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...
So in the last three days I have gotten maybe an hour of sleep. That is a new low, which is saying a fucking lot considering the fact that I have grappled with insomnia since I was ten.
Anyone have any advice on how I can knock myself out. Hell I'm even open for hitting myself over the head with a frying pan at this point. I just want to close my eyes and have a couple hours of uninterrupted sleep!
Anyone have any advice on how I can knock myself out. Hell I'm even open for hitting myself over the head with a frying pan at this point. I just want to close my eyes and have a couple hours of uninterrupted sleep!
Couple of thoughts for you. First, in reality sleep is as natural, normal, and necessary as breathing. So you really don't need to "knock yourself out" to sleep, any more than you need to knock yourself out to eat. Better to focus on enabling quality sleep naturally. Much better in many ways.
Second, there's something called "sleep state misperception". Sleep studies have found insomniacs consistently underestimate how much sleep they actually get by at least an hour or more a night.
I don't know you, but I can say it's highly unlikely that you or anyone else could really go 72 straight hours with "maybe an hour" of sleep, at least under normal circumstances. The fact is if you are lying in bed at night with your eyes closed in a relaxed state, it's likely that you are spending a significant amount of time at least lightly sleeping and don't realize it because you are, well, asleep.
But the mistaken belief that you are not sleeping and will pay a horrible price for it the next day is common. That negativity only serves to increase your stress levels about insomnia, making it that much harder to get good sleep going forward. It's a vicious cycle. Pretty much all of us in this group have experienced this and deal with it on regular basis.
If you have had insomnia for over a decade, I'm wondering if you have any underlying medical or psychiatric conditions that might be out of your control and causing this. If so, it's essential that you see a doctor to treat them.
The key to making this better if finding and treating the true underlying cause. Which is not sleep. It might be some combination of bad sleep habits and excessive worry about the idea of sleep -- both of which are very common.
If you are not already doing so, you might start with some of the basic sleep hygiene ideas like keeping a consistent sleep schedule, avoiding caffeine later in the day, good exercise most every day. You might also benefit from some stress management methods, especially about the idea of sleep.
Believe me when I say I'm not sleeping I mean I am wide awake unable to sleep. My brain never relaxes enough to allow it. I've tried everything that you have suggested and it truly doesn't matter.
And I'd question how much daylight you are seeing throughout the day? Try and drastically increase the amount of time you are outside or near a window while you work. More sunlight will better regulate levels of serotonin, which is converted to melatonin as the evening approaches.
Sunlight will also do wonders during times of depression as increased levels of serotonin can even cause a sedated effect. That's why a lot of anti-depressents target serotonin and give it a good bump. Good luck!!