What kind of insomnia does everyone suffer from? How do you cope with it day-to-day?

[wreckedsasa]

I have two different types the main one is when I get to sleep fine but only stay asleep for 30mins to 1 hour. Then battle to sleep again for 30mins ... repeat until morning (7am). My second type I suffer for 1 week every month, I almost fall asleep only to jolt awake at the cusp of the sleep sweet spot for no reason. I need to nap every day otherwise I start shaking and feeling sick.

Tell me your secret stay awake tools everyone, please.

p.s. I suffer from anxiety, OCD and super sensitive senses!!

[lottysunshine]

hello.. elusive sleep lol.... I too suffer. mainly by waking about 3 am.. it takes ages to drop off again. I use lavender oil which helps a little.. when It gets too bad I have the occasional sleeping med. I also get woken by panic attacks when I am suffering anxiety. this is awful. ..If you need a nap I say have one x

[anxiousrecoverer]

Oh God I hate insomnia. Don't suffer anymore for some reason, although my anxiety is worse than it was. Nowadays, I tend to suffer from hypersomnia and I just don't feel right at all unless I've had 12 hours of deep sleep! (And believe me, there is no waking me before then, either, unless someone is screaming at me that I have to go to work!)

But I used to suffer from insomnia terribly and with me it was just not getting to sleep at all. I got into a pattern for about 18 months of sleeping for 14 hours every 35-40 hours. It was basically one night on one night off, so I was going to work without a wink of sleep two to three days a week. My doctor gave me temazepam after nothing else worked, but even that just made me feel stoned without inducing sleep.

It feels horrible to be exhausted, I used to get terrible nausea and muscle shakes and after about nine months I started to really lose my mind. It's weird looking back how close I seemed to be to going mad. I was getting really confused and I was so out of it all the time.

I really hope it gets better to you.I must say insomnia is one of my most hated symptoms.

[Bramwell]

I go out like a light but jerk awake at 3 or 4 or 5 with pounding heart and all the usual anxiety symptoms.

If I have a 'good night' I'll manage to drift off again, but more likely when I have bad anxiety each time I slip back off to sleep I'm thrust back awake in a panic just as I drop off. This can happen quite a few times until I give up trying to sleep and sit up and read.

Reading seems to calm me.

[bebushka]

It takes ages for me to fall asleep, even though I take a zopliclone every night, but wake between 2.30 and 3.30am every day. I cant seem to fall back to sleep and worry about how I am going to do a days work. I have to take a tablet otherwise I dont sleep at all. Gone are the days before anxiety when I could sleep the clock round. Wish they would come back

[misaq]

hi friend, i suffer from ptsd , and insomnia is one of my many symptoms. i used to take tamazepam , but got addicted to them , i could eat them like smarties but still get no sleep . i was then put on zolpidem , which gave me horrendous hallucinations , and when i did get to sleep i used to sleep walk. after trying to climb out of a third floor flat window my wife took me back to the doctor and demanded that i be taken off them. i was under a psychiatrist , who basically used me as a medical testing unit. he then put me on diazapine , and nitrazapine which still gave me no sleep. so then he put me on citalapram as well as the other 3 benzos . by law unknown to me , you are only supposed to be on one benzo at a time , and for only 4 weeks. i was on 120mil of diazapine, 80mil of tamazapine, 20mil of nitrazapine and 40mil of citalapine. i was also on sertalapram, cirtraline , olanzapine, eflexor, aripiprozole, basically a walking zombie. after being on all of this medication , of which i have little memory about, my wife sued the hospital for mispractise, and settled out of court. it has taken 15 years to reduce me of the benzos, the side affects where really bad, they say they are worse to come off than heroin. at times i just wanted to die. i am now on 25 mil of diazapine and have been told i will never get off it. i now take mirtazapine and now sleep atleast 3 to 4 hours, maybe thats all i will get, but after what my wife has been through with me being ill , well she deserves a medal.