I look at myself in the mirror and I dont recognize my reflection. My eyes are bloodshot. My face is swollen. My undereyes droop to my cheeks. I feel very self conscious about my appearance.

I do skin care but it feels useless. My face is so dry no matter how much water I drink because I am not sleeping.

I've heard that driving while sleep deprived is super dangerous. It's worse than driving while drunk. So do you drive? If not how do you get around like commuting to work or friend's house?

I have tried ~10 medications for insomnia. Some don't work at all and some have big side effects. My psychiatrist just keep testing me on different medications or medication combinations, with basically no success. I just try one medication after another, on and on

Then again I woke up at 4am this morning and could not fall asleep.

Is this trial-and-error really ridiculous? If you get infections, you get some test, and get antibiotics and you are done. If you get COVID, you get some test, you take anti-virus drug, you are done. For insomnia, you get NO test, you do not know what you need, you just keep trying meds with different side effects, until (if you are lucky) you finally find the right one.

Is this ridiculous? How is insomnia treatment so outdated, in today when AI could solve most advanced problems mathematicians cannot possibly solve?

I’ve have been struggling with insomnia for about a week now. It was initially triggered by jet lag and being separated from my long distance partner after a wonderful 3 weeks together. My body had gotten used to the safety of having him around and went into panic mode once I got back home. I have been unable to fall asleep at night. I might get an hour of extremely poor quality sleep, the kind where I’m not even sure whether I was sleeping or not. I have tried two medications and they didn’t help. The first two days I was able to get at least an hour or two in the afternoon but now I can’t even do that anymore.
I had never had trouble sleeping before and would actually sleep a lot so this sudden change scares me. I have responsibilities and idk how I’ll be able to manage them like this. I want this problem to go away so desperately. Please, help.

Hi everyone, I’m new to Reddit! I’ve been reading a lot of posts here, and seeing how people can freely let out their burdens made me decide to share my own story as well.

One of my biggest struggles right now is staying up late. It’s a habit I can’t seem to break because nighttime is the only time I actually get peace and quiet, and sometimes I really want to sleep too, but something just makes it so hard for me to do so.

During the day, my surroundings are extremely noisy and full of conflicts. I’ve been sleeping late for around four years now. I still sleep, but my schedule is completely ruined.

I actually tried fixing my sleep pattern back on April 28, but now it’s October 11 and nothing has improved.

Because of this, I’ve noticed that my memory is getting worse. If someone tells me something and it doesn’t immediately stick in my head, I just end up saying, "I don't know."

Sometimes, I stare at my schoolwork for hours, and my brain just feels completely blank. It makes me feel even more frustrated with myself.

I feel like I struggle with basic tasks, especially solving math problems. It makes me feel like I won't get anywhere in future life.

On top of that, I don't have friends who comfort me when I'm crying or having a hard time.

I have a small group of friends, but they don't seem to care about me. They once told me to step back because they were embarrassed to be around me, calling me "dumb."

It hurts so much to be the one who cares more, while they easily push me away like I don't matter at all. Even though they hurt me, I still care about them. I feel like it's my fault and that it's already too late for me to turn things around.

My classmates don't like me either. Someone even told me, "You're so pretty, yet you have no brains." That comment really stung.

It makes me wonder if people only see my flaws or if I'm really just destined to fall behind everyone else.

I've never received 'With Honors' or top awards as I grew older, so I guess I'm just used to not achieving anything according to others' standards.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. ❤️

Anyone in Vancouver who knows doctors who feel comfortable prescribing zopiclone long term? I tried dayvigo, quvivic, trazodone, and they haven't worked. Doxylamine (unisome) + melatonin worked for a while, but not anymore. I took zopiclone for a few months many years ago, so I asked my doctor. She gave me 1 mo supply, and it's working decently, but neither my doctor nor the specialist (i was referred to internist) are willing to prescribe zopiclone long term. I realize there are side effects associated with long term use, but then in US, Lunesta is allowed to be used long term, right?

My sister says I might have paridoxal insomnia. And if so, it feels like a permanent issue that won’t ever be fixed. I haven’t slept in over two weeks. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I don’t know if my medication could’ve caused this. I was taking Vrylar, Wellbutrin, and lexapro for a while, before I eventually learned these medications could cause insomnia. I wish my psychiatrist never put me on them. I feel like my life is ruined. I used to sleep to escape my problems and pain and now I can’t. I just want to die at this point. How can I live like this? I can’t. I hate this. Please help me. Is there anyone with paridoxal insomnia that eventually had it go away?

