to be in tears from insomnia and wish people would understand?

[Bogeyface]

I am on my knees with tiredness, I just cant function.

I have always suffered with it, but it seems to go in waves. My GP is very understanding and will give me 2 weeks worth of sleeping pills which I make last atleast a couple of months, using them only when I am desperate. But as I am pg I cant use them atm and the insomnia is worse now, its every night.

Last night I had barely an hours sleep, and only that because DH didnt have to leave until school run time so he sorted the kids out and took them. Am only up now because the Tesco order is due and also because I am forcing myself to get up to try and create a routine of awake during the day in the hopes that it will help me sleep at night.

But what is far worse is that no one understands. My mum says I should go to bed earlier, and wont have it that it doesnt matter when I go, I cant sleep when I get there! DH thinks that because I am quiet in bed I must be asleep, ignoring the fact that I am a noisy sleeper, talking and mumbling etc! So he thinks I am exagerating when I say how little sleep I have had.

I have tried all the usual remedies, I am a member of an insomnia support website so there arent many tricks I dont know! So AIBU to expect just a little understanding and sympathy from my nearest and not- so-- dearest when I am befuddled and can barely drag myself around?!

I know you have said that you have tried all the usual remedies but have you tried hypnotherapy. It worked for me. If you haven't I would recommned getting the Paul McKenna 'I can make you sleep' book and CD to start. Although, I have to say the CD my hypnotherapise gave me seems to work better than that one but...for a start.

didnt want to read and not reply, but dont really know what to suggest!
you say you cant sleep when you get to bed, have you tried curling up on sofa with a blanket with light off and watching a film/tv till you fall asleep?

It's shit isn't it?

How PG are you? It might get better later on, or if alll else fails you will be able to take the pills again when baby is born.

Seatrek, yep tried that! I have tried a hypnotherapist too, but it just doesnt work for me. I want it to, I really do! I also tried Paul McKenna when I was giving up smoking and that didnt help either, perhaps I dont have that sort of brain lol!

Dustycups, reading or watching TV seems to make it worse. Its as if my brain wont switch off, so anything that stimulates it makes me even less likely to sleep.

I appreciate the suggestions though :)

watch snooker on the telly, soon be snoozing

Adverse, I am near Loughborough so that is very helpful, thank you :)

I am 22 weeks Weasels and thats what upsets me, I keep thinking that I cant go the next 18 weeks like this and then have a newborn up all night.

thanks for the sympathy girls, I do appreciate it!

It's very difficult for people who do not have a condition to understand what that it means to the sufferer. It's especially true for 'invisible' problems like insomnia, deafness, pain and mental health issues. Far easier to empathise with someone with a broken leg and crutches, for example, because we can see them struggling and we can see why. Work with your GP and your support group on a solution and maybe ask your mother and/or husband along to an appointment so that they're more involved.

BTW...if you're tired enough to sleep now, do it. Timing is less important. Good luck

I was going to recommend going to an hypnotist like Seatrek.

Have you tried meditation?

BTW, when I am doing 'brain won't turn off' insomnia, I find trying to shed the load, so when we're in bed I find talking everything through with dp, or writing in a diary helpful.

Congratulations on your pregnancy, and take heart in being more than half way there!

You poor thing, I have never had insomnia, but I had children who refused to sleep for 3 years so I may know what it's like to be tired from that. Not being able to sleep at all must be awful.

One of my best friends has terrible insomnia, it seems to go in 3 month cycles for her. She goes floating twice a week when it's at it's worst. Floating in an isolation tank.

I've done it a few times too and it's awesome, meant to be the equivalent of 8 hours sleep.

Good luck

Insomnia is miserable - I'm not a "good sleeper" (unlike DH whose asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow )and for me it's usually 'cos I cannot switch off. It's not full blown insomnia with me but I can utterly sympathise.

Things run around in my head like mad and I can be awake for hours or wake up in the wee small hours and be unable to get back to sleep.

Not much advice I can give but know that I feel for you .

Now go and have a cuppa and put your feet up.

YANBU

I've had insomnia at different times in the last few years and I know how hard it is to function after just one hour's sleep. And then to find you can't sleep the next night, even though you are hanging with exhaustion, is truly horrible.

I know people are well-meaning with their advice and suggestions but when you've really tried everything you sometimes just want people to feel sorry for you and I do, absolutely, feel very sorry for you. You have all my sympathy.

Sorry, I would venture a but I'm not a huggy-type person.

I hope you get some sleep soon.

What's your sleep hygiene like? Do you have same routine every night, no telly or computer an hour before bed. same time bed time and waking? If you can't sleep , you need to get up and do something, then go back to bed to try and break the habit.

It's awful and you feel desperate - you have my utmost sympathy x

You have my sympathies, I am an occasional bad sleeper, not sure how i would cope if it was regularly

Remind anyone who is willing to listen and even if they are not that "sleep deprivation is used as a form or torture to wear someone down to breaking point, and that is how I currently feel. So you could you kindly fuck off!"

