I have had insomnia for over 20 years. I am a retired teacher and only get about 2 hours of sleep a night. I have tried many, many remedies. I do the right things before bed-no liquids after 6:00, no caffeine, quiet room, darkened shades, eye mask, read to fall asleep, melatonin, ambien; you name it, I probably tried it. I have a very hard time falling asleep, and then I can not stay asleep. I have been to doctors who have given me the sleeping medications, but after using some of them, they just wear out and don't help. I also worry about taking something like ambien for years at a time, that it may affect my liver. I can not turn my mind off at night. It will just not shut down---I lay there talking to my self, counting in my head, etc. Is there anyone else out there like me? What is wrong with ME? Right now my doctor has me on Klonopin. I get about 4 hours of sleep----whoopee. It is a chore to pull myself out of bed. I get up feeling exhausted. I recently read about l-theanine. Last night I tried 200 mg. of suntheanine, and did not take my klonopin with it because I was afraid it may not be a good combination. I was hoping from what I heard about it, I would FINALLY get a good night's sleep. Well, I was awake all night long. I considered it a great feat just to pull myself out of bed and go down stairs to get to the couch. When I am exhausted-feeling during the day, I lay down and try to nap, but I can never fall asleep. I just lay there. It's like something in my brain will not let me sleep. I can open my eyes at will at any time. I have told this to my doctors for years. Can someone out there PLEASE, PLEASE help me, as my doctor is getting me nowhere. Well, it's 10:20 in the morning, I need to shower and then run (sorry, drag myself off to watch my little grandson for 4 hours.) I do desperately need help. I have also gone through a sleep clinic, in which they charted me as getting 1 hour and 50 minutes of sleep during a 6 hour stay. The DR. gave me a pill to take that made me feel comatose. I sat on my bed and stared out the window all day. I called him and told him, and he said just to take half a dose. I ended those pills immediately. Again, please Help.
