I also wear headphones and listen to my IPod very softly. Puts me to sleep pretty quickly.

I can totally identify with you what's a good night's sleep anymore...

I haven't slept more the 3-4 hours a night for the last almost 3 yrs. It started for me after the night sweats stopped...Is there an end? I hope so however, I just haven't found one yet...A glass of milk helps sometimes but not always...Sorry :-(

You might try some exercising & see if that helps. I started going to Physical Therapy for my back, & he has given me exercises to do twice a day. I use to have trouble sleeping too, but no more! So, it's just a thought, but it sure is working for me!...

Very different than most posts so far. I take no meds but yrs ago was introduced to meletonin--from health food store. Needed them about 4 times a yr.
Don't laugh now-- but recently I read the book --The Precious Present --actually discussing living in the present moment --which I heard Oprah mention one day. So at night after reading for a few min. I tell myself to live in the moment and go to sleep because that is why I am now in bed. Small book , easy read but impactful to me.

Tomorrow I will live in the moment again even when I am driving and therefore able to concentrate on anything I am doing. You can laugh now.
Wanted to mention that before this I was like you and did so much work (in my mind ) while trying to go to sleep.
Made so so many quilts too.

I tried over the counter Melatonin and had the worse nightmare ever! I gave the pills to someone who thought they worked perfectly.

But a couple years ago I tried to teach myself to knit, making a scarf. I was almost to the end but didn't know how to bind off. I read a little and went to bed. But I kept waking up thinking about how to bind off. Finally I got out of bed and got on the computer and found out how to bind off.

And then fell right to sleep!!!

I'm sorry, but I can fall asleep almost immediately most of the time. I occasionally have problems, but only occasionally. I found out when I was a teenager (50 years ago) that I could use self-hypnosis to sleep. You should try it. It's not a hard technique to learn and it allows you to sleep naturally without pills.

I used to work in an ICU. We had a standing order to give benadryl 25 mg and if needed you can give another 25 mg one hour later. At home I buy generic benadryl 25mg and I also take 2 extra strength tylenol with it. It really helps ,with very little after affect the next morning. (tylenol pm has 25mg benadryl..generic... and tylenol in it) but I find it works better using them the first way. Good luck getting some sleep. Also...no chocolate or caffeine after noon for me.

Absolutely I can relate. As a teenager/young person I could blissfully surrender myself to sleep...sometimes probably too much according to my mother. But then I began a career in nursing - shift work, weekends, holidays, 12hr shifts, double shifts, extra shifts. That did me in. The last few years of my career, as menopause invaded, I worked 7PM to 7AM. So, I too, am lucky to get much more than 4-5hrs a night and that's usually broken up by trips to the bathroom. I am lucky, I can catch a nap during the day, I have friends who say they can't sleep in the day but I actually sleep better in the day.

After working Home Health Care all my life in the early sheft I'
find my mind and body are still in the same mode. So a good
book by the bed side helps to get me to sleep. But up at dawn
is the pits. I guess we all have our own built in amount of sleep
we need. 5 hours and I'm up and going. At 73 you'd think I
could sleep more. NO!!

FLO in NNY

I tried ambien too, just didn't work for me. Didn't really help me sleep any better because of nightmares and I felt sluggish the next day. I am glad it worked for you.