After years and years of insomnia it’s recently changed (literally the last 3 days) I don’t find it as hard to get to sleep but staying asleep is horrific, I’m awake every hour and by 4am I just can’t get back to sleep at all 
any ideas or help?!?
Thank you!
It’s such a horrible thing to experience isn’t it. Have you tried (you probably have) going to bed an hour later? Or putting some relaxing music on when you wake? A dark, cool room seems to be the best atmosphere for a good night sleep for me, and some lavender sleep spray and roller for your pulse points. I hope that this isn’t a long term thing for you. 
I have the same issue with staying asleep. I wake up 2-4 times during the night. Sometimes, I just get up at 4am instead of just lying there.
Yup, that’s exactly my issue. I rarely have problems falling asleep. It’s the waking up at night that gets me.
Bing! And my thoughts starts whirling… And to be instantly so awake is very frustrating.
It seems to make little difference to me wether I go to bed early or late.
If I wake up very early, like 3 or 4 in the morning, I have learned that getting up and just taking 30 minutes to make and drink a cup of tea, before heading back does settle me better and I get less upset with myself.
And as I mentioned here before, I have made my peace with the knowledge I am at least resting my body, if not my mind so much.
The meditation technique of noting, a thought or feeling, and then letting it go helps somewhat. But deep in the night I find it almost impossible to actually meditate.
@HayleyIoM I have (and have had) this problem for most of my life. Things I notice that make it worse for me:
Some things that help me:
I find it very difficult to get to sleep, then I sleep for about an hour and a half. After that I clock watch and get irratable that I cant sleep. I usually manage another hour or so just before I have to get up.
I shift work and it is annoying when I finish work at 11pm cant unwind and get to sleep before 2.30am, only to be back up at 5.30am for the next shift. After work I am still awake untill the early hours as I am over tired but cant switch off. I have hot chocolate, read, listen to music, but still sleep wont come, even the cats purring doesn’t work anymore!!!
Hot Chocolate has caffeine - maybe try a bit of warm milk instead? Or have half of a turkey sandwich before bed? My doc says waking up too soon is usually because of dropping cortisol levels - I find that if I eat some protein before bed I do wake up LESS… of course eating right before bed does not help acid reflux which is a whole other issue that causes insomnia! 
Yeah I hear you, had trouble sleeping for years, refuse to go to the doctor’s though as I dont want to be reliant on tablets, there are a few methods that sometimes work for me, such as have phone off or away to remove temptation to use it, switch TV off etc, don’t ways work, but sometimes have an effect.
Hi, was using pod 2 to begin with (valerian). Thought as the week progressed I had begun to get a better level of rest. Unfortunately am now on pod 1 (mint) and seem to be back to square one with restless nights and troubled sleep. Anyone else having similar problems?
Evening @CjaJose just seen your message and wanted to let you know that the active compounds in all three formulations are the same with the only difference being the natural flavour exploration. We are looking less as day on day effect as plants are gentle and they work over time so we are looking at the overall weight and direction of travel (we call this lag effect). It will be interesting to see also whether you respond different to valerian than passiflora in the S2 program as they target different pathways of sleeplessness. Absolutely grateful for having you as a pioneer with us on this journey and keen to see what discoveries we will make together 
Hi, @Kaveh totally get what you say about the basic formulas in the various pods but was simply wondering if it was a personal or imagined reaction on my part to a different pod taste. Still full of optimism for the whole program going forward.
It could still be that the different natural extracts that are creating different profiles could have an effect … let me add the expert into this … @pamelaspence what do you think?
Hi @CjaJose,
Interesting! So as @Kaveh said the active ingredient in all 3 pods is the same and we’ve been as careful as can be not to add any other actives into the formula when we add flavourings.
That said, certain flavours do have different associations - and pod 1 has peppermint oil and peppermint is linked with refreshing, cooling, etc (think minty fresh breath for example). So it is possible that psychologically that was a different experience for you.
It’s also possible that it was coincidental and that when you started pod 1 you had extra stress on those days you ate differently, you did less exercise etc.
Would love to know what happens with the next pod change! Keep us posted!
Hi @CjaJose I know exactly what you mean . I had the same but for me , I started with pod 3 and felt a difference sleeping better . Than had pod two and back being awake most of the time . Now nearly finished pod 1 and sleeping better again. I taught maybe some pods are stronger than others 
but @pamelaspence told me they all have the same strength. 
It’s really interesting to hear that you’ve had this experience too. The pods definitely all have the same valerian extract (same batch even!) and the same amount but you are clearly having a different experience. Glad you are sleeping again!
Would love to know if anyone else has experienced similar and if the pods that perform better add up!
@alexwalkerjones @Kaveh something to look out for in the data!
Hi, @sonja.ekkers.77 sorry to hear you have encountered similar problems. Could be as you were on different pods to me at the time we may get alternative reactions too. I think this could be a part of the ongoing process. As pioneers in this we have to trust in Sofi and hopefully all will turn out well.
Good health and keep podding.
We will definately be pouring through the data and also coming back to Pioneers and asking them as well some additional questions. One of the really interesting elements of plants (and people) is the potential variability in how long a person may take who is going to respond in actually responding … we are developing statistical models that listen for lag effect over 1 to 7 days in case it may actually take a few days before we observe an effect … what have you seen in practice @pamelaspence ? Is it incredibly variable person by person or have you observed some patterns in responses to plants for those that the pathways that valerian affects are the relevant ones? We have now our first 10 plants identified and intend to hit every pathway that is in sleeplessness and anxiety so it may be interesting to see if you respond better to certain plants than others. It would help us identify the pathway which is affecting you! Just at the start of our journey … xx
It is hard to say because we are working at N-of-1 level all the time. It is not just to do with time but also the level of disturbance in sleep and the complexity of the situation. So someone with straightforward, short term sleep issues will see a quicker resolution than someone with more entrenched insomnia. Or insomnia plus anxiety. Or insomnia plus anxiety plus pain. Each step suggests more time is needed to see significant difference.
So in clinic I might use valerian but also add in other herbs to deal with the multiple issues but what we do at sofi is different because we are only testing one herb at a time.
I usually see patients every 3 weeks and if i have no response within that timeframe i would either add different supporting herbs or increase the dose. And if nothing 3 weeks later I would swap out the valerian.
In terms of a positive reponse it can be immediate (some Pioneers talked about that a while back) and as i said a while back i’d expect that if it’s going to work you’ll feel something within 10 days.
So basically - back to N-of-1! 
I was just wondering about this too! The strange effect I’ve noticed in all 3 pods is that I sleep better at the beginning of each pod (though I just started #3) - in that I still wake up through out the night BUT I go back to sleep easy and I do get deep sleep (all according to my Apple Watch and AutoSleep app). However, after several nights, I start waking up again without being able to go back to sleep easily and I’m getting way less deep sleep or not much at all. Though I do feel it’s still better than when it was prior to Valerian, I’m really curious to see how the Passion Flower works! 
This is super interesting feedback @kaneary … are you up for @enricovarano to look closer at the data and see if we can find some evidence for this and if we can’t adjust our models accordingly to listen better? Hope you are having a wonderful weekend! xx