but then the gorgeous, bright, early sunrises, if we can't be bothered to close the shutters the night before will have us awake and up and about far earlier than necessary. Our neighbours are all awake and working by 5, and are pretty much in bed by 9 at night. I think we just have semi-permanent jet-lag!

glad to hear you got a good couple of hours,at least, Pimp. The more you think about not sleeping ,the worse it is,in my experience..I find I am mainly the opposite,,but wake very early..so always get up..whatever the time..make a cuppa,and play on here..a lot !..fire on,and nice and cosy,so sometimes just lie on the sofa..and off I go..for another couple of hours till OH gets up..oh,the days when Mum or Dad used to shout upstairs to ask if I was going to stay in bed all day,as Sunday lunch was ready !..Lol.Mind you ,I had been out Saturday night...till late !

As you know Pimpernel, I'm a sufferer too. I find it far worse in the winter though.
Unlike others, I find it better to keep active mentally right up to the "end". Some nights it can be three or four am before I go to bed. I know when it's time basically, and will go straight to sleep. If I try to do something about it I just seem to be up all night.
What I'm trying to say (badly) is accept it - ten years ago I did. I no longer do the fretful nights because I can't get to sleep, and as I no longer fret I can drop straight off when it is "time". As long as you can function on three or four hours a night...........

I was at the dentist and read in a magazine a tip that suprisingly works for me.

It said that we carry a lot of tension incour jaw and you need to consciously relax it and let the lower jaw gently drop, at the same time with your eyes closed look behind your nose, keep lightly thinking about these two things and make sure you are doing them and not 'going off at a tangent' just gently relax your jaw again and look into the dark.....as I say It works for me most of the time

I do more or less the same thing Meanie, I know that I will not go to sleep so I just find something to do until know the time has come, then it's anything from 10 mins to half an hour before I drop off. As long as I get 2hours or so I am Ok even if it's broken sleep. Then I get weeks like these, where I get no sleep at all...Eyes burn. I usually go walking, poor dog comes with me.

By the time we'd finished dinner this evening, the little muscles in my face were twitching with exhaustion, my eyes felt as if they had sand in them and I was almost hallucinating with tiredness. I think maybe I was relaxing after the stress of getting everything ready for the arrival of guests and Christmas Eve. There was SO much to do and think of. So we sat down to watch "The Two Ronnies" and before I knew it I'd been sleeping soundly in my chair for two hours. Everyone was kind enough to say I hadn't been snoring. I think I shall sleep very soundly tonight.
Pimpernel, I am sure Bruce is always delighted to come walking with you. Sweet Dreams, and (because it's already past midnight here)
Happy, Happy, Sleepy, Low key Christmas!!!

Hope you got to sleep eventually pimpernel, i take books and the ipad to bed with me so i have something to do before i sleep and if i wake up, much better than just trying to sleep i found!

i think just look at it as a good time . bye nature your alone . i turn to art quit often when i cant . these darling pups arnt helping and they arnt always the egsact words i use either believe it or not . there lovley thow .

How's it going, P.? Any improvement?
I thought I'd never drop off last night, but I did, and I've slept really late for me this morning - 08.00, but I've woken with a stonking headache - it's the chronic sinusitis thing - when I lie down the pressure builds up, and sleeping sitting up in bed is never easy or restful. I think that's why I often sleep for hours in the armchair in front of some boring television programme, covered in nice warm cats. It isn't what you'd call quality sleep, though.

That's a good cure Gattina - boring TV!

Definitely a good cure...I would never have believed that I could sleep upright in the chair ! ..sadly it happened again last night,and I was watching something funny..Peter Kaye's new DVD,,how could I ? one minute laughing..next,zonked out ! oh dear..

Trouble is, I can wait weeks for a special programme that I REALLY want to see, and the moment it starts, I fall asleep. Almost 100% guaranteed.

Lol...Gattina, actually had a long sleep last night, woke up exhausted. I should be better now I am back at work lugging travel brochures and sales catalogues.

Long sleeps make me feel washed out too, P. We're between a rock and a hard place, aren't we?
Just been out for lovely long, freezing, steep hill-climb-type walk to collect wild juniper berries. That should do the trick. Hope your travel brochures work for you.

i would be reading them on the way round!!!

The answer is do nothing an hour before bed. Go for a bath, then to bed, and 'rest' with eyes closed. Let your mind wander without thinking about it. Too much stimulation and thoughts going round your mind will keep you awake, including reading, listening or trying crosswords. How much caffeine are you having in the day? Even alcohol is a known stimulant - that 'night cap' is deadly for a decent night's sleep! There is nothing wrong with occasionally taking a herbal sleep remedy. Keep lighting to a minimum. Switch off phone, door bell etc. Fresh clean sheets also help. Keep bedroom cool and dark, so you can snuggle down into your covers, and don't wake up hot during the night or from any light. Night night.