Sleeping Issues / Insomnia / Sleep Deprivation Discussion Thread

[Bloodflowers.]

I have been having issues with sleep since summer of 2021, but now it has become intense from late 2022 till now. These past 4 nights I only had 3 hours of total sleep, deapite me going early to bed, I can't fall asleep and sometimes I can be awake all night.

 

Last night I got up and took sleeping pill at 4am and I went to sleep and woke up at around 10am. I try to avoid sleeping pills at all costs, especially since I noticed my vision getting weak and I can't see or read something at far distance despite previously having fine vision, but in deperate times like this I had to take it since my anxiety, brain and overthinking wouldn't shut down.

 

Anyone else having sleeping problems? Hopefully this thread can share some experiences and helps us relax more knowing we are not alone in this.

 

[elevate]

Have you spoken to a doctor about it? I'd check with them first. They might refer you to a therapist if it's related to mental health, as most sleep and anxiety issues are, and that can be somewhat helpful.

 

RE sleeping pills, the only one I'd try is melatonin, as it's relatively safe and non-addictive. I've found it works from time to time when I'm in a similar state, although thankfully I haven't had to use it in a few years. But it's very easy to drop it when you need to.

 

My best advice would actually be to work on how you feel in the day. Eat lots of protein and eat well in general prior to 7pm, take walks throughout the day in nature if you can, take up meditation, constantly do your best to filter out negative thoughts and remind yourself that you're safe, healthy, and have no reason to be anxious in this moment. Ensure you don't have caffeine past 2pm or so. Things like that do help even if they seem a bit fanciful. Hope you feel better soon.

[Blue Monday]

5 minutes ago, elevate said:

Have you spoken to a doctor about it? I'd check with them first. They might refer you to a therapist if it's related to mental health, as most sleep and anxiety issues are, and that can be somewhat helpful.

 

RE sleeping pills, the only one I'd try is melatonin, as it's relatively safe and non-addictive. I've found it works from time to time when I'm in a similar state, although thankfully I haven't had to use it in a few years. But it's very easy to drop it when you need to.

 

My best advice would actually be to work on how you feel in the day. Eat lots of protein and eat well in general prior to 7pm, take walks throughout the day in nature if you can, take up meditation, constantly do your best to filter out negative thoughts and remind yourself that you're safe, healthy, and have no reason to be anxious in this moment. Ensure you don't have caffeine past 2pm or so. Things like that do help even if they seem a bit fanciful. Hope you feel better soon.

Melatonin is a god send; I've had sleeping issues since I was a kid and melatonin was the only thing that could help quiet my mind and fall asleep. 

 

[Solaria]

Smoke weed problem solved

[Lana Banana]

Masturb8 before sleep and throughout the day.

[Bloodflowers.]

27 minutes ago, elevate said:

Have you spoken to a doctor about it? I'd check with them first. They might refer you to a therapist if it's related to mental health, as most sleep and anxiety issues are, and that can be somewhat helpful.

 

RE sleeping pills, the only one I'd try is melatonin, as it's relatively safe and non-addictive. I've found it works from time to time when I'm in a similar state, although thankfully I haven't had to use it in a few years. But it's very easy to drop it when you need to.

 

My best advice would actually be to work on how you feel in the day. Eat lots of protein and eat well in general prior to 7pm, take walks throughout the day in nature if you can, take up meditation, constantly do your best to filter out negative thoughts and remind yourself that you're safe, healthy, and have no reason to be anxious in this moment. Ensure you don't have caffeine past 2pm or so. Things like that do help even if they seem a bit fanciful. Hope you feel better soon.

 

I have melatonin and used it twice so far. But it's not as strong as zolpidem, hence why in deperation I took it. I only used it last two times on one night and done. I don't want to put it too much in my system.

 

My fear has been the fact I don't have much sleep and then panic kicks in on how not having enough sleep causes all sorts of health issues and that anxiety cannot go away and keeps me up at night. The worst kind of insomnia to have because it becomes an endless circle  originally I couldn't sleep because of college and work, now I can't sleep because of fear of not getting enough healthy, proper sleep as the result of that and how long I haven't been getting good sleep. 

 

I am trying to battle my mind and being relaxed and that is the hardest part, win in battle of mindlessness.

 

[Lil Mxnster]

ASMR and white noise videos work for me  Go to therapist and don't medicate on your own. Be careful with those sleeping pills! 

