Insomnia- do people believe you when you say you didn’t sleep at all last night?

[maimeo]

Just that, really. It’s 5.30 am now and I’m irritated with myself for resorting to reading Mumsnet as I generally keep off screens during the night. I’ve been awake since turning off light at 11.30. Wide awake. Can put it down tonight to alcohol at dinner party. But my point is, most people look at me disbelievingly when I say I got no sleep, because I slap on the make up next day and power on through till bedtime again. No naps as advised by good sleep hygiene. It is possible for me to manage, and I can go four or five nights on very very little sleep, but I get the impression that friends don’t really believe it!! I do feel permanently knackered and worry about my health.🥴

I believe you op. I have had insomnia and went 3 nights with no sleep once. Thankfully in the past now 🤞.

what I don’t believe is the people who say they only get 2-3 hours a night for years on end .

I believe you OP. I have a Wierd liver desease and one of the symptoms is insomnia. I worked a full day yesterday and was on my feet for over ten hours. I walked over 10k in steps, but did I sleep when I eventually got into bed? I did not! Today I’m looking after a grandchild and quite frankly I’m exhausted. Will I sleep tonight? Maybe a couple of hours then I’ll be awake for the rest of the night. I’ve been like this for years now, my liver will never get better so I know I’ll never sleep properly ever again. I really sympathise with you.

For those of us with severe or chronic insomnia it’s not unusual to go an entire night without sleeping at all.

The longest I’ve been is about three nights / days without sleeping - by which point I’m starting to hallucinate (always spiders for some reason).

I Sleep badly too but find magnesium helps me.

Life long insomniac here, although since menopause I am getting more 5 hour nights and for good runs at a time. My DH sometimes "corroborates" my account. For example, I'm just coming out of a few months of poor sleep at the moment, which nowadays means I'm getting about 3 hours in the early morning, which is loads better than in my 30s, which I don't know how I survived. DH will ask me how I slept, and when I tell him, he'll say "I was going to say, I know you slept because you were snoring then". It irks me because the implication is always that we don't know that we've slept.

I don't talk about it generally though, not since a mum of a young one, herself sleep deprived, snapped at me. Of course I'm lucky that I my poor sleep isn't a result of having a baby, but you're not an insomniac, in a few years, you'll be able to sleep again (is what I did not say!). I think people who can sleep don't understand how one can lie there, perfectly comfortable and sleepy, and not nod off.

Yeah. People who haven’t experienced it, those who can fall asleep in a matter of minutes, never seem to really understand. But to be honest, I always feel like I’d rather have stuff going on in my head, than so little that I could just “go to sleep.”

My GP is a chronic insomniac and I often think he must be a Godsend to his insomniac patients because he really knows what it’s like. Though I’m guessing all
doctors shoukd be sympathetic because they are used to doing horrific on calls.

It did make me self conscious when he asked me about sleep, because for me I was sleeping incredibly badly but what I was describing was probably his idea of a brilliant night’s sleep.

In my 30's I would often go two or three nights where I wouldn't even bother going to bed knowing sleep was evading me

Now I survive on 4 hours - five if Im really lucky - for a few weeks then I get really lucky and get a 7hour sleep - then the cycle starts again

Last night was my 7 hours - went to sleep at 10:20 and woke at 5;30 - wide awake

I wear a sleep tracker

A bad night sleep for me now is two hours . Average sleep is 5 hrs and 3 mins over the past year

I have bouts of insomnia and when I think I've been lying awake for the whole night, sometimes my smart watch tells me I've actually had 2-3 hours sleep but broken up into 15 minute bursts of light sleep. It doesn't really matter if they believe you or not though. Sympathy isn't going to fix the problem.

I'm another one who had an XP who would tell me how he was 'tossing and turning all night and couldn't sleep' when do you know who REALLY couldn't sleep? Me, because of the chain saw snoring he was doing from the moment his head hit the pillow! I do know there's a condition where sufferers believe that they haven't slept because they perceive momentary wakings as lasting for hours, so I charitably believed that this might be what he suffered from.

But I know how miserable insomnia can be. I'm another ADHD sufferer who often runs on not much sleep for a good while before I crash - and woe betide anyone who has to suffer me until I've caught back up with the missed sleep.

Thank you! I was sure I hadn’t imagined it!