Insomniac support group

[[jr...]]

I sure hope I get better. I hate how up and down the process is. A week ago, I had a string of 4-5 hour nights. I was falling asleep fairly quickly and waking up around 5. I didn’t mind getting up that early, though, as I was sleeping better than usual. But for the past week, I’ve been stuck in the 3-4 hour range, needing 3+ hours just to get to sleep most nights. I just don’t get it. I was better at 12 months off than I am now at almost 15 months off. I can’t believe that such a small amount of alcohol could set me back like this. It’s super frustrating. But anyways, thanks for coming back to post. It’s encouraging to hear from someone that made it to the other side.

I might try chamomile tea again tonight.  I both love it and fear it.  I love it because it does seem to improve my sleep but I fear it because some BB say it acts like a benzo.

 

My current situation is I spend about 12 hours (from 10pm to 10am) trying to get enough sleep.  I think I am in some sort of sleep state for about 10 of those hours.  When I get these 10 hours, I feel pretty good and can do things (work, YMCA, movies, normal stuff).  But needing to commit so many hours just to feel good is a bummer.

 

I’m usually in bed from 10pm until 7:30am, so 9.5 hours in bed altogether. I would only only spend 8 hours in bed before this and would sleep the whole night through. What are your nights looking like now, Bob7?

[[jr...]]

Hi,

 

Joing this group because I struggle with sleep and am still tapering.  Currently I sleep every other night.  On the bad night may 1 1/2 -2 hours of sleep and on the good night 5-6 hours of broken sleep.  I usually sweat heavily at night and early mornings.

 

I do use a small dose of melatonin, magnesium gylcinate and L-tryptophan to help me sleep.  I rotate these because they lose their effectiveness.  I have to use something because the Clonazapam is not effective for sleep and at times works against me dropping off. 

 

I used to be a great sleeper before meds.  Now I have black out curtains, wear an eye mask and ear plugs.  I still have 4 am awakeings with anxiey and trembling. 

 

Looking forward to giving and getting support here.

 

I sleep with ear plugs in and a fan going in my room to drain out any noise. I also slept fine before my darn withdrawal. And I was actually averaging a little over 5 hours a night just 2 months ago. I drank one beer with a friend on July 5, and it set me way back. One friggin beer. Most of the crazy symptoms it brought back have since abated, though. My only remaining symptoms are bad insomnia and mild tinnitus. The tinnitus is kind of annoying, but easy to deal with. But the insomnia is awful.

[[Fi...]]

Hi,

 

Joing this group because I struggle with sleep and am still tapering.  Currently I sleep every other night.  On the bad night may 1 1/2 -2 hours of sleep and on the good night 5-6 hours of broken sleep.  I usually sweat heavily at night and early mornings.

 

I do use a small dose of melatonin, magnesium gylcinate and L-tryptophan to help me sleep.  I rotate these because they lose their effectiveness.  I have to use something because the Clonazapam is not effective for sleep and at times works against me dropping off. 

 

I used to be a great sleeper before meds.  Now I have black out curtains, wear an eye mask and ear plugs.  I still have 4 am awakeings with anxiey and trembling. 

 

Looking forward to giving and getting support here.

 

I sleep with ear plugs in and a fan going in my room to drain out any noise. I also slept fine before my darn withdrawal. And I was actually averaging a little over 5 hours a night just 2 months ago. I drank one beer with a friend on July 5, and it set me way back. One friggin beer. Most of the crazy symptoms it brought back have since abated, though. My only remaining symptoms are bad insomnia and mild tinnitus. The tinnitus is kind of annoying, but easy to deal with. But the insomnia is awful.

 

Yes, JRM.  I forgot to mention I sleep with the ac on to block out noise as well. So sorry about the beer setback, I get how frustrating that was.

[[...]]

I have blackout curtains, white noise maker, fan, and I keep my room at 67 degrees maximum. It’s like a cold cave. I also put a salt rock lamp on when I shower so when I go to bed later the light is nice and soft.

 

Anybody have thoughts on low carb diets and sleep? Low carb diets and adrenal fatigue and sleep? Thanks!

[[jr...]]

I actually read one post by a guy that said a low carb diet helped him sleep better. I’ve been thinking about trying it myself. I eat a ton of carbs. Loads of pasta and rice. I think I’m going to try to shift over to a lower carb diet soon.

[[Fi...]]

I have blackout curtains, white noise maker, fan, and I keep my room at 67 degrees maximum. It’s like a cold cave. I also put a salt rock lamp on when I shower so when I go to bed later the light is nice and soft.

 

Anybody have thoughts on low carb diets and sleep? Low carb diets and adrenal fatigue and sleep? Thanks!

 

That sounds like good sleep self care.  I also have orange glasses to wear at night too. 

