Sleep issues and numbers

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Hello, I am not able to fall asleep till 5/6am and this is causing lof of troubles with my life. I usually lay on my bed trying to sleep forcing myself to close my eyes but when I do this, my mind gets full of images and thoughts which are often indecipherable, I also see numbers and sometimes it's like if these numbers are part of an equation and I can't solve this, causing me frustration. Do you have any suggestions about sleep deprivation? Do you have any similar experiences?

I have struggled with sleep issues on and off for most of my life. Currently (fingers crossed) I am sleeping fairly well. My current regime is a combination of a very low dose of elavil (supposed to improve stage 4 sleep), daily exercise (getting worn out even if I don't feel like it), injections of vitamin B12 and reading a novel until my eyes close and the book(or ipad) falls to the floor. This is an idiosyncratic assemblage of interventions, but they seem to be working for me right now.

Most of the stuff you take and do is really foolproof and natural, with little chance of side-effects.

I get the jumbled maths problems too, but it doesn't keep me up. I've had insomnia and very bad sleep deprivation before from things like stress, coffee, tobacco, sugar, adrenalin and screens. I sleep really well now because I'm looking after myself better and getting loads of exercise. I don't know how old you are but things got better for me with age. My last bout of bad sleep was over a year ago and only lasted for a couple of months.

Good luck finding a solution that works for you.

I used to have very vivid, visual nightmares about maths. Not like I hate maths and it's coming to get me, but similar to what you're describing.

Onto your question though, I struggle with all kinds of bombarding chaotic thinking as I'm trying to sleep. I find it helpful to visualise an infinity symbol. I guess tracing it in my mind. I've always done this since I was very small. Maybe it's my equiv of counting sheep. Doesn't always help though, depends on how chaotic my mind is.

In the past, I had frequent issues with sleeping. Some nights I would lay awake all night long and never fall asleep, and my issues with sleep usually lasted for months at a time. I also had severe issues with jet lag and time changes, even to the point that going only one time zone away would lead to significant sleep issues. After a business trip to India that involved 5 days in a row with no more than 30 minutes of sleep, a doctor recommended that I start taking a low dose of melatonin, and my sleep has improved immensely as a result of that. It was only recently that I read that melatonin deficiency is common in autistic children, but I'm not sure if that deficiency carries over to adults or not.