Has anyone survived a terrible episode of insomnia ?

[Jessskylark1]

Hi everyone. Posting in desperation here. I've entered a period of terrible insomnia over the coming month, regularly going one day with sleep one totally without in the week and always taking multiple hours to achieve broken dream heavy sleep when I do. I'm feeling like I can't function at my job. I was signed off for two weeks and now I'm back and it's like I have this extreme sedated feeling. I'm not even driving at the mo. I'm so worried about losing my partner and my job and alienating friends as I've become so afraid and negative. I just want to relearn how to sleep. It's like I've forgotten and I'm so low. I have taken tablets quite a few times, but ideally want to escape this unmedicated. I feel like some creepy figure walking the streets, but existing in this weird limbo world where I'm always wakeful and obsessed with sleep.

Sorry you are going through this, it sounds awful. Did anything trigger it? An event, emotion or age related (menopause? if you are female). Could you try hypnotherapy? Not for everyone but I guess desperate times call for desperate measures!

Sleep anxiety will keep you awake 😳 What natural remedies have you tried

Do you sleep on the sofa during the day if you try?
When I had some issues with insomnia I resorted to daytime sleeping as much as possible. Couldn’t sleep in my bed but could do 4hrs on the sofa in the daytime. Obviously needed some job flexibility but it got me through.

I wish I could help but am going through exactly the same and I’m as desperate as you. I actually think it’s better to take something to sleep than not although I don’t want to become addicted either. I take Nitol sometimes and very occasionally zopiclone. I also take progesterone. I did go to my GP but other than sending me to a sleep clinic (tried before waste of time in my case) or giving me pills she didn’t have any other suggestions.

Like you, if I get 5 hours broken sleep one night which is decent for me, the next night I’ll only sleep 3. It’s hell.

Been through it several times. Staying up (downstairs) until midnight, up at 6, repeatedly until it resets. If sleep doesn’t happen within thirty minutes I get up for an hour and retry. I like sleep stories on the calm app, magnesium, ashwarganda and cbd capsules.

30-40 mins before bed run a warm bath, prepare everything you need in advance and then turn off the lights for the night. Stay in the bath for 20 mins and then go straight to bed, lights still off.
Whilst in the bath listen to some relaxing/sleep meditation and do some breathing exercises to help relax your body.
Once lights are off don’t turn on again, have everything you might need ready ie brush your teeth in advance and get anything from the kitchen like a glass of water before you turn off the lights.

Doing this routine every night helped me during a particularly bad bout of insomnia.

the other thing that also worked is listening to yoga nidra whilst going to sleep.

good luck!

Basically you need to know that no amount of sleep hygiene will fix insomnia.
The key is to do nothing as any efforts to sleep keeps insomnia going.
You need to ditch all efforts and learn to not worry about sleep. Its a basic bodily function and you will sleep but your brain thinks there is danger and needs to reset.

I have had periods of insomnia but not as bad as you’re describing. I was an emotional and physical wreck so I can’t imagine how you’re doing.

Get some magnesium glycinate and vitamin d started if you haven’t already. Can take time to build up but it will help. Alcohol does inhibit it. Definitely explore menopause related issues. Progesterone may be helpful. Melatonin can be helpful on a short term basis - that’s probably an online order as you can’t get it freely here or see if your GP will consider prescribing it.

The Sleepio app is supposed to be good. It’ll feel extreme but as a PP has said, extreme times call for extreme measures.

Good luck - sleep deprivation is absolutely miserable.

I had this when menopause kicked in. It was making me ill and I got so desperate I went through a phase of drinking large quantities of whiskey to knock myself out. Not the best idea. The GP prescribed sleeping tablets and I use them occasionally when I’m desperate.

Get melatonin, it is life changing. You can get it online for jet lag but im not sure about insomnia, worth a look.

Try melatonin. Works for me

Does anyone know if melatonin is recommended for menopausal insomnia? From my limited research it was suggested it was an early morning cortisol spike (2-3am) that caused my poor sleep and so melatonin wouldn’t really help. Sorry to derail.

