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The "I can't sleep" megamerged insomnia thread

I've had chronic insomnia for nearly 2 years now. It goes through better and worse phases depending on mainly stress and worry (which was what started it). Mostly I'm not stressed these days but I always was a super light sleeper and once you get in the habit of not sleeping well and go to bed knowing you're only going to get a few hours sleep max, then that's what usually happens.

Of the three types of insomnia (not being able to fall asleep initially, waking throughout the night, and waking up early and not falling back to sleep) I've had all of them, sometimes more then one at a time.

Of the meds I've tried:

Diphenhydramine (antihistamine): Okay for mild insomnia, but a tolerance quickly develops and it's pretty much useless long term

Promethazine (antihistamine): Okayish but tends to make you quite drowsey in the morning. Also not so effective during really bad bouts of insomnia, IME.

Zopiclone (sedative hypnotic): great for getting to sleep intiallly, but tolerance develops very quickly, and effectivness reduces, particularly in keeping me asleep throughout the night. Too short duration.

Amitriptyline (antidepressant): Fuck knows what it's like as I only got prescribed it yesterday and have been finishing off some zopiclone. Wasn't too happy at being prescribed it because AFAIK it's mainly used for people who have insomnia as a side effect of depression, and isn't much good apart from that.

Also just got an insomnia hypnosis CD recently which has some relaxing shit on it, and also spoken tracks to fall asleep to - seems to work okay actually (at least for getting to sleep initially) although i've only tried it without meds a couple of times so far.

Been getting into fitness lately too which I think has helped tire me out, but still have problems waking throughout the night.

I was thinking of getting some melatonin... Anyone tried it? Any good?
 
Mine is awful, I just was prescribed Seroquel for it and it works wonderfully, after figuring out the amt you need. I can fall asleep right away most night, but *always* wake up at the same time, around 230 am, every damn morning, and damn near never go back to sleep. I think the exhaustion is all that I can attribute to actually getting to sleep at all in the first place. I am like you other posters who mentioned the rambling thoughts. Your mind just doens't want to stop. It is awful, really. On top of this one problem, it leads to so many more. I am exhausted all the time, stress gets worse, health....it sucks.
 
Sleeping trouble

About me: 17 years old, 6'3", 180lbs.

Diet: I think I have a fairly well balanced diet of proteins, carbohydrates and fruit. I eat cereals fairly often and I never eat vegetables.

My drug use: I smoke hashish most evenings, recently I've been using ketamine fairly often (about 6g in 3 weeks), I seldom drink and occasionally use MDMA and psychedelics.

History: I used to suffer from chronic insomnia for a year which come to an end 10 months ago.

Problems now: For about 4 months I have had trouble sleeping. It will take me about 90 minutes to fall asleep and I'll wake up about 10 times during the night.

During the day I will feel extremely tired and will fall asleep in all my classes and on the train to college. This evens happens if I have 10 hours of uninterrupted sleep (not often....). During my college breaks I will stay in bed 14 hours a day no trouble but my sleep will still be restless.

I understand that I'm a teenager and that I will sleep a lot but this is ridiculous, I can not function. If I want 14 hours sleep a night during term time, I will have to go to bed at 4:30pm!

Am I just whinging? Nah, as I said, I can't function. I'm not very keen on the idea of being put onto stimulants either......

Other points:
1. Cannabis doesn't seem to affect my sleep unless I get completely wasted. I never smoke during the day, so I doubt my tiredness could be a result of this. I haven't smoked it since last week and my problems still persist.
2. If I take an anti-histamine like cetirizine (AKA Zirtek (UK) and Zyrtec (US)) I seem to sleep extremely heavily but it does nothing for my tiredness the following day.

Has anyone suffered from anything similar? Can anyone give me any advice? What should I do? Would self-medicating with GHB be wreckless?
 
Well mate i have sleeping problems to, though they used to be alot worse than they're now, but that was when i was depressed n shit, dunno if its cos of depression in your case but it was in mine,in the day i always used to think 'ah fuck it i aint doing anything so ill go back to sleep' .

