Best option to give us a solid nights sleep?

[Iconia]

As soon as i read this i had to post. Right now I have a pharmacy of pills to sleep and relax from narcotics to tranq's. I know It sucks not sleeping but the side effects from pills are the worst. But the ones that worked for me are Zoplicone and Triazolam (less side effects in the morning). Somthing the helps me is to dim all the lights 2 hours before bed ( its suppose to help ), take melatonin ( natural )or sleeping pills 2 hours before planned sleep and do things like studying to get me board and sleepy. Watching Tv and playing video games ussualy keep me up longer. There are also sleep drink that works wonders. Ones called Drank and the other is slow cow, Drank works the best for me.

[Iconia]

Forgot to mention, When taking Prescription sleeping pills. Your body will not natural fall asleep as easy when you do not take them because it gets "addicted" to the pills. I am 22 and sufferd real withdrawels from them for 3 weeks after quiting. ( shakes, Sweaty, Headache. Spins, Vomit, halocanations, Memory loss. ) Pretty much though i was dieing. If I had the chance to go back I would have thrown all that shit out the window. I have used heavy narcotics when I was younger for fun and didnt suffer the side effects I suffered from the sleeping pills and tranq's. You don't notice the addiction to them, there is no way to really tell if your body is dependent to them. Just a little warning to help avoid what I went through.

[jok3r]

Cheers for the replies! I've had a stressful couple of years so have been off and on a few things, often doing my own research and obtaining/self medicating without a prescription to the point where I needed 80mg of Valium to feel it - this is when I knew I had to stop and just started having later nights (say, sleep at 2am) then make myself get up at 8am and eventually a sleeping pattern evolves.

Lately its just been a bit more difficult with work, I have the luxury of not having a labouring job right, I work as a customer service rep. but still do lifting from time to time unloading crates, on my feet whole shift, dealing with customers etc - I'm a patient guy and good with people on the outside just on the inside I'm wishing "damn I wish I could have a job one on one with people or by myself".

Took 30mg Ambien last night, made me really drowsy which I was happy about and what happens.. 4 hours later I'm wide awake, I'm just home from a shift and still not sleepy - sometimes I'll be tired, but not sleepy - I'm sure you guys know what I'm talking about, your body is exhausted but your mind is racing about other things.

I have 3 repeats after this but I'm slowly cutting down and going to a) go back to doing what I did before and adjust my sleeping patterns and b) find a new job with more stable hours. I'm hoping to get my PT certificate this year too so really excited about pretty much making my own hours here - plus I can't see myself being stressed as a trainer, I love teaching people, I love when people listen and I love it when I've helped them achieve a great change in life so rough patches ahead for some of us now I'm sure but with a little patience all will fall into place.

Thanks for the replies everyone, glad to see there are people in the same boat. (in a good way, relating to one another lol :P)

[scarecr0w]

From what I've heard, drugs don't let you enter a good, long period of REM sleep. Which is supposed to be the most important state of sleep. Pot and alcohol jack me up. Benzodiazapenes may make me hyper or make me down, but I wake up feeling rough if I take enough to "knock" me out.
Try chamomile and reading a book. Video games and television are terrible. I do watch TV but I stop the game playing at 9PM or so if I want to play. Melatonin+chamomile+book reading. That used to put me to sleep when I would withdraw from morphine. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go find a thread about people who have used opiates begging for help to sleep.

But about the book, I would literally finish 20 pages and my eyes would get droopy.

[Tealc]

Hemp is the best option by far; or hemp + good book

[blake_jl]

My mate gave me a xanax last new years to help me crash out after a binge on the crack pipe. Dirty shit that is. My legs were all fucked up the next day, couldn't walk straight, couldn't think straight.

The peps I've been taking helped heaps in the beginning. Felt like i was waking up from the deepest sleep. That has gone to shit now too because I keep getting woken up from the carpal tunnel. Can't get in a comfortable position without my fucking arms falling asleep.