Insomnia Support Group

I'm 42 years old. I've had chronic insomnia since I was 12, so its been going on 30 years now. I sleep 1.5 to 2 hours a night and its not all at once - I sleep for 20 minutes, then wake for half hour, sleep another 20 minutes, etc.

I have seen every type of doctor, been on every type of med, tried every study, done every procedure and nothing has ever helped.

I came to accept years ago that for reason me nor my doctor will ever understand, my body is simply not going to change its sleep habits.

I'm not trying to discourage you, just wanted to let you know that you are not alone and since I've been going through this for 30 years now - I can totally understand. Also - as frustrating as it can be, you can live a normal life minus the sleep. In time your body will adjust.

Have you tried any type of meditation or self hypnosis before going to sleep?

I just read about clonazepam. Sounds like a pretty dangerous drug. I think your doc took you off of it because he/she believed that the risk outweighs the benefits.

message me if you'd like some ideas. big thing is, hang in there and be strong.

I bumped up a post by "poor" (Doing nothing to prevent insomina) under "discussions" Check out the sleep video posted by "bash47" (Reply #2). I thought it was very interesting.

I take clonoin 1-3 times a week. there is risk of addiction, that's the problem, so if you take once a week you're good.

try Ativan, it's short acting but a similiar drug to clonopin. Find a symphathetic physician who will ry to find a reasonable solution for you.

Best

jbryan - First off - ANY Dr who prescribes drugs such as Ambien, Sonata, etc, etc, or equally catastrophic such as Clonazepam - they are actually DANGEROUS to your long term health!
Clonazepam is actually an anti-convulsant/muscle relaxant but then the medical establishment started to use this for OFF LABEL uses, one being insomnia. Easy, prescribe something to make your patient sleep and get them out of your rooms a.s.a.p. and then you can move onto the next patient.
Can I illustrate something in a simplistic way? If you have a nice patch of green grass. Healthy looking and growing nicely as grass should do. But then someone comes and places a heavy brick ontop of that patch of grass. Leave it there for a few days and then lift up the brick and you will see that almost all the grass has died down, turned in on itself as it could no longer find the 'light'. But if the brick was only on there for a couple of days, that same grass will start to 'heal' itself again and given enough time, fresh air, rain water and nutrients and if you come back two weeks later - you will see the grass has more or less recovered and new, fresh green grass has interwoven itself between the old, brown, dead bits.
But leave that heavy brick on the patch of grass for six months before lifting it off, you will see nothing but seemingly brown and dead grass. But nature has a way of healing things at it's own pace and if you were to return 6 months later, you will find that at the deepest root level, there was still some life in that patch of scorched lawn and given enough time, ever so gradually new bits and pieces of grass with start to resurface and over time, there will be few signs of the damage caused by the length of time when the very heavy brick cut off the life supply to the grass.
Ha, before you think I am giving you a lecture in horticulture, this is all only a simply way to explain things. Those active brain receptors which have been there from the time that you started your journey from being an embryo - through to birth and then to a fully grown up human being - those brain receptors have been quietly going about their business to make sure that all the correct hormones, chemicals etc, in your body and brain were all working together to help you to function, to move, to walk, to sit and rest, to concentrate on reading a book and yes, even to sleep.
What Dr's just cannot seem to fathom (or they simply just don't care) is that what they in effect are doing by prescribing sleeping meds - they are placing a heavy brick on top of your brain receptors - effectively stopping them from doing what they are supposed to be doing in the human body.
And then suddenly Drs are notorious for removing that 'brick' (Klonopin, Ativan, Xanax, Diazepam, etc, etc, etc. The patient is then sent home with by now a seriously compromised injured brain (receptors which were totally numbed and no longer able to function adequately what their role is in getting the person to sleep.)
This is a nightmare scenario - one which BILLIONS of people fall victim to each and every day, week, month and year world wide. And once you are well and truly HOOKED or HABITUATED on this class of drugs - the Dr's promptly excuse themselves, try to pull you off in a week or two and that is just about the only help you will get from them. So your Dr switched you over to Rozarem. Did he tell you that is an almost identical drug to Ambien???? Just give the patient a script, he won't know the difference and I can call in the next patient. More money in the bank.
Depending on just how how bad your insomnia really is, yes, some people do find slight release with Melatonin. Keep in mind though that it has not been through rigorous studies, is a naturally occurring chemical which the body secretes anyhow and a strong word of caution, if you tend to suffer from depression, Melatonin can greatly increase your depression. That much has been proven!
Though I am not a Dr but only one more victim of Dr's who were prescription pad lunatics, I ended up in a horrific situation of trying to get myself off this benzodiazapine class of drugs which in my opinion should ONLY be prescribed for the RIGHT reason and then for only a maximum of three days and never longer.
My advice to you is to start to wean yourself off the Rozerem on a nightly basis. Use a sharp blade and cut off teeny-tiny shavings only. Follow that for weeks - months is even better. And when you start to feel a bit more 'stable' at the dose you are then, cut off yet another ever so small extra shaving. And stick with that for weeks, preferably months. The slower you come off - the higher the chances will be that one fine day you can stop using these meds without landing in a total mess on the floor. Your brain receptors which until now have been stunted/flattened need time, time and more time to allow the brain to heal until such time as your brain receptors can take over the job once more of getting you into sleeping mode without the use of chemicals.
Once you reach that point, there are many excellent books, information, etc, etc, plus CBT to help you get to sleep in a totally natural way.
Best of luck, I hope this has helped some........

In response to Leolady,

I've never considered taking all these sleeping pill until I encountered this relentless chronic insomnia. And I'm not sure which is worse, feeling crazy like you want to die, or taking these drugs to get some relief.