AIBU to be really fucked with inability to sleep at night

[Reallycantbefuckedtothink]

Just that really, I have always suffered with insomnia but since after Christmas, it has gone up a whole new level.

I managed to fall asleep at around 11pm woke up at 11.15 wide a fucking awake and haven't been able to sleep since.

Its really fucking me up, time spent with DS and DP and to be able to do anything at all because I get so tired during the day.

“YY, Graphista, my faith in the medical establishment here is utterly nil, I'd sooner take up religion than trust a single one of them.”

Same!

Endo undx 14 years despite textbook symptoms

Pneumonia missed twice resulting in emergency hospital admission and my almost dying

Dds disability despite clear symptoms from birth undx until she was nearly 12

Spinal injury I incurred at car accident missed for 6 years and the pain & other symptoms dismissed repeatedly as being due to mh (I have ocd germophobia fuck all to do with health anxiety of this kind)

Dd and I repeatedly prescribed meds we’re ALLERGIC to despite these being clearly noted on our records, I usually pick it up but on one occasion due to the med having a name change I didn’t and was VERY lucky my pharmacist was on the ball and noticed.

I’m now 14 years since my 1st serious breakdown and the most unwell I’ve ever been, housebound, basically living in bed, eating once a day.

So yea I’ve little faith in drs!

@thequestionspottingmedic I can’t do all that not being in bed etc stuff at the moment my anxiety would be through the roof! But in nearly 20 years of insomnia I have done all that when I could and did it consistently for weeks/months - made no difference, just meant I was thoroughly knackered in the day! It may work for some but it’s not guaranteed

“It's one of those 'put up and shut up' conditions” Yep!

I am interested in what you do, or what anyone else has done, if you get up in the night as you can't sleep and go downstairs.

Oh, all kinds of stuff! I actually have lists. What I commonly do is food prep or making stuff that does not involve turning on the oven or hob. I have very organised bookshelves, drawers and paperwork - all in brilliant order. I dust. I do yoga (for sleep, meditation, relaxation) with Adriene (YouTube, for free). I write cards and letters. I write in my journal. I clean my jewellery. Read books. Learn poetry by heart.

Really I have a couple of friends who are just night owls. That's it. That is how they roll. They have worked nights only jobs for years and it really suits them. I'd give it a go.

I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned vigorous exercise in the day. It can be a pain in the arse when you're dog tired but I started by just going for a walk around a lake - fresh air, an aim, all that. I know some don't have the luxury of time though, so maybe exercises can be utilised at home. Oh I don't know really. It did help but only for an short while and I became too depressed to exercise eventually. I worried one day I might just throw myself in that damn lake and be awarded with a forever sleep.
I have struggled with insomnia since being diagnosed with PTSD. The anxiety is horrendous and really enjoys making you feel like bambi on ice in them early hours. You worry about things that on a normal day wouldn't even pop in your head. All rationality goes out the window and you're left with serious morbid thinking.
I've tried a lot of meds. I'm on Amtripyline for pain but it can be hit or miss with sleep. I do know there's some various UK websites that sell the 'z' drugs but obviously it could be dangerous and illegal but I wish Doctor's could see the lengths we go to. It isn't taken more seriously than it should be. It's as important as eating, drinking and breathing.

Exercise can't hurt can it? Is just finding the energy to start. I'm currently at my desk and can hardly focus on my screen I'm so tired. And it's not even lunch time yet
It is possible to get signed off with chronic insomnia do you think? I Feel awful :(

I do know there's some various UK websites that sell the 'z' drugs

Not anymore. It really is 'sleep hygiene and if that doesn't work, you're fucked' or offered ADs.

I've been following this thread with interest, I was put on antidepressants many many years ago for PND and despite many attempts never been able to get off them, chief issue in withdrawal is chronic insomnia and a feeling of being wired/agitated. I've now given up giving up antidepressants and decided I'll be on them the rest of my life. Most of the time I sleep very well, but, if there is something stressful coming up, I have this chronic fear of not being able to sleep the night before, and because I have this particular fear of not sleeping the night before and the fear of letting people down due to exhaustion, it becomes a self fulfilling prophesy and I don't sleep the night before, this has gradually morphed into a bigger and bigger issue, like not being able to sleep on a Sunday night because I have work the next day. I get one box of zopiclone a year from the doctor, which I use judiciously, which helps until it runs out. I have very little faith in doctors taking it seriously, as others have said.

After suffering from severe insomnia for 15 years,and I mean 2 hours of sleep a night....My doctor and I finally found alternating Ambien and amitriptyline is the only thing that works for me.
And that's after trying therapy,exercise,meditation,vitamins,diet,supplements etc.......
I wish I didn't have to take medication but not sleeping is just not an option,lol!!
Good luck to you OP!!!

