25 months off; insomnia last remaining symptom

[[Dr...]]

I still only get three hours of sleep before I wake up. Sometimes I am able to go back to bed. All my other symptoms are gone.  Is my sleep permanently screwed up? Or do I need longer to heal. Was on ambien for 10 months, and yes it’s taken this long for me to get here. In the last month my final symptoms have gone but this sleep issue is still there and something I didn’t have before taking ambien. I used ambien to come off another prescription. Thanks 

Edited December 11, 2023 by [Dr...]

[[Th...]]

No your sleep is not permanently screwed up!  It takes a long time for sleep to get back to "normal" (pre-Benzo) or "near" normal for most.  I recently started getting nice blocks of 4-5 hours of sleep w/o waking up and I'm over 7 years off from a CT.  I was on Benzos for about 6 months total, but not consecutively.  I was on for 3 months, got off with no issues and stayed off for just under 2 months then stupidly went back on them again for another 3 months, but at ever increasing doses and 4 different Benzos.  That's when the $hit hit the fan.

I learned to stop worrying about what sleep looks like as long as I feel rested the next day and 99% of the time I do regardless of if my sleep is broken or not.  I average 7+ hours per night and have for about the past 5 years.  I still get those one-off nights of poor sleep and every so often I get hit with a "mini" insomnia wave that could last for a few days or even close to to a month.  But they always even out over time. 

Are you saying you only typically sleep 3 hours per night then are awake, but sometimes you can fall back to sleep?  Hang in there!

[[Dr...]]

Yes like I was doing okay for a couple months. Still couldn’t get the full 8 hours of sleep but had better sleep. Recently back to three hours a night. I never thought it would take this long to heal from a prescribed drug. I’m so angry at this and feel like I’ll never be the same again. 

[[Th...]]

Unfortunately that's the way it typically plays out for many.  I slept well for about 15 months and I was averaging 7-8 hours per night every night...then I randomly, for no known reason, started getting hit with "mini insomnia waves" that I described in the post above.  It does suck, but they eventually even out.  At least you're not getting zero hour nights or nights of no perceived sleep.  I'd gladly take a 3 hour night versus a zero hour night. Please hold onto the FACT that if you did well for a couple of months you WILL do well again in the future.  It's only a matter of time.  

Edited December 12, 2023 by [Th...]

[[PE...]]

5 hours ago, [[D...] said:

Yes like I was doing okay for a couple months. Still couldn’t get the full 8 hours of sleep but had better sleep. Recently back to three hours a night. I never thought it would take this long to heal from a prescribed drug. I’m so angry at this and feel like I’ll never be the same again. 

Are you sure it's the withdrawal from benzos? Hard for me to say as i had insomnia before I started with it.

Did you sleep ok before?

[[Dr...]]

5 hours ago, [[n...] said:

Are you sure it's the withdrawal from benzos? Hard for me to say as i had insomnia before I started with it.

Did you sleep ok before?

Yea I slept fine before taking these drugs.  It’s definitely withdrawal.  Never had issues sleeping before. In fact my friends used to tell me I slept too much. 

[[...]]

I’m 25 months off as well. Insomnia is my worst symptom. I also sleep like you in 3 hour segments. I wake up from these sleeps with the worst toxic hungover feeling. I still have other symptoms as well but I think they are related to the insomnia/toxic sleep. I really want to believe theway2 but it’s hard to imagine that after 25 months that somehow sleep will start be refreshing again. 

[[Dr...]]

[[PE...]]

Yes the hungover feeling me too. Getting better though.

[[Gi...]]

On 11/12/2023 at 08:49, [[D...] said:

I still only get three hours of sleep before I wake up. Sometimes I am able to go back to bed. All my other symptoms are gone.  Is my sleep permanently screwed up? Or do I need longer to heal. Was on ambien for 10 months, and yes it’s taken this long for me to get here. In the last month my final symptoms have gone but this sleep issue is still there and something I didn’t have before taking ambien. I used ambien to come off another prescription. Thanks 

Hi Dragonage,

You are on your way. Insomnia resolves for sure don’t worry, it did with me.

May I ask if you had any muscle tightness spasms and when they resolved?

 

[[he...]]

On 12/12/2023 at 21:33, [[D...] said:

Yea I slept fine before taking these drugs.  It’s definitely withdrawal.  Never had issues sleeping before. In fact my friends used to tell me I slept too much. 

Same... literally not had a bad night in my life pretty much until i took clonazepam... on day 3 my sleep was already broken and coldturkeyd on day 20 and 29 months later still struggle with sleep, most other symptoms are gone except for a few here or there. But broken messy sleel still going strong.