Terrible insomnia please help!!

Yes unfortunately the more you worry about it the worse it will be. You will sleep eventually. I could be reading about myself to be honest as I go through periods of not sleeping with much the same pattern as yours. I just get it fixed in my head that I wont sleep and I don't. My Dr said not sleeping never killed anyone not what I wanted to hear but strangely reassuring! It sure makes you feel rough during the day though and then you start getting anxious that you are not going to sleep that night. So its a bit of a vicious circle. Im not too bad at the moment (about 5hrs) not great but enough to feel human!! Try nor to take prescription tablets as they stop working after a while also dont read all the scare stories about not sleeping as you will sleep again. Try and say to yourself if I sleep I sleep and if not maybe I will tomorrow try and trick your brain into not caring. I also (about twice a week when needed) take an over the counter Nytol tablet (not the herbal ones they are useless)

Nothing bad will happen to you. My nephew is a Dr and has reassured me of this. At the time you think you are the only one not sleeping (and the nights are so long) but I can assure you that you are not alone. Good luck

ANGIE

Hi John. My former gp once said to me that sleep deprivation is the worst form of torture & he was so right, but at the same time it never killed anybody. I don't know if you've ever read any of my posts on here but i go through terrible bouts of insomnia, sometimes lasting up to a month but i gof through it. That's not to say i didn't feel awful everyday, i did but i survived & you will to. You have pretty much said it yourself, sleep anxiety, & that's exactly what you have. When i get my 'bouts' i have learnt to accept it for what it is & that i will sleep eventually & you will to. It is imposssible for a person to go days on end without sleep. It's just not possible. Your worrying about not sleeping is fuelling the problem so much so that you have kind of trained your brain to worry. I know it's easy to say until you go through it, but mark my words you will be fine. As angela mentioned, try & stay away from sleep meds as they are not the answer but finding ways to get through your sleep anxiety will be much more productive. Good luck. By the way the longest i have gone without sleep is 26hrs & that was terrible but i slept eventually.

First of all I wouldn't use alcohol to help you sleep. When my insomnia was at it's worst I would drink heavily but it never gave me a refreshing sleep. I would end up waking up feeling like I had no sleep at all & I would have withdrawal symptoms during the day - anxiety, sweats, fast heartbeat. And there was a couple of occasions when drinking didn't even work & I did not fall asleep which then put my anxiety through the roof.

Long term use of alcohol is toxic to the body as well. A drink or two every now & then is fine but using it every night for sleep isn't good - it's a terrible sleep aid & doesn't always work. I've tried Promethazine & it does work for me but I feel spaced out or "drugged" the next day because it has a long half life. I know it's difficult when you're sleep deprived but the single best thing I've done to improve my sleep is to get into the mindset of not caring if I sleep or not. Once I stopped worrying my sleep gradually improved. Good luck.

Thank you all for your replies, just to update, after 2 days of no sleep, I finally just crashed out for 9 hours on Saturday night, I slept ok on the Sunday night with 5 hours...it seems and this may sound stupid but if I don't need to get up for work I sleep fine, if its a week day i struggle to sleep as I'm concerned for how i will be the next day...I also note that if I'm still awake at midnight then then I get very anxious to the point of almost panic at some points in the night...I can see what's happening, i understand it's all just sleep anxiety...I know nothing will happen...but it takes a lot to train the brain that its just a glitch as every night you wonder....Will I sleep tonight?? I can easily doze off at 9pm on my sofa for 30 mins because it's still early and I'm not clock watching....but as soon as I get into bed I feel the anxiety building, it takes over to the point that's it's all you think about even during the day..I've stopped clock watching now and this has helped

this week so far I've had 5 to 6 hours per night, so it can be done.....I thank you for your comments, they really helped....