For those of you who take amitriptyline for sleep, what dose do you take and how long have you been taking it? I take 20mg which sometimes works for me, and sometimes it doesn't.

Are you in the UK, Mymom? Because Ambien is a z-drug and our government and the NHS has decided it's much better for people to turn to street drugs to deal with their insomnia, which will magically disappear if you nigh on ban prescribing z-drugs according to their mentality, than prescribe any z-drugs; or dole out ADs which may leave you with not insignificant side effects far worse than z-drugs and even if you are not depressed, just insomniac.

You are made to feel like a criminal and a junkie on the make for hardcore drugs if you dare to waste the GPs time with your silly insomnia and sent to 'sleep clinics' which give you the advice listed above that any Google can turn up.

Apparently, chronic pain can also now be magically cured with psychobabble and the brain has the ability to trick its own nerves into disbelieving itself - it's not signalling pain, no! It's just your imagination.

Women who have had c-sections are regularly given only oral paracetamol as pain relief and sometimes even that is missed and they are given nothing.

Because everyone is an addict! You can't have that!

It's the latest target. Next it will be all those people they slung onto ADs, you can mark my words.

I caught an old episode of 'GPs Behind Closed Doors'. The patient, a female in her late 20s, mother of a toddler, comes in complaining of fatigue, losing weight due to nausea (she was underweight), feeling flat, had had a missed miscarriage and then had to have an ERPC, had had no period in the 12 weeks since the procedure. The very first thing the GP starts chiming up is about depression and how feelings can affect the bodily processes and anxiety . . .

In the follow up, the woman was found to be pregnant.

Duh!

@HelgaHere1 I am interested in what you do, or what anyone else has done, if you get up in the night as you can't sleep and go downstairs as advised. Once I get up I usually feel pretty wide awake, even if it's 3am. And, having got up at 3am and probably not got back to sleep, how do you pass the evening when you will be exhausted from the early start?

Good question with no easy answer - I feel much the same as you about getting up, particularly with a cold house. I think that the getting up at night is about attempting to break the cycle of anxiety that you feel about not sleeping so that you do not associate not sleeping with being in bed.

Sometimes I get up and read but, more often, I break the rule and stay in bed with the radio on with the volume down so that I can only just hear it (classical music is good). I also take one of my probiotic pills (beware, not all probiotics are created equal - they need to reach your gut alive to do any good. The drinks did not work for me.)

On Sunday night, I had an epic fail with maintaining the regime. I had a bath with lavender-scented Epsom bath salts (magnesium-rich!) and afterwards sat in bed reading and accidentally fell asleep with the light on from 7pm-10pm when my husband came up to bed. I did manage to fall back to sleep though and slept until 4am, was awake until 5am, then dozed until 6.15am when I got up (feeling guilty for breaking the rules!). I had still managed to bank at least 8.5 hours sleep though, which has been unheard of for me in recent years.

Last night, Day 8 of HRT, went to bed at 11pm, woke up at 4.30am (nightly loo trip!), had a probiotic and no radio (as still felt sleepy) then was asleep from around 5am until the alarm went off at 6.30am (got out of bed 15 minutes late!). In short, really think that the HRT is working. In addition, my brain fog has cleared during my waking hours and I can feel my confidence returning.

If you think that you may be peri-menopausal (irrespective of what your potentially contraceptive-tainted blood test results may be showing) but you still need contraceptive cover, I believe that there are also HRT pills available that meet this dual purpose (see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estradiol_valerate/dienogest ). Of course, they may not be appropriate for everyone.

Lastly, I am forwarding on this article that a friend sent me yesterday. I am sorry but it makes unhappy reading for those with ongoing insomnia but, if there is any way your sleeplessness could be caused by you being peri-menopausal or menopausal, I urge you to investigate further rather than just being told to put up and shut up. You deserve better and should vote with your feet and register with a different GP if you are not getting answers.

Good luck!

digitaledition.telegraph.co.uk/editions/edition_aF95Y_2020-01-27/data/777563/index.html?share=1&WT.mc_id=tmgapp_inar_share&utm_source=tmgapp&utm_medium=inar&utm_content=share&utm_campaign=tmgapp_inar_share&Expires=1582502400&Signature=k9kOtOS5d1m8CCEpMcHOKEZ4fUG84P36mDt7VWTrc2912HoOsyD3qZXLWbMZpjr90LxEr7y51oavYNxbzhy-r1sTvnVHWs2DuLYzWy3DZnIr-wvoUHsrSjQZ-GJXNDGHWjXJACmo2Dteovv5KkGx261Hjy4tBQuGdMA2HPzJepTdKaBo7nfwVfp2RLshXKIOT871Mg-2GkUbruh9n-ZdIBvNqYHhinszlzjAlsPFpu~-k7iJ40vKofnwbDsuQDFd~qySNXixp47OWyt1eCRPlbAoLHqzKzWreRMD8BFKwsZ-XxJWGvBEf5aoKIhip2bcAx4itkUC8B1WgJcsw2y39Q__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLCEPDGCTPVKXNOA

That's a really interesting article @TheQuestionSpottingMedic - thank you for posting it.

