Anyone else with insomnia?

[AmandaCooper]

DS is coming up to 7 months. He has never slept well but he has been particularly bad recently with a bad cold and teething. In the early days I found it easy to wake up, feed him, turn over and go back to sleep but I guess sleep deprivation has taken its toll and now I can't sleep at all, even though I'm beyond exhausted. I managed to get an hour in the middle of the day today but it's now 3.30am and I still haven't managed to get to sleep, even though he's been asleep for hours. My manager at work has been making comments about how tired I seem and am I coping with being back at work. I really need to sleep. Has anyone else experienced this? Is it a phase? Could the GP help or is that a non starter? Thanks in advance.

Yes! Just started having a bit of pregnancy insomnia, waking at 3-4am every morning.

I'm no expert but just wanted to say you're not the only one up! I find getting up and having a warm drink and reading a bit is the best thing as I just get annoyed lying in bed. But yes, I'd get onto your GP - if you're working you especially need some good sleep!

You need drugs.

There are herbal ones., in the vitamin section made from lactose and the like.

Then there are over the counter pharmacy drugs.

Then there are pescription drugs that are a last resort.

I have had insomnia for years, though I don't usually find it difficult to drop off at night, I usually wake up some time between 2am and 4:30am and can't get back to sleep after that, so it's a different type of insomnia to yours OP.

I would disagree with Savoy though - drugs aren't always the answer. I have tried pretty much every option going but have given up on chemical solutions. Most things just don't work at all on me, but the ones that do are worse than no solution at all - I would describe it as having a wakeful mind in a sleeping body, and in the morning I felt even worse than if I'd had no sleep at all.

The think I found actually useful was reading this book - for me it didn't exactly solve the problem (though from reading reviews it does provide a full solution to some users) but it helped me to understand and manage it, and taught me some techniques for getting back to sleep which I do use successfully when I wake particularly early (though today having woken at 5ish I can't be bothered so have just decided to get up instead).

I'll look at that too iris.
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Something else that has helped me is listening to hypnosis CDs. Well downloads on this day and age!

I couldn't have gone another moment when I took my over the counter stuff. I wasn't able to drive and I was making mistakes at work. Getting a nights sleep was such a relief.

Thanks very much for the middle of the night replies - you can always count on MN - and yes it does help to know I'm not alone. I've just read the free sample of that book on Kindle, which mostly seemed targeted at persuading people that they weren't necessarily getting insufficient sleep. I can safely rule that possibility out!
I see that CBT is the answer if I pay and read on. I was really hoping for a quicker fix. I feel like if I could just handover DS to DH or grandma for a while and get my head down for a good few hours it just might set me back on track. If I can't sleep though its just a waste of babysitting!

savoy do you recall what it was you took? I guess there won't be many bf friendly sleep remedies...

Try Overcoming Insomnia by Colin Espie. I have had bouts of insomnia and it becomes psychological as you beleive you won't sleep so you dont. This book is only short and I read the bits relevant to me and it helped reset my brain. Gp recommended it to me. Still have moments, usually when stressed. Been sat by ds cot now for 1 hour now though so you cant cut out all causes of lack of sleep....

Ok I've read that free sample too! Feel like I'm at least making productive use of my time learning all about sleep!

mostly seemed targeted at persuading people that they weren't necessarily getting insufficient sleep

there is indeed a section on that - but that's not the whole book! There's a very useful section which may apply to you particularly on "Learned cues for wakefulness" which can be particularly an issue for people in your situation because you had months with a young baby where what used to be a quiet and sleepy sanctuary became the place where you were up all night with a noisy child. It also has a lot about thought structures e.g. how thinking "of course I won't sleep" can be a self-fulfilling prophesy.

I don't think it would be a waste of babysitting if you get DH and/or grandma to look after DS overnight and find you can't sleep. It would be very useful for you to find out exactly what the issues are if you can establish a baseline for what happens when you aren't responsible for DS and can focus on your own needs: are you able to relax and wind down, are your thoughts full of stressiness, how are your mind and body responding to your tiredness? Get your DH to take DS to grandma's overnight and (without clockwatching) keep a record of how you spend the evening and night and what happens. If you do sleep, you will feel refreshed and will have confidence that you can sleep when you feel relaxed enough and can work on strategies to help you get to that state of mind when DH and DS are in the house. If you don't sleep, observing yourself mindfully as you pass a night where you don't have any physical responsibilities or barriers to sleep will give you useful information on what is going on and hopefully give you ideas for how to overcome this in the longer term.

Oh Iris that sounds so logical when you put it like that thank you for such a detailed response. I'm pleased to say I did snatch some sleep towards the end of the night so I'm not running completely empty. I did dream that I had taken his nappy off

...on someone else's white suede sofa and he was pooing copiously while I tried to catch it, but hey any sleep better than none - even baby related nightmare sleep!

When I said

mostly seemed targeted at persuading people that they weren't necessarily getting insufficient sleep

I meant the section contained in the free sample seemed to be mostly targeted at that - the free boy's never the useful bit that you're after reading, is it!

Free boy? I mean free bit obviously!

The worst sleep I ever had was when DS was at exactly that age. It was as the night wakings were going through a random phase, so he generally only woke once but there was no telling when in the night it would be, anywhere from 10pm-4am so I used to find it impossible to relax. I remember one night waking at midnight to feed him and just not getting back to sleep at all all night. Was horrendous. I've had phases of it again as he's got bigger (he's now 17mo), the worst was about 3 months ago. It tends to happen if I have a disturbed couple of nights and then DH isn't there (he does shifts so is often away overnight). I have downloaded onto spotify a white noise/baby sleep track that I loop and play with only one headphone in (so I can still hear DS if he wakes) and play that and it does seem to help. I really sympathise, it was awful.

Glad to hear you got se sleep in the end! good luck with finding a way to sleep longer and better in the long run!