EXTREME insomnia following surgery, my brain will not turn off anymore - Please Help

7 weeks ago, I underwent a 7 hour surgery for my nose. That very night and every night since, my brain has not been able to sleep on its own. It is as if it has lost the ability. I have no sleep disorders prior to this operation. For the 2 weeks following surgery I was so sleep deprived (sleeping only 2-3 hours a night and lying in bed for over 7 hours before falling asleep), that I started spasming and hypnic jerking whenever I would begin to doze off. I was then prescribed Clonazepam. It stopped the spasms. This medicine has been the only thing that has been able to allow my brain to turn off and allow me to fall asleep. However, issues still occur. I still wake up after 3-4 hours and when I wake up I am fully awake. Sometimes I am able to doze back asleep but still wake up every 1 or 2 hours. Sometimes, when I try to fall back asleep very strange symptoms occur. On these mornings, as I begin to doze off again, I may hypnic jerk/twitch some days or convulse on others. I may feel symptoms such as electrical firing in my brain that will cause my head to crank one way or my upper body to shortly convulse for like 1-2 seconds. One time I even felt my fingers gnarling themselves involuntarily. Another symptom is sleep paralysis. A final symptom is feeling conscious while my body is ready to sleep. I feel a butterfly feeling, as if I am trapped in my body and it will not allow me to go unconscious. This leads to one of two reactions. 1. I can move and ruin any chance of falling asleep. 2. I stay still and sometimes I may fall into fragmented sleep. Other times I may be trapped in a state of limbo. Hard to describe. I feel as though I am in a different position or doing different actions. Such as laying face down sprawled on the floor. In reality however, I am laying on my back still in bed. My neurologist thinks it is Restless Leg Syndrome but I have serious doubts. This seems way more complicated than that and I cannot find any answers. My only hope is to request a sleep study because I don't know what else to do. I do not wish to be dependent on the clonazepam but I cannot sleep on my own. Does anyone know what is happening? Any disorder that even fits this ball park?

0 likes, 2 replies