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Extreme anxiety when trying to fall asleep

Pinkpuff

Bluelighter
Joined
Nov 17, 2008
Messages
570
Hey guys,
I really need some help. For the past few months, I haven't gone more than 4 or 5 nights straight without taking something (either Ambien or Xanax) to go to sleep. Since I never wanted to get addicted, I always made sure to take at least a few breaks, but it started getting kind of harder and I went like 9 days straight taking either ambien or xanax to sleep. After that, I was able to stay sober for a couple of nights, but recently I went on the little "binge" again, and for the past few nights I haven't been able to fall asleep. I also rolled last Saturday, and that usually makes my sleeping problems worse.

Last night and tonight I have been getting extreme anxiety just as I'm dozing off, which wakes me back up and doesn't allow me to sleep. Tonight's was worse than last night's, and I feel like I'm pretty close to having a panic attack, which I really don't want to happen. But I also really don't want to have to take any medication because I really want to go to sleep sober as much as possible so my body gets used to it again.

What should I do? :'[ Should I tough it out? If I do tough it out, will it get easier by the day? Because it's late, and when I go to sleep this late I wake up late, and that messes up my whole sleep schedule and messes up my day. Please let me know what you think, thank you!

P.S-I tried a bunch of breathing and relaxation techniques, but nothing helped. I also took melatonin, but that didn't help either.
 
Honestly you are going to have to tough it out. You've gotten your body used to having a sleeping aid. Its natural processes are now out of whack, but they'll reset themselves.

The best thing you can do to aid in sleep in my opinion is heavy exercise. Wear your body out. Eat healthy and stay away from caffeine and sugar. Do your usual nightly routines (brush teeth, shower...whatever. just be ready to get in bed and fall asleep), but maybe stay up a little later reading something on the internet. Then when you're feeling tired go directly to bed and open up a book. Read, and keep reading. Force yourself to fight off the feeling of falling asleep. Eventually you'll have to put the book down due to the nodding.

Good luck and God bless.
 
That's true. I already went on a long walk today and got some fresh air/sun/exercise. Hopefully falling asleep tonight will be more successful than last night.
 
what symptoms of anxiety are you experiencing? i'd personally suggest taking a daily dose of an ssri - even though you said you didn't want to get addicted, it wouldn't entirely be addiction if it was voluntary... though the dependence you'd build up is essentially the same thing. either way, most ssri's tend you cause you to doze off in addition to curbing the anxiety.
 
So, what happened after the exercise?

You can try Calms Forte, it's a homeopathic that helps with anxiety and insomnia. Try to taper your activities down after dark, avoid stimuli. It's best to do what you are doing and develop your body's own ability to relax and sleep. It will be a bit uncomfortable at first, but keep at it, if you don't want to rely on meds to get to bed. If you find yourself up all night, try to begin waking up early no matter what your body feels (6 am). It will help you to adjust, usually, and you may begin to feel sleepy earlier.

If you are going to do stimulants, try to do them earlier. I prefer rolling in the afternoon, or right after work. Don't allow your stim consumption to go on late into the night! Try to cut off before dark. Otherwise, you will be hearing every little sound and every little thought all into the morning.

Did you get panic attacks before you started Ambien/Xanax?
 
An old adage about insomnia is to get out of bed if you really can not sleep. Then you don't end up associating your bed with a struggle to sleep.

I used to read an industrial safety manual and really try to pay attention, whenever mental pre-occupations were keeping me up and that shit was so boring I'd always end up sleepy.

How early in the day are you stopping caffeine if you do caffeine? Do you have a period of winding down before bedtime? I know I can not do certain activities & then be able to fall straight asleep.
 
So, what happened after the exercise?

You can try Calms Forte, it's a homeopathic that helps with anxiety and insomnia. Try to taper your activities down after dark, avoid stimuli. It's best to do what you are doing and develop your body's own ability to relax and sleep. It will be a bit uncomfortable at first, but keep at it, if you don't want to rely on meds to get to bed. If you find yourself up all night, try to begin waking up early no matter what your body feels (6 am). It will help you to adjust, usually, and you may begin to feel sleepy earlier.

If you are going to do stimulants, try to do them earlier. I prefer rolling in the afternoon, or right after work. Don't allow your stim consumption to go on late into the night! Try to cut off before dark. Otherwise, you will be hearing every little sound and every little thought all into the morning.

Did you get panic attacks before you started Ambien/Xanax?

It actually helped a lot, but I think it needs to be more intensive. I'm going to start going to the gym again this week, I have to start being more consistent about it. Last night was my 4th night going to sleep sober, and it was actually significantly easier for me to fall asleep and I barely felt any anxiety. I think it just takes a couple of days for my body to get used to it again.

And I actually got my first panic attack because I smoked too much weed, and I hadn't taken xanax/ambien at that time yet. I only get panic attacks if they are triggered by drug use, which is another reason why I take longer drug breaks sometimes.

And I never really drink coffee or anything that has caffeine it, so I don't think my anxieties have anything to do with that.
 
what symptoms of anxiety are you experiencing? i'd personally suggest taking a daily dose of an ssri - even though you said you didn't want to get addicted, it wouldn't entirely be addiction if it was voluntary... though the dependence you'd build up is essentially the same thing. either way, most ssri's tend you cause you to doze off in addition to curbing the anxiety.


Advising somebody to take an ssri when they have mentioned they are using Ecstasy is pretty dangerous and could land them in hospital if they didnt / dont know that the two shouldnt be mixed.
 
cut your dose in half for a few days, then in half again, then stop

may be less likely to induce panic
 
I used to be like this and even now still I do have trouble falling asleep but I'm nowhere near as bad as I used to be having major anxiety and staying awake for days because of it.

I never took Benzos and this is a good thing since I probably would have eaten them like candy to get rid of the horrible anxiety and panic attacks I was having at the time or I would have popped some while very drunk and hurt myself, blacked out for days, or died.

I found that lots of daily meditation and exercise like cardio and lifting a few times a week helped with anxiety and not being able to sleep.

I hope all of this helps, good luck.
 
As others have stated, wear your body out with exercise.
A lot of times if I can't sleep I go to another room. Lay on the couch and "watch tv". I usually pass out pretty quick but if I get up to go back to my bed I'm awake so prepare to sleep on the couch all night...
and also sleeping in a different direction on my bed. I don't know, I know it's weird, but it works for me. If I really can't sleep lay down with my head at the food of the bed and I'll sleep ok.
Work on deep breathing, meditation.

I've just started xanax for anxiety, but I don't take it every day. So I don't really know what that does for my sleep.
 
There are probably much smarter ways to cure your anxiety, but for the record LSD has achieved this in my own experience.
 
having regular exercise, no more than 1 hour before going to bed should help you feel more relaxed and tired and make it easier for you.
have you tried doing a long walk then a bath with something like lavender in it and then some chamomile tea before bed.
that really cant be nice for you and hope you find something that helps.
 
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