Did insomnia feature as a warning sig... - Action on Postpar...
Did insomnia feature as a warning sign of your PP episode & how many days were you unable to sleep before you were treated?
Insomnia did feature as a warning sign of my PP. I was very deprived of sleep during my pregnancy and started having sleep problems as a teenager which makes me wonder about the links with hormones and PP. Following the birth of my son I found it very hard to switch off and sleep. I was over the moon and so elated and couldn`t switch off at all. During the first six days after my son was born I only had a couple of hours sleep in total. My immediate thought when i started hallucinating at the onset of PP was that my mind was packing up due to the lack of sleep.
My husband is convinced that sleep depreciation is what caused my psychosis versus my bipolar diagnosis. I think the lack of sleep plays a huge role in our episodes.
Yes, insomnia was a huge but MISSED warning sign of my PP. I too have suffered insomnia in the past due to chronic pain but only a max of 24 hours and nothing like what I suffered after the birth of my first son. Since the PP I treat insomnia very seriously and I will only endure it for one night before I take a very short course (1 or 2 nights) of sleeping tablets to nip it in the bud.
I'm sure that one of the triggers of the PP was the sleep deprivation I experienced the night before labour and then the 19hour labour itself, which I found very emotionally traumatic, a fact that seemed to go overlooked afterwards. I probably only had about 2 hours sleep the night before my waters broke and that was the last time I could lose consciousness until I was admitted to the psychiatric ward without my baby when he was only 5 days old. They had to drug me heavily to make me sleep. So I probably went a minimum of 160 hours without sleep from when labour started.
It was as Sarah described above I could not switch off. I longed for sleep and was given plenty of opportunity yet it was as though my body had lost the ability to shut down. I could not even doze. My mind would race with all kinds of scary and frightening thoughts - it is no wonder sleep deprivation is a form of torture, it's horrendous. When the switch flipped in my head (which is exactly how it felt) and I became severely delusional, at first I believed it was because my brain had not slept for so long and all I needed was sleeping tablets. I wish it had been that simple. But as a consequence of the severe sleep deprivation, in my care plan for preventing PP after my second pregnancy safe-guarding sleep and using sleeping tablets if necessary were a key aspect.
I still find it hard to believe that none of the health professionals involved in the initial stages; the GPs*, midwives, Community Psychiatric Team and the Crisis Team or even A&E, realised that my total lack of sleep was a key sign that I was severely ill with an illness that is a psychiatric emergency.
(*one of my GPs was excellent and when I initially phoned her with concerns over my mental state she acted immediately. I only wish she had been the GP to come out to my home and recognise how ill I really was.)
I was hospitalized 5 days before giving birth because of pre-eclampcia. And stayed in for 5 days afterwards. My daughter was in neonatal unit. I more or less didn't sleep for the whole 10 days as I was worried about the birth being too early (2months early). And then I used to spend my hole nights and days with my daughter in neonatal unit.
The midwives and nurses didn't picked up on my PPP even though I had panic attacks on the postnatal ward. And I was discharged. It's only on going back to hospital to visit my daughter that it was diagnosed.
They tried to get me to sleep as I had barely slept in 11days and at first couldn't. Only after druguing me up could they do it.
Reading your responses is interesting as I had exactly the same experience. I only had a 5 hour labour but it was through the night so didn't sleep that night, then up all day, stayed overnight in hospital too elated etc to sleep - exactly the same I couldn't switch off. Just too excited / elated to sleep. And it was 3/4 days of not sleeping. When the psychosis happened in a very extreme sudden way I thought too it was just due to lack of sleep and my mind had just packed in, I think my partner thought that too.
Yep, massive factor in my PP onset - didn't sleep for about a week. Total lack of sleep in hospital following emergency c-section - impossible, babies crying all time, other mums snoring their heads off, me totally confused and v upset due to whole experience. Really believe if I'd had my own room & could've slept, may well have prevented it. Now, as others mention, I am v careful and wary of not getting enough sleep.
Thanks for the comments everyone, keep them coming. A lot of our experiences are very similar where sleep is such a huge issue.
After the long drawn out chilbirth of my first child and not having any sleep, but totally exhausted but excited and overwelmed by it all, not being able to just relax and get asleep could have caused the onsett of my pp.
Id had severe hyperemesis during pregnancy and was sleep deprived as I had to wake every 4 hours for medication to help with the constant vomiting and keep me alive basically. The night before my elective section I got 3 hours sleep only worried that I would die and leave my older son without his mum. Then I could not sleep at all - why do they put 4 mums and babies together. You can't catch up tin the day with constant visitors etc (well partners all day but other visitors get generous times. And if somone has just given birth a whole family come down for a bit before being sent away. So I was relieved to get home and thought I would just sleep. In reality I was very ill from exceedingly low iron and a heavy blood loss that was borderline for transfusion, from 8 months of malnutrition due to severe vomiting and from no sleep. I got about 3 hours in a whole week. 6 days postpartum I walked to the nearby motorway bridge in desperation. It was horrendous. But I couldn't leave my older son and so I screamed because I was so trapped. I then believed I had to adopt my baby to ever sleep again. The next day I got antipsychotics and slept. I had been to the gp twice in this time and he had tried sleeping tablets and diazepam to no avail. A year on I am still on antipyschotics and diazepam and I sleep better than I have in years. I've always been prone to not sleeping in periods of distress and on two other occasions have been close to pyschosis but a solution was foudn to the worries and I avoided it as I slept, but on both of those occasions lack of sleep made me suicidal. poor sleep is devastating to me x
Definitely linked to my PP. My PP was 19 years ago after the birth of my son. Long, difficult labour. I couldn't sleep afterwards, mind racing. Was given drugs and taken to hospital. Took about two months to recover. Since then, I still get episodes and mood swings if I don't sleep soundly for three nights or more.