No,I am in the US.
That's sad that it's not available there for people who are truly suffering from severe insomnia.
I am very fortunate to have a really great doctor who understands the importance of sleep and the adverse effects it was having on my life.

@PalettarTendonitis

🤗

For last few months I am rarely asleep before 1 and then up at 6.30 weekdays.

I too suffer from insomnia, sporadically, sometimes for up to four days on the trot - usually ones when I don't have anything to drink. (Drinking really helps me get to sleep, the bit which is my problem - though too much and I wake up too early.) Every two weeks or so. Melatonin used to work, but not so much now. I have seen the doc a few times about it, and one crappy doctor prescribed Zopiclone which didn't always work and I discovered researching online was dependency forming so I got off quick.

My problem is going into think mode, chewing over issues, maybe getting anxious - and now, the fear of not being able to sleep itself.

But I have recently discovered a really helpful anti-histamine - Phenergan. My fellow insomniac friend recommended it and the doc (a better one this time) chewed it over and concluded there was nowt wrong with trying it as it's not habit forming, so he prescribed it. When I take it, that anxious clench on my mind just relaxes and I go into dream mode. I take half a 25mg tablet. It is working really well for me right now - sometimes I feel a bit drowsy in the morning but once I've woken up I feel really well rested.

Sominex which can be bought over the counter contain promethazine ( not the herbal ones).

I thought phenargan could be bought over the counter in the UK?

Phenergran is promethazine, chocolate. You buy it OTV as Sominex Blue. It works for some every now and again. Personally, I can take 2 tabs and it does nothing.

YY, lots of AD prescribing. That way there's no expensive blood tests required. And I'll betting the ADs are cheaper than some HRT.

I need to know where you get melatonin from! I use this when my insomnia is bad (mine is ptsd and anxiety related)

www.mydodow.com/bundles
It's a light that projects onto the ceiling and you breathe in time with the lights movements.

eBay has them for £25 ish

you can buy melatonin on ebay. I prefer to look for melatonina or melatonine, as then it gets sent from poland, spain or italy usually, where it is available over the counter.
Otherwise if you search for melatonin, it comes up with american sellers, which is much higher postage.

It is not illegal to buy it from abroad as its not a controlled drug. Its just the stuff you buy in pharmacies there, and its unlikely to be anything other than what it says on the packet. Its not expensive to buy there, so there is no need for people to sell you stuff that isnt what it says it is.

Here here. Sucks I get tinnitus as well! Wonderful fun. I don’t have the answer but I have sympathy

I went to the doctors with insomnia
THREE amityptiline I got

I went to the doctors with insomnia
THREE amityptiline I got hmm

I'm surprised they gave you anything besides a lecture on 'sleep hygiene' and maybe a leaflet.

@PatellarTendonitis he went a bit green when we discussed back pain at the same time and he told me "back pain is very very unlikely to be serious and to keep moving" and I said I had emergency spinal surgery in 2017
Followed by "the z drugs are addictive"
Me "well I was on morphine for 4 months and I haven't touched that since"
I think he gave me the drugs to get me out

Sorry to hear that.. So I know this will probably sound really really dumb, but... there are a few things which can affect you (or at least affect me)...
Diet - (not the dredded D word)... I mean things like alcoholic drinks or eating late at night. If I have a bit of alcohol I wake up after 20 minutes and completely awake.
Districtions -Although feels nice to watch TV when you can't sleep is completely the wrong thing, because it passes time and my brain just zombies out. if you like puzzles then i recommend brainbasher on internet, I sometimes need to do brain teasers and eventually just trying to distract my brain for long enough just helps.
Get up - The amount of times I walk around the back garden at 2 am is horrific. Or going to an open window and just breathing in the air, listening to my own breathing.No matter what I always go back to bed at around 4.45am tired or not, because my alarm goes off at 6.30 and I find just getting that extra boost of napping (even if it's 10 minute cycle) during that time, means I can fight off the day.
Sleep Apnea - I didn't realise that when i fell asleep and woke up again quickly, (and was then fully awake) was because i was basically not breathing for 2 minutes, and as a last ditch effort my brain would just send out every signal it could to get me to wake up. Might be worth you having a sleep study.. Since having had mine diagnosed, I find that I have more quality sleep and so when I have days of not sleeping it doesn't matter as much, because the bit I do sleep is far better.