I also always used to wake up 3 or 4 times in the night which really pissed me off, that doesn't happen now as ive tried going to bed alot later(1 or 2 usually if not later) maybe you could try that? I always eventually get to sleep easier if i leave it till when i really get knackered.
 
If I go to bed that late, I'll only get 4.5hrs of sleep; I have to be awake for 6:30. With that amount of sleep I'd be 100% useless.

It isn't depression; I have a fairly secure mental wellbeing. Well as secure as you can have being tired all the time! *yawns*
 
Or try exercise, get up early and go for a run, it'll make ur body tired by that night and u'll be dreaming all night long. plus u'll feel more awake in the morning after the run!
 
As he said - excersise helps heaps - but not before bed or it peps you up!

Self medicating with GHB is bad from the point of view you are treating the symptom and not the problem - not to mention that using substances every day is not good for your body and mind.

I'm sure if you do a search you'll find more on insomnia as i've seen threads on this before :)
 
I can cope with only small amounts of sleep recently..takes time to learn how to but i can..sorta! Try keeping yourself active through the day maybe..that should tire yourself out enough. Excercising is a good idea..maybe i should take a look into that,lol.
 
To be honest, from what EpicureanDream has posted, this sounds more consistent with insomnia than narcolepsy. The falling alseep during the day is due to not getting enough quality sleep at night.
 
Normally, I would hardly ever remember my dreams but recently I've been remembering a lot of my dreams. I blamed this on the ketamine though.

Skyline_GTR, I'd agree but even if I sleep 10 hours I still fall asleep during the day. Maybe it's a compoud of problems.

bleedingheartcommie, I'll have a look at that link later thanks!
 
Skyline_GTR said:
To be honest, from what EpicureanDream has posted, this sounds more consistent with insomnia than narcolepsy. The falling alseep during the day is due to not getting enough quality sleep at night.
Click to expand...
that's what narcolepsy is. The quality of sleep is poor because the person spends all to most of their sleep time in the third stage of sleep. Most people with narcolepsy don't have the kind where they just fall asleep all the time. Most of them have EDS as a main symptom (extensive daytime sleepiness). also, insamnia is a problem with narcoleptics. The reason i mentioned it is because it is mostly found in women and usually gets worse (to a noticable degree) around age 16-18. the only way to know is to go get a sleep test done.
 
^That's good advice. Narcoleptics frequently have trouble falling asleep, and it seems no matter how much they sleep, they are constantly tired throughout the day. I would also reccomend a sleep test. Hope this helps....
 
Damn, it does sound like narcolepsy. If I get diagnosed with a sleeping disorder, I'm extremely worried that I'll lose my right to drive (in the UK). I think I'll make a few lifestyle changes (ie. better diet, more exercise, less drugs) before I run to the doctor.

*yawns*
 
they can't take your driver's liscence b/c of doctor patient confidentiality. You should go get a sleep test done. There are some new drug out that make a big difference. It's also a very rare disorder, so you should get the test done to make sure. also, if you are in school or at job, people will legally have to make concessions for you. feel free to pm me about it... I was diagnosed with it like 4 years ago:\
 
extreme sleeping problems

Ok... this is turning into a huge problem for me. This week I started a new job. The training period of 1 week runs at 6am to 2:30pm. Every night this week soo far I have only gotten 4 hours sleep. No matter what I do I cannot get my self too sleep before 1am. Yesterday when I got home I layed in bed. for 6 hours from 3pm too 9pm but could not get too sleep dispite being extremly tired. Dose anyone have idea's for the rest of this week??
Because I really cant keep this out. Sleep dep has setin hardcore and Iv started doing some really stupid things
 
Best insomnia med (4 a semi extreme insomniac)

Hi.
Ive had pretty chronic insomnia for ages and the only med that can put me to sleep is Seroquel, I take 50mg a night. (Im not psychotic) Dose any one know if Nefazadone or Trazadone could put me to sleep at a moderatly low dosage as good as seroquel?
I just read Nefazadone can screw up your liver, and I don't think Trazodone is available in australia.
But can anyone recommend these over seroquell?

Thanks Heaps!
 
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