Chronic insomnia at 16

[mihai_alexandru]

Hi all! My name is Mihai, I am 16 years old and have had chronic insomnia for some time now.

A few months ago it was really bad, I was really really tired during the day. I couldn't get to sleep and had very many wakenings during the night. Now I learned how to reduce the insomnia with some sleep hygene, but it's still a long way to good sleep.

Now I can fall asleep in max 15-20 min (even falling asleep in normal time sometimes) but I have problems reaching deep sleep because no matter how much sleep I get I still feel drowsy when I wake up. I still often wake up earlier than I am supossed to.

I know I'm not an early riser from when I was younger, so I get to sleep at about 1 AM and wake up after about 12 hours! (no deep sleep) When I was younger I would've go to sleep at about the same hour but I always felt refreshed when I woke up and slept less even though I was younger and required more sleep.

I think that my problems started in the last school year when I went to a course Saturday at 7 in the morning and slept the other week days untill 12, 1 or even 2 PM! Maybe the huge difference interfered with my body clock? Also, I was always fatigued when I went to the course and I pushed my body into staying awake. I had to stay two hours there learning and went back on foot a long distance. I think that pushed my body into rejecting sleep.

I soon noticed that even when I woke up at midday to go to school I was drowsy. A few years ago I had no problems getting to sleep at 2 AM and waking up at 10 AM. A few months after this my problems went to chronic insomnia.

I have problems feeling drowsy when I go to sleep. I am drowsy close to bedtime but not the same drowsiness that makes people go to bed. I decided a few days ago to not sleep the whole night to see what happens, I only got the normal drowsiness at about 6-7 in the morning! I went through the night without sleeping but the next night I had little improvements in drowsiness...

Do you know any strategies to feeling drowsy? And also could you please explain me why people think it's important to keep a regular sleep schedule? People always recommend going to sleep and waking up at the same hours everyday but I've never heard any explanation. Is it really that important?

Thank you in advance, I'm eager to share my experiences with you and maybe we can help each other and get rid of this nuisance named insomnia.

P.S. To keep drowsiness out of your day, try cold showers. They're great for overall health and make you feel energized. They work for me.

And, do you think that meditation right before bed is good for sleep? I tried doing it last night and I went to sleep in 5 minutes. The problem is, after meditation I always feel more energized, so I don't really know what to do. But also, I've tried meditating while trying to go to sleep. I listened to the sounds of the night carefully (better than thinking or worrying) and as I said I went to sleep in about 5 minutes.