Anybody else develop extreme insomnia while fighting the flu?? My flu symptoms first appeared Sunday night and they've already peaked and started declining - congestions better, muscles ache less, and I can breathe fine at night. What hasn't gotten better is the insomnia + night sweats, for whatever reason I just cannot transition from laying with my eyes shut into actually falling asleep and I'm soaking every T shirt I own.

I think I've gotten maybe 12 hours of sleep since Monday morning despite trying flexeril, hydroxyzine, melatonin, propanalol, exercise and sunlught during the day, tried staying up all day, tried napping all day, basically everything I can think of. Never had the flu do this to me before

I’ve been struggling with sleep in the last 2 years on and off and it recently got worse. I usually take Ambien to fall asleep and sleep easily but in the last 2 years I’ve been waking up 3-4 hours into my sleep with back tension/discomfort. Before, I’d take something for pain relief or get out of bed for 10 minutes then go back to sleep. Now, when I wake up for any reason, I can’t fall asleep because I feel so wired and my brain just won’t quiet down. It is like my brain doesn’t want me to go back to sleep. Even if I take another sleeping pill, I’d sleep another hour or so but never more than 5 hours total. AI says it might be stress related hyperarousal or insomnia. This is scaring me because my sleep recently has been between 4-5 hours in the last 3 weeks. I am more anxious and depressed. I can’t take SSRI because of tinnitus and RLS. Anyone has a reassuring input or advise? Thanks

Long time insomnia sufferer. My sleep conditions must be ideal if I want some illusion of sleep.

I moved into a house with a window AC unit about 8 months ago. For a couple of days, I hated the noise, but came to enjoy it at night. It drowned everything out. With winter arriving I removed it and holy cow, I can't sleep now. It is too quiet. I have a white noise machine and air purifier that makes noise now, and to be honest I hate the sound of them and they don't do enough... and, well, I prefer the sound of a loud window unit blowing in AC.

Any recommendations on what can replace this noise in the winter months? My wife and dog are killing me with the sound of their snoring.

Almost 4 months ago, I ended up not sleeping at all for multiple nights. I had constipation for 3-4 days prior to that, which was new. The only change in diet was beef jerky and pure beetroot juice for the first time ever. I always suspected my gut was causing my insomnia, but like so many others here have faced, doctors didn't listen. This went on for weeks—melatonin, quetiapine (for a week), then trazodone and Ambien at times. I would sleep for a few days, then not sleep again for multiple days. I'm switching to Dayvigo now.

I noticed that any food outside of boiled rice, chicken, and fish would guarantee one or more zero sleep nights for me. But I didn't have any physical distension in my gut; I would still stay awake all night.

Finally, I ordered a SIBO test 3 weeks ago from Trio-smart and tested positive for methane and hydrogen. My GI prescribed neomycin and Xifaxan. My doc. acknowledged SIBO played a role, but my serious reaction to minor changes in food is puzzling, e.g multiple sleepless nights when I eat a handful of berries. Also this has been a vicious cycle of gut issue, constipation and insomnia.

I have never had any food allergies. I've been a light sleeper, but not someone who would not sleep at all. Is it just my hypersensitized brain acting up with so much sleep deprivation? Has anyone been in a similar boat?

**Apologies for such a long post ..much appreciated!

Has anyone ever gone to the psych unit at the hospital and received help? I’m talking about when pills don’t work was there anything else that could be done?

Hi. My insomnia began about 6 months ago and I started healing 2 months ago (I actually got help on this subreddit). I am trying to fix my bad nights and after my bad nights go away I will be 100% healed. This is not a "how to treat insomnia" post. This is more of me sharing my experiences, what I have learnt and what I plan to do.

I am not a bot btw.

