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Cant sleep

K

KAYLA2010

Bluelighter
Joined
May 26, 2010
Messages
2,312
So much going on in my life and e way I'm feeling it's now 5 am and I still can not sleep. I am exhausted I just wish allnthenstress and worries would sissappear. Inhave tried repairing things I've done everything I can think of ton try and helpmmy family get back together and for my anxieties over my childhoodnabuse get out of my head meds hospitalizations drug use..

Nothing can take my pain awayntalking tomsome one I have talked to so many proffessionalsnand nothing has helped. I'm scared and allmthe stress going on in my stress is bring back out all my anxieties all my issues. And in just can't take it and Nowim can't even get a minute of sleep. Both of my best friends died last year and i can't get that out ofnmy head either.

Firt best friend shot herself in the head the second he was in a car with a drunk driver and was pronounced dead at the scene.

With my family making me feel even more like a failure everyday I just don't know what to do anymore I'm starting to feel like I've ran outnofnoptions.....
 
Hi Kayla,

It sounds from here like ur thoughts are racing, and u are thinking about things over and over again.

Sometimes it can help just to notice that there is a lot of noise going on in your head and try to get some perspective on it instead of believing everything you think. Silence is very scary and that is the reason the thoughts won't stop, but silence isn't actually dangerous. It just means that it is quieter.

If u can watch Ur thoughts instead of believing them and let them blow by as they want, by themselves, then u can get perspective on them as being just thoughts instead of something real. That is an option. U can do that, and it can be freeing sometimes. The real is not the thoughts, but ur actual perceptions right now (what u are seeing, hearing, smelling, etc), not the thoughts. That can help, just for now. Sometimes I do that when in bed, and I end up falling asleep. They are just thoughts. About things that have happened in the past, but aren't going on right now.

Since they are in the past there is no way to affect or change them... they are just thoughts. Getting perspective on this is really helpful... it goes beyond the specific thoughts, all the way to getting a perspective on thoughts themselves.

Peace...
 
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^ It takes time to develop such a skill, but I agree that it would probably be incredibly beneficial to learn to do that. With certain traumas, however, it can be very difficult, if not impossible, to not grasp them with the monkey brain. Normally that's where I'd suggest professional help, but it sounds like that avenue has already been explored a bit.

I'd suggest, Kayla, that you keep looking for a psych that works for you, but in the meanwhile have you tried physical exhaustion? When I was at my worst, I found it incredibly hard to motivate myself to overcome the terror of going outside, but on the days that I could force myself to go to the gym or run, I would push myself to the point where I was almost collapsing, and was able to sleep relatively well on those nights. The mind, especially a traumatized mind, doesn't like to be ignored, but if the body needs rest badly enough it will take over. YMMV, of course, but do give it a try if you haven't already.
 
For the short term, have you seen a Dr? A hypnotic drug, USED AS PRESCRIBED, may allow you some sleep until you can work over they psychological issues.

Try even this. Do nothing else in your bed room, no computer,no studying, none of that. Just bed and basic hygiene. Have perfect darkness. Go to bed at the same time, or as close to it as you can, each night, and take the OTC supplement, melatonin in a dosage of 9mg per night. You may be surprised how well it works.
 
^^ great advice. When I'm unable to sleep because of bad thoughts I also find it helpful to listen to audiobooks. Nothing sophisticated, a book you know by heart, just to make you feel more comfortable while lying in bed and distract you from the mindfuck.
 
This is probably stupid and only my personal idiosyncratic weirdness, but if I can't sleep, and move to somewhere dark, dark or at least dim, but NOT ever intended for sleeping or really even spending time in, it helps me sleep a lot of the time.

I'm walking weird places, a comparment in the engineering deck of a large ship, to mundane stuff like stairwells or large storage closets.

No idea why, no idea if it would help anyone else, but tossing out a trick that works for me.
 
Kayla, you say you've talked to professionals.. have you tried different types of therapy? Often it takes a while to find the one that works for us.. even just having a counsellor to go to regularly where you can unburden yourself can help hugely.. I am sorry you are having such a tough time at the moment <3

Sleep hygiene is very important (going to sleep at the same time, keeping your bedroom just for sleeping in, doing something relaxing before bed, no computer screens or bright lights for a while before you try to sleep, getting up for a short while if you can't sleep for a certain amount of time rather than lying there worrying about not sleeping etc) and there has been some great advice in this thread.

Have you tried meditation? It can really help to calm your mind and get control of your thoughts..
 
Thanks for the advice everyone everyone.it was and is very helpful and I will try to use all of this tomhelp myself get past these thoughts... Thank you from the often of my heart.