 

Dont know anot low carb and sleep.  I have been doing some adrenal cocktails to help support them while I taper.  I did a 4 pt saliva test and turned out I have very low cortisol in the morning and higher at night.  Tried dhea, and hydrocortisone briefly but did not like the way it made me feel.  Now trying to do it though food. 

[[...]]

I have blackout curtains, white noise maker, fan, and I keep my room at 67 degrees maximum. It’s like a cold cave. I also put a salt rock lamp on when I shower so when I go to bed later the light is nice and soft.

 

Anybody have thoughts on low carb diets and sleep? Low carb diets and adrenal fatigue and sleep? Thanks!

 

That sounds like good sleep self care.  I also have orange glasses to wear at night too. 

 

Dont know anot low carb and sleep.  I have been doing some adrenal cocktails to help support them while I taper.  I did a 4 pt saliva test and turned out I have very low cortisol in the morning and higher at night.  Tried dhea, and hydrocortisone briefly but did not like the way it made me feel.  Now trying to do it though food.

 

Mine tested really high in the mornings and I still get the 4am wake ups. I talked with a chiro who said to eat some carb at night to help. I feel good on low carb, but wonder if it’s not the best idea with HPA axis problems... Any tips on what you eat? I tried phosphatidyl serine and it made me worse. I have some DHEA, but am afraid to take it after reading a sticky on here that said it could prevent the natural system from coming back online...

[[...]]

I sure hope I get better. I hate how up and down the process is. A week ago, I had a string of 4-5 hour nights. I was falling asleep fairly quickly and waking up around 5. I didn’t mind getting up that early, though, as I was sleeping better than usual. But for the past week, I’ve been stuck in the 3-4 hour range, needing 3+ hours just to get to sleep most nights. I just don’t get it. I was better at 12 months off than I am now at almost 15 months off. I can’t believe that such a small amount of alcohol could set me back like this. It’s super frustrating. But anyways, thanks for coming back to post. It’s encouraging to hear from someone that made it to the other side.

I might try chamomile tea again tonight.  I both love it and fear it.  I love it because it does seem to improve my sleep but I fear it because some BB say it acts like a benzo.

 

My current situation is I spend about 12 hours (from 10pm to 10am) trying to get enough sleep.  I think I am in some sort of sleep state for about 10 of those hours.  When I get these 10 hours, I feel pretty good and can do things (work, YMCA, movies, normal stuff).  But needing to commit so many hours just to feel good is a bummer.

 

I’m usually in bed from 10pm until 7:30am, so 9.5 hours in bed altogether. I would only only spend 8 hours in bed before this and would sleep the whole night through. What are your nights looking like now, Bob7?

Thanks for asking.  My nights are long.  I wake up about 4 times a night.  I use all kinds of tools to get a total of 10 hours of light sleep over a 12 hour period.  I use Youtube sleep hypnosis videos, I take L'Theanine (or drink decaffinated black tea), I take advil and aspirin (both help), I take Magnesium Glycinate, I take Vit-B complex and Zinc (small amounts of each), and Tryptophan.

 

Using all these tools, I can get about 10 hours of strange, light sleep and feel good enough the next day to have a life.  I am 1 year off Benzos.  I wonder if I can try Trazadone again?

[[...]]

Hi,

 

Joing this group because I struggle with sleep and am still tapering.  Currently I sleep every other night.  On the bad night may 1 1/2 -2 hours of sleep and on the good night 5-6 hours of broken sleep.  I usually sweat heavily at night and early mornings.

 

I do use a small dose of melatonin, magnesium gylcinate and L-tryptophan to help me sleep.  I rotate these because they lose their effectiveness.  I have to use something because the Clonazapam is not effective for sleep and at times works against me dropping off. 

 

I used to be a great sleeper before meds.  Now I have black out curtains, wear an eye mask and ear plugs.  I still have 4 am awakeings with anxiey and trembling. 

 

Looking forward to giving and getting support here.

Welcome to the group.  You will get lots of support here.  Lots of ideas.  I think the best thing for us is to let time pass by to heal BUT while we wait, all these methods we try are very good distractions to help the months go by until we heal.

[[Fi...]]

Hi,

 

Joing this group because I struggle with sleep and am still tapering.  Currently I sleep every other night.  On the bad night may 1 1/2 -2 hours of sleep and on the good night 5-6 hours of broken sleep.  I usually sweat heavily at night and early mornings.

 

I do use a small dose of melatonin, magnesium gylcinate and L-tryptophan to help me sleep.  I rotate these because they lose their effectiveness.  I have to use something because the Clonazapam is not effective for sleep and at times works against me dropping off. 

 

I used to be a great sleeper before meds.  Now I have black out curtains, wear an eye mask and ear plugs.  I still have 4 am awakeings with anxiey and trembling. 

 

Looking forward to giving and getting support here.

