Chronic Illnesses Due To Sleep Deprivation

I'm so very sorry to hear about this, Lee. I'll tell you my story if I may, as it has a bearing on yours. Something similar happened to me nearly 50 years ago when I was 25 - similar age to you. I'd just taken a job as a staff nurse on Casualty (as we called it in those days) in a London teaching hospital, unaware that it was about to be used as the pilot for an experiment. In a bid to attract more nurses, the Government had set up a committee - none of them with hands-on nursing experience and chaired by a history professor - to devise a new shift system. For 14 months I worked The Shift System From Hell. Just a 9-hour overnight break between shifts on alternate days, one day off a week instead of two, and no "nights off" after my one week in four of night duty - straight back to day duty at 2.30 pm the same day, through to 10.30 that night, start again at 7.30 the next morning and back on the merry-go-round.

The bad news is that it disrupted my sleep pattern for the rest of my working life. I rarely got a good night's sleep on work days for the next 40 years.

But the good news is that it's perfectly possible to work around this. It is true that sleep deprival can cause health problems, but it's not inevitable that you'll be permanently damaged. I'm in my 70s now, and fitter and healthier than the average for my age.

First things first. Can you find another job that has slightly less difficult hours? I was fortunate in that jobs were plentiful in those days, especially for nurses, though I realise things have changed since then. I found another nursing post working the old, traditional hours which at least allowed me a 12-hour overnight break between day shifts and a week's break to readjust after a week of 12-hour nights. This probably stopped the rot from going any further, but it didn't undo the damage that had been done. I gave up nursing four years later and started doing regular office hours, but the insomnia still followed me. It was only when I retired from paid employment that I started to sleep consistently well again, though I still have sleepless nights now on the eve of an important meeting or a journey.

You're doing the right thing in refusing to take those pills, especially if they're benzos. You clearly know that all sleeping pills create tolerance very quickly, so you have to keep upping the dose and they end up not working at all. I never took anything like that. I did, however, take a tiny dose of Phenergan (an OTC antihistamine of the old kind that makes you sleepy) but only on nights when I really needed to sleep, or to break the pattern after a couple of totally sleepless nights. I used to take 5mg, which is the dose you can give to a five-year-old three times a day. But you can quickly develop tolerance to Phenergan too, so this should be used with great caution and never more than two nights in a row. If you do want to try this, you should take it at least an hour before going to bed, otherwise it won't work. I'm guessing you've already tried the OTC herbal sleep remedies. I have to say none of these worked for me but they do seem to help some people. And if you do try any of these, remember to respect the dose. Herbal doesn't mean harmless!

Do you feel that the tachycardia and other symptoms you're experiencing might be down as much to anxiety about not sleeping as to the lack of sleep itself? We're all different, of course, so I can only speak for myself. In the early years of my sleeping problem I used to get very anxious about it. Sometimes I even found myself hyperventilating, with all the physical symptoms that brings.

In the end, I just learned to live with it. You'd be surprised how little sleep you really need, especially if you can set aside the anxiety, though I know from experience how hard that can be. In fact, accepting that I would rarely get what society calls "a good night's sleep" helped me to sleep better after a while. Some people cope on extraordinarily little sleep. Margaret Thatcher famously slept only three hours a night, and look at what she achieved. Whether or not she's your ideal role model, her achievements were undeniable.

I'd suggest trying to work on your very natural anxiety. People have different ways of doing this - physical activity, meditation, mindfulness etc. A friend of mine who got into a very severe cycle of sleeplessness tried everything and eventually found that acupuncture worked for her, though she had to have a long course.

My heart goes out to you, because I remember going through the same thing at your age. But please don't despair. If you can manage to come to terms with your own body and mind, it's perfectly possible to live a normal life on limited sleep.

Hi Lee,

Yeah after a few years of it it makes you ill in so many ways. I have a high rest heart rate too and an electrical problem Wolff parkinson white syndrome.

I've had insomnia 10 years now, you become depressed by it.

I presume you've tried all the usual? Valerian root, 5htp, magnesium, melatonin cough medicine? Benylin I think it is and also I tried an antihistamine once as well.

Benzodiazapines only help if you use them very occasionally and it's not proper sleep anyway so you wake up feeling horrible like hungover.

I don't really have any answer but try some of those things for a few months if you haven't done so already, they work for some people.

Good luck.

Thanks for the replies. I must admit, hearing that it has lasted 40 years for someone really doesn't give me much hope of beating this thing.......

And yes I've tried pretty much every sleeping aid under the sun. I managed 5 hours of sleep last night but it was a combination of 10mg diazepam, hops and valerian that did that plus I was totally shattered off the last 4 sleepless nights AND I'm off work today so that is always less pressure for me to sleep. As mentioned previously I don't like taking pills but sometimes needs must. It doesn't solve anything long term.