I am going to stop trying to relax myself with tv and computer as inknow the effects on serotonin not lowering and meletonin not able tp produce enough...when light is hitting my eyes. Sensor behind the retina I think can't remember haven't been to school in a while. But imam going to try and get some sleep now shutting off the comouter


I had a much better day today but still it's 4 am and grBbed the computer again because I just couldn't stop myself and say these and wanted tonread catch up and take yalls a dadvice. Thank you again.
 
A solid half-hour away from a monitor, if it's dark out, will be enough to start the sleepy process. This is an excellent chance to fit a bit of meditation, or at least quiet relaxation time, into your day, by the way :) If you can get into a routine, it'll help even more. Start getting ready for bed at the same time every day, get up at the same time every day, do the same things in the same order to get ready for bed, et cetera.
 
This is a very short video about being or not being quiet. I<3ThePinkyShow I find that white noise, such as a fan on medium or a book on tape or something works well to help get me to sleep. Creating a bedtime routine can be invaluable, although in my case I found this difficult at first because I didn't even feel like where I slept was my "home," if you know what I mean. Now-a-days things rock though. Got the routine down. And it feels like I actually live where I do, in fact, physically abide.
 
White noise is great, but I think that a book on tape would have too much information to be helpful. The more information in the sound, the more that there will be something for the mind to latch onto. Which is why white noise is great-- it's all but informationless, and can block out noise that contains a lot more information.
 
Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder

I definitely have this, as do several of my close friends and family members. I've had it since I was a kid, so I feel like it's pretty deep down a part of me, but addictive behaviours - drugs, drinking, television, internet, etc - definitely provoke it. And I've known several people in the drug scene who developed something like this after periods of (ab)use.

What's interesting, though, is that a person who cannot ever seem to get to sleep until 4am when s/he keeps trying to fall asleep by midnight will be able to fall asleep habitually at 4am and wake up at noon. So it's not exactly an "I wish the day was longer" type of thing, but instead literally a phase shift in the daily hours during which a person feels comfortable sleeping.

I seriously struggle with this, and no college schedule, work schedule or self-discipline has ever allowed me to consistently follow an early schedule with any real success. I have gotten up early every weekday for long stretches at a time, sure, but I still cannot seem to get into a habit of being tired and able to sleep before midnight (heck, before 2 or 3...). It's another of the reasons why I've abused alcohol and drugs.

I feel your pain. I would suggest talking to a doctor about this (and hope that you don't get one of those dreaded "sleep tapes"). Some sleeping medications are effective without too many negatives, but that's between you and your doctor. Meditation is also good, as is consistent and good diet/exercise.
 
Thank you.

Ya I have been diagnosed and had a sleep study done which I messed up by taking adder all the night before and never went to sleep so messed up diagnosed with severe insomnia bad mistake....

But I have had a problem with falling a sleep and my body shuts down paralyzingly me but my eyes are open and dreaming it's like locked in syndrome my body transitions into rem before my mind it's so scary. In red online that it was an evil spirit sitting on my chest freaked me out.


Thank you everyone for your responses they and very informative. :)
 
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KAYLA2010 said:
Thank you.

Ya I have been diagnosed and had a sleep study done which I messed up by taking adder all the night before and never went tonsleep somas diagnosed with severe insomnia bad mistake....

But I have had a problem with falling a sleep and my body shuts down paralyzingly me but my eyes are open and dreaming it's like locked in syndrome my body transitions into rem before my mind it's so scary. In red online that it was an evil spirit sitting on my chest freaked me out.


Thank you everyone for your responses they and very informative. :)
Click to expand...

Sounds like sleep paralysis of which i used to suffer from to and still sometimes do. You can't move, feel like your wake, have a overwhelming sense of fear and think someone is in the room with you. This is pretty common and it even has it's own name from where I'm from. We call it the old hag probably because of years of folklore people imagine it as a witch in the room.

I used to get this bad and would try and do anything to wake up. Id try screaming and would think i was screaming but i was not. Id try moving and sometimes could get a foot to move or so i thought. Finally i just tried laying there and treating it as a bad trip. I wanted to see how far it would go. Would i see some ghostly apparition or would the feeling of dread just build? When i tried this a few times i found that the fear died down abit and i just watched what was going on and fell into a normal sleep.

Some medications can help that as well but you should talk to you doctor about that. Some medications (even certain meds used for sleep especially ones with anti-cholinergic side effects or so i found) can also make it worse for some people and i found coming down from stims to bring it on big time.
 
Thank you thats exactly it. I looked into Old hag syndrme last year when it hapoened a lot its been better since stopping stims... Crazy scary experience i never want it to happen again. The sleep study doctor tried to capture it when it happened but didnt happen that bight he told me it was rare.. I think not cause im thinking most just dont report it... I hhad forgotten about what it was called i havebt gad it in about 6 minths

Sorry for the autocorrect ill reread and fix..
 
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