Complete and utter sympathy for you, have been an insomniac my whole life and have tried everything. One thing I did find that helped (took longer than they said it would but did work eventually) was the hypno imp. An mp3 premloaded with a hypnotherapy sleep thingy. Could try that before you spend loads on a real life hypnotherapist. Now I have a White noise app on my iPod which everytime I wake up I put on again on a timer and that usually works quite well. I still have problems and still wake up several times a night but am not quite as bad at getting back to sleep.
Oh and I was so uncomfortable during pregnancy I didn't sleep a wink either. Pillows all around to support bump and back and try one of the ideas above. Hugs.

Awful isnt it - the thoughts just spin around and around and next to you in bed is someone who has no problems sleeping.

I find a notepad and pen by the bed is useful if you are worrying about something and think you might forget to do it. Also, have you ever thought about sleeping seperately? It made a huge difference to me. I now have a bed that I can stretch out in without listening to snoring etc.

I can only really sleep when I have lying flat. I have never fallen asleep in front of the TV for instance or sitting upright in a chair. Long haul travel is the worst, I am up for the whole flight whilst it seems the rest of the plane are asleep. Is there any way your doctor will allow you to take the odd sleeping pill in the last 3 months (mine did but I only needed them for 3 days whilst I was on holiday - biazzare, I cannot sleep away from home AT ALL)

Oh and I wouldn't advise taking sleeping pills when baby is very young, you will be up a lot and normal exhaustion is wearing enough let alone with sleeping pill grogginess on top. A small positive though, when my son was newborn I was so exhausted that when he was a sleep in the night so was I! Thought I was cured but unfortunately not. Maybe you will find the same for the first few months. And when baby is born when they sleep get your head down even if you're just resting, forget this not trying to sleep in the day thing.

I've only had a bit of sleeplessness, but just from that I can imagine how frustrating and anxious insomnia must make you feel.

Especially when you see the hours ticking down and know you have to be up.

Even though you've said the radio keeps you more awake, if you're not sleeping more than just an hour, wouldn't it keep the boredom at bay at least?

Your mum suggesting you go to bed earlier just sounds like she's trying to help out thinking of things you haven't tried.

Not sure why your DH would suggest you're exaggerating, does he think you should be 'over it' by now and you're just 'making a fuss' on purpose for some reason?

Perhaps you could keep him awake for most of the night one time so he can see just how debilitating it is? (kind of joking).

I've just done a bit of google research and seems like there ARE tablets you can take when pregnant but obviously you have to talk to GP about it. Ambian is the name that keeps coming up. Suggest it to your GP. Sometimes they are clueless, I had to ask mine to look up a medicine for me as I wanted to take it in liquid form - he didn't know it existed as a liquid.

I understand.

You poor thing. I have had it since getting pergnant with DD, who is now 10 months. I regularly wake up (ha!) in the morning weeping. It's such a crap start to the day.

Even though you think you can't cope, you can, because you are. Try not to think about the future (the next night) and try to take the pressure. I find it helps if I say I don't care if I don't fall asleep, I'm just going to lie and listen to music/radio.

Also, I hate to sound trite, but have you tried excercise? Go for a swim and see if it helps, you have nothing to loose.

I really really sympathise. x

Huge sympathies here from me, I had PG insomnia too and felt dreadful. People who haven't been through it just don't get it (neither did I before I had experienced it). I used to meditate when I couldn't sleep, just to ease off that panicky feeling of oh my God how will I cope with tomorrow, was told by a meditation teacher that 20 mins meditation = 4 hours sleep and at least that was under my control! But you probably know all this anyway as you've been dealing with it so long, so just, yes, your nearest and dearest should understand, and it's crap that you feel so alone with it.

I had insomnia through all three of my pregnancies and can completely commiserate with you. I averaged 90 mins sleep in any 24 hour period for 2 months in my last pregancy and thought I was going to spawn my very own Tyler Durden!

If I were you, I wouldn't bother keeping yourself awake during the day in the hope of a good night sleep, my advice would be to sleep whenever (and wherever) you can. If it's 11am in the morning and you feel sleepy then go and lie down, because you're not guaranteed to feel that way later.

The only reliable way I found to grab an hour's sleep was to go for a bath - and actually sleep in the bath. Weird, I know, but the warmth of the water really really helped. (disclaimer - I am tall enough not to live in fear of drowning in my bath). Although my children were more than confused when they did a middle of the night toilet run and found me snoozing in the bath!

Hope you get some rest.

One of my kids has intermittent periods of insomnia (we're just entering a mild phase right now), and for one solid year had constant insomnia, only having three hours sleep or less for weeks on end - it was impossible for them to cope with school etc and as they were a young teen, there was little pharmacological assistance.

Sleep hygiene helped some; dealing with stress issues and sleep issues via CBT also helped. In the end though, there's not a lot I could recommend: sleep/bedroom routines, milky drinks or herbal teas, darkness, boring books, boring radio on slightly in the background. If this is a serious longterm thing for you, it might be possible to be recommended to a sleep clinic for analysis but these are few and far between.