Need help! 5 nights zero sleep.

[[po...]]

Uncomfortably,

 

I am just asking - do you have a psychiatrist or therapist? Powerball

[[NH...]]

Hello.

I am brand new to BB and this will be my first post, but it is something I think I might be able to help with.

I struggled with insomnia for most of my life (I am 43 now) and I have found something that works for me, I only hope it might work for others here.

I am not a doctor, and I have talked to my doctor about this for years. I tried over 8 different sleeping pills, one of which would have me crawling to my bed only to not sleep.

 

First is why I think we have trouble sleeping. In short it's stress. The muscles are tensed up and the mind is racing. This leads to no sleep and it can go on for days.

The original trick I discovered, and still use to this day every time I go to bed is to not think about real life issues. I am sure we have all tried counting sheep and failed, but the advice follows the same guideline. (Unless you happen to be a sheep farmer.) Any thoughts about your life and your problems will keep you up.

What I do is lay in bed and pick a TV show or movie I am currently very interested in. I then inject myself into the "fantasy" or daydream and let it play out. You can imagine yourself however you wish, with super powers, if it helps, or whatever allows you to enter the fantasy and feel comfortable there. I will give an example to help illustrate.

 

Game of Thrones is a popular show right now so I will use that.

I lay down and I close my eyes. I start with a setting, let us say The Red Keep. I see Cersei Lannister talking to Kyburn and I approach them. They don't know who I am or how I got there so they respond. "Who are you, and how did you get past the guards!" Cersei demands.

"I've come to warn you of an assassin plotting your demise." I tell her. Kyburn looks at me and raises an eyebrow before he speaks......

 

I have found I don't have to be in the fantasy for long, and rarely make any progress in any sort of story before sleep takes me. I will use the same setting over and over each night until I truly get bored with it, but the point is it puts me to sleep. If the setting isn't interesting then I pick a new one. A lawyer on a show, a crewman on Star Trek, a knight in shining armor. The worst thing you can do in my opinion is think about real life and things affecting your life. That just leads to clock watching..."Now it's X o'cock, if I fall asleep now I will get 4 hours of sleep" is a terrible place to be and it is very focused on real life and it's many issues.

 

One problem I ran into was sometimes, especially when you are over-tired, it is very hard to focus on a fantasy. My mind races and won't let a scene play out, it wants to jump around in a hyper state. I have found something else that helps prepare me for sleep when I am feeling this way.

ASMR. Autonomous sensory meridian response. In short it's sounds that relax you and let muscle tension melt away. It slows down the mind when it is racing.

There are some things that must be done for it to work correctly though. Namely you need a headset, not just speakers, and not ear buds. Your headset needs to have some bass so you can feel the tingles and relax. A cheap gamer's headset from amazon is all I use.

Secondly you need to close your eyes. I do this in a separate room from where I sleep, sitting in a chair. Some ASMR moves too fast and is almost aggressive. Some people do a better job than others at taking their time and making it a relaxing experience. For me the fluffy mic that gives off a sound similar to wind or the ocean works best.

is one I use often.

Sit with your eyes closed, your head slumped forward. Don't watch the video, just listen with the headset on. Focus on the tingles, they feel like the hairs on your neck standing up, or a tickle moving up your spine.

Once you feel the stress in your muscles melt away you are ready for bed and an attempt to step into a fantasy.

 

I hope this helps some of you, it has worked wonders for me. I no longer even say that I have a sleeping problem because it has been so reliable.

 

NHF1976

[[MT...]]

NHF,

 

Your first technique is very similar to something I do. I try to remember in as much sensory detail as possible what happened in a book, tv show or movie. Sometimes I'll become an observer right there but inactive. I'll have to try your method of participating in the story. I think the stressed mind has to have something to do besides fret when it's trying to sleep. It will always default to obsessing about our worries unless we occupy it with relaxation exercises (mindfulness, body scan, ASMR, deep breathing, etc.) or using something like imagination. I do this every single night to woo sleep and relax my mind.

[[ni...]]

I've been following these posts as I also suffer from insomnia and many nights of RLS/muscle jerks. Every night I go to bed with the thoughts of sleeping, but keep riding waves with  one or two nights of maybe 4-6 hours of sleep a month.Rarely have I gotten 6-7 the last few years. The next night I sleep a couple of hours at most. It is a cycle, but the last few nights even that has gone away.

I also go through thoughts of the insomnia killing me. In all honesty, the year or two before I CT Ambien, I was sleeping maybe 4 hours maximum. I waited almost two years before I began the Clonazepam taper. Sleep stopped for a couple of weeks, which made me feel like I was dying. I did re-up to stabilize and kept the slow pace tapering until I finished 9 months later. Sleep has never returned at 1.5 years off. When I finished the clonazepam, I had roughly 300 pills, as I kept getting refills in case I "failed." Around week two after finishing my taper, I added dirt from my flower bed and water to the  bottle of pills and tossed it in the trash.  It was a good day, but my emotions were flat and still are. When I make myself smile, it feels like my face will crack. Thanks Marigold, MTfan and our newbie NHF1976 for adding so much to the original post of I remember not who. Sorry! 

[[So...]]

Hello uncomfortably, how are you doing? I hope you got some sleep? I have been following this thread and there are some excellent posts. I like Mtfan post about using your imagination to sort of distract the brain away from our ailments and sadness. Actually I would like to share a link about guided imagery and 'The Healing Mindn', it really helps and I have been following Dr. Rossman on you tube also: https://thehealingmind.org/

 

Also, the link about about ASMR for sleep is excellent. I have been using the body scan with some success, but I would like to incorporate some delta wave sounds which I have downloaded in my Mp3. I know it is super hard to do new things in the midst of suffering, but going through benzo withdrawal is one of those experiences in a lifetime that is unlike any other and one must do small, positive changes one at the time because the alternative of taking more benzos or other drugs will make it worse for many of us. Rewiring our brains can be possible after this damage but it takes patience, courage, discipline, self-compassion. I suggest you also look in to some CBT and EFT. I love doing qi qong and found this link for sleep:

I will definitely incorporate this to my routine with my dark therapy before bedtime. M sleep is still broken but when I sleep I can pretty much be alright and function. One of the things that help me is reading success stories. Recently I read PEM's story. Uncomfortably, I truly recommend these techniques to you and read his story because is beyond my mind how can anyone who suffered so much made it through and living a full life now. So there is hope!

 

Much healing to everyone