Post natal insomnia - success stories please I’m desparate

[Hoppy77]

Hi everyone, first time posting on here.
I’m just wondering if anyone else has suffered from post natal insomnia and has made a full recovery.
I have had issues with insomnia on and off since the birth of my DS 3.5 months ago. Prior to this I slept amazingly and if anything too much! Things got really bad at around 5 weeks post birth and I have been intermittently taking zopliclone to help (without this I barely sleep at all). I hate taking this as I know it’s addictive and not a long term solution. 3 weeks ago the Gp prescribed some low dose amitriptyline 10-20mg. This worked amazingly at first and I was sleeping like a log. However last night I took 20mg and couldn’t sleep at all - ended up taking half a zopi and only slept 4h until the baby woke up and now wide awake and so anxious again.
I feel so desperate as I’m so so exhausted now and struggling to see how I’m ever going to get back to normal. I honestly don’t feel depressed my issue is entirely sleep related but I’m really struggling with this now.
Has anyone been here and made a full recovery - if so what helped and how long did it take?
Also has anyone had experience of amitriptyline randomly not working and then working again - I really thought I’d cracked it until this week.
Thanks in advance for your replies x

Yes. So, I didn't actually sleep for 9 days and in total didn't sleep properly for about 4 months, tried everything drug wise. The best thing for me was mirtazipine but it made me gain a lot of weight but I was desperate. It's a hard drug to come off too but I managed it. I'm currently on venlafaxine which I will probably be on for my life as I was depressed and anxious before having a baby so it works for me. Please believe me when I thought I'd never get better but 2 years down the line in the best mentally I've ever been.

Thanks so much dancing for your reply. Was it mirtazapine that helped you sleep in the end? What was the reason you came off it? Do you sleep fine now?

Thanks so much dancing for your reply. Was it mirtazapine that helped you sleep in the end? What was the reason you came off it? Do you sleep fine now?

Sorry for the late reply, work and toddler means I'm always busy. Yes it was because it helped my anxiety and depression too, it's very sedating though so you'll need support as the first week it was like being permanently sedated then you get used to it, I wanted to come off it because of the weight gain and it was hard going but it worked, yes I sleep like a log x

Yes. Although I didn’t take anything prescription.

On and off sleep troubles from new born weeks. Ramped up when I had a serious illness at 4 months post partum and was hospitalised for a week without my baby.

Poor sleep until I sleep trained DC around 2yrs, then fully realised it wasn’t all driven by the baby.

I learned…

A lot of insomnia is over tiredness. With DC2 I napped after lunch most days so never got to that mad state of tiredness.

Sleep when you can, whenever that is, to reduce your sleep debt.

‘Allowing’ myself to get up and do stuff if I wasn’t sleeping. Which helped to free me up to sleep when I felt sleepy.

Anxiety Was the other root. Reassessing who did what, getting DH more involved. Going away by myself for the night / weekend when DC was old enough so I knew I wouldn’t hear them.

Reducing stress. I had a new born, a new job, moved house. It was too much.

Not sure there was much I could have done to rescue stress but once I settled into my job and work on the new place was done things calmed down.

With a newborn, I’d park or refuse all tasks non essential. Let go of the fantasies/ ideas society imposes that we should be cooking / decorating / organising while we’re at home with our babies.

Looking after the baby, eating a take away and going to be early is enough. Do less.

Thanks so much for your replies. Good to know mirtazepine was helpful - I will consider that if things don't improve. Hopeful that this is just a minor blip as have been sleeping really well for past few weeks until today. Its just hard to stay rational when you are so tired and have so many hormones post birth! Really nice to hear it will improve!

If anyone else has any positive stories I find them really reassuring!

It did get better for me.

And following my second baby less of an issue.

I’m mid 40s so now the peri menopause plays it’s part.

An accepting mindset helps. one nights bad sleep is ok, and I’ll sleep better the next night.

One night last week id gone to be early but then woke at 3.30am and couldn’t go back to sleep so I got up and 5am and churned through my to do list before the kids woke. And slept fine the night after.

