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...
Year 12 of insomnia, mainly staying asleep but also falling asleep. On Trazadone for 7 years and now Zopiclone for 5. Finally went to sleep center twice and mini wake ups 13 times on average during the night and slept 5-6 hours with a full zolpiclone. Realized that even with the meds, I am not staying asleep. Started sleep restriction 3 weeks ago with blue blocker glasses. Go to bed at midnight and alarm set for 5:30 but always wake up before the alarm.
Don't know what time exactly as I truly try not to look at the clock. Cut zolpidem in 1/2 three nights ago. First 2 nights were ok, woke up way before the alarm (fell asleep just fine from exhaustion) and last night think I must have woken up 2 hours before the alarm which equals about 3 hours of sleep. I am a mental and physical mess today. I simply feel like I want to throw up and literally cannot do anything. Do I still stay on the 1/2 of Ambien or go back to the full even though I still wake up with the full one? I know I will start to wake up around 1:00 and get that 2nd wind but I just need someone to tell me that I WILL be off these pills as I know in my heart of hearts they do nothing for me anymore (so I think). I feel alone and a bit hopeless yet I know how many of "me" are out there.
Everyone on sleep restriction says it helped them within 2 weeks and here I am on week 3 and still waking up all the time :-(. No liquor before bed, blue blockers on, sleep restriction, doing yoga nidra and yet I CONSTANTLY wake up before the alarm. Even the sleep center said, "Yeah we have no idea." Feel helpless.
For instance, it's quite untrue that 'everyone' benefits after 2 weeks of sleep restriction. Some people do for sure, but for some it takes longer. And all sleep restriction really does is establish a sensible and consistent sleep-wake schedule to support your circadian rhythm. Necessary and beneficial.
Then there's your stated ideas about 'being a mess' after a restless night. No doubt you believe that, most of us do, but studies have consistently shown that to be an overblown fear. The reality is we adapt, we adjust, and perform comparably to good sleepers. True both physically and cognitively.
Getting an accurate handle on your situation -- which probably differs a great deal from your perception -- I suspect will go a long way to making you not only feel better about yourself, but also produce better sleep.
How is your CBT? Did you get any good result? How many hours do you get to sleep? Do you take any medications?
I’m so sorry to hear about your insomnia. I had the same thing as you for years but have recently discovered sage pills which seem to have completely cured me! Forgive me for posting a copied and pasted blurb below - it’s literally changed my life so much I’m just posting about it everywhere because I know how destructive lack of sleep is. Also ask your doctor to check your Vitamin D and Calcium levels as deficiency in these has strong links to trouble sleeping. Pasting all I have below:
I’ve had terrible trouble sleeping for 15 years (average 4-6 hrs broken sleep a night, at one point it was 2 hrs... horrific) but recently seemed to have been cured using sage tablets! For the last 5 weeks I’ve now had 8-12 (yes TWELVE!!) hours sleep.
What I did: the tablets I bought were SAGE LEAF by a company called SOUL NUTRIENTS on amazon uk. I don’t know if you can get them internationally, I’m sure any sage leaf will work, but try and get the Soul Nutrients ones if you can as (a) I know they work and (b) I’ve since contacted the seller who is lovely and explained they’re a small batch company that make sure everything they produce is very pure and potent. The tablets come in 500mg dosage. I took 2 tabs (1g) before switching the light out and I was out in about 5-10 mins. I woke to go to the loo twice but went straight back to sleep. Woke the next morning having slept 8 hrs, deep, healthy natural sleep. No hangover the next morning, a slight sleepiness but nothing more.
I repeated this every night for 14 nights until I noticed I started to feel a bit dizzy, so I stopped, but to my amazement I’ve continued sleeping perfectly, 7-10 hours a night and last night I had my first 12 hour sleep in.. probably my life! It’s been 3 weeks now since I took a sage pill and I haven’t needed it at all.
I’ve tried everything else before this, from valerian, to dopamine to melatonin, but have found that they’re all unreliable (ie you’re never guaranteed a good sleep) and I wake feeling like I’ve been hit with a sledge hammer. Really can’t recommend the sage leaf pills more - they’ve changed my life! I’ve since given them to family members and friends (one who has night terrors and usually only gets 3 hours if that) and they’ve all reported the same results!
Only precaution is not to take while breastfeeding as sage dries up milk, conceiving/pregnant as there are links with miscarriage, and also to be careful if you’re epileptic as there is a link with causing spasms, or diabetic as it lowers blood sugar (though this is a good thing, so just make sure you’re ready for it!).
Good luck and please do try this - like I said it’s genuinely changed my life!! Xx
P.S. the pills are listed as helping reduce symptoms of menopause but don’t let that put you off - I’m 30 so nowhere near menopause (hopefully), I just saw them and had an overwhelming craving for sage, so bought them, and now I sleep! Literal magic. I hope they work for you too.