A little summary of what I went through. I am a med student and it was normal for me to stay up till 12 or 1 in the night to study. I knew that sleeplessness was bad for me in the long term and it was doing me no good. 6 months ago I had an exam and I thought "well tomorrow is my exam so it is better if i get some good night's sleep tonight and do as good as I can." That was the day it all started. That day I fell asleep after the sun rose, around 5am in the morning. Then I woke up around 8, went to have an energy drink and gave my exam. The day after that I told myself "I haven't slept yesterday so I MUST sleep today". It was frustrating- I tried and I couldn't sleep. That cycle repeated and my insomnia stayed.

I tried drugs yk, cough syrup, weed and ciggarettes, I tried experimenting with them to make me feel drowsy so that I could go to sleep but failed. I am not addicted to them, weed and cough syrup were just 1 time things, although I did stick with cigarettes because they helped me deal with the anxiety caused by insomnia.

I then went to a doctor and he recommended me CLONAZEPAM for 10 days. It did not help. Out of the 10 nights that I took clonaz I probably slept for 5 or 6 days and other days I couldn't.

Then I discovered that sleeping at my dad's bed helped me fall asleep. I don't know what it is, maybe it is the conditioning that people refer to, but when I tried sleeping in my dad's bed for 3 days he was out of town I fell asleep immediately and had good nights of sleep then.

After that I returned to sleeping in my bed and it got better.

And it went haywire all over again. Insomnia came back to me much worse than before and I felt really bad. I would even cry in my bed because I couldn't fall asleep and even if I did I would wake up and couldn't fall asleep again.

Then I made a post in this subreddit briefing my situation. I found someone who had undergone CBT-I. He taught me the principles of CBT-I and it has gradually improved my condition. I am not completely out of insomnia yet but good nights include me falling asleep at 11pm and my bad nights include me falling asleep at 3 am and waking up at 8 am (although less but its refreshing nonetheless). Bad nights to me before I started practicing principles of CBT-I would include me going to classes with no sleep at all.

I did progress, my progress is clearly visible because I spent 2 days with no sleep just 4 months ago and now I am getting at least 5 hours of sleep every night.

Recovering from insomnia, I have realised some patterns that might help calm you down or get you out of the loop.

1. It is impossible to predict a sleepless night. I can go to bed thinking I might not sleep today. There are nights that I might go to sleep immediately and there are nights I might not fall asleep at all. It is only after I go to bed and try sleeping that I know that I might or might not sleep.

2. Sleep hygiene is helpful but it is not the complete answer. I can watch a whole movie with no blue light filter on and then fall asleep immediately on good nights. There are days in which I do not watch anything, read only books for hours before bed and fail to go to sleep. One of my friends offered me a Red Bull at 6pm around 3 weeks ago. I had it and it was after I finished the whole can that I remembered that I was not supposed to have this amount of caffeine after 3pm. I was anxious to go to bed that night, but when I did, I slept just fine. Sleep hygiene might work for normal people but in my opinion it makes little to no changes for people who suffer from insomnia .

3. On my bad nights, my mind is running like a machine. I can not explain this fully because the English language is not vast enough to explain this very abstract experience of mine. But I will still try. What I am going to write next is not based on any scientific knowledge but just an attempt to clarify my experience.

There are three states of my mind in relation to sleep:

a. The wake state
b. The pure sleep state
c. The borderline state

When I go to bed, fully conscious, I am in the wake state. The unconscious state of sleep is when I am in the pure sleep state. But when I am in the bed for about 10-15 minutes trying to fall asleep with my eyes closed, that is when I am in the borderline state. I am not asleep in the borderline state but I am not completely conscious either. And I spend most of my time in this state on a bad night. And I believe my disease is that I can not transition from the borderline state to pure sleep state, like normal people do.

My mind is either running or not running when I am in the "borderline state". When my mind is not running in this 'borderline state' I transition to pure sleep state almost immediately. But when my mind is running I simply can not fall asleep. When my mind is running in this state, I think of a single stuff over and over again. Usually its an earworm. Music keeps on repeating on and on and on. There are days in which I see stuff. Kind of like a fever dream. Like for example yesterday night I kept on seeing South park repeating in my head. It was not a coherent story. I just saw south park characters and they interacted with each other, it did not make sense.

