this insomnia is getting ridiculous

Oh, I've tried a long long list of things.

 This too could be my story.  I have always had trouble with sleeping fom a very young age, and even though I take Ambien and Celexa before bed I am up about 4 or 5 hours later. the lack of sleep is really hard on the mind and body as we all know.  Of course my pain in my back and legs start hurting then I have to get up and take some pain meds.  I feel for all of us. Sigh................Jane

I too cannot sleep at normal times and it doesn't help thst I don't have a job and reason to get up and out every day. That being said, even if I go to sleep very late (1-2AM) I am still in my den by 9AM after my morning "rituals". I also wake every 2-3 hours. If I sleep for four hours straight that is hood for me. However research is that if we sleep well or a certain. Amount of hours per night out weight-loss is better.
I did a Sleep Study in 2009 which showed mild sleep apnea but nothing was really prescribed for it. On Sunday I am seeing a neurologist (I live in Israel and Sunday is a regular day AND to fo a sleep study my GP said I need to see a neurologist fir the referral).
I always feel tired and when I don't have to go out I font care if I taje a short nap.
Mikimi in Israel

My sleep study, which was a number of years ago, showed I woke up 11.4 times PER HOUR.  However, I had no sleep apnea, got plenty of oxygen all night.  The doc that did the study did not seem concerned that I was waking up every few minutes.   But how is anyone supposed to feel rested if they wake up every five minutes all night long?

i know how frustrating it is, there have been nights i didn't fall asleep until 7am...

 i decided to give melatonin another try and picked some up at target, its 5mg (which is apparently a strong dose), and it strangely worked. i only took it for a few days but i've been sleeping good since, though i'm still waking up tired. 

 I have always had pretty awful insomnia, as did my mother and grandmother.   My sleep problems became much worse when I started taking antidepressants, because I couldn't take them during the day without getting really sleepy in the mid-afternoon.  (They're not supposed to work like that, but why on earth would anything be normal for me?)

Now that I'm not on anything, I still have horrible insomnia.  I tend not to get up and do productive things in the middle of the night, because experience has taught me that lying in bed trying to sleep is better for me than getting up and doing stuff.

Before surgery, ambien pretty much took care of my insomnia.  Now, it only works for four hours at a time, so I have started combining it with trazadone.   I don't love trazadone, but the minor hangover I get is better than the insomnia hangover.   

I don't like the hangover either.  I also don't like taking the trazadone because I don't like that really drugged feeling as it starts working and I'm starting to fall asleep.  It makes me feel panicky and I try to fight it, and sometimes I stay awake and the feeling passes and it never puts me to sleep, but usually I do end up falling asleep but there's this little period of severe anxiety first and I hate that.  I have to decide it's worth the panicky feeling before it knocks me out and most of the time, no matter how exhausted I am, I decide it's not worth that.

If I'm really tired at night, even if I can't sleep, I try to lie down and rest.  I listen to books on CD sometimes so I have something to focus on instead of the inside of my own head.  I figure getting some rest is better than nothing, even if it's not sleep.  Sometimes I can't get comfortable or can't seem to lie still, though.  And sometimes I would just rather be up and doing something.  Sometimes I go grocery shopping in the middle of the night.  I like it when the store is not crowded at all.

 If I don't take the trazadone with tylenol PM or ambien, I start feeling like a complete zombie.  I got really scared one night when I had to get up to turn our DVD player off, and I almost fell over.  

If I take it with ambien or tylenol PM, I fall asleep and don't wake up until morning.  I don't know if it would help with your anxiety.  I would have made the same decision you've made about the drug if I experienced anxiety with it (panic attacks are NOT fun).  

The only other thing I've tried that works at all is hypnosis tapes (mp3's or CD's).  And it doesn't keep me asleep, most of the time.

I hope you get some relief.

I'm an absolute utter insomniac, or I was until I started taking the amitryptaline.

Some of the things I tried

Ambien - I wouldn't sleep more than 4 hours
Ambien CR - This worked great twice. When I was exhausted after almost no sleep for a week. after that I always woke with severe headaches
Melatonin - This really helps me for a time, but over time it becomes less effective
Tylenol PM - I always felt hung over and don't like tylenol in my system more than I need it
Benadryl-- this is the sleepy ingredient in tylenol PM so I have some for when my Amitryptaline doesn't work.
Valerian Root- This is the source of valium
Lunesta (supposedly a melatonin relative, or improves melatonin levels)... this works well but I don't like taking things to make me sleep (you wouldn't think it would you? I took this while my doctor switched me off teh amitryptaline to nortryptaline, and I lost the sleepy effect of the amitryptaline. Occasionally the amitryptaline fails to help me sleep. Normally I take it, and then read until the "sleepy" arrives, an then I go to sleep. If the sleepy doesn't visit, then I take a lunesta if I'm close to still having 7 hours of sleep left.

 Insomnia was a big problem for me when I was working, but now that I'm retired it's mostly resolved. If I'm awake until 4 a.m. or, as is usual, conk out at 10:50, right before the end of the TV show I'm watching, and wake up at 4 a.m., it's not a disaster. The desperation about not getting enough sleep is gone, as is the horrible stress of my job.

I used to medicate myself with food to fall asleep. If I didn't get full at sleep time, I would invariably lie awake until 4 a.m. or until it was time to get up for work.

I tried hypnosis tapes, reading a nonstimulating book, meditating, tryptophan, melatonin (causes intense disturbing dreams). What often worked was diphenhydramine. The hangover was a drag for a few hours, but better than no sleep at all. As you mention, banging around inside our own heads prevents sleep. Sometimes it would help to do visualization of releasing my worries just for tonight; assuring myself I could worry about them all I wanted tomorrow. I'd put them in a hot air balloon basket and pull the ribbons that tethered it down, then watch the balloon float out of sight. Then again, sometimes that didn't help at all.

So far, what zonks me out for a whole night, except the mandatory getting up to pee, is hard exercise. That plus the satisfaction of having taken care of something that's been nagging at me is the best medicine--especially now that I don't use the food/carb coma technique. The downside is that I have to exercise and take care of unpleasant business.

No doubt you've tried all these. It's good you aren't shackled to a work schedule! The stress of knowing you'll have a ****ty day tomorrow kicks sleep in the teeth.