Hi @Hoppy77 did the amitriptyline start working for you again? I've been on it too and it worked brilliantly at first but last night didn't work at all

@Hoppy77 I had to actually check I didn’t write your post! I had brutal insomnia that set in about 3 months after my son was born, ironically when he just started sleeping through. I also went to Amitriptyline at 10mg and was on it for about 5 months. The first night I recall sleeping really well on in but after that it didn’t make a massive impact, but I felt it did calm me a bit and make it easier to sleep. I think, looking back I had quite significant birth trauma after my son and that set the bad sleeping off. I’d say when my son was a year old I was sleeping much better and largely sleeping perfectly again by about 14 months. I also used zopiclone post birth. PM me if you want any more info x

Hi Op. It was a big thing for me. It's horrible isn't it, and particularly frustrating when your little one is sleeping better. Mirtazapine helped me a lot but it was a long time before I was put on this. Like you I was put on zoplicone and took it from time to time.
I recommend:
-The effortless sleep method book...truly life changing!
-Good eyemasks and ear plugs
-Spare room if you can and have one
-Headspace app or any sleep hypnosis app
-Don't go to bed until you are tired
-Exercise in the day if you can
-Magnesium supplement
-Don't worry. I know how difficult this is! If you don't sleep well one night, you will the next, or the night after that. Lack of sleep won't harm you, your body will sleep when it can and you can always catch up.

Good luck

Post Natal Insomnia Cured
I just needed to post on here as I remember experiencing this last year and I was frantically googling for answers everyday hoping there was a light at the end of the tunnel and there was.
At around 6 weeks post partum, I started waking up randomly in the middle of the night wide awake feeling warm and tingly and sometimes sweaty. I would struggle to go back to sleep and became very anxious about this. The anxiety about sleep really made things worse and the sleep deprivation only fuelled the anxiety which was a huge toxic cycle. I did a hormonal test which came up fine and I did a cortisol test which showed high cortisol in the evening. My body was on fight or flight mode. I noticed I would also struggle to deal with any slight bit of stress- I would get slight palpitations and anxiety. At the time, I didn’t think I was anxious but now that i’m out of it I realised I was struggling with anxiety especially around sleep. My brain would tell me I would never sleep normally again. I was constantly stressing about what it was going to be like when I went back to work sleep deprived. I’m a teacher and I get up early for work and it’s a pretty stressful job. The nurses had no clue about post natal insomia at my check up.
I didn’t have this with my first child so I don’t know if it had something to do with having a csection.
I tried everything to get rid of this naturally: ashwaganda, celery juice, magnesium, lavender sprays, baths. Every vitamin I could take. Valerian root. Nothing worked. I was prescribed diazepam to help me sleep if I knew I needed the sleep for the next day. I only took half a tablet a few times a month
just to take the edge off. However, I didn’t want to rely on this and became anxious I was going to be addicted.

Here is what did work:
TIME- when my son was 4 months things started to get better. I would notice I would only have a few bad nights a week this reduced even more so as time went on. It soon became a few bad nights a month.

Stress management- I worked on reducing stress. Yoga nidra helped with unwiring. Going for walks. Deep belly breathing. Do this in the day to calm your cortisol and stress. Don’t do it to try and fall asleep as it will just cause more frustration when you can’t.
Confidence- the more I was able to sleep the more confident I became about sleeping again naturally and I knew if I had a bad night the next night I would be tired and would sleep earlier and knock out straight away.
Running/exercising in the day especially in sunlight.
Tackling new situations and surviving them- my first holiday with the baby was stressful but once it was done and I knew I could get some sleep in. It lessened the insomnia.

When he was around 9 months it was a lot better. However, I would really struggle in new places or sleeping over at my parents. I would also get really anxious about going to sleep late. This was all part of the sleep anxiety that took over and when I was anxious about sleeping in a hotel room I would be awake that night. I knew I would make up the sleep the next day.

I have to say I think a big part of this is hormonal. I did do CBT and that helped and I also went to see a naturopath to work on my diet as well as cupping and acupuncture. However what really helped me was going on Sertraline when he was 1. I did everything I could to do things naturally but the slight anxiety and insomnia would still be there. I was back a work and still struggling with stress
the insomnia wasn’t too bad but I was waking up earlier than I needed to be and that was annoying.

I spoke to my GP and when he turned 1, I went on Sertraline but an extremely low does (25mg half a tablet) worked for me. This is lower than the normal starting dose and it’s not addictive. I felt a sense of shame at the beginning for caving in and going on AD but i’m so glad I did and wished I did sooner. Id didn’t get any side effects being on it and found that after 2-3 weeks the anxiety disappeared and I felt normal. The sleep was a lot better and normal. He’s now 18 months and for the past 6 months i’ve probably only had one bad night. I’ve now tapered off to (25mg half a tablet every other day) and I still feel the same. I think the tablet at this stage is a placebo but I’ll eventually come off it completely. I can honestly say I look forward to sleeping now and feel like like myself. I’ve been promoted at work and managing stress a lot better.

I know it’s hell but this too will pass. See what works for you and don’t be afraid to get the help you need. Happy mother= happy baby.