Insomnia Support Group
Insomnia is a symptom, rather than a disease, and is characterized by inadequate quantity or quality of sleep. People with insomnia complain of difficulty falling or staying asleep, which results in significant impairment of daytime functioning. Insomnia is categorized as transient (shorter than one week), short-term (one to three weeks) or chronic (longer than three...
Is there anyone here who has dealt with insomnia their whole life? Ever since I was a small child, I remember being unable to fall asleep and sometimes waking up at odd hours to play. For me, the constant problem is that my mind won't stop thinking. I'll get my body calm to the point of Stage 1, slow breathing, calm muscles, etc, but my mind keeps going with no slowing down. I'll have to make myself stay like that for 3-4 hours before I fall asleep.
I've gone through lots of medications over the years. and none of them put me to sleep. The only thing that has ever been effective was taking valium and benadryl together, but even then I would wake up feeling hung over.
All the medical sources I read say insomnia rarely lasts for years on end. Mine has lasted all my life. When I tell doctors, they just start talking about stress, like I'm a newbie who just got this problem yesterday, and when the pills don't work they switch me to a new pill.
Am I all alone in this?
I've gone through lots of medications over the years. and none of them put me to sleep. The only thing that has ever been effective was taking valium and benadryl together, but even then I would wake up feeling hung over.
All the medical sources I read say insomnia rarely lasts for years on end. Mine has lasted all my life. When I tell doctors, they just start talking about stress, like I'm a newbie who just got this problem yesterday, and when the pills don't work they switch me to a new pill.
Am I all alone in this?
I typically go to bed around 9:30 or so, and with the help of several Benadryl I can fall asleep around midnight. I wake up at 7:00 to go to work. As long as I have no stress and don't eat anything at night, I can get some decent hours. Any kind of stimulant will keep me up later and cause me to awake every few hours.
I can't say that my insomnia was my whole life, it really started around 11 or 12 for me. However, I do relate to the mind not slowing down part. That is the number one thing that lets me know I am not going to fall asleep easily. I don't know if you are looking for specific suggestions on what has helped me, because it sounds like you've already gone through a lot of approaches for dealing with insomnia, and I don't want to talk to you like you're a newbie. However, you are not alone as far as thoughts that won't stop: I always feel that, once my mind has a hold of a problem or train of thinking, it doesn't like to let go, even when I am tired. Maybe especially when I am tired, sometimes. It is very hard, because thinking can make the exhaustion worse, and block the sleep that could make it better. Do you find that it is easier to get back to sleep if you wake up in the middle of the night, after you manage to fall asleep the first time?