Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Support Group
Find support with others who have gone through a traumatic experience. Whether you have chronic or acute PTSD, we are here for you.
PTSD hypervigilance insomnia
mujicaptsd
Hey, y'all, since I went back on melatonin for sleep I've been getting good sleep for the last 2 weeks. But last night, for some reason I can't trace, I had PTSD hypervigilance insomnia. If I got to sleep it was just for an hour. I was up approximately 8 to 10 times during the night. Not a great way to rest well.
Any suggestions about how to handle this particular pattern of insomnia--getting to sleep but waking up every hour on the hour? Support welcome.
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Best I can say is.... I freely admit I use a nightlight so if I jolt awake b/c... (PTSD)... I can immediately see if I'm in trouble. That's all I got. Sorry....
Supportive HUGS
I use a combo of natural therapies currently since I have extreme insomnia. They say, go to bed at same hour every night and try to create a routine. For me, it's brush teeth, wash face, close everything creating light, earplugs or earphones, night mask, weighted blanket.
1. Sleepytime herbal tea or valerian or kava or stress tea with lavender, lemon balm. Not too much water though so no waking up for bathroom
2. Calm app with waves or rain or thunderstorm sleep program (whatever works for you) on phone or youtube guided meditation app or free programs for sleep. You should actually watch the guided meditation even though they say no tv or phone before bed. Nothing to stress you out before bed. There are also excellent youtube videos for sleep. Just search deep sleep and they're free!
Guided meditation puts your mind in a deep meditative state that will keep you from waking. My therapist highly recommended it and it works for me when nothing else does.
3. Binaural beats apps or youtube. The frequency puts us into deep sleep
4. Sleep stories on Calm app or other free sleep apps or youtube or even free podcasts. They literally read you a nighttime bed story! I have even fallen asleep to get this, my sometimes "morbid" obsession with the podcast morbid (probably not a good idea). My thought was it was trick my mind into NOT having bad dreams, HA!
I think the key is the need for deep sleep so our mind isn't waking up. Meds I use are 10mg melatonin sometimes, benadryl for allergies. Guided meditation and binaural beats put me into deepest state of sleep.
Good luck!
Sleep is a werid thing for me because my body clock got messed up from a young child. Ever night is a different night for me
I went to an in-service once by a psychiatrist that specialized in anxiety disorders, and he said the first question that he asked all new patients is 'what is your caffeine intake' and he suggested knocking off caffeine.
Yesterday the PTSD yielded to the CKD (kidney) that my one bad pdoc's overprescribing Seroquel got me. The CKD keeps my extremities from getting oxygen, and daily that means my feet. But sometimes it's my brain, too. Lucky for me I don't lose memory or faint, but I do lose my balance by getting dizzy. Such an episode only lasts half a day or so, but during it I can't walk. It's nice I have somebody now to watch over me during that. Today it passed, and I'm on my feet again.
Gentlest of hugs <3