I haven't been able to become tired in 3 days, I've never experienced insomnia before.

I had a similar experience (minus the spasms) where sleeplessness suddenly appeared out of nowhere. I managed to get over it though, by adjusting my habits, and most importantly, not panicking.

First off, just because insomnia suddenly comes out of nowhere doesn't mean you have a genetic disease. That's how it starts for everyone, genetic disorder or no. So, don't terrify yourself by thinking you have some incurable disease.

Second, make sure to follow good "sleep hygeine." There are loads of websites that lay that out in more detail, but some particularly good one to note are:

1. No caffeine 8 hours before bed.

2. No large stimuli before bed (loud music, TV, video games). Its best to read something light and fun for 20-30 minutes beforehand.

Lastly, Definitely don't dwell on the problem, especially late at night. I put myself into the mindframe of "I'm not getting into bed to sleep, I'm just going to lie down, relax, and enjoy being comfortable." For me, that removed some of the anxiety over concerns I might not sleep well at night.

If you can't fall asleep, just lie down and think of something pleasant. Focus on your breathing. Play little mind games with yourself (Sometimes, I picked a word and saw how many synonyms I could name). ANything, but getting anxious over not sleeping.

Then, I found ways to still manage to keep up my energy during the day. A reasonable amount of caffeine in the morning was helpful. Also, small portions of snacks throughout the day - bits of fruit and nuts were the best.

There are plenty of people who had insomnia come out of nowhere. I started panicking too when my sleeplessness came on.  And there are lots of people who got over it too, with time and mental discipline. Try not to panic, and convince yourself that this is just a temporary annoyance. Maintain that mindset, and it will become true.

Good luck! Let me know if I can offer any more advice.

This has been my number one and most debilitating problem. I always thought and was led to believe it was a mental health problem.

I'm not so sure about that now as the first 8 days I took HRT I sleep perfectly this after 10 years of what you describe body tired mind wide awake.

It only lasted 8 nights but those nights were as I said prefect and his I always used to sleep and I felt great and normal during the day.

Mine began in early peri with waking wide awake after just 2 or 3 hours sleep and progressed to being unable to sleep at all sometimes for days.

I've had sleep with pills and the sleep is just not right and wake feeling drugged and awful.

I don't know what to say to help but in my case I feel if I'd been offered HRT at an earlier time maybe it would have helped before it all became such a problem.

These days I have to sleep when I can, the sleep isn't right at all dreaming to soon and that wakes me and also sleep an hour or so and wake for 15 to 45 minutes in between so I never feel properly refreshed.

I often sleep for way to long into the day I think because of so much waking and I'm rarely asleep until the early hours (led to believe it would take some serious hard work on my part to change this) so I was very surprised when sleep snapped back to perfect normality for first 8 days of estrogen.