How much sleep do you get per night/week/month how long do your insomnia last?

[[Ma...]]

I want do some research so I would love to know how much sleep you get, how long insomnia last and when it started to improve?

Maybe we can make some progress with this all informations.

 

Thank you.

[Guest [ba...]]

Masha - I started taking benzos because of insomnia.  I'm three years off benzos and still have that 'baseline' insomnia.  I accept my fate now and do OK.  I get my work done (at work).  I just sort of push through when I need to.

 

Lousy night last night (3-ish hours), but I average 4-5 hours a night.  Sometimes, I get a 1-2 hour nap on the weekends after golfing or hiking or working in the yard.

[[Ma...]]

Ufff I started to take benzzo because of insomnia? but than I could somehow make it.Now is harder.That is still not good badsocref.I hope your sleep will improve.

[[Qu...]]

My sleep started to improve in November. I took odd doses of valium in july and one in September, so difficult to say how far along this was. It was six full months from the start of the worst withdrawal symptoms.

 

I'm now getting about 1 bad week in a month, and about two weeks of really good nights, that's 6 - 7 hours of broken sleep. The trend now is for bad nights to be 3-4 hours. I didn't have any zero nights in January, which is the first whole month since I took benzos.

 

When I get a bad night now, I do worry in case the bad nights are coming back. Guy Meadows' book explains this, even for people who are not suffering withdrawal. He says, (paraphrased)  "the brain remembers your insomnia. It is constantly linking bits of information together to anticipate what happens in the future. If you believe and act upon your mind's projected tales of sleeplessness you can keep yourself awake for days. If you have a bad night, your mind can't help but ask 'what if this is the insomnia returning?'.  It's how you choose to behave in response to these thoughts that determines whether you increase or reduce the possibility of insomnia returning"

 

If you add waves of withdrawal to this effect, it just makes it that much harder for us, as we have the anxiety to deal with as well.

 

I really do second 1966's recommendation of this book. It has helped me a lot.

 

I hope your sleep improves soon, you have all my sympathy, xxx

[[Ma...]]

My sleep started to improve in November. I took odd doses of valium in july and one in September, so difficult to say how far along this was. It was six full months from the start of the worst withdrawal symptoms.

 

I'm now getting about 1 bad week in a month, and about two weeks of really good nights, that's 6 - 7 hours of broken sleep. The trend now is for bad nights to be 3-4 hours. I didn't have any zero nights in January, which is the first whole month since I took benzos.

 

When I get a bad night now, I do worry in case the bad nights are coming back. Guy Meadows' book explains this, even for people who are not suffering withdrawal. He says, (paraphrased)  "the brain remembers your insomnia. It is constantly linking bits of information together to anticipate what happens in the future. If you believe and act upon your mind's projected tales of sleeplessness you can keep yourself awake for days. If you have a bad night, your mind can't help but ask 'what if this is the insomnia returning?'.  It's how you choose to behave in response to these thoughts that determines whether you increase or reduce the possibility of insomnia returning"

 

If you add waves of withdrawal to this effect, it just makes it that much harder for us, as we have the anxiety to deal with as well.

 

I really do second 1966's recommendation of this book. It has helped me a lot.

 

I hope your sleep improves soon, you have all my sympathy, xxx

 

Thank you for answering. Just for record. How long did you sleep in bad days of your insomnia? Hmm my started in 6 month out and yours stopped than. Interesting.

[[Qu...]]

Hi Masha,

 

At the beginning, I had many nights with no sleep, mixed with nights of anything from 1 hour to 4 hours. The first two months were really awful, but I didn't know about tapering, and stopped CT.  I took odd doses here and there (didn't know any better) but it didn't work any more, and would only give me an hour of sleep followed by awful panic and anxiety.  After six weeks I discovered self hypnosis and meditation on YouTube, and this, combined with time, started to help me dig a way out.

 

I never had insomnia before benzos, so maybe that explains some of our differences.

 

Wishing you well, xxx

[[Ma...]]

Thank you very much.I wish you much luck too.

I would love that people fulfill this questions because I would love to find some patterns in sleeping and help anothers with insomnia.

[[jo...]]

Masha Im in the same boat as badsocref as I was also prescribed clonazepam for insomnia. This is the second time around, did it now three years ago and back in the same boat last october. Sleep never came back to what would be considered steady normal sleep.

 

I also averaged around 4 to 5 hrs if lucky and My quality of sleep never returned. During this fast micro taper its the same story sleep one hour wake up from nightmares or dreams. The older We get the worse sleep quality is and Im 63 so I dont expect any miracles at this point in My life.

 

I use natural sleep aids but they dont keep Me asleep I still wake up each hour so by the time morning arrives its been a long night and Im dead tired , feel as if I got no sleep at all. I do wish You the best.

[[bl...]]

