Difficulty falling asleep

[jsan]

Two weeks ago I coudn't fall asleep due to noise.  Then I began to feel shaky, irritable, got fast heart beat and bowel movements as well as frequent urination.  I slept for 4 hours.  From there on I wore ear plugs and decided to take benadryl.  First I took 2 pills for the week day each night.  Then I would take it during the weekend as well if I woke up to use the restroom, it's like I needed it to go to sleep.  Now it has no effect on me.  So a friend to me to take melantonin sine I didn't want to take  more than 2 pills of benadryl.  Two nights ago I just couldn't fall asleep because my heart was beating fast and whenever I tried to relax and fall asleep I would jump, don't know why.  I took two benadryls which did nothing, so I took 2 melantonins, was falling asleep and kept jumping and hearing my heart beat fast, about 90 bpm.  I got frequent urination.  So I slept about 2 hours with many interruptions.  Last night I had the rapid heart beat again as soon as I got into bed so I took valium.  The reason I have valium is because I had an MRI done before and had an anxiety attack in the machine so the doctor gave me some valium and I still have some exra pills.  I was wondering if these are symptoms of anxiety.  I was also wondering why this would only occur when I get into bed.

[jsan]

Thanks for your comment.  I'm only 24 years old.  I used to drink chamomile tea and it helped but I would have to get up to urinate in the middle of the night.

[Paxiled]

Sounds like anxiety about something, especially the frequent urination, unless you're an older man like me with an enlarged prostate.  If you're going to try melatonin, you need to use it regularly.  It resets the body clock, which doesn't happen in one night.  Taking more of it doesn't help -- it actually works better in lower dosages.  In other words, it's not a sleeping pill, it's a hormone you have naturally in your system that regulates your body clock, among other things.  Other natural remedies you can try are herbs like valerian, passionflower, hops, and such, or minerals like magnesium, or amino acids like tryptophan.  But to figure out why you're anxious, you'll probably need talk therapy.  As to why they occur when you go to bed, trying to figure out anxiety is like trying to grab a handful of air.  One reason could be that it's when you have unobstructed time to obsess, but who knows?