<p>A few months before coming to college, I found it hard to sleep. I'd get probably around 6 hours or so and I was able to get through the day pretty easily. Fast forward to college, and I have an extremely hard time sleeping. I get maybe 4-5 hours of solid sleep a night or less. I know, people will say it is stress-related, and I agree that I'm a stressful person, especially with school, a social life, and a surgery that I had to deal with in college. I don't know how I can exactly attack my problems about this stuff. Even when I am in bed trying to sleep I try to calm myself down but for some reason can't sleep that easy. I take Nyquil on occasion to sleep and it helps, but I know it is a bad habit and I want to avoid it and any other medication that would help this problem.</p>
<p>Can anyone offer any advice? I don't drink that much caffeine, don't drink alcohol often, and I regularly socialize to relieve stress. Can anyone offer some insight?</p>
<p>Avoid being in your bed a lot, it’s supposed to have a mental association with sleep (this goes for the bedroom in general, but you’re in a dorm). Try drinking a glass of milk before going to bed; it raises your serotonin levels and thus assists in sleeping. Maybe a stress-relieving activity (be it reading, listening to music, what have you) before bed will help, too.</p>
<p>Because Nyquil is a drug which has adverse effects on the body when its taken too much. It has several side effects, and is a synthetic chemical. </p>
<p>Marijuana…a plant…can’t take too much of it because you just end up passing out (thus giving OP the desired results)</p>
<p>Marijuana being a plant means nothing; plenty of plants are worse for you than plenty of chemical medicines (most of which are derived from beneficial plants). Plus, risking legal trouble isn’t worth the sleep that could be gleaned in other ways.</p>
<p>Why is 1 bottle of Nyquil = 1 “blunt” of marijuana? Wouldn’t an analysis of danger have to rely on measurements assessing both quantity and potency?</p>
<p>Further, I never claimed that Nyquil was healthier (though it is, when not used in suicidal quantities), merely that the OP wanted to get off fairly-weak, simple, legal drugs, so probably wouldn’t be interested in illegal drugs.</p>
<p>You are right in that 1 bottle of Nyquil doesn’t equal 1 blunt. However now lets take an infinite series of Nyquil and an infinite series of weed. At a certain level of intake, the person taking Nyquil will die whereas the person smoking weed will have just gone to sleep. </p>
<p>That’s true but I was only offering him a suggestion as to what he could do. He was asking for other options haha.</p>
<p>study came out this morning that being on the computer or cell phone within an hour of trying to fall asleep affects the ability to do so; turn off electronics an hour before sleep and try the melatonin; there is something called “midnite” that is natural that really works for my college daughter</p>
<p>How about going to the student counseling service and asking to speak to someone? It may help to talk things over about what is making this year so stressful beyond the normal transition problems everyone has in beginning college life. You mentioned something about having surgery which is not typical and may be affecting you emotionally. Don’t let things go when there is good help available as you may start falling behind in school.</p>
<p>Work out. It relieves stress and studies have shown that those who work out in the mornings sleep better at night. Wake up 30 minutes earlier than usual (yes, I know it sounds like hell since you’re already not sleeping well, but it will be worth it) and do some cardio to start out with, maybe some weight training. A short yoga workout before bed could help too. There are several 30-minute yoga dvds available, just make sure to try one that is calming, not mixed with kickboxing or anything. It’s also useful to a quick yoga session anytime you’re feeling overly stressed. </p>
<p>Strangely, I’ve never been a huge fan of yoga, but it does do a great job of calming a person down when necessary. But if you’re not into the yoga thing, cardio and other workouts in the mornings (or mid-day even) should do the trick well enough since it will boost your energy throughout the day, leaving you to slowly come down off the energy at night. Just avoid getting your heart rate up near bed time.</p>