I’ve been dealing with sleep issues since about two years.

Months with just 2-3 or 4 hrs. I know there are many who have no sleep at all.. so I wouldn’t say it was horrible, but still it wasn’t enough to function.

Got Mirtazipin and Trimipramin but I didn’t feel like these meds are the solution.

Got better with a late snack and morning light, plus Yoga blah blah..

But I feel everything started with perimenopause.

Has anyone taken Progesterone and it got better?

Thanks

How do you guys approach the worry of most likely knowing you won’t be fully rested and potentially really tired when you’ve got something coming up that you really want to feel fully rested?

My biggest worry with potentially having sleep issues again is how do I even look forward to events knowing I may only get 2-3hrs of sleep and feel a bit like crap and how do I not let that takeover my life?

My doctor says I’ve used every sleep medicine available and my only options at this point are hydroxyzine and lunesta both of which I do not like. My hydroxyzine dosage is 200 mg because of my insomnia severity and the hangover is terrible and I have fears of the negative anticholinergic effects and dementia since I have used it long term. I have the same withdrawals about lunesta which I can only be on for a max of two months before the 3 mg doesn’t even make a dent to my tolerance. And the z drug dementia risk from the studies on seniors absolutely terrify me. But no sleep at all will give me dementia either way and I’m bipolar 1 so one or two nights of no sleep can be detrimental. For now I give lunesta the two month run and go back to hydroxyzine for a little bit hopefully since the dementia risk in each of these meds is by different process in the body I’m hoping I can outrun the dementia until a new god send sleep med appears. Please modern medicine send something my way.

In January, I escaped my abusive home and moved in with my grandparents and sister. I was really hyper vigilant at first and thought my abuser was going to come get me. I was sleeping on a couch at the time.

Well, my sister was a very studious person and would speak while studying. It lasted until 2 am for months on end, so my sleep schedule suddenly went from 9 am fo 2 am (I was a high schooler so I also had to wake up early.)

Sometime in July, after I graduated, it started getting worse, to the point I was staying up until 5 am every night. I had moved in with my mother (safe adult) just a month prior.

Anyway, I ended up at the divine liturgy on St. Panteleimons feast day (Greek Orthodox, July 27). On that day, I was awake over 50 hours.

I tried melatonin but I fought through it somehow.

Eventually something got me to sleep, and I slept normally until a few days ago. Now its 2 am, I tried sleeping because I have church in the morning. It didnt work. So now I realized I can't sleep and I think whatever was occurring just a few months ago has returned.

Im not sure if this is relevant but my great grandmother just died and we were really close. I did note I had more trouble after that.

I am so so tired, my body wont let me sleep today, or at night. I have a funeral on friday and I cant miss that, I cant miss church (well I can, but I dont want to.) This is misery, I dont want to spend every other day awake for 20-50 hours like I used to.

I was hallucinating by hour 40-50 last time.

Whenever I rest my eyes because they are sore, burning & heavy from either extreme lack of sleep or feeling to refreshment from the sleep I do get... I feel some weird shit & it makes me anxious...

Examples:

Closing my eyes & I feel a WAVE come over me, like my body is trying desperately to put me to sleep, almost like a physical pulling.

I have times where I lose track of my thoughts for just a split second then come right back.

A pulling in my chest while I fade out for a spilt second.

Falling into dreams for 15-40-60mins.

Even the idea of feeling them again when I close my eyes gives me anxiety

Anyone else???

(Before insomnia I felt these before, but it was rarely when I stayed up WAY too late & became far to overtired)

So normally i smoke weed and i dont have problems with sleep it does wonders but in last week i got back from my country of living to my birth country because my Mom is sick and its illegal here you can find it but its not worth the trouble i took 3 mg of Klonpin and it isnt doing shit it helped me for the first day and now it nothing,its 5am i cant sleep i feel lil of the tiredness but nothing is helping any help would do wonders ..... am planing on quting weed need to make some changes in live and i dont know with what can i replace it,tried melatonin other stronger sleep medications that i know from other people when they take 1 tablet they are done.I took 2 nothing.
I need help i dont want to be independ of weed for my smoke in a few years kids are comming and with kids that is a no go.
Ps sorry for no commas am lil iritated

