Quote Originally Posted by Drtgirl View Post
I start work at 7am and find it hard to get more than 6-7 hours of sleep a night (between working out, dinner, errands, etc.). Over the past couple weeks I have not been able to sleep and it came to a head last weekend when I only got in a couple hours over 3 days. I broke down and bought some over the counter sleep aid and it's not helping. I am extremely tired but simply cannot fall asleep...I even had to skip my MTB race last weekend because I was just too tired

I'd like to try some alternative remedies before getting an Rx from the doc. Any ideas?
This probably won't work for everyone but it does wonders for me. I download a bunch of podcasts or an audiobook on my ipod (must be talking - music keeps me awake) and sleep with my ipod under my pillow, one ear plug in my ear. At bedtime, I put on a podcast, start listening to it, and inevitably fall asleep.

I figured this out because I often fall asleep when I'm watching TV (although I wake up if the sound changes such as a loud commercial, or the TV gets turned off. )Obviously, I didn't want to have the TV on in my bedroom at night so I bought an ipod. I have to have some interest in what they're talking about because listening to it takes my mind of trying to fall asleep. It can't be TOO exciting or I stay awake listening. I find I usually listen for 5-10 minutes and then just drift off. My biggest problem is waking up in the middle of the night but now all I have to do is put on another podcast and I fall asleep easily. I prefer podcasts to audiobooks because they turn off as soon as they're finished.

If you sleep alone, you don't need to use the ear phone thingy.