So in cases like these, I physically get out of bed and then try to just wait out this loop of thoughts. After I am out of the loop of thoughts I try going to sleep again. Sometimes I fall asleep and other times I realise I have not completely escaped the loop. It is frustrating when I realise I am not out of the loop though. But getting out of the loop does help me fall asleep.

These are the things I plan to do now:

1. Firstly I still have not completely followed the principles of CBT-I. I do not have a fixed wake up time. I mean I do try to wake up at 8am everyday but if I have bad nights on weekends I sleep till 11 am in the morning lol. So I will try to fix my wake up time for good.

2. I will try to get sunlight exposure immediately after waking up after fixing my wake up time. I will go on a walk and try to see if it makes my bad nights go away. The reason I do not do this already is because bad nights keep me in my bed till 8:50 and I have classes to attend at 9. I live in a dormitory right next to my college so I don't have to worry about being late. But that is causing problems yes. I plan on fixing my wake up time and getting sunlight exposure.

3. I did mention that the principles of sleep hygiene don't apply to me all the time but I plan on following them too, I don't follow them now. It is 12 am right now and I am writing this post lol.

In conclusion, I wanted to share a success story, although incomplete. I see a future where I don't worry about sleep anymore and get good night's sleep every night! I will keep on updating my sleep status in the future in this subreddit. Even if no one reads it for now I will update it just in case someone finds help in this in the future. I wouldn't wish insomnia on my worst enemy.

Thanks for reading till the end.

My doctor has just prescribed 3 mg of melatonin for me. It helps me fall asleep in the evening, but I wake up during the night and can't get back to sleep. Does anyone have experience with the effect improving after a few weeks? Should I be more patient?

Went to two different psychiatrists, one prescribed clorazapam daily 3X , 1 in the morning and two at night for sleep but I have yet to take it because I’m scared of the withdrawal side effects and being addicted. The other prescribed trazadone at 50 mg which I will be trying tonight. I am super scared, never took sleeping pills before but I’m only getting 1hr of sleep every night. Please anybody has experience with trazadone ??

i puked i cried i panicked but i made it :) slept one hour twice and 3 hours once, the doctors were so nice and understanding why is that so hard for gps to do.. anyway waiting months for results now

I've had severe insomnia from age 13 until now (I'm 22 years old) I have tried many drugs and methods through the years and none of them helped.

Two days ago my psychiatrist recommended dayvigo I had doubts since last month he recommended Ambien and I stayed up every single night I took it but I tried it right away anyways, and I can't believe that after 9 years of no sleep I managed to fall asleep 20 minutes after consumption and stayed asleep all night and on the plus side I'm having dreams, I'm usually not a dreamer but I get only nightmares once in a few months so to my surprise both these nights I've been dreaming normal dreams and woke up in the morning instead of the afternoon like usual.

I'm hopeful it'll keep working for me and I can lead a semi normal life when I'll find good medication for my chronic pain and my BPD.

Hi all,

Been having sleep issues since Feb and have tried so so many things. A few months ago my psych recommend i take 25mg for sleep. It worked like a charm for the first week, then it didn't the next. We upped to 50mg, that also didn't work. 75mg worked a few times but it's just been inconsistent. She asked if I wanted to goto 100mg but I'm reading a lot about side effects and isn't that high of a dose usually used for depression etc too? Anyhow just wanted to know if this was worth it or just trying something else (Trazodone seemed to stop working after years of taking 50mg for sleep). I tried Mirtazapine back in the winter but didnt do much (at that time though I was having really bad anxiety). Anyway thanks for any advice

I don’t know what to do but I am desperate because something feels like I’ve past the point of no return (internally/functionally) and I’m only in my early 30s. Kinda want to live long life and or have any idea of what is going on/what to do. I’ve slept 4hrs for 5 years due to ptsd and tinnitus. Now I’m lucky if I sleep for 2 hours non consecutively and it is running me in to the ground quickly. I just need help, please.