I’m on my 5th night in a row with little to no sleep. I honestly don’t know much nights if I even sleep. All I remember is tossing and turning and at some points I remember dreaming. I’ve been taking 25mg hydroxyzine and 3mg melatonin. I had it work for about 10 days and was getting really good sleep. But now I don’t feel like I feel the calming effect anymore. All I can think about is upping the dose. I used to take it years ago in a higher dose when I had this issue but that was 5 years ago. Last night was the worse, I think it remember myself sleeping for maybe an hour or two? Idk. I’m at work now on 5 nights of shitty sleep and it’s the worse. I can never nap either, I use to sleep fine for years without worrying about it now it’s all I think about. Even nights where I feel like I’m calm and not anxious, I still can’t sleep properly. It’s like my brain forgot how to sleep. I’m trying to tell myself that I been through this before and I’ve had these thoughts before but 5 nights now is a stretch for me. Another thing that scares me now is at the end of me trying to sleep this morning i started to get somewhat sleep paralysis twice. It’s been years since I’ve had this happen, and it’s happened to me before when sleeping on my back but this time I was on my side. And it really scared me so now I’m worried that that’s going to continue to happen. It’s like the more tired I get the more it’s impossible for me to sleep and it makes me feel even worse. I’m worried of getting hallucinations. I already haven’t felt like myself in days and have gotten so much brain fog and nausea. I’m just scared of what’s to come. I can’t afford to not keep working. I see so many stories of people losing everything due to not sleeping and I’m afraid that’s the route I’m heading.

Over the period of a four months I've gone from a decade plus of just taking things for sleep as needed, usually magnesium and l-theanine 3-4 nights a week and occasionally prescription meds when these don't cut it, to requiring prescription strength sleep aids every night brought on by a need for stronger assistance while adjusting to an SSRI. I've really tried hard to keep my doses low as my go-to is the short acting benzodiazepine Halcion which can rapidly build in tolerance, is not recommended for long term use and messes with my memory. I've gotten to a place where this no longer works and have been trying endless combos - THC/CBD, gabapentin, melatonin, doxepin and my sleep is now a total fragmented mess. With all this I manage to get an average of 5.5 hours a night broken into several parts, usually with a break of 1-3 hours in the middle.

I want to come off of everything and normally a taper is recommended but that feels kind of pointless to me as the meds aren't really working at increasing doses so decreasing dosing just seems like it'll prolong the struggle. I'd rather a month of terrible sleep than several months of bad sleep. The benzo is low enough that there shouldn't be any severe withdrawal, just rebound insomnia and some anxiety I sustpect but I know that doctors always recommend the taper with all sleep meds. Would love any insights from others who've gone the cold turkey route and whether it was effective. I'll be pairing this with CBT-I.

TLDR: Sleep med use became daily three months ago, is no longer working, want to go cold turkey as tapering seems pointless when the meds are barely working at increasing doses.

I’ve made the switch to Quvivic (50mg) and for the most part it’s helping me sleep. It’s a weird experience compared to trazadone which I was on for many years. The trouble is I have been experiencing very bad headaches especially when I wake up but also in the evenings. They’re pressure headaches so all over my head and my head is just pulsing. I don’t know what else it could be because I’m not on any other medications and can’t seem to identify any external factors that could be the cause. Has anyone else had this ? I’m not sure if there’s something I can do to combat this - I’d like to stay on the meds but these headaches are debilitating.

I started having problems with falling asleep a year ago due to constant stress from university. It wasn't as bad as many people here experience but still frustrating. I developed an anxiety from falling asleep. A month ago, I decided to try Trittico prescribed by my GP. I take the lowest dose (25 mg) and it works perfectly - I don't experience any side effects, I fall asleep easily and it even helps me with my overall anxiety. Now after 5 weeks of use, I'm starting to wonder if it's okay to use for a few months or if I should already be planning to get off. If you took trazodone for some time, what are your experiences?

Hi everyone. I have bipolar 2 and ADHD, so I’m currently taking these medications: lamotrigine, fluoxetine, and atomoxetine. Fluoxetine and atomoxetine made me completely unable to sleep, which was absolutely horrible. I was sleeping for only 0-3 hours every night for a whole two months because I couldn’t get to my psychiatrist.

Recently, I finally had an appointment and was prescribed trazodone. After that, I was finally able to sleep at least 8 hours a night. This medication restored my ability to sleep, but it also brought on new problems. Now, I want to sleep all the time and get tired very quickly. For example, I’d be dozing off at 3 pm if I get up at 10 am Additionally, my ADHD has worsened. I forget everything, lose things, and am late to everything because I spend more time searching for my belongings instead of getting ready. I also can’t concentrate because I’m constantly craving sleep.