John i just wanted to say I completely empathise. Insomnia has plagued me my entire life. Like you and others have said, I suffer with "bouts". I don't sleep low level badly constantly... in my normal life I can sleep fine... But every now and then I go through a cycle where something (usually insignificant) will trigger it and then it spirals. I am in the middle of one of those bouts... It started 3 weeks ago tomorrow and for the first 2 weeks I didn't sleep more than 1 or max 2 hours a night. As someone here said, that kind of sleep deprivation is like the worst form of torture ever. It felt like I was being poisoned from the inside out, as melodramatic as that sounds. I would have gladly cut my own leg off if it meant I could have had some relief. Eventually I got prescribed Zopiclone, then Diazepam, now Phenergen. I'm at a point where I appear to be sleeping with them (in that I have no memory of being awake) but I am still feeling horrifically wired and exhausted beyond words from the afternoon onwards. It feels as though some deep part of my brain cannot switch off and thinks it has a lion to fight somewhere. The only small relief I get is from a very small dose of diazepam but I'm very scared of becoming addicted. I plan to go back to my doctor tomorrow and ask to switch from my usual Sertraline anti anxiety to something more sedating, as I believe I need something to permanently sedate me to get over this. Rebound insomnia and anxiety from that scares me but i have no choice anymore, I've been off work for a month nearly already and not getting paid. This may not have helped at ALL but I just wanted to say you're not alone and one way or another you / me / all of us will come out of this. I hope you're doing a little better now x

Thank you John - it is some small comfort to have someone describe word for word what it feels like.

Despite being prescribed sleeping pills that appear to be working, I think my brain is now caught in a 'loop' of extreme mental exhaustion and this high alert/fight or flight state and it can't seem to get itself out of it. Any kind of meditation or similar I seem to do actually makes it worse, because it's as though my brain has come to fear that sleepy state - the brain pathways have become warped for some reason. Even when i am almost falling asleep naturally my brain jerks me awake every time with "hypnic jerks".

All I can do is as you suggest, remind myself that it WILL pass - when you're neck deep in the hell it's hard to remember but I must try.

Incidental thought while lucid this morning - isn't it strange that our minds can cause such torture? it seems to be very out of sync with the rest of how the human species has evolved, that it can deliberately cause itself such harm.

Thanks again John x

I hope that you are in good condition now. I know how it feels, to stay up all night and thinking what is the reason why I can't sleep. It's really hard to think of what possible solution should I use just to get out from this dilemma. You should try using natural health supplements. I hope it may help you ease the pain.

hello, did your issue ever get resolved?

i am terrified bcs ive gone 5 months with extreme insomnia that all started feom a series of stressful events...then i didnt sleep for 10 days straight (or only very light/conscious sleep). i have since only been able to sleep 1-2 hours every few days, sometime 0 hours! i can only sleep 3 hrs on benzos, but i dont want to take them (just take one per week to get some relief bcs my depression has skyrocketed bcs of this). otherwise i dont sleep at all or i feel like im awake the entire night and i might be hallucinating bcs soooometimes i think ill rmemeber a small glimpse of a dream, but i keep looking at the clock every hour so i know (or at least feel like ive been awake the entire time). this is terrifying...my brain wont shut off. i know ive managed to survive bcs im only getting very light stage one sleep. i havent gotten any real deep sleep since this all started and im so worried rhat my brain doesnt know how to sleep anymore!

also, any time i do realized that ive been dreaming (again, only one hour blocks) i become more alert and my head hurts...i feel brain zaps and the ringning in my ears get so lous! anyone experiece thus? i know its the electrical activity in my brain rocing my nerve cells bcs of the severe sleep deprivation...im afraid this will tun ito a seizure. peas help!! i lice inna constant brain fog all day and feel soooo tired, and bcs of that i dont every feel "sleepy", ive lost my sleep drive!!! 😦

I suffer from "busy brain" and what helps me is studying a language. That slows my mind down because in the realm of the foreign language my range of thoughts (and worries) is limited and the memorization process is calming.