Sleepless for over a year. Tried everything. Sleep tests. CBT-I. Hydroxyzine. Mediation. Magnesium.

More.

This whole time, I was allergic to my laundry detergent. I switched to all free and gentle detergent. Sleeping fine now.

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.

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?

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.

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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 have adhd and i have two perscriptions with it, 10mg IR and 20mg XR of adderall and I take them together. I really like this dose because it can get me through the whole day but falling asleep is a huge problem.

i also have bipolar 2 disorder so I am on 400mg XR of seroquel and because of problems keeping my weight up and anxiety, im also on 7.5mg of remeron.

both remeron and seroquel are strong H1 histamine receptor antagonists which is why many people on them develop drowsiness and hunger after taking them, similar to benadryl.

ive had a history of using benadryl for sleep when I was unmedicated, but now I think I have built up a resistance to those drowsiness and hunger effects, because of how many histamine blockers I take, and now eating enough and sleeping on time is a huge struggle

Ive tried supplements like iron and magnesium glycinate, blue light glasses that are red, incense, melatonin, a cold room, no lights on, practically almost everything i could find

probably the only thing that has ever helped me significantly is weed but I dont feel like its a sustainable method.

if anybody knows any tricks or tips that would make falling asleep easier PLEASE let me know

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)?

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.

Long story short I don't know what's going on, it's ruined my entire life. This is exactly what it feels like: click here for Imgur picture

In the past 6 months I've gone through 8-9 different mattresses 2 different apartments etc.

I thought maybe the bed is screwed up or maybe my floors are uneven. I also tried getting a new bedframe like I've spent hundreds.

The beds are all nice and perfectly comfy but no matter what only my butt and legs are laying on it straight no matter what it feels like my head, back, and shoulders are sinking to the point I feel like I'm hanging off a cliff, and the blood is pooling into my head. My legs will almost instantly fall asleep from laying all twisted and contorted, and I can't explain the torture of having your upper body lower than your lower body. Like this shit sucks. I only sleeping sitting now... I sleep about 2-3 days a week now... and it's at my computer desk.

I need help. The only thing I can possibly think of is anterior pelvic tilt. What the hell could this be?

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?

Hello, I'm the family member of a person in their 40s that's been dealing with severe insomnia for almost 1 year now. The condition caused him to lose his job and has sought medical care continuously for the last 10 months, and tried numerous medications during that time. Nothing seems to be helping. His mental health has greatly declined and so has his physical health. I'm worried about what will happen if he doesn't get relief very soon.

There may be some undiagnosed mental health issue(s) going on, but is no substance abuse going on of any kind.

I am wondering if there are any intensive treatment centers for something like this? They could be inpatient or online or anything that is truly comprehensive. TIA for any ideas, our family is desperate. We are in the U.S. if that matters.

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

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'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.

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.

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.

Its actually making my insomnia worst because it works in a feedback cycle loop. Its so messed up. I wake up out of breath and dont want to go to sleep while so tired and almost passing out.

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!

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.

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