Has anyone recovered from chronic insomnia? Please tell me what worked before I die of sleep deprivation :(

[SpicyBeanzy]

Please do not tell me to put lavender on my pillow, or take a warm bath as I might just cry.😥😥

For at least 10 years I have been averaging about 2 hours sleep a night. I am a walking zombie. I feel shattered beyond belief all the time. I feel depressed a lot, but I think this is just down to lack of sleep.

I'm not stressed in work (luckily I seem to be able to do my job with a constant pounding headache, blurred vision and difficulty concentrating, and really like the work itself).

Please tell me if you have suffered from insomnia in the past and found a cure.

Things I have tried over the years, which have been unsuccessful:

1. Supplements/medication:

Valerian Magnesium Melatonin Vitamin D Prescription sleeping tablets (I seem to be immune to these now and could take 2 or 3 with no effect)

1. Professional help:

Acupuncture Hypnotherapy Counseling Dietician Sleep clinic CBT

1. Others

No technology at night Relaxation/meditation CDs

I suppose I'd really just like to hear if there's a possibly anyone suffered from insomnia in the past, and no longer does, to give me hope.

Thanks for reading 😴😴😴😴

Poor you . I find that a huge amount of daily outdoor walking works well for me.

It can also help to have no caffeine or sugar at all after midday - cups of tea are counted as caffeine!

Good luck.

I found this book helpful. It's so long ago that my insomnia was really bad that I don't remember what bits of my coping mechanisms came from this book and what from elsewhere, but an important thing I do remember coming from this book is that your bedroom should not be the place where you lie awake with insomnia unable to drop off. Get up, do something non-sleepy for half an hour (read a book, go for a walk, listen to a radio programme, bake some brownies) then do your winding-down-for-bed routine - including cleaning your teeth or whatever you normally do, then resettle in bed and try not to think about needing to go to sleep (you probably have some visualisation techniques from previous ideas so I don't need to give you tips). If after 30-45 minutes you are feeling wide awake and stressy then get up again and repeat from the start. Otherwise if you are feeling drowsy then snuggle down into the drowsy feeling and see what happens.

Yoga. Although mine wasn't as bad as yours. But regular yoga where I really worked at the poses helped so much. I always slept on yoga nights.
Now I have a baby who wakes me every 90 minutes. But I'm pretty sure I don't have insomnia any more.

Thank you all so much. I will try that book and look into yoga, and try walking a bit more and see how I go.

Converted insomniac here but it was at its peak when I was a student so mostly lifestyle related. i still have the occasional relapse and the two best strategies I have found are 1) routine esp around exposure to daylight and eating ie up, breakfast , out of the house and on with the day, outside as much as possible etc and 2) as suggested above if not sleeping get up and do something then return to bedtime routine and try again. Baking a cake is often suggested as it is a complete activity so you have a sense of completing something. Also no alcohol.

I share your pain. I've been doing the programme on www.sleepio.com. It's evidence based and developed by academics and clinicians.

It's CBT and uses sleep restriction, as well as having online support and message boards. I'm on the sleep restriction phase of the six week programme and it's brutal, but starting to show benefits. I slept for six hours last night without waking up.

It's not free though - I think it's about £300. Some employers and parts of the NHS fund it. I managed to get it free by volunteering for a research trial.

did melatonin not work at all? How much did you take?

Have you tried a prebiotic? I read somewhere that it can have a big affect on sleep...

www.bimuno.com/prebiotics-and-sleep

Which medication? I tried a few the only one I'm not immune to is zopiclone. They won't prescribe often , is addictive etc etc but it knocks me out. I take it twice a week to catch up and take amitriptalene (no idea how to spell) on the other nights which is better sleep than with none but not great. If no medication then about 2 hours a night also. Didn't really want to rely on medication but felt I tried everything else and was desperate.

Listening to Audible books, of the non fiction variety, helps me. So does vodka, but that's probably not an option on a school night.

Hrt. Hadn't slept for 2 years. Within a week of starting it, I suddenly fell asleep one night.

I took a sedating antidepressant (dosulepin) it works wonders for insomnia and associated anxiety.

Bbc iplayer saved my life.
Most nights I fall quickly asleep to a bbc documentary. Bbc 4 is particular does excellent sleep inducing documentaries. I put it on my phone, turn my phone upside down so i can't see the light and off we go. Better than listening to the radio because it finishes after an hour.

I've also found having a physically demanding job helps me sleep.

On days off and without a documentary it can take me up to four hours to fall asleep. I feel your pain.