Welcome to the group.  You will get lots of support here.  Lots of ideas.  I think the best thing for us is to let time pass by to heal BUT while we wait, all these methods we try are very good distractions to help the months go by until we heal.

 

Thank you for your welcome. 

[[jr...]]

I’ve been thinking about trying L-Tryptophan. I’m just hesitant to use any supplement. I’m scared of having a setback.

[[Fi...]]

I have blackout curtains, white noise maker, fan, and I keep my room at 67 degrees maximum. It’s like a cold cave. I also put a salt rock lamp on when I shower so when I go to bed later the light is nice and soft.

 

Anybody have thoughts on low carb diets and sleep? Low carb diets and adrenal fatigue and sleep? Thanks!

 

That sounds like good sleep self care.  I also have orange glasses to wear at night too. 

 

Dont know anot low carb and sleep.  I have been doing some adrenal cocktails to help support them while I taper.  I did a 4 pt saliva test and turned out I have very low cortisol in the morning and higher at night.  Tried dhea, and hydrocortisone briefly but did not like the way it made me feel.  Now trying to do it though food.

 

Mine tested really high in the mornings and I still get the 4am wake ups. I talked with a chiro who said to eat some carb at night to help. I feel good on low carb, but wonder if it’s not the best idea with HPA axis problems... Any tips on what you eat? I tried phosphatidyl serine and it made me worse. I have some DHEA, but am afraid to take it after reading a sticky on here that said it could prevent the natural system from coming back online...

 

I eat a modified Whole 30 diet.  I do eat rice and rice cakes, which Whole 30 does not include rice only sweet potatoes and regular potatoes.  I will go back to them in the fall/winter.

 

I tried phosphatidylserine as well and it worked one night and then worked against me.  I usually have a paradoxical reaction to most supplements at this time. From my understanding  DHEA is usually given to people who don't produce enough cortisol, so im.wondering if you have high cortisol, it might make it worse. 

[[Fi...]]

I’ve been thinking about trying L-Tryptophan. I’m just hesitant to use any supplement. I’m scared of having a setback.

 

I understand..  I've had many "health practitioners" try to have me take multiple supplements at a time because they don't understand the impact of withdrawal on the nervous system.

 

I have not had an issue with L-tryptophan but I get the fear of not wanting a set back. 

[[...]]

I am hopeful about the idea of blocking blue light from computer screens before bed.

So I bought these

 

  https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B000USRG90/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

I look forward to trying them.  I should have them in a few days.

[[ea...]]

jrm97,

You are NOT annoying me at all. I am just sad that I am not allowed to PM people. Long story on that, not worth discussing at this point.

Insomnia is truly a common symptom. Your brain has temporarily lost its ability to calm you down and relax enough to sleep. This is quite the norm in bwd stuff. I had truly bad insomnia for a year, post going CT off benzos and SSRIs. I did not sleep a wink for a year. All I had were momentary micro sleeps, when my brain would just blink out for a few moments. God almighty this was horrible to go through. Really frightening to me.

What worked for me might work for you. I listened to sleep hypnosis videos on YouTube. Took several months but finally I was able to fall asleep without benzos. Time passed and my sleep slowly improved until I no longer needed to listen to them. I liked Jodi Whitelys but there are many other people who have posted this sort of thing there. Paul Ogilivie is another great source for calming down. He has a lot of videos that are both hypnotic and healing. And he is a truly nice person.

east

[[jr...]]

Thanks East. I don’t know why, but today has been especially rough. I got a little over 3 hours of sleep last night, and the other days this past week after similar nights I’ve just powered through the day. But today I’ve been really obsessing about my situation and getting myself worked up, getting angry and crying and stuff, which isn’t like me. I’m just so sick of this. I want it to end so badly. I slept fine before this ordeal, but now I’m just wrecked.

[[jr...]]

Last night was another night with just over 3 hours of sleep. I really really hope that I start having more of those 4-5 hour nights. I felt so good and hopeful after them.

[[...]]

I have blackout curtains, white noise maker, fan, and I keep my room at 67 degrees maximum. It’s like a cold cave. I also put a salt rock lamp on when I shower so when I go to bed later the light is nice and soft.

 

Anybody have thoughts on low carb diets and sleep? Low carb diets and adrenal fatigue and sleep? Thanks!

 

That sounds like good sleep self care.  I also have orange glasses to wear at night too. 

 

Dont know anot low carb and sleep.  I have been doing some adrenal cocktails to help support them while I taper.  I did a 4 pt saliva test and turned out I have very low cortisol in the morning and higher at night.  Tried dhea, and hydrocortisone briefly but did not like the way it made me feel.  Now trying to do it though food.