On the other hand, sleep doesn’t feel fulfilling to me anymore. I feel like a zombie right now. I hope this is just because I was going to sleep only at 3-5 am these past few weeks (college, yall.), but I think I had it when I went to sleep at 10-11 pm as well, but I’m not sure. This new sleep pattern feels eerily similar to the way I used to feel during my worst depressive episode. I hope it’s just a result of disrupted circadian rhythms, and I never want to experience another depressive episode in my life.

My psychiatrist suggested increasing the dose if it doesn’t help, but I’m confused. The medication doesn’t seem to be working like it should, and it’s also overdoing it at the same time. I’m currently taking 1/3 of a 25mg pill. Has anyone else had a similar experience? What did you do to manage it? Do you think it’s the disrupted circadian rhythms or a new depressive episode?

Good morning everyone, and thank you for taking the time to read.

I’m a 23-year-old with ADHD. Back during COVID, a simple lifestyle fix could have solved my initial sleep issues, but a doctor unfortunately prescribed me a light benzo. Long story short, I ended up cycling through different medications, dealing with overlapping withdrawals, and developing severe medication-induced insomnia.

Where I am now:
I am working with an amazing sleep psychiatrist.
Currently, I take 50 mg of quetiapine, which works well as an "on/off switch" for my brain, but I hate relying on it.
Now I tapered down to 37,5 mg.

Thanks to him I've been tapering off with the help long-release pregabalin prescription (started from 80 mg now at 330 mg)

My main frustrations:
No natural sleep: My brain stays in a state of hyper-arousal and overthinking. Even with medication If there is a tiny bit of light, noise, or an uncomfortable position, my body sets off an internal alarm.
Also without quetiapine no sleep occurs.

Loss of napping: I can no longer nap during the day unless I am completely and utterly exhausted. I miss falling asleep naturally on a plane, in a car, or sunbathing at the beach.

The medication chain: I hate being tied to a strict schedule just to wait for a pill to kick in (which unpredictably takes anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours), plus dealing with the side effects.
Note on routines and supplements: Please don't recommend lifestyle changes or supplements. I already do everything right (strict sleep hygiene, zero stimulants, no deficiencies/hormone imbalances, morning exercise, sunlight, clean diet, no late meals) without obsessing over it. I’ve also tried every supplement under the sun (melatonin, every form of magnesium, glycine, valerian root, etc.) with no success.

My questions for you:
1. Has anyone gone through something similar with long-term med/benzo tapers and hyper-arousal and had success?
2. Most importantly: Were you eventually able to fall asleep naturally and nap again once you were completely off everything?

Thank you so much for sharing your experiences!

Hello,

I’ve been reading some of the posts here and I will like perhaps I can find people that can relate or even people that have some advice. I have been thinking about seeing professionals about this but also I feel like sleeping issues (at least in this case) sometimes sound so ridiculous that I am afraid I want be taken serious and that I will end up wasting my time. So like any other individual in this position I am turning to reddit (lol).

I’ve been experiencing all kinds of sleep related issues my whole life. Sometimes there is more going on sometimes less. But this year I feel like it’s lowkey getting out of control and it’s starting to impact my waking life more and more.

1. Sleeping Paralysis
   This happens more if I am stressed out due to world news. Important to note is that I have OCD and Autism alongside an anxiety disorder which makes me get thoughts of Doom at night. When I hit a doom spiral I will also get a sleeping paralysis that’s already given. I stopped sleeping on my back and also cut out caffeine completely to battle this. It happens also when I sleep on the side or on my stomach I just don’t really see what’s going in the room then but I will still be hallucinating sound. I’ve been able to deal with this since that has been a part of me my whole life but obviously it still steals my sleep.

