How to say something bad that is not as bad as being hospitalized?

I don’t think you were given a “prescription.” Someone just saw that you were having trouble sleeping and suggested melatonin, which in my country is a super mild OTC sleep enhancer. This is like saying that you’re thirsty and someone suggests Gatorade instead of water. The correct response would just be to say “Thanks for the suggestion,” or “I’ll check it out, thanks.” Also, your post title is about “insomnia,” which typically indicates chronic disordered sleep and not a one-time thing.

Echoing what others are saying about insomnia not being the correct way to describe not being able to fall asleep one time. Mild = not severe. Acute = short-term. Acute vs Chronic describes the length of time but is a bit formal/clinical. You could say short-term vs long-term to be more casual. Mild vs Severe would describe how bad it is. Your doctor might say you have severe acute insomnia if it’s a new problem but is really harming your sleep. You might say you’ve had mild insomnia the past few days if it wasn’t too bad.

I'd ask: "are they good for occasional use? I don't suffer from insomnia regularly but am looking for solutions for bad nights" It's perfectly fine to quantify or give further explanation in a casual conversation like this. I think saying it's not that serious is at odds with your original comment of it felt really bad, only because there wasn't more context given so far.

Insomnia is a chronic disease. You might want to say “when you can’t fall asleep” if you haven’t been clinically diagnosed or unless you’re using insomnia as hyperbole.

You said you have insomnia, not just trouble sleeping; i.e. you said "I have the medical condition of having difficulty sleeping regularly" by saying insomnia. With this sort of thing (if you're looking for advice), I'd tend to more-so think to make a different post elsewhere with "How do you deal with having trouble sleeping?" and in the body text include something about this being just the occasional thing. And melatonin, while able to be prescribed, might still stand as an answer to your original question (if you're motivated by curiosity), as Norway treating it much more casually than the UK (potentially even using it for trouble sleeping even below the level of insomnia proper) could be seen as insight into cultural differences as well as legal differences.

The confusion is that insomnia is a long term chronic illness. We all have nights we can’t sleep but it’s not insomnia.

You might try meditation or some sleep music/noise. You can find a ton of them online. I suffer from mild insomnia. I take melatonin daily and that is usually sufficient. However I still have bad nights. I f8nd I can function just fine on one bad night, but two leaves me nearly useless. So I take something stronger the night after a bad night. But meditation and sleep music does sometimes help.

You literally asked how to fight insomnia. Like everyone else already said, it's chronic and not a one time thing.

Insomnia can be a chronic condition. If you ask a general question about it, people will assume you're talking about more than just one night. If you couldn't sleep last night, that's all it is. You couldn't sleep. We usually don't call that insomnia. What do you do when you can't get to sleep?

The real problem here is that you've misunderstood what "insomnia" means. It's not just a one-night thing. Insomnia means that this happens to you all the time, maybe 6-7 nights a weeks. It makes sense that someone would think that a prescription medication was a reasonable solution. A better way of saying it would be "How do you manage those nights where you just can't fall asleep?" My own advice would be to have a hearty meal and maybe a beer before bed, but that's just me.

You could say you were "homebound" or just "sick at home".

I love the idea that insomnia might be the subject of national policy-making.

Your proposed sentence was fine expect for tense, which was a problem in your screenshot and also your question paragraph, too. “It’s not that serious. It was just one night.” is perfectly natural. Or, if you want to be more specific, “last night” rather than “one night.” And you should have said “I _was_ tossing and turning last night.” So other than tense, I think you’re fine.

I'm really confused. You asked how people in different places dealt with insomnia (a chronic medical condition) and you are upset someone mentioned a supplement that is over the counter in a lot of places? You didn't ask what you should do. You asked what others do. If you asked me what I do for back pain, I'm going to tell you muscle relaxers and massage. I'm not telling you to do those things, I'm answering your question as to what *I* do.

Now I feel weird for recommending melatonin on a completely different thread today. Though I did give other ideas as well.

op is a nazi https://www.reddit.com/r/skyscrapers/s/hfivFczR2d

Others have addressed the post, but something to say for OP, insomnia is a medical condition not a one time thing. If you're just saying you had trouble sleeping, say you had trouble sleeping. Insomnia is something that typically must be addressed through medication which is why you got that response.

Only doctors can write a prescription not randoms at Reddit. Melatonin is classified as a supplement in lots of countries not a medicine. You need to say that it’s only one night otherwise people will think you have a sleeping disorder especially if you use the word insomnia. To ask a general question about other countries late also not the best if you want advice.

The sentence you were thinking of is fine. You’d be ok contracting the other “it is” too

Just for some cultural context, Melatonin is incredibly commonly overused in the US. It is likely someone from the US would suggest it for a one day issue. In fact I would not suggest taking it long term, there are a lot of side effects.

They aren’t prescribed in a lot of places, I can buy them off the shelf next to regular vitamins.

It's fine to say “It’s not that serious." "It **was** just one night.”, past tense.

Also the typical American goes crazy for melatonin, SO many people give it to their children every single night with no doctor guidance. It’s crazy. That person would probably still tell you to take melatonin no matter how much you said it wasn’t serious or bad.

No, that's a perfect response Sometimes blunt works, it's just a one night deal

“It’s not that serious. I only experienced insomnia last night.” You could add these statements or even replace the first sentence with one of these. “So far there’s no pattern.” “So far it’s not a recurrent problem.” “It’s not a big deal.”

Melatonin is an OTC supplement in many places, used for as-needed treatment. It's made naturally by your body and is not dangerous in any way (with the exception of maybe some psychological dependence if used habitually). "Insomina" is loosely thrown around, just as you did, to mean any sort of issues falling or staying asleep, whether long-term and debilitating or just for a night or two. It does have a clinical definition that relates to a fairly serious and debilitating condition, but many people would understand this usage or perhaps even assume it in context. And Norway, understanding your usage correctly, gave you a fairly reasonable answer, assuming you could access melatonin. Neither of you used or understood incorrectly. Perhaps Norway could have asked if you meant clinical, chronic insomnia, but as a Dr. would have given you that diagnosis, said Dr. would probably also have answered this question for you. I think it was a reasonable assumption. you both did fine.

I know this is off topic, I thought I had long -term insomnia, I tried melatonin from 3g to 20g and it didn’t work for me, after doing deeply research, it turned out that I had to just adjust my circadian rhythms to do so, I had to wake until 8 PM and try to sleep and that went pretty good, I immediately fell asleep. (This this for those who really need to fix their sleep)