 

Mine tested really high in the mornings and I still get the 4am wake ups. I talked with a chiro who said to eat some carb at night to help. I feel good on low carb, but wonder if it’s not the best idea with HPA axis problems... Any tips on what you eat? I tried phosphatidyl serine and it made me worse. I have some DHEA, but am afraid to take it after reading a sticky on here that said it could prevent the natural system from coming back online...

 

I eat a modified Whole 30 diet.  I do eat rice and rice cakes, which Whole 30 does not include rice only sweet potatoes and regular potatoes.  I will go back to them in the fall/winter.

 

I tried phosphatidylserine as well and it worked one night and then worked against me.  I usually have a paradoxical reaction to most supplements at this time. From my understanding  DHEA is usually given to people who don't produce enough cortisol, so im.wondering if you have high cortisol, it might make it worse.

 

Yea, I pretty much do a Nourishing Traditions, slow, whole food approach. Low carb though. But I think I’ll start incorporating fermented Scottish oats. I love them. I just don’t know how good super low carb is right now especially with working out and doing manual labor all day. Probably too taxing on the system.

[[va...]]

Eastcoast I found the "right now" meditation. I love it.

 

DBM I swear I thought you were going to write fermented Scottish whiskey. I was drooling. But what can we do, we have to stick to fermented Scottish oats forever now. And I don't even know what fermented Scottish oats are.

[[Fi...]]

I have blackout curtains, white noise maker, fan, and I keep my room at 67 degrees maximum. It’s like a cold cave. I also put a salt rock lamp on when I shower so when I go to bed later the light is nice and soft.

 

Anybody have thoughts on low carb diets and sleep? Low carb diets and adrenal fatigue and sleep? Thanks!

 

That sounds like good sleep self care.  I also have orange glasses to wear at night too. 

 

Dont know anot low carb and sleep.  I have been doing some adrenal cocktails to help support them while I taper.  I did a 4 pt saliva test and turned out I have very low cortisol in the morning and higher at night.  Tried dhea, and hydrocortisone briefly but did not like the way it made me feel.  Now trying to do it though food.

 

Mine tested really high in the mornings and I still get the 4am wake ups. I talked with a chiro who said to eat some carb at night to help. I feel good on low carb, but wonder if it’s not the best idea with HPA axis problems... Any tips on what you eat? I tried phosphatidyl serine and it made me worse. I have some DHEA, but am afraid to take it after reading a sticky on here that said it could prevent the natural system from coming back online...

 

I eat a modified Whole 30 diet.  I do eat rice and rice cakes, which Whole 30 does not include rice only sweet potatoes and regular potatoes.  I will go back to them in the fall/winter.

 

I tried phosphatidylserine as well and it worked one night and then worked against me.  I usually have a paradoxical reaction to most supplements at this time. From my understanding  DHEA is usually given to people who don't produce enough cortisol, so im.wondering if you have high cortisol, it might make it worse.

 

Yea, I pretty much do a Nourishing Traditions, slow, whole food approach. Low carb though. But I think I’ll start incorporating fermented Scottish oats. I love them. I just don’t know how good super low carb is right now especially with working out and doing manual labor all day. Probably too taxing on the system.

 

Yes, that makes sense.  If you are working out and doing manual labor, you probably need more carbs.  I admire you for working out.  I ided to be so active but wirhdrawal has impacted so strongly that I cant really work out. 

[[Or...]]

Good topic

[[Pt...]]

Is anyone else experiencing this weird sleep pattern?

When I lie down I never feel tired and it's not a normal falling asleep feeling. My brain just decides to shut off after unknown period of time and goes straight to light dream sleep.

[[...]]

Is anyone else experiencing this weird sleep pattern?

When I lie down I never feel tired and it's not a normal falling asleep feeling. My brain just decides to shut off after unknown period of time and goes straight to light dream sleep.

I have that exact situation.

Drinking Chamomile tea 30 minutes before bed really helps.  When I know it will be a difficult night, I will have a benadryl and Tryptophan several hours before bed.

That all said, when I expect a stressful day (e.g. having to present to the CEO at work the next day), these simple remedies only help somewhat.

 

[[Pt...]]

Do regular insomnia people have this too or is this pattern unique to benzo folks? I just find it very strange and disturbing. How on earth is this drug widely used as a "sleep aid" when it screws up natural sleep to this extent?

[[Pt...]]

Is anyone else experiencing this weird sleep pattern?

When I lie down I never feel tired and it's not a normal falling asleep feeling. My brain just decides to shut off after unknown period of time and goes straight to light dream sleep.

I have that exact situation.

Drinking Chamomile tea 30 minutes before bed really helps.  When I know it will be a difficult night, I will have a benadryl and Tryptophan several hours before bed.

That all said, when I expect a stressful day (e.g. having to present to the CEO at work the next day), these simple remedies only help somewhat.

 

 

I take a small dose of remeron now which does help. Scared of trying chamomile tea. Haven't tried tRyptophan. Isn't that what's in turkey?