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Does anybody have any tips for early awakening insomnia?

Posted , 7 users are following.

edgar30813
edgar30813

This thing has really flushed my quality of life right down the drain. For more than three years now I can't maintain sleep long enough to feel rested, I am exhausted...

I can't fight this thing. I don't nap, I have one coffee in the morning and a cappucino in the afternoon, I know and follow all the sleep hygiene advice, and it works to put me to sleep easily, but I just can't stay asleep. I haven't had a 7 hour sleep in I don't know how long.

I am only 32. I can't lead a life this way. I am too tired to talk, barely functioning at work, too tired to make love to my wife... Is this really how it's going to be for as long as I live?

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  • OvernightOps
    OvernightOps edgar30813

    Posted

    check this guy out:

    watch the first 10 or so episodes. they helped me a ton.

    Moderator comment: I have removed the link(s) directing to site(s) unsuitable for inclusion in the forums. If users want this information please use the Private Message service to request the details.

  • mike24933
    mike24933 edgar30813

    Posted

    edgar,

    You definitely need to find a way to accept the situation and not keep dwelling on it as a problem. You are thinking about this all the time and worrying about it. That is reinforcing your subconscious anxiety. It is not true that everyone needs seven hours sleep and there are a lot of very successful people who don't sleep more than five hours. I wonder whether that is actually the cause of you feeling so bad or whether the constant worry is wearing you down. I have suffered from bad insomnia. I know what its like and I'm not trying to make light of it. What ever you do, don't try to force a solution. Sleep habits change all the time and this problem will eventually blow over if you let it. For sure it won't kill you. You will actually be able to cope even though you feel rough. There have been thousands of people who have survived this problem and you will too.

    Just one thing I would try is to get out of bed when you wake up. Then stay up for 10 minutes or so and maybe have a cup of decaf tea or camomile. Wake up completely and then go back to bed just to rest, Don't TRY to go to sleep.

    • edgar30813
      edgar30813 mike24933

      Posted

      thanks, Mike, for the kind words and encouragement.

      You made some good points, especially on me trying to, in a way, force a solution. I know there is no solution, and I know that insomnia has a mind of its own where in some cases it disappears as suddenly as it arrived. However, this time I've given up hoping that it will just blow over. I thought it would in the beginning, but after more than 3 years of early awakening I think it's here to stay this time.

      I did use to focus too much on getting to sleep, like you say, and it resulted in terrible nights of onset insomnia, often 0 hour sleep nights.

      But that has pretty much passed, I've learned to relax, live like I don't have sleep issues and now I really do fall asleep instantly 9 nights out of 10, even more than that. But this insidious early awakening can't be dealt with in the same way. When I wake up, I really feel like my brain has used up whatever chemical it used to put me asleep, and I can just lay there for hours and nothing will happen. So getting up and coming back trying to rest ... I think it would make me feel even worse. It's like trying to nap and failing, you feel even worse than if you hadn't tried in the first place.

      So I haven't tried getting up, you're right, maybe I should, but in my crazy mind that is again putting too much focus on sleep when I am very much awake, so I doubt it would work.

      The only time of day when I can say I feel relaxed and sleepy is at night, before going to sleep, whereas all the other times - morning, afternoon, I feel "tired, but wired".

      Not to end on a bad note, during the last few days I've been trying not to look at the clock in the morning again, maybe that will work. I just wait for the alarm clock. The results are mixed, I still feel very tired and have to wait for the alarm clock l, so I know I haven't slept enough, but I haven't used Valium in over a week. So whatever sleep I got, at least it's all mine. 😃

    • mike24933
      mike24933 edgar30813

      Posted

      Hi edgar,

      I think that its better not to have a clock in the room at all. I use a radio which just comes on at set time.

      They always recommend getting up for a while if you can't sleep. It never feels like the right thing to do but I think its worth trying. It gets you out of that state where your thoughts keep going round in circles. I have found sometimes that if I get up and wake up fully I'll start to feel tired again. Then I can go back to bed and kind of re-set the clock and start again.

      I am familiar with that feeling of something in your body making sleep impossible but I am sure it is an illusion.

      I think you wake up out of habit and as soon as you wake you are immediately thinking "its happened again, I'm not going to get back to sleep". I don't think for a minute there is anything that says it is here to stay. You have to break that vicious circle somehow. For that reason alone it might be worth just doing something different.

      Best wishes,

      Mike.

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