I tried melatonin, doesn't work at all.. read online most people say not that useful
Diazepam works well for me... but need doctor to prescribe
how long you guys normally take to fall asleep per night?
Melatonin is useful for me and my mum, and my mum has quite severe insomnia that's brought on by hyperthyriodism (the symptoms brought on by hyperthyriodism also affects her) so that is not a "hao siao" case but a confirmed medical case.
-But it's not a 仙丹, so you still would have to avoid coffee after 12 noon (coffee decays to half after about 6 hours).
-No tea after mid afternoon.
-Healthy lifestyle with regular bio-clock rhythm. Do not think too much (impossible for those who have even mild depression or have work pressures due to career).
-No emails or whatsapp after 7PM as you'd wanna try to sleep by 11PM, causes the brain freq to screw up and also the "blue light" to screw up.
-Or you have a super heavy dinner or have dinner after 8PM, so your stomach is still churning away by 11pm. Do know eat lots of fruits after 8PM and/or drink water 9PM. Do note that a heavy dinner with lots of carbo even at 8PM tends to soak up water and you might find that you need to release past midnight albeit slowly.
-I know it's difficult, but try to get at least 20 mins of sunlight "into your eyes" during the day....be it during lunchtime or teatime etc.
- Using an Aircon, air purifiers, earplugs to reduce environmental disturbances for good night/sustained sleeping.
And there are many more but you get the idea....
If any 1 or more of the above is present,
you are working against it. How to work? It's like TCM, it won't really work to max effect if you do not try to help yourself first.
Another thing is the application. You may find that (1) fast release melatonin works for you coz it knocks you out fast (2) you may find that sustained release types works better coz at least it'd last till 4-5AM which is already pretty ok (3) You may find that you have to take a combi of 5mg sustained release and 5mg fast release.....so that it knocks you out and have a sustained effect.
(4) Proper dosage. Dosage 10mg is the max you can take. 3mg probably might not work for moderate insomnia cases.
Sleeping pills of all sorts of coz work, but they are also (1) poison to a certain extent (2) they mostly do not induce REM sleep, so you don't exactly rest well (3) obviously you cannot take the pills for more than 2 weeks max unless you super man, but you can take melatonin for more than 2 months so that you can get your bio-clock rhythm back in check etc.
I think the docs already mentioned it before : You just cannot rely on sleeping pills.
Gotta help yourself in the long run, and that's lifestyle + melatonin. My mum never got it with sleeping pills. My mum did cure to a large extent with melatonin and discipline..basically coz you can literally take melatonin for such a longer period of time. (I think some diseases can warrant you to take for 2-3 years, i think Alzeimer or something)