Has anyone experienced hyperacusis with reactive tinnitus that has gotten to the points: you are not sleeping more than 2 hours a night and not consecutively, you can no longer talk comfortably (without setback)?

Every time I try to go asleep (around 9:30pm or so) I just cant. My body and brain tries to shut down but it can’t. I feel like i blank out at midnight but I’m not sure. My parents are acting like I’m crazy and have a lot of work to do so I’m scared my struggles with my cognitive function. I most likely do have a form of insomnia but idk which one, I fear it could be fatal. It feels like I can hardly form sentences in my head. My anxiety is going to be the death of me.

My 73 year old mother I presume has been taking ambien for a long time, I’ve seen it around for years. For the last 2 years she’s been having problems falling in the middle of the night. Often times after a couple glasses of wine and the ambien. My mom isn’t what I would consider a heavy user of substances, she’s sober all day long but then at night she whips up this little sleep cocktail that’s becoming dangerous for her at night because she’s older and now she’s falling. She’s probably been doing this for a while so she’s not blaming the falling on the ambien and alcohol. My dad finds her when she’s fallen and she’s pretty delirious a lot of the time. He blames it exclusively on the ambien. She’s 73 so I’m trying to avoid the whole intervention you need to get sober thing, she would hate it and I think it’s a little overkill. I was considering maybe trying to get her to switch to something else. What are some suggestions given all the factors in her situation? I need something low effort. She’s not going to do sleep studies and all that. It may be stupid and misguided but I was considering trying to get her to swap the booze for thc gummies. I don’t know how those will interact with ambien and balance though. Thanks

I have been seeing a doctor at a sleep clinic for a while now and he has told me to get a SAD lamp for the mornings. I am stuck between two and I was wondering if anyone had any experience with them?

MediAcous Light Therapy Lamp

Most of the reviews are positive but apparently its on 9000 lux instead of 10 000 lux but as I said most of the reviews say it helped them

Or

Verilux® HappyLight® Alba which seems good but reviews say it breaks easy and doesn't last.

Or is there a different product you would suggest? Available in Canada

I'm in my late twenties and was diagnosed with ADHD (inattentive) last year. Prior to this, I've always struggled with insomnia from early childhood, I've never been able to sleep. I've also been diagnosed with depression and anxiety (2013).

I am fortunate to have good insurance, so I just started seeing someone in Sleep Medicine alongside my medicine management provider (psychology/counseling office).

Prior to my ADHD diagnosis, I was on various depression/sleep medications for years:

2016/17 - 2021 Lexapro (I don't remember the dosage.)

2021 - 2024 - Venlafaxine (300mg)

2020 - 2024 - Trazodone (200mg. 300mg would make my eyes swell out of my eye sockets like a pug.)

2026 - Wellbutrin (150 - 300mg, discontinued.)

2026 - Adderall (30mg, discontinued.)

2026 - Vyvanse (20mg)

Other short term examples are clonidine and hydroxyzine together, melatonin, and another 'c' related sleeping medication I forgot the name of.

Back to the Sleep Medicine provider, he put me back on Lexapro (20mg) and still on Vyvanse (20mg) and trialing Temazepam (15mg). I'm not happy that he put me on Lexapro. Within days of starting Lexapro, any *unhealthy* thoughts I've had in the past are coming back after going cold turkey off my Venlafaxine. When I was focusing on purely my ADHD journey versus ONLY depression, I actually felt a million times better. My appointment went like:

-You're anxious with ADHD. (But I don't feel anxious?) Go back on Lexapro.

-We have to prove you don't have sleep apnea even though it's obvious you don't; do a sleep study. (Which I did an HST (Home Sleep Test), and it was medically unremarkable. I have not but want to do an in-lab with an EEG, but I'm currently waiting for my next follow-up appointment in like a week or so.)

-My current dosage of Vyvanse (20mg) is too low to be the problem specifically.

Other things that don't work to help me sleep is:

-TV/YouTube Videos (I need it to be dark, and I will pay attention to whatever is on unintentionally.)