In my last period of bad insomnia - about 8 years ago - I was trawling through forums desperate for any advice, and I came across multiple people talking about this book:

https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/products/effortless-sleep-method-book-sasha-stephens-9781456492540

I bought it, balked at how cheap and possibly self published it looked, but then read because I had nothing to lose. The writing wasn’t the best, but the message it offers helped me so much. It has the usual sleep hygiene stuff, but it also offered a reframe on how I defined myself as an insomniac and what that message did to me. After reading with an open mind, embracing her perfectly sane, non wooo suggestions, it really did help me. I’d thoroughly recommend.

I was you two years ago, it was absolutely hell. I saw a private doctor who listened to me , prescribed me unlimited zoplicon so I could sleep and function. I then stopped taking those and am now taking trazadone every night with also a magnesium supplement.
i tried all the sleep hygiene techniques and nothing worked, it was a cycle of sleep anxiety and panic attacks about not sleeping.

I hope you get through this

Did you try taking the melatonin when you wake at 2am? It could help to send you back off then??

I have sleep maintenance insomnia, so a bit different, but the most helpful thing I have found is sleep hypnosis podcasts.
My favourite is Your Ticket to Snoozeville. They are varied, some stories, some techniques, some with a particular focus like deep sleep or nice dreams, ones set in places like Rome or Vienna. Sometimes I go straight back off, bad nights sometimes I listen to multiple episodes but at least I’m relaxing and resting not stressing. I find her voice soothing and I trust her. You have to find the right voice that works for you. I hope it helps.

I might try that, thank you.

I often have had bad insomnia for days at a time (and have done all my life) but have learnt not to worry about it. Now I just binge watch series on Netflix and then suddenly wake up to realise that I have missed several episodes. It might not be the best quality sleep, but it is better than nothing. I know it's not recommended by the 'experts' but it works for me when I am otherwise tossing and turning not being able to get to sleep.

Sorry realise you were asking for experiences rather than solutions. So I’ve not had less than 2.5 hours in a night, mostly I average 6 broken hours spread out over a rest period of up to 11 hours, which enables me to keep my job, been going like this 5 years. Your description is vivid, I can imagine how you must be feeling. I hope it eases soon for you.

These comments are so incredibly reassuring. I'm relieved people have been there and escaped. It's such hell and no one really takes sleeplessness seriously. I'm almost embarrassed to be fully honest with people

I'm so sorry OP, it's rubbish.

This happens to me at times and my psychiatrist prescribes me zopiclone. That may not be helpful though as I know many GPs are reluctant to do this and I don't know if you have a psychiatrist. I don't have a problem getting it but I do have BPAD and fatigue is a trigger for a manic episode.

Best of luck.

Im sorry you’re going through this - it’s awful. People who don’t have insomnia really just don’t tend to understand the impact it has - the world feels like a different place when you can’t sleep. Apart from all the sleep hygiene stuff, I find if I can’t sleep / can’t get back to sleep - reading a slow moving book, listening to white noise or doing sudoku help me. Often nothing helps though and then I find it helpful to remember that I read that in the past people used to sleep in two shifts at night - one chunk and then they’d get up and do stuff and then go back to bed for another chunk. Somehow it makes me feel that it’s less of a problem that I can’t sleep or maybe that I am less broken sleep wise than i otherwise feel - I just don’t quite fit with modern western sleep patterns (or with modern western sleeping and working hours, but that’s another aspect to it). You will get through it - just take one day and night at a time and you will (hopefully) suddenly have a morning where you realise you’ve slept for a chunk of time and you can build from there.

Sympathies, I’m in exactly the same place. Some nights no sleep at all, then maybe 3 hours. One a fortnight I suddenly have a mad 14 hour sleep where I feel like I’m drugged.
Current ADs don’t help, but they are life changing otherwise so I’m willing to accept the compromise
when I’m really desperate a couple of Phenergan work to knock me out, but I believe they should not be taken regularly

And I try not to panic, acceptance takes away a lot of the fear. I actually don’t feel tired most of the time, however yesterday it really hit me. Lots of work stress and I felt like I was on a boat, dizzy and swinging and almost faint
still couldn’t bloody sleep last night, go figure 🤷‍♀️