Join the club. The jetlag from my trip home in January has firmly set in. I wake up anywhere between 4-5:45am, even if I go to bed at midnight. I play crosswords online (LA Times, USA Today, Yahoo! etc.) I do the dishes. I heckle the 88th St. drunk who's always slumped around the corner with a bottle of rum. I wait until 8am rolls around so I can get on the subway and go to work...1 hr early.

you know i am not prone to communicating in this form - but this is an affliction that i have conquered! my sleeplessness is a combo of hormone issues and work stress. but i found a cure-all. i listen to books on tape with ear plugs - and let the tape re-play and re-wind. i choose a book whose story i know, being read by a great voice. thus, i don't wake up my husband, i hear someone else's issues in my head that chase away my own issues, and b/c i know the story, i am not anxious about following a story line or knowing what happens next. i end up listening to 3 - 5 minutes of tape - and then i fall asleep. but your descriptions of early morning were lovely.

warm milk :)

Good, but also pleasantly sleep inducing books for me have included:
late Henry James
The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil.

So I was up alllast night, too. I've tried meditation and melatonin, too. Melatonin works sometimes, but I always wake feeling groggy and drugged.

I usually just read. Or. I have this game where I list five things I want to know about--obscure things--and then type them into google.

Or I play with our cats--we have four too!

When this happens to me, I try to really relax my body. I imagine a giant, shimmery screen stretched across a hula-hoop. I start at my toes, and work the screen up through my body, seeing it sift all the junk, aches, stresses and frustrations out of me. When the screen has passed all the way through me, I envision the ball of crap I pulled out of myself flying up into the universe and dissolving into nothing. I am left feeling calm and relaxed and normally drift off to sleep again.

One practical game to try is mentally recreating the just-completed day in exact detail. Lying in bed, I'll go over as many of my thoughts and actions from the day as possible. It's a kind of meditation. That amount of focus usually carries me off.

Vigorous exercise during the day (swimming) really helps too.

Part of the trick was to stop thinking of myself as "one who has trouble sleeping." I realized I was just setting myself up for disaster. Now, I think of myself as "one who's out smarted himself."

Good Luck!

At least the early morning is beautiful though it hard to enjoy though blurry eyes. I have found that I do not sleep in very well in the summer due to Mr. Sunshine and that a black curtain over my windows helps so very much. Also a nice cool room helps with the sleep too so I believe in the a/c or lots of fans.

As with the other comments above, vigorous exercise does help a lot.

Good luck with it all!

i don't wake up quite that early (lately, though in times of stress i sometimes do), and reading sometimes helps me fall back asleep.

The only answers I have found have been through medication.
I'm quite sure yoga would help, but I'm sure it would help a lot of my ailmentss and I still never make it.

You have my sympathy; it sucks.

I was just going to say yoga. I have been an insomniac my whole adult life until I started practicing bikram yoga (these are the 90 minute yoga sessions in 105 degree heated studios) Sounds crazy, but I sleep like a baby now, and I actually look forward to going.

I too have struggled with cycles of insomnia my whole adult life. They tend to come and go, sometimes lingering until I feel like I'm going to die if I don't get just one full night of sleep. Often I'll have sleeplessness even if I'm not feeling stressed, but if I consider it some, I'll realize there is in fact something bugging me. One of my doctors told me to cut out caffeine completely, because it screws with your sleep/wake cycle further, even if you're drinking it only in the morning. Also, if you nap, keep it brief. And as everyone else has said, an exercise program can help.

There's a nice piece in the new magazine YogaLife (they bundled it in with my Runner's World, but unfortunately, they don't seem to have the whole issue online) on waking up in the middle of the night and how it isn't necessarily a sign of a sleep problem--"Just as we experience a dip in alertness midafternoon, the inverse is a dip in sleepiness in the middle of the night. There's strong evidence that there's a kind of awakening that's totally normal. Before the industrial revolution, people had their first sleep for 3 to 4 hours, awoke for an hour or two, then slept for another 3 or 4 hours." The key is not to panic about it, which will awaken you even further.

Here are their tips: 1. Get bed-ready with some kind of relaxing ritual. 2. Don't take your stress to bed (women are especially prone to this); write down all your worries in a "worry journal" before you go to bed, and even leave the book in a different room. 3. Breathe deeply and slowly from the abdomen. 4. Practice yoga asanas that encourage sleep. 5. If you wake up anyway, repeat a soothing mantra. 6. And if you're irretrievably awake (they say to get up after 15 minutes of lying awake), leave the bedroom and do something soothing like knitting or listening to music--anything that doesn't engage the mind and might allow you to sneak back in for a little more sleep.

Good luck!

p.s. I liked the notion that two of your cats aren't morning people and two of them are.

Lists, lists, lists!

When I have trouble sleeping, I employ a few "insomnia busters." Most have to do with making lists (either in my head or written down).

I'll list state and national capitals. Or try recalling different presidential elections or Oscar winners by year. Or try to remember the names of all my camp counselors and teachers, starting with kindergarten. Sometimes I'll visualize cities I've visited and try recalling street names and subway stations. Most times, I'm unconscious before I can complete my list.

I'd suggest Valerian Root tea, or Chamomile. Lavender drops on the pillow is very soothing. Skullcap herb is supposed to be relaxing as well. But Lavender is the funnest. Lavender in the bath (tie up lavender and oatmeal in cheesecloth for a natural scrubby and skin soother), lavender teas, lavender water. It'll knock you out. Good luck.