-Fans (Hit or miss, lately miss.)

-Getting up to a different room to read, or do something else.

-Counting (I get too focused on counting.)

-THC / CBD / Delta 8 (Makes me dizzy and nauseous.)

-Alcohol (Not daily, but like after a party or something. Just makes me dizzy.)

-Pure quiet (sometimes works, but my partner snores and I can't keep my cat out of the room).

BUT I'M LOSING MY MIND LOL.

Without medication, I don't fall asleep on my own until after 12:00am on average (usually later). And if I do fall asleep around then, I wake up at like 2:00am or 3:00am, wide awake but EXHAUSTED beyond belief. But as of recently, I've gone LITERAL days even with medication and melatonin without sleep (sun up to sun down).

TLDR and my question:

I've tried everything. I still can't sleep. Is sleeping with ADHD a thing or am I doomed to always be fatigued? I've never NOT been tired. I'm not asking specifically for medical advice (as my appts are ongoing).

But is there anything out there I haven't tried that actually works that isn't medication? I can't make myself 'head empty, no thoughts' as much as I'd like to, even though I'm not focused on anything in particular before in bed... I just don't want to be on another pharmacy of medications all over again; it sucked.

(Hopefully this is within guidelines. I don't typically post to Reddit, but I came across a 4 year old post in this Reddit that made me want to submit something.)

My whole life I have been a heavy sleeper, I take melatonin and Phenergan which I have been taking for a couple of months now, all has been working well, I take them and I fall asleep for a long time.

For the past 5 or 6 days I have been getting extremely broken sleep and some nightmares. For some reason every night i wake up at 5am for at least an hour and a half to two hours. I also wake up at random different times aswel but I always wake up at exactly 5am and stay awake for two hours

What is happening me, why has this started all of sudden.

Stayed up way too late tonight and only got about an hour of sleep before waking up hot with my heart rate up. I'm also sick to my stomach which I'm not sure if that's what woke me up or simply the result of my anxiety being awake. I'm so sick of these sleeping issues, they've haunted me since forever. I'm also so upset at myself for not going to bed earlier because I'm a massage therapist and I'm scared about making it through a demanding day today. I usually try to go to bed by midnight so that if this happens I still get more like 2-3 hours. Hoping the sleep apnea test I have scheduled next month rules that out.

Work nights, sleep days. Blackout curtains handle light. Sound is the problem. Roommates, traffic, deliveries, lawnmowers, doors. Earplugs don't block enough. White noise machine helps but isn't sufficient on its own.

The worst part is the unpredictability. Just drifting off and a door slams or someone starts talking. Sleep quality is terrible and it's affecting everything.

Other shift workers, what's your daytime sleep setup? Willing to invest if it actually blocks noise.

​

I have dysautonomia, and my friend suspects this is "hyperarousal." Does anyone else have opinions on that? I have anxiety disorder but my last anxiety event lasted an entire day (and partially into the day after) about 6 days ago and I wonder if this can be contributing or could another factor be playing a role such as my night long panicked fear of not being able to sleep the day before?

I don't know why, but I haven't been able to sleep for more than 3 hours for the past 4 days. I just go from really tired to entirely awake in 3 hours, and I don't know what's causing it. All I know is that the night before this happened, I had terrible brain fog. The thing is, I have had brain fog other times and never had this problem. I would think it's stress, but I have been through more stressful times and was always able to get some sleep. I never used any drugs and haven't used caffine in 8 months. The weird thing is that I don't feel different at all throughout the day. Everything feels the same with no crash. I feel tired at the same time, but I just wake up too early.

Hey there! Has anyone found relief from being on a daily anti anxiety medication - Prozac, Zoloft, Effexor, etc.?

