I get what you mean about the clock as if there is no other indication if morning has arrived or not then you need it. Sorry that these steps aren’t for you.

I don’t understand the advice not to look at the clock when you wake up: I’ve had to put blackout curtains up in my bedroom because the light wakes me so I have to look at the clock to see if it’s time to get up or not because I often feel exhausted even when it is time to get up so I can’t tell without looking at clock.

And it’s all very well telling us to get up if we can’t sleep but I go to bed at night not only because my brain is totally exhausted, I’m also in mega pain long before I go to bed and crave the darkness, quiet (earplugs) and lying flat with my eyes closed, if I can’t sleep I have to hurt more being up plus my brain’s too exhausted usually to read, listen to music or do ANYTHING. And if you live somewhere there’s no heating or can’t afford to put it on you have to stay in bed to keep warm, I had to do that for 5 years in my last place: way too cold to get up when it’s 8C inside. After bad nights (nights from hell) I’m good for nothing at all the next day, my pain is far worse, I can hardly chew & swallow (even soup & bread I’ve dunked in it) and I cry a lot and get very very down (‘depressed’): exhaustion overload = despair.

I hate having to use earplugs: they make the insides of my ears hurt but without them I hear every sound (since my brain injury I’m hugely sensitive to everything including light and smells) – and I don’t even get them on prescription, I have to buy them.

Some of the tablets docs give me really help (some, diazepam, ‘the most addictive’, are really wonderful and I get such amazing restful sleeps and they also relax my muscle spasms) some are like placebos and do nothing at all, I wish they’d let me have ones that work without me having to try explain and argue, I know medication isn’t great but without it (at the moment anyway) I really need help to get some half-good sleep or I have too many wasted days in the bin. People who need other medications are allowed them, they are ‘addictive’ also because they WORK, I had no idea before my brain injury what this sudden new inability to sleep was like and I don’t think anyone does until it happens to them so I don’t think most docs really know at all how totally debilitating it is and we don’t beg for medication unless we really need it, I don’t anyway.

I don’t know if my living situation and life got better whether I’d regain my ability to sleep or whether it’s got too wrecked now by my brain being forced to do much too much for way too long so that now I can’t ever really relax by e.g. listening to music or in a bath (as I used to, even after my brain injury) because my brain isn’t being kept busy but that’s the problem now: my brain can’t stop – and that’s the fault of those who push me/it too much with too many difficult & complicated tasks (maybe thinking they’re helping ‘rehab’ or something?). I really hope that those who treat people with brain injury learn from my experience and NEVER overload damaged brains because i think it makes us create too many connections which isn’t good for us at all.

Then on top of all that I can’t get my neck comfy (ever really, even sitting) because of my neck & throat injuries: I can’t put the pillow in the right place for my neck because then it pushes on my damaged throat (& broken bit in front/side) and when I lie on my back I often have to put my hand behind my head/neck to support the really painful bit and then have to switch hands because they (& arms) get shaky and numb; often when I wake in the night and I’m on my back one or both hands are very numb – especially little fingers (left most) is/are totally ‘dead’. Things like this are never mentioned in sleep problems but they should be.

I’m glad the tips work for you and others (and did for me after my brain injury but before I lost my ability to relax, my security & my long-term comfy home, but sadly they don’t work for all of us, believe me how hard I’ve tried.

Oh Jo that sounds awful. I do hope that those tips help. Let me know.

Glad it works for you too David. More people need to try this ?