Insomnia as returning to work

[mackchar]

Hi,

I've just started going back to work after maternity leave. During mat leave I had the usual wakeful nights due to the baby, but generally slept very well and deeply at night - always got back to sleep and never had any periods of anxiety at night. However this week since returning to work (a mix of working from home and commuting to the office) I've suddenly started to have severe insomnia. Ive managed about 4 hours sleep all week. This is not like me, I'm usually one of those people who just closes their eyes and goes to sleep straight away. It's been hell pretending to be okay this week when I want to do is cry because I'm so tired. I feel like I've instantly lost all my confidence and I'm not presenting the best version of myself to colleagues. It's frustrating because I know this isn't me and I don't understand why I'm suddenly unable to sleep.

At night I take ages to get to sleep as I feel nervous and very aware of needing to get to sleep in order to be "on it" the next day. I have to get up early to get kids to nursery and commute in a long distance. It's a big change to our routine. I then lie awake until 1 or 2am, finally crash out but wake up at 3 or 4 with the same nervous feeling, hot and cold sweats and can't get back to sleep. I feel insane.

Can anyone help me understand why this is happening and how I fix this? I am usually such a good sleeper and I really find it hard to operate on such little sleep. I've gone from feeling positive about my return to work to extremely panicked and depressed. I can't take sick days this early so need to knock this on the head quickly. Are there any effective remedies to guarantee a night's sleep that I could take on the nights before I have to commute? Can anyone advise on how I deal with this?

That’s awful OP, I feel for you. Whenever I have bouts of insomnia I go to Boots (or any pharmacy) and get Nytol one a night. It helps keep me asleep. I then gradually stop taking them once I’ve recovered and rested. When I had insomenia in pregnancy and couldn’t take anything I also used to listen to these ‘sleep talkdowns’ on YouTube by the honest guys (I think they were called). That did help but not all the time. You could try the other more natural remedies like warm bath an hour before bed, take magnesium etc.

I think you should go to your gp and have a chat. A low dose of an anti anxiety medication might well knock this on the head. Returning to work is really stressful and the gp will have seen this many times.

I've recently started taking magnesium before bed and I'm sleeping 7 or 8 hours, much improved.

I had this when returning to work after mat leave, although have always suffered anxiety related insomnia. I went to the GP who initially gave me a week's worth of zopiclone to break the cycle and get me sleeping again. After a couple of years of it returning sporadically I'm now on the lowest dose of citolopram which is helping. A short course of sleeping pills might help you get through this phase, going back to work is a huge adjustment!

Have a look at this video, it might help;

A cup of chamomile tea and a herbal nytol (or own brand equivalent) are brilliant for this.

I would turn your TV and phone off an hour before bed then have low lights while you drink the tea. Then pop a meditation on audio, one of those where they talk you through relaxing each part of your body.