SEVERE insomniacs emergency hangout

[[Sh...]]

Hello, fellow insomniacs -

 

There's already an insomniac support thread on here.

 

But I see a possible need to have a separate support group reserved for BBs going through acute insomnia -- kind of like an emergency room for when you've been going night after night with 0 sleep and are in crisis mode. This should be a place where you can safely discuss what you're going through without being judged, commiserate with others going through something similar, and support/comfort each other.

 

Then once you start to heal and are no longer in crisis mode, you may decide to "graduate" to the existing insomniac support group, for people with occasional or less severe sleep issues.

[[MT...]]

Thanks for starting this group, Shirah. I think this will be a good place for those of us who miss entire nights of sleep, have extremely broken or very short sleeps. The result of all of these is feeling exhausted, ragged, and like you need sleep like you need food and air.

 

Last night I took trazodone and, except for one hour long time, I was restless or woke up every 5-45 minutes. My heart raced for most of the night and into the late morning.So today I feel like I can hardly move.

 

How are other insomniacs doing?

[[be...]]

I wish I knew about this thread a couple of days ago cause I went to bed at midnight only to wake up at 2:30 am and that was it for my sleep for the night. I micro cut pills instead. Same deal for the next two days. Virtually very little sleep. I feel like a walking zombie now.

:sleepy:

Bets

[[MT...]]

Oh Bets, I know how miserable that is. I'm sorry to hear about your bad night. Welcome to the walking zombie club I hope you get unzombied tonight! That all of us do. I've been too tired today to do anything. I usually keep myself going, even exercise when it feels impossible, but today anything but lying in bed has been impossible.

[[Sh...]]

Welcome, MTfan and Benzogirl!

 

Benzogirl - I've seen some of your posts on other threads and recall that you were sleeping so much better once you started working out. It's so discouraging after going along OK for awhile, only to get slammed with unrelenting insomnia. I was doing pretty well myself from late November thru early February, using sedating ADs for sleep. But those meds abruptly turned their back on me, and ever since then the insomnia has been brutal.

 

I hope we all fare better tonight.

[[Co...]]

Ow just saw this thread. I had zero sleep tonight and feeling kind of desperate as I am still on seroquel AND trazodone. It's like my brain is screwed up.

[[Sh...]]

Hi, Corsair. So sorry for what you're going through! But you've come to the right place. I think anyone on here understands the desperation to get some sleep through almost any means possible (hopefully short of more benzos or Z-drugs). While the end goal is to sleep unaided, going for multiple nights with no sleep can't be good for healing. So it's kind of a damned-if-you-don't/damned-if-you-do kind of thing.

 

I've managed to get light broken sleep for several nights this past week by taking a natural supplement called Sleep Reset -- have tried it in combo with trazodone and with mirtazapine, as well as on its own. For me, it seems to help get me into a calm state that's conducive to sleep or at least keep me from getting all agitated.

[[MT...]]

I got about 8.5 hours of restless, broken sleep after taking amitriptyline. I would think I would feel much better today but I'm still super tired. Oh well, as least I don't have benzobelly today.

 

Tonight I'm just going to take the sleep reset. I hope to have some of that calm Shirah describes.

[Guest [ga...]]

I became a severe insomniac about a year ago when I was going through menopause. I would get 0-3 hours of broken sleep a night. My primary tried many sleep aids on me, including trazodone, and they all failed. Finally, she sent me to a psych nurse who got me hooked on Xanax. I have switched to a psychiatrist who helped me first wean off the trazodone (which was doing me more harm than good due to my odd enzyme profile) and now off the Xanax. He told me I needed to take a sleep med so I could sleep while I withdraw so I could heal. He suggested Seroquel 25-50mg an hour before bed. I reluctantly started taking it about every other night and it has been a life saver. I get up 3-5 hours of good sleep, wake up, fall back asleep for 1-2 more hours of lighter sleep.

 

As I cut my bedtime dose of Xanax lower and lower, I will probably need the Seroquel more often. I don't want to get hooked on it, but I don't want to go back to that horrible, barely surviving state I was in before. With better sleep, I have some energy again and can cook healthy meals and do light exercise, both of which are helping with my recovery.