I initially was prescribed a benzo for menopausal symptoms which included insomnia.  I had a difficult time falling asleep and staying asleep.  After my CT I did not sleep at all for several days and tried everything I could think of that was not another drug.  I tried Melatonin, which made me even more foggy during the day so I stopped after messing around with dosage to no avail.  Then I tried Tryptophan, which was no better than the Melatonin.  I was getting maybe 20 minutes of semi-sleep per night at that stage. I was a total mess. Then I tried using an essential oil relaxation blend and I got really serious and focused about my sleep routine.  That's putting it gently; my husband would say that I was totally anal about my routine.  I would start winding down around 8 pm. I put on my comfy pajamas (same ones every night) and sat in my rocking recliner and had a snack if I was able to eat. I would watch something relaxing and not too stimulating on tv (house remodeling shows and nature stuff was best).  Then I would head up to bed between 9:30 and 10pm.  I would fill my diffuser with the oil and get it going, then I put the oil on the bottoms of my feet, back of neck, spine and pressure points.  I would read for about 20 min until I felt myself relaxing and then turn out the light. I never deviated from this routine, no matter what. At first sleep did not come easy and I also awoke periodically throughout the night and reapplied the oil whenever I awoke.  Gradually my sleep improved and now I am able to get anywhere between 6 and 8+ hours per night with only one awakening. I can deal with that and compared to my husband, who has never taken a benzo in his life and awakens at least once or twice, I'm not doing too badly. I am just entering into month 6 from my CT and am no longer using the oil but am able to sleep without it. My family is happy about that because they hated the smell of the oil ! I also started using an app to monitor how I'm sleeping and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was sleeping better than I thought I was.  I am still using the app and will probably continue to do so as I find that having that information really helps me to relax about my sleep issues. 

[[Ma...]]

Masha Im in the same boat as badsocref as I was also prescribed clonazepam for insomnia. This is the second time around, did it now three years ago and back in the same boat last october. Sleep never came back to what would be considered steady normal sleep.

 

I also averaged around 4 to 5 hrs if lucky and My quality of sleep never returned. During this fast micro taper its the same story sleep one hour wake up from nightmares or dreams. The older We get the worse sleep quality is and Im 63 so I dont expect any miracles at this point in My life.

 

I use natural sleep aids but they dont keep Me asleep I still wake up each hour so by the time morning arrives its been a long night and Im dead tired , feel as if I got no sleep at all. I do wish You the best.

 

Thank you for answering. Can you answer in hours how long per night you slept an how long and when it started to improve.I am making a table.

[[Ma...]]

I initially was prescribed a benzo for menopausal symptoms which included insomnia.  I had a difficult time falling asleep and staying asleep.  After my CT I did not sleep at all for several days and tried everything I could think of that was not another drug.  I tried Melatonin, which made me even more foggy during the day so I stopped after messing around with dosage to no avail.  Then I tried Tryptophan, which was no better than the Melatonin.  I was getting maybe 20 minutes of semi-sleep per night at that stage. I was a total mess. Then I tried using an essential oil relaxation blend and I got really serious and focused about my sleep routine.  That's putting it gently; my husband would say that I was totally anal about my routine.  I would start winding down around 8 pm. I put on my comfy pajamas (same ones every night) and sat in my rocking recliner and had a snack if I was able to eat. I would watch something relaxing and not too stimulating on tv (house remodeling shows and nature stuff was best).  Then I would head up to bed between 9:30 and 10pm.  I would fill my diffuser with the oil and get it going, then I put the oil on the bottoms of my feet, back of neck, spine and pressure points.  I would read for about 20 min until I felt myself relaxing and then turn out the light. I never deviated from this routine, no matter what. At first sleep did not come easy and I also awoke periodically throughout the night and reapplied the oil whenever I awoke.  Gradually my sleep improved and now I am able to get anywhere between 6 and 8+ hours per night with only one awakening. I can deal with that and compared to my husband, who has never taken a benzo in his life and awakens at least once or twice, I'm not doing too badly. I am just entering into month 6 from my CT and am no longer using the oil but am able to sleep without it. My family is happy about that because they hated the smell of the oil ! I also started using an app to monitor how I'm sleeping and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was sleeping better than I thought I was.  I am still using the app and will probably continue to do so as I find that having that information really helps me to relax about my sleep issues.

Thank you for answering. Can you answer in hours how long per night you slept an how long and when it started to improve.I am making a table.

[[sl...]]

Months 1-6... Total inability to sleep at all unless I took mirtazipine.  I averaged about 15 hours per week in that time frame.

 

Months 6-9... Averaged about 28 hours per week (no meds at all)

 

Months 9.5-10.5... Bad wave and had to sporadically use mirtazipine.  Averaged 20 hours per week

 

Months 10.5-16... Averaged 30ish hours per week

 

Month 16-present... Back to acute most nights after anti fungal and stomach flu.  Might be slowly coming out of it and have slept about 15 hours in the last 4 days.

 

* I am praying so hard that month 18 brings a much better baseline!!

[[Ma...]]

Months 1-6... Total inability to sleep at all unless I took mirtazipine.  I averaged about 15 hours per week in that time frame.

 

Months 6-9... Averaged about 28 hours per week (no meds at all)

 

Months 9.5-10.5... Bad wave and had to sporadically use mirtazipine.  Averaged 20 hours per week

 

Months 10.5-16... Averaged 30ish hours per week

 

Month 16-present... Back to acute most nights after anti fungal and stomach flu.  Might be slowly coming out of it and have slept about 15 hours in the last 4 days.

 

* I am praying so hard that month 18 brings a much better baseline!!

 

Thank you for your answer.I have already few paterns that I can see in sleeping from all of us.I hope more people will answer.Do you have brain fog as well with so less sleep?I have ot horrible much that I do not function during the day.And when I lie down I feel like my thoughts are nit really mine.