7 days

[[Mi...]]

of no sleep, and I am not tired. Even tried gabapentin 200mg two nights in a row and it did nothing.

I really wonder if I am going to die or go crazy from sleep deprivation. Has anyone else suffered from total insomnia for months?

[[...]]

hey, i red one story of a guy in sweden who was not sleeping for a whole month,,,

he told that it made him so strong,,,he never believed how STRONG he could be!!!!

 

a lot of people in wd had like 3 weeks of 0 sleep!!!! they survived!!!!

 

love

eva :smitten: :smitten:

[[be...]]

I guess you can't call this total lack of sleep. But from before my taper, I slept no more than 2-3 hours per night for a whole year. I don't think it was my K taper that did this too me. I was sleeping about 14 hours per night until doc pulled me off Clozaril. After I tapered from that nasty drug, I couldn't sleep even before I began my taper. I guess I was in tolerance but didn't even know it. I'd rather put a bullet in my head than take another dose of Clozaril...Sleep or no sleep.

[[Ru...]]

All this is such hell. It is so unfair we are all suffering so much. Seven days without sleep due to some nasty drug we've been prescribed. It is a tragedy.

I'm so over all this suffering.

It is inhumane.

I hope you find some super-human strength from somewhere. no one should suffer like this. no one

[[Li...]]

of no sleep, and I am not tired. Even tried gabapentin 200mg two nights in a row and it did nothing.

I really wonder if I am going to die or go crazy from sleep deprivation. Has anyone else suffered from total insomnia for months?

 

I went three weeks without sleep and that's when I went so completely insane and I had to be put back into inpatient.  This was a result of me having a bad reaction to alcohol after coming clean back in 2008.  7 days without sleep seems very dangerous though.  Do you feel manic at all?

[[Ru...]]

But if we go to doctors they will automatically label us bipolar. I know this from personal experience.

'Oh she'd not slept for four days she MUST be manic...therefore she's bipolar.'

The thing is though we all feel deathly tired but wired. My body will be screaming for sleep but my mind will be playing a movie of my life in fast forward.

I hope you got some sleep.

how are you feeling.

And to the person that didn't sleep more than 3-4 hours a night for a year, you are a warrior. They should hire people like us to go into combat. Walk in park compared to this crap.

[[Mi...]]

I don't get manic, I just progressively slow down mentally and physically. I took Unisom last night and slept four hours. As soon as if wore off, my eyes popped open and I was wide awake.

 

Spoke with the addiction doc this morning. Going to try gabapentin for two weeks and see if that calms things down enough in my brain so I can sleep. After 10 months of severe sleep deprivation I cannot wait this out.

 

My eyes feel heavy and I am exhausted. But there is pressure in my head and my brain feels stuck in awake mode.

[[Li...]]

I don't get manic, I just progressively slow down mentally and physically. I took Unisom last night and slept four hours. As soon as if wore off, my eyes popped open and I was wide awake.

 

Spoke with the addiction doc this morning. Going to try gabapentin for two weeks and see if that calms things down enough in my brain so I can sleep. After 10 months of severe sleep deprivation I cannot wait this out.

 

My eyes feel heavy and I am exhausted. But there is pressure in my head and my brain feels stuck in awake mode.

 

You're describing pretty much how I felt except for there was nothing they could do to put me to sleep.  I eventually lost my memory and went into a mild state of psychosis at the three week mark.  But heck, at least you got that 4 hours of sleep from Unisom.  I hope the gabapentin works for you.  It never worked for me.  All it did was give me this weird side effect where I would see portals open that obviously weren't there.  Think of the 1980's cartoon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the portals to Dimension X.  That's what I was seeing.  LOL.  Oh well, I hope you feel better and get some rest.

[[...]]

i slept a few hours tonight on 0,5 melatonin...

 

im not taking this stuff tonight,,,,i can't stand pills anymore,,,,

my daughter eats m&ms, but i told her to stop, i can't digest to see things that remind me of pills,,,,,,

 

even when we shop and pass by the pharmacy ,,,i feel this Huge wave of Anger building in me, i wanna scream so badly.....

MF STOP selling poisons to people!!!!!!

 

 

so, i hope everybody will get a bit of better sleep!!!!

merry christmas !!!

 

eva

 

 

[[Ru...]]

Misty,

I know you are desperate and i understand you have to take something. I am very nearly there too.

I did so badly on gabapentin. I got akathisia which makes insomnia seem like a picnic.

I so hope it works for you and I do know some people do excellently on it.

Good luck

[[rs...]]

I use zyprexa when I've been on a insomnia binge. Don't like having I take it. Buy it's like being hit in the head with a baseball bat and wahlah sleep

[[xe...]]

Hi misty!

 

When we have wretched insomnia, it's very easy to lie in bed all night and feel like we're not getting "any sleep at all", but various studies have shown that this is almost never the case -- what tends to happen is that people get very brief flickers of sleep, perhaps only a second or two long, over and over and over throughout the night.

 

It's super unpleasant, but it's actually not dangerous. If you look at birds that fly transatlantic flights -- some species do the same thing, sleeping for a half second a pop between wing beats, and make it across just fine. Obviously humans aren't really supposed to do that, but it still "works", in that even if you feel horrible and totally exhausted all the time, your body is still doing the minimum transmitter turnover that it needs to to keep ticking.