Some people might say that cannabis works really well for insomnia but of course its illegal

Do your u think you have sleep apnoea? A CPAP machine would help

It's depressing, isn't it? I used to be as bad as you and still have nights regularly with zero hours sleep (literally). Other nights I may sleep 7 hours now, though.
For me, I realised I just need tons more downtime than most people. Forget an hour before bed: think 4 hours before bed. It might be tricky if you work fulltime: but as many nights as you can, winding down from 7pm onwards, early meal, no socialising, phone calls, new activities or anything else remotely exciting or needing an effort.
As soon as my life gets too full, the sleepless nights are back. Veeery boring, but no sleep is hell. Hope you find something here that helps you!

My close relative saw a specialist.
They said - go to bed later, like midnight or even 2.00am and set an alarm for the morning.
They then said to listen to an audio book so she wasn't thinking about sleep.

It helped a bit as I she went front no sleep ever, to some sleep.

Also the drowsy hayfever tablets work for a couple of nights

Moderate exercise, especially outdoors

No caffeine apart from a cup of tea in the morning (couldn't believe it but it made a huge difference)

Change of medication for my dust allergy which was literally keeping me up at night. Ironically I've gone from drowsy to non-drowsy!

Accepting that I can have broken sleep and wake up at 3am, or fall asleep at 3am, and it's not the end of the world. I don't fret about not sleeping anymore.

Sympathies It's not a nice place to be but you can get out.

How old are you OP? Could it be linked to the menopause? Terrible insomnia completely cured by HRT - well just oestrogen patches - for me. Good luck

How much exercise do you get?
How much caffeine do you consume?
Do you like awake bored stiff or fretting?
Do you practice all good sleep hygiene?

Hi everyone, thank you all so much. I'm overwhelmed at the amount of suggestions, and it's so nice that everyone takes it so seriously. Once a psychotherapist said to me "and why do you feel that sleep is important to you?" and I was like "erm because I'm pretty sure you need it to stay alive??". So just to answer some questions:

allthekings - that's brilliant you're converted, always nice to hear. I'm probably not outside enough due to sitting at a desk all day, although i do walk an hour everyday for the commute.

branleuse- melatonin - I was taking double the recommended dose on the bottle for about a year (no effect), then sleep clinic told me I should stop, as there's no scientific evidence to back it up

queenofwhatever- sleep restriction, getting out of bed, tried this for a few months, and just found I was in and out of the bed all night as I don't really get drowsy until about 5am. The sleep clinic recommended this too, but then when it wasn't working for me, I saw a different private specialist, who said this was the opposite of what I should be doing, and at least if i stay in bed i will get rest.

showergel and bonestripped- audiobooks/bbc documentaries - yes I use those. They make the night more enjoyable, not as boring, but I'll get through whole books/documentaries and still be awake, but yes still better than staring at the ceiling.

taytopotato sleep apnea, no it's not that I'm afraid, as I think you actually fall asleep with that and keep waking up, but I'm not actually falling asleep.

abc I watched that documentary where they mentioned prebiotics -i must actually give that a go.

cheesygiraffe that's a very good point, i get home from work around 7.30pm, make dinner, eat about 8, or sometimes go to the gym, meet friends- maybe i need to do less

grasspigeons yeah i try to go to bed as late as possible, not great for my relationship but what can you do

loveday I'm 36 and hopefully a while off the menapause, although i have looked into whether it's hormone related, as always worse with pms - all hormones came back normal

ljkk - I don't drink caffeine -used to use it as a crutch to get me through the day, but that made my sleep even worse, so don;t drink it at all now. Exercise - an hour walking a day (midweek), but I know I should be doing a lot more 'cardio' type to tire me out, vicious circle to get the energy to do that, but I know deep down it will help. I suppose i alternate between bored and fretting on different nights. sleep hygiene - yeah dark, cool, quiet room etc.

So new things to try:

• more exercise (esp outdoors)
• prebiotics
• possibly anti-depressent medication (although ttc at the moment, so will need to check)

You poor thing. I'm not naturally a good sleeper and only have bouts as bad as your insomnia. It's the pits and I honestly don't know how you manage to function and still hold down a job!

I think you really need to see a sleep specialist and get a sleep study done. That little sleep can't be healthy.

Just read you've already seen a specialist. Sorry [saf]

About 90% cured. Which is amazing. What helped was a combination of things :

-CBT with the right person
-Vigorous exercise during the day
-Prayer
-Plus all the usual sleep hygiene advice
-Also, sometimes an orgasm at bedtime

I went to see Dr Guy Meadows at the sleep Clinic. He's also just treated my DD8 very successfully. I found it really useful, not saying I never have a bad night (although never as bad as you), but the majority of time it's great. Some of the things we talked about just really struck a chord with me and helped me to change my thinking, particularly around going to sleep being a battle, whereas people without insomnia just lie down, shut their eyes and go to sleep because it's a natural process. As an insomniac you start to fell stressed about before you even try to go to sleep - 'try' being the operative word. That provably doesn't make sense and he puts it much better.. He uses a mindfulness approach - of course you may have already seen him!