Some context... I'm a 25 year old nurse with GAD. Two years ago I experienced a couple nights with little sleep. This spiraled into an obsession and complete anxiety surrounding bedtime. In the last two years I've had highs and lows. But I'm at the lowest I've been right now. The other day I couldn't sleep because I was hyper aware of my breathing. I laid there for hours and kept thinking - how will I sleep if I need to be consciously aware of my breathing? This thought was new for me. All day I deal with loud intrusive thoughts and obsession about sleep. I'll be out with friends and I'll think, "I wonder how long it will take me to fall asleep tonight" or "what if I never sleep again?" I'll be watching a movie with my husband and be jealous of characters for being able to sleep so easily. It's so weird and I wish I could just go back to the normal me.

I've been able to work myself out of a bad slump in the past with the Sleep School by Dr. Guy Meadow. It's a great resource about acceptance commitment therapy for insomnia. Unfortunately the app has been discontinued but his book is still available. I highly recommend to anyone who hasn't tried! However, it doesn't seem to be working for me anymore. My anxiety is at an absolute 10 all day and night and the intrusive thoughts are constant even when I'm at work or doing things I love.

Here is the thing. I absolutely do not want to be on a nightly sleep med. I don't need it. Sleep is not my issue. Anxiety, obsession, and rumination are my issues. When I finally fall asleep, I sleep. It's my intense anxiety and constant rumination that prevents me from falling asleep easily. I've used hydroxyzine, trazodone, valerian, seroquel, magnesium, and a whole bunch of other stuff. These either didn't work or just reinforced the anxious thought cycle that I can't sleep naturally.

I've been on Lexapro in the past for this and didn't find relief - just horrible side effects. My psych NP mentioned trying a different SSRI or SNRI. At first I was against it because I never wanted to be reliant on medication and I felt ashamed that I can't just switch off all these thoughts I get like a "normal person." But after the last few weeks of being at my absolute lowest, what do I have to lose? I'm young with so much potential and want my energy to go into living & loving life again. Thoughts anyone?

I just wish I had someone to share there crazy random ass thoughts with. Seems like it’s not something that most people talk about or are even comfortable with broaching but I’ve always enjoyed trying to understand the deeper reasons to why I perceive something in a certain way. Either way most people I know tap out around 11 and I’m still running wild with thoughts until 3 am. Just doesn’t seem to work with how I’m wired and how the world is.

Back when I lived in the United States, I was always so frustrated as to why every single doctor I saw always avoided prescribing Ambien, now that I’ve been on the medication, I know why. For me it has caused incredible exhaustion as the day goes on. At regular 10 mg doses I might feel okay in the morning but as the day goes on my cognitive faculties start to decline into the night time. My depression has doubled in severity. Now that I live in Thailand doctors are more easy-going about prescribing a medication but now I have to taper off and pretty much cold turkey this medication soon. It has ruined my quality of life as of right now. It so bad the way I feel to the point where I feel like the hospital wouldn’t be the worst idea but very embarrassed and ashamed about this.

Just a rant. I was prescribed Seroquel for mania-induced insomnia about a year ago after going through Melatonin, Benadryl, Hydroxyzine, and Trazadone. Everything else I tried may as well have been sugar pills.

Seroquel works. More than anything I've ever tried, it puts me to sleep, and I stay asleep. I equate it to being put in a coma. It makes me feel like a zombie. I'm a college student, and I can hardly make it through a 50 minute class on Seroquel. Everything I do is like moving through water. I feel slow and stunted. I remind myself of my grandma with dementia. I sleep for fifteen hours, and I get home after a long day just to take a six hour nap. I'm just so tired.

And my other option is insomnia. I'm a tired-but-wired insomniac, so I atleast feel like a person, but my brain is just as dysfunctional. I'm twitchy and neurotic. I get angry and emotional; the longer I stay up, the less pleasant I am to be around. I hate everyone, including myself. I can't focus on anything and my mind is going a million miles a minute.

It just feels like there's no winning. I've been trying to be healthier lately, but it feels like I'll always be taking one step forward and two steps back. Exercising, cutting out sugar and screen-time, getting out in the sun... The positives mean nothing when I can't sleep. If I can't sleep, I feel like death. It just feels like there's no winning.