[brazil]

1. Talk to a therapist and doctor;

 

2. Try some natural sleep inducers, like camomile and valerian;

 

3. Body scans and meditation before sleep helped me a lot when I was having a hard time sleeping;

 

4. Try to create a routine to sleep in the night, check lighting etc, stay away from the cellphone, let your brain rest

Edited February 13, 2023 by brazil

[2NE1]

Brown noise and a special gummy treat help

[zasderfght]

I also struggle with sleeping naturally. What helps when melatonin isn't doing enough is Unisom, particularly the tablets made with 25mg of doxylamine succinate. It's the strongest OTC sleep aid, iirc, and even though I've built a tolerance to it, I pair it with melatonin and that seems to do the trick. 

 

My therapist also recommended Chamomile tea, but maybe my tolerance to sleep-aids is just super high, but it doesn't do much. Not even for anxiety, really. Lavender tea also didn't do much. 

 

You could also try CBD. Since you have anxiety, and you've probably tried it, I wouldn't go ahead and try products with THC. It could make you more anxious. If you must, start slow & don't take too much at once.

 

Also, if you're going to take Zolpidem, I would not mix it with THC. 

 

Listen, if your doctor prescribed you Zolpidem, that person decided the benefits outweigh the risks. I would follow your doctor's instructions to the T, so if that means taking a pill at night, it might be best to do that. If you're directed to take it as needed, great. Maybe you want to ask your doctor if there are alternatives to Zolpidem? 

[Take Me Apart]

44 minutes ago, Love Again said:

Smoke weed problem solved

Very bad advice if they have anxiety, for some people it can make things even worse

 

CBD can be fine tho

[fountain]

Never really been a great sleeper… would always get night terrors and sleep walked every night as a kid, and it’s manifested into insomnia as an adult. It’s just such a struggle to be able to sleep, and then when I eventually do fall asleep it’s incredibly hard to actually stay asleep, I will typically wake up constantly throughout the night and I can’t remember the last time I had a pure, totally undisturbed sleep. Nor the last time I wasn’t tired throughout the day due to lack of proper sleep. 

[Delirious]

1 hour ago, fountain said:

Never really been a great sleeper… would always get night terrors and sleep walked every night as a kid, and it’s manifested into insomnia as an adult. It’s just such a struggle to be able to sleep, and then when I eventually do fall asleep it’s incredibly hard to actually stay asleep, I will typically wake up constantly throughout the night and I can’t remember the last time I had a pure, totally undisturbed sleep. Nor the last time I wasn’t tired throughout the day due to lack of proper sleep. 

omg hope you finally get a full days rest and heal!!

Edited February 13, 2023 by Delirious

[Avantpop]

try listening to midnights maybe? it helps with sleep 

[Lost In Paradise]

don’t eat for at least 3 hours before you go to bed

 

don’t look at your phone EVER if you wake up in the middle of the night

 

everyone I talk to that has sleeping problems do both of these things. just change them and you should be fine in a week or so 

[DoubleRainbow!]

My advice is to: get a boyfriend lol

 

I had awful insomnia in 2019 and it only stopped once I started dating my ex in 2020, I think it helped with endorphins and stuff like that. I slept like a baby all 2020 and 2021 but once I broke up with him, the problem came back.

2022 was a nightmare from January to May, I thought I wouldn’t escape this time but eventually it got better, I started doing exercise every day, having a skin care routine, waking up early in the morning so that the next day I would feel sleepy early in the night, etc. 

for me CBD products and melatonin didn’t work, what worked me was convincing myself that I am in a safe place, I have people who love me, I have gone through this before and it has always getting better, also getting used to it so that I don’t give it too much importance seems to work 

[MoonGoodandHappy]

Omg, i'm so sorry.... i think you should go to the beach,walk a lot, it made me feel better when i was like that and it helped my sleep problems. In 2018 i suffered from generalized anxiety and i havent slept for 4 days (nobody believe me when i say that but LITTERALY i wasnt able to sleep in 4 days, not even 5 minutes.) I thought i was gonna die, was so scared. But thank God after 4 days i slept for hours. Basically, my sleep problems have disappeared when i was walking a lot outside, going to the beach... 

[Kamil24]

I use melatonin which helps a lot. My problem was also just not being tired enough at the time I need to fall asleep... then I start thinking about how many hours I have until I have to wake up and how I'll be so tired in the morning, and that makes me wide awake. Not eating for 3 hours before bed + melatonin has really helped a lot. I can't do ASMR or anything, I'll usually put on some science Youtube videos when it's time to sleep and those really help as well lol. Sometimes I'll take a gravol too on the weekends, as that makes me drowsy and helps be sleep in on the weekends (otherwise I just wake up early). 