 

Interestingly, I find I can skip every other night of the Seroquel and still get broken but adequate sleep on my off nights. If I skip 2 nights in a row, the second night is horrible, awake-asleep-awake-asleep all night long without ever getting through a whole sleep cycle. And then I am a total wreck the next day-can't even drive the car, barely eating. So lack of sleep does seem to cause lack of sleep, as the psychiatrist said.

 

I'm not happy that I need a drug to sleep, but I think as long as I'm tapering the Xanax, I will have to take it. I will just take it as little as possible and put up with some really bad nights in the hopes I don't get hooked.

 

 

[[Sh...]]

Gardener - Sounds like what you're doing currently is working fairly well for you. And it seems promising that you only need the Seroquel every other night in terms of eventually tapering or discontinuing it without too much trouble, especially considering your low dose. Meanwhile, getting regular sleep has got to be good for your overall healing.

 

I only tried Seroquel a couple of times, and didn't get any real sleep from it, just sort of a twilight state that wasn't the least bit refreshing.

[Guest [ga...]]

Gardener - Sounds like what you're doing currently is working fairly well for you. And it seems promising that you only need the Seroquel every other night in terms of eventually tapering or discontinuing it without too much trouble, especially considering your low dose. Meanwhile, getting regular sleep has got to be good for your overall healing.

 

I only tried Seroquel a couple of times, and didn't get any real sleep from it, just sort of a twilight state that wasn't the least bit refreshing.

 

Sorry to hear the Seroquel didn't help. I had my bad luck with trazodone. It kind of worked sometimes, but usually not. The psych nurse put the Xanax on top if the trazodone. Then I got enough sleep to think straight and discover that the Xanax was a nightmare drug. And I had some genetic testing that revealed trazodone was a no-no for me. So I decided to taper the trazodone first. At the end of the trazodone taper I become hypomanic off and on for about a week. What an experience! I had struggled with sleep for a year and was used to being exhausted. Suddenly I had so much energy that I couldn't sit still. I walked and walked around the block until my feet hurt and stayed up half the night because I was so wired and awake. I will never figure out where all that energy came from! But it also came with agitation, so I was glad when it went away. So now I'm off the trazodone and I'm micro-cutting the Xanax about every other day.

 

Naturally, my sleep has gone downhill during this. But I'm not back to the almost-no sleep I had for so many months last year. Knock wood! I can get adequate sleep with the seroquel, but I sure wish it was the knockout pill so many claim it is. Not for me, but so far good enough to keep me functioning. My psychiatrist also mentioned the new sleep drug, Belsomra, but I think I'll stick with the Seroquel as long as it works. It sounds like Belsomra is another hypnotic and they did almost nothing for me.

 

As far as surviving severe insomnia, I have an app called iSleep Easy that I've found helpful for those awful nights. Unfortunately, they just released an update with a couple of bugs. They said it would be fixed in a couple of weeks. I was using the endless loop of the sleep music and the update broke that so it shuts the music off after about 2 hours and I have to turn it back on. Still, it is the best sleep music I have ever found. Just long notes on string instruments with no discernible melody to distract you. You choose how long it plays and at the end it fades out so it doesn't wake you or, when it works, just loops all night. You can also choose from different guided meditations that are sleep-inducing and relaxing to go with the music. And you can adjust whether you want the music louder or the voice louder, one of my favorite features. I go to sleep listening to one or several the meditations every night. Then, when I wake up in the night, I just click and start another meditation. When falling asleep again is hopeless and I'm too tired to get up, the meditations help the night to go by faster.  The narrator has a very calming voice and she sure beats listening to the stressed out thoughts going around in my head. 

[[Sh...]]

Gardener - That's really interesting that there's a genetic test that can detect if a certain drug won't be good for an individual to take. If only they gave us all a test like that before putting us on benzos! Think of all the misery that would be prevented. But of course, the drug companies wouldn't be too pleased.

[[MT...]]

I'm glad you're getting some sleep Gardner. I think most of the people with the really severe insomnia are taking some meds to get them through until their brains catch up. I take something 4 nights/week then don't sleep the other nights. But I try to save good TV and enjoyable reading for my no sleep nights so they don't feel like punishment. I find if I look forward to what I have for that night and see it as "me time" I feel less like a traumatized wd insomniac victim

[Guest [ga...]]