 

If you literally went without any sleep at all for a period of time, you would know it because in general people start having completely immersive hallucinations and psychotic symptoms before they 7 day mark (sometimes in as little as 3-4 days).

 

This was my biggest issue besides tinnitus for the last year of tapering and the first year off. I also felt that it was bonkers and that I could not just "get through it", but I did, because I didn't really have any other choice. Feeling as though you're unable to continue is not the same thing as actually being unable to continue. You might feel horrid but you sound pretty collected and together, so I think you're doing better than you're giving yourself credit for.

 

Just keep going. It gets better.

[[rs...]]

Op any luck sleeping ?

[[be...]]

But if we go to doctors they will automatically label us bipolar. I know this from personal experience.

'Oh she'd not slept for four days she MUST be manic...therefore she's bipolar.'

The thing is though we all feel deathly tired but wired. My body will be screaming for sleep but my mind will be playing a movie of my life in fast forward.

I hope you got some sleep.

how are you feeling.

And to the person that didn't sleep more than 3-4 hours a night for a year, you are a warrior. That would be me. But only 2 hours of sleep per night for a year. I had a nervous breakdown after that. I would rather be in Iraq then go thru that again. They should hire people like us to go into combat. Walk in park compared to this crap.

[[ra...]]

All,

 

Insomnia sucks big time.  I had it before I ever took a benzo, although there were other issues.  If I do not get in my own way, I can get 6 hours from Remeron and melatonin.  It is not perfect, but at least I am not suffering watching the clock.  I have also had some success with low-dose Seroquel, although that has a few unpleasant side effects for me so I save it for when I am truly desperate.

 

I am cautiously hopeful for the Merck drug Belsomra/Survoxant, scheduled to be released early 2015.

 

Hang in there, my buddies,

 

Ramcon1

[[Ru...]]

Survoxant does sound really exciting. The trouble is there is no long term data or anecdotal stories about how it affects people. i don't believe ANYTHING that the pharma companies say and just because it was FDA approved it doesn't mean it is safe.

 

That being said Ramcom, if my insomnia lasts until I can get my hands on this drug I will be trying it...after you 

 

Any idea when it is coming to the UK and how we would get hold of it? I have vowed NEVER to go to a doctors again.I'd rather go to some dodgy alley and pay some shady dealer than see a doctor.

 

It is exciting.  I just hope I don't need it, or if I do, I can hold off until a lot of people have tried it.

 

But overall. THANK GOD there is going to be something else out there. Im almost constantly sleep deprived and pretty much given up in ever sleeping and feeling ok.

 

 

 

[[ra...]]

Rubiks and all,

 

This link:

 

http://www.belsomra.com/

 

Will take you to where you can sign up for an email notification.

 

I read alot about it.  I poured through the effects and side effects.  I (almost) do not care what it does to me if I sleep well on it.  The only thin I cared about was this, which I copied from the Belsomra Website:

 

"Physical dependence is a state that develops as a result of physiological adaptation in response to

repeated drug use. Physical dependence manifests by drug class-specific withdrawal symptoms after

abrupt discontinuation or a significant dose reduction of a drug. In completed clinical trials with

BELSOMRA, there was no evidence for physical dependence with the prolonged use of BELSOMRA.

There were no reported withdrawal symptoms after discontinuation of BELSOMRA."

 

So I will remain hopeful.

 

Be well and good luck,

 

Ramcon1

[[Ru...]]

Ramon,

I will be using this I imagine at some point so Im not trying to be negative....but every pharma company says that their drug is not addictive. It is all a load of crap. I wouldn't take ANYTHING that is said on their website as truth. Firstly they won't care about the truth and secondly they probably havent done any long term trials.

That being said, I can't wait until this comes out as Im not sure I even care about the long term ramifications when Im so sleep deprived I can't function. 

[[Li...]]

http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm409950.htm

 

This says that it works on orexin receptors.  I'm guessing those will be damaged by this drug.  One of the side effects is wandering around having sleep sex???  Also, it says the drug should not be taken for long because of dependence.

[[Mi...]]

Started taking Gabapentin 3x a day. Addiction doc thinks it may calm things down in my brain.

Taking 200mg 2x a day and 400mg at night. The evening dose with 25 mg Benadryl can get me 6 hours of sleep. I was getting only micro sleeps and was desperate.

 

Still feeling despair because I am still so impaired from the benzo withdrawal mentally and emotionally. Hard to find a reason to go on living.

[[Ro...]]

I had two instances of 6 days of zero sleep. Last time was about 7 months post jumping. I'm nearing the two year mark and zero sleep nights are very rare and most nights I sleep fine. You'll survive and it will get better.

[[sh...]]

Hi:

 

It seems like I am not alone in this insomnia boat.  I hear benzogirl with regard to the clozaril.  That drug made me feel like I was encased in plastic.  I had a serious encounter with a table saw (lost a finger) while on that one.  I wish that the Zyprexa (olanzapine) would work to give me sleep.  I don't even sleep on that and I am seriously considering tapering off although I know that I will have severe insomnia doing that.  Chances are good that it will be a good long while before I sleep again as well.  I am only getting a couple of hours now on zyprexa and doxepin.

 

The more meds we take the deeper the hole we dig ourselves into.