Sleep Well

I totally empathize with you,Roswell. Having fibromyalgia I have sleeping difficulties as well. Stress Ease from Traditional Medicinals is very relaxing – The main ingredient is skullcap. Sure makes me calm and drowsy! I have a couple of friends who swear by it as well. It has a very pleasant cinnamon flavor too. Hope this helps! :)

I have been having trouble sleeping lately, too. I don’t like drinking tea too close to bedtime since my main issue is I’ll wake to pee somewhere during my sleep cycle and then I can’t fall back asleep for the rest of the night, so I’ve been taking Valerian supplements, since valerian root in tea always does the trick for me. I don’t like the taste the chamomile either, but even when I do drink it, it doesn’t knock me out the way valerian does.

If you’re on your laptop late into the night, consider installing f.lux. It’s a program that changes the color of your screen based on time of day. At night, my screen is basically orange instead of white/blue, mimicking the coloration of the pages of an old book. Turn the brightness of the screen down to the last setting and I’m out within 10 minutes.

A white noise generator might work since you’re used to falling asleep with background noises. It would probably be inoffensive to your roommates.

I use f.lux even during the day. During the daylight hours it still remains slightly pink because that is easier on my migraine head (but at night, it does remove even more blue light and becomes progressively more pink-hued). I only wish I could install outside software on my work computer; I have to wear pink sunglasses all the time at the library to get the same effect.

Thanks for all the ideas everyone! I’ll look into f.lux tomorrow and see if that’s something that would be helpful to me. I’ve tried Skullcap before, but it didn’t seem to do anything for me. Valerian Root works the same way, for me, as chamomile does – I just don’t currently own any Valerian blends that don’t also have chamomile in them (can’t escape that awful taste). I’ve tried a white noise generator before; however it just gives me headaches. Not sure why music is ok, but white noise is like someone attacking my head with a cheese grater.

In lieu of music, would something like the sound of rain set at a low volume be quite inoffensive? I love the sound of rainymood.com and find it quite relaxing.