 

Also just saw that eating a snack of pineapples before bed increases your natural melatonin production by over 200%. 

[Last Boy on Earth]

I haven’t slept more than 5 hours in years. It’s a terrible condition. No matter how late I go to sleep or how tired I am, I sleep 3/4 hours and cannot sleep more throughout the day

Edited February 13, 2023 by Last Boy on Earth

[DanyelP23]

5 hours ago, Bloodflowers. said:

I have been having issues with sleep since summer of 2021, but now it has become intense from late 2022 till now. These past 4 nights I only had 3 hours of total sleep, deapite me going early to bed, I can't fall asleep and sometimes I can be awake all night.

 

Last night I got up and took sleeping pill at 4am and I went to sleep and woke up at around 10am. I try to avoid sleeping pills at all costs, especially since I noticed my vision getting weak and I can't see or read something at far distance despite previously having fine vision, but in deperate times like this I had to take it since my anxiety, brain and overthinking wouldn't shut down.

 

Anyone else having sleeping problems? Hopefully this thread can share some experiences and helps us relax more knowing we are not alone in this.

 

Usually most of the weeks I sleep betwene 3-5 hours and 12 hours during the weekend. It's a cycle I can't really get out of.

However, it feels like more of a mental choice for me instead of pure inability as there are moments where I'm like - oh this is a good hour to go to bed and sleep but then I ignore that thought and I stay 4-5 hours more. (It gives me a false sense of control I think but deep down I don't think I have much control otherwise I would have changed my sleeping schedule)

What I found that improved my quality of sleep is listening to rainstorm sounds (perhaps other sounds might be to your preference) with my air pods in my ears.

[Joyride]

4 hours ago, fountain said:

Never really been a great sleeper… would always get night terrors and sleep walked every night as a kid, and it’s manifested into insomnia as an adult. It’s just such a struggle to be able to sleep, and then when I eventually do fall asleep it’s incredibly hard to actually stay asleep, I will typically wake up constantly throughout the night and I can’t remember the last time I had a pure, totally undisturbed sleep. Nor the last time I wasn’t tired throughout the day due to lack of proper sleep. 

my story is basically the same as this one. it all started with night terrors when I was 3-4, couldn't sleep at all unless I was next to my mom, so I'd always change beds and go sleep with her or ask her to come sleep with me.

 

I did not sleep walk as far as I'm concerned. I had a sleep study done a few months back to see how much I actually slept during the night using sleeping pills (30 MG of Zolpidem, 200 MG of Trazodone), the results were terrible. 5 hours of sleep (one cycle of 1.5 hours of light sleep, 1 hour of medium sleep) then I woke up, no REM sleep during this cycle. I took my meds  (30 MG of Zolpidem and 200 MG of Trazodone), same results, except during the second time I slept three hours, and I got 20 minutes of REM sleep.

 

I have no signs of apnea, nothing seems "wrong" other than the fact that my body only wants to sleep 1-3 hours per night, not letting me get any REM sleep.

[Bloodflowers.]

This thread can become helpful for people with anxiety about sleep to see they're not alone and other people go through same thing and that it is okay. It can hopefully help reduce the stress and worrying about it once we see other people are also suffering  

 

I should also keep it as a diary and see if writing down how I feel when I can't get sleep helps me with reducing my anxiety levels as I've seen it's one of the tools that helps with stress.

 

[Bloodflowers.]

Went to sleep at 11pm. It's 5:10am now, been awake in bed for 6 hours now.... The struggle is real.

[ThatsTheTea]

On 2/13/2023 at 8:56 AM, Bloodflowers. said:

 

I have melatonin and used it twice so far. But it's not as strong as zolpidem, hence why in deperation I took it. I only used it last two times on one night and done. I don't want to put it too much in my system.

 

My fear has been the fact I don't have much sleep and then panic kicks in on how not having enough sleep causes all sorts of health issues and that anxiety cannot go away and keeps me up at night. The worst kind of insomnia to have because it becomes an endless circle  originally I couldn't sleep because of college and work, now I can't sleep because of fear of not getting enough healthy, proper sleep as the result of that and how long I haven't been getting good sleep. 

 

I am trying to battle my mind and being relaxed and that is the hardest part, win in battle of mindlessness.

 

I am literally going through this EXACT situation. It is destroying my life... The only thing that helps me is taking xanax before bed, but I too am building a tolerance to it.

Edited February 14, 2023 by ThatsTheTea

[Alldeezy]

I've had insomnia my entire life!  though my meds seem to help me sleep a bit, it's partly why i'm taking them now, it's not helping much with my bpd/depression but is with my sleeping.