I'm glad you're getting some sleep Gardner. I think most of the people with the really severe insomnia are taking some meds to get them through until their brains catch up. I take something 4 nights/week then don't sleep the other nights. But I try to save good TV and enjoyable reading for my no sleep nights so they don't feel like punishment. I find if I look forward to what I have for that night and see it as "me time" I feel less like a traumatized wd insomniac victim

 

I do similar things on my no-Q nights. I try to stay up as long as I can reading or watching TV to make the night shorter. Then when I can't keep upright any more, I lie down and turn on my sleep app. I did that last night (no Q) and slept very little. I'm wondering if I will be able to drive the car the get groceries today.

 

Ah, I miss those good old college days when, after an all-nighter, a cup of coffee cured all . 

[[MT...]]

Gardener, I can't figure out what the "Q" is you speak of. Are you referring to seroquel?

[Guest [ga...]]

Gardener, I can't figure out what the "Q" is you speak of. Are you referring to seroquel?

 

Yes, the generic is Quetiapine, hence the Q abbreviation.

[[MT...]]

Ohhhh. Silly me. I tend to use the brand names because they're easier to spell even though I use the generics.

[[be...]]

Welcome, MTfan and Benzogirl!

 

Benzogirl - I've seen some of your posts on other threads and recall that you were sleeping so much better once you started working out. It's so discouraging after going along OK for awhile, only to get slammed with unrelenting insomnia. I was doing pretty well myself from late November thru early February, using sedating ADs for sleep. But those meds abruptly turned their back on me, and ever since then the insomnia has been brutal.

 

I hope we all fare better tonight.

 

Shirah:

 

I upped my exercise to the nth degree and now I am sleeping better. Not great by any means but doable. Since I can only workout every other day (per my personal trainer) on the days I don't exercise (like today) my bad insomnia returns but then when I go back and exercise my sleep gets much better. So I am counting on that, at least for a while. Thanks for the welcome. I'll be back! I assure you. Maybe at 3 am?

Bets

[[Co...]]

FML i got 0 hours again  is this what they call a wave? I thought I was getting better with 3 hours per night. But now it's suddenly down to 0 again. I feel broken down. What the hell 

[[Sh...]]

Corsair - Sorry to hear that. Multiple 0-sleep nights are so hard to function on. And whenever I go through that, all my other symptoms go haywire. Does that happen to you also? Are you in the process of tapering trazodone and/or seroquel?

 

 

[[Co...]]

yes have a lot of sx again, I was trying to, in doubt to updose again, went from 50 to 40,

[[Sh...]]

Were you more stable on 50? I'm just guessing, but maybe it's too soon to taper? Maybe when your body is a bit farther along in adjusting to being benzo-free, it'll be more ready to lose the trazodone -- just a theory. These meds are so tricky: trazodone worked fairly well for me for awhile, then just abruptly stopped working at all.

[[Co...]]

I'm not sure what is what now I was taking 30 mgs before but during flu I updosed because i did not sleep and i felt it was too dangerous (because that flu was the worsed i've ever experienced and i was scared for my life) So then i took the fifty for two weeks, i felt sort of stable (but extremely tired) So i went down to 40 at first i was ok-ish then this weekend all hell broke loose.

So do i go back yes, no. I don't know. My husband says yes. So maybe i should follow suit.

[[Sh...]]

Yeah, there seems to be a really awful flu strain going around. Siggy (who has been posting to the other insomnia support thread) also got hit with it, and it set him back into terrible insomnia also. And he'd been sleeping finel before that for a long time. On the bright side, he seems to be doing a lot better now, getting good sleep most nights -- just took some time. You could try sending him a PM for advice on getting past it (besides time, of course).

[[Sh...]]

This thread hasn't been active the past couple of days. I hope that means everyone is doing better with sleep.

 

I was doing better myself for over a week, getting a fair amount of light broken sleep. Then I got hit with total insomnia again the other night, and did almost as poorly last night. Guess I'm back in a wave. So exhausting!