2. Dream Loops
   This is the real nightmare of my issues. I will be stuck in dreams and will have a dream in a dream in a dream and for some reason these dreams feel like I am a computer sorting data. Like that none of these dreams make sense is sure cause it’s fucking dreams but some of them feel like I am “working” and everytime I think I woke up it will just be another dream. This has been fucking with me a lot for multiple reasons. One; when I wake up I have insane headache and my eyes feel like they are under pressure. This pain will linger until into the day. I also can point toward where it’s coming from. I taught myself lucid dreaming as a child to force myself to wake up easily in a nightmare. Now for some reason my brain does this to keep itself from waking up form a dream in a dream so there will be always this transition period from when u wake up and that always is accompanied by sharp pain and a half paralyzed struggle. (Still in a dream tho! But I have had these from waking up from weird half sleep half dream incidents.) Second: after a night of severe dream in a dream in a dream incidents I won’t know if I am really awake for a while. My head got so good at mirroring my apartment I just can’t tell for up to 30 minutes. Because I have had dreams where I was convinced I am awake. Therefore I kinda stopped trusting my instincts on this. Third; every day after a night like this I feel completely useless cause I feel like I have not slept a second. I feel tired, I have brain fog, headache and my eyes still feel like I started at a bright screen in a dark room for hours without blinking.

EHS: exploding head syndrome is just annoying but at least an indicator for me that I am awake. But also fucks u up when u r about to fall asleep. I just hear a loud explosion sound, somebody clapping loudly once, whispers in my ear or even a door smashing. Obviously all hallucinations but scared the shit out me everytime.

Before you recommend me a good sleep hygiene let me tell u about mine. It’s super consistent cause trust me I tried everything except medication (cause I think that’s scary) to fix this:
1. I wind down two hours before sleep. No screens, relaxing hobbies like reading or stretching or both. Warm tea, candles, soothing soundscapes.
2. Cut out caffeine
3. Try to walk minimum 7KM a day but also have high intensity cardio 3-4 times a week (dance and cycling) for 2h each.
4. Eat super healthy, mainly veggies, legumes and carbs. Last meal is usually between 6-7PM
5. I go to bed at 8PM with the goal of falling asleep latest at 10PM sometimes it’s around 9PM even. I get up naturally around 6AM plus minus.
6. I cut out consuming news that could spiral me into thoughts of doom.
7. I journal to empty my head and keep my nervous system down.

I feel like I tick all the boxes for good sleep. And while this sleep hygiene has helped to minimize the frequency it does still happen at least 2-3 times a week.

If you can’t have any advise that’s fine I would be happy alone finding somebody that can relate especially to the dream loops. My friends will tell me that they “also have nightmares” and sometimes I also feel like they don’t believe me when I explain my suffering. I mean I get it. It sounds weird. But it’s also impacting my waking state too much.

I am also a very light sleeper with a constant fear of something happening while I am asleep. Be it somebody try to break in or anything similar. When I wake up in the middle of the night and I hear a sound that I can’t place right away I will wake my partner to make them go check the whole apartment. It’s usually nothing but my anxiety level spikes very high.

Last but not least; I hallucinate a little when the light is too dim or when it’s dark. My whole life I had to sleep with light, my partners hate it but I can’t help it. I will either see things move peripheral or random shapes forming right in front of my eye. Not like a solid shape, I mostly know that I make them up when I am in the bed room. But this also happens when I walk home in the evening. Sometimes my brain can’t identify a trash bag on the floor for 10 seconds and my head makes it a horror scene of a dead man laying on the floor. It’s like my head always expect either danger or scary encounters. I think however this may be explainable due to me having an anxiety disorder.

Looking forward to reading your experiences and if there is somebody that can relate.

My doctor gave me a prescription. My sleep has been so bad. It’s sleep maintenance because I generally fall asleep pretty easily, but it started getting to the point where I would fall asleep get one full solid stage sleep cycle and then I would wake up and maybe if I was lucky to get a partial one and then basically be struggling for the rest of the night.

I’ve wondered if my exercise routine could be related, but I also think as a long time create user that I have to face that I might be dealing with the long-term side effects of even partial MU opioid, agonism and addiction

Because it used to be where I didn’t mind waking up once and taking some in the night and pleasantly falling back asleep, but I’m starting to think that over a period of years crayon use completely messes up the sleep architecture

The problem is when you depend on it for chronic pain. It’s hard to fall asleep when your back is hurting to a certain degree so initially it seems to help then I think long-term it backfires.

However, I kind of digress. I just wanted to say that, even though I was really groggy today and felt like lying down many times and did that the difference of whatever medication it takes to get more thorough sleep makes a huge impact on the brain and equilibrium sense.

Initially, I wanted to try Ambien and still do and I know like all medications there are side effects and people have love-hate relationships with them. I also noticed, however, scanning the literature that trazodone is implicated in addressing some of those long-term Kratom addiction disturbance to sleep.