In counting 5+ nights, I'm including lack of sleep on a maternity ward due to noise and disturbances etc, but a lot of the sleep deprivation subsequent to that was wilful, part of manic state in which I didn't feel that sleep was necessary (except perhaps for lesser mortals).
Insomnia has been a problem ever since P.P and the continuous experience of my chemical imbalance.
Lack of sleep was a major trigger that lead to pp. As it is to many other peoplea experiences. I remember not being able to sleep for hours and hust could not switch off. I had my son on the 8th december 2013 and was not officially omitted by professionals until the 26/27th december. By then many of my family and friends notice my out of character behaviour and mood swings. I remember laying there wanting to sleep but just watched the hours go by. I was exteremly exhausted but somehow managed to have this energy to bomb around everywhere and cleaning etc. I also had a manic episode and was far too ill to stay in the acute ward. I was transferred to a pcu which was quiet traumatic as i remember alot. Its been two years since and not a day goes by i dont think about it. However in expecting my second child so trying to be positive!
Take care
Yes! Stopped sleeping at the end of pregnancy, racing mind with Crazy anxiety. Began to fear everything. Some nights I would stay awake all night.
unable to sleep at all for 2/3nights before full onset but prior to that only getting an hour every 2/3 hours in the night and less than 5 hours a night in total for 4 weeks in the lead up. lack of sleep had a major impact. I have no doubt if I was to have such little sleep for a long time I would have symptoms again...
I know this poll is from a long time ago but this is the first time since having my daughter over 3.5years ago that i finally don’t feel alone with what happened after her birth. I had an awful labour, waters went prematurely and had to be induced, induction didn’t work for me but after a grueling 2 1/2 days later my daughter was born via emergency c section. I didn’t sleep from when the labour started (Saturday morning) and after the labour (Monday night) I had probably already gone past the point of where my body would allow me to sleep. The night she was born I remember feeling ecstatic and on cloud nine, that evening what my body truly needed was rest and recovery after a long traumatic birth but being alone in hospital in the midst of a pandemic meant I was on high alert and felt like sleeping wasn’t an option. Due to the prolonged labour both me and my daughter were kept in hospital for another 5 days and in that time I didn’t sleep not even for 1 minute. On the Wednesday night my daughter continuously breast fed (bringing in the milk) and I just fell apart. One nice midwife offered to take my daughter for a short while so I could try and get some sleep but as I was dropping off to sleep I can only describe my body shocking itself awake and it felt like I was taking my last breath.. from that moment onwards I was completely delusional and I was convinced that the midwives were plotting to steel my baby from me. Their faces changed and looked like something out of a nightmare. I begged for my baby to come back and they did bring her back to me. For the rest of my days in hospital I went from feeling somewhat normal to severe panic and delusional. I felt so alone and felt like a prisoner. The only thing keeping me grounded was being the only person to look after my baby. I tried and tried to sleep during that time but every time I closed my eyes I felt like I was falling/ going to die. I can’t believe no one picked up on how mentally unwell I was. I finally got to leave hospital on the Saturday and I had panic attacks the whole journey home. I remember saying to myself if I go home I will be able to sleep and my husband will be able to look after my baby. But unfortunately my body had gone so far past that point that it still took another 4-5nights before I finally slept. Sleep deprivation of that level is complete torture, as soon as I slept my mind restored itself and I felt somewhat normal again for a few months. Then after a nightmare (about the hospital) I woke panicked from sleep and the same thing happened 11 nights of no sleep back to delusions and hallucinations, at that point the only thing that got me through was knowing I did eventually sleep again but it was absolute torture. No one believed that I hadn’t slept for all that time (apart from my husband). An episode hasn’t happened since then but I have had the occasional one night that I haven’t slept but try my best to manage my anxiety and panic to avoid it at all costs. I so badly want to have another baby but I can’t chance it ever happening again, for me or any of my family. Thank you to others for sharing their experience of this, finally I don’t feel alone
Hello Travel_free,
Thank you for writing here. My name's Jenny, I'm one of the peer support coordinators at APP.
I'm so glad you've found us, and so sorry to read about what you went through after having your daughter. It must have been so frightening going through those episodes and (from what I understand from reading your post) having no professional support. Have you ever spoken to a healthcare professional about what you experienced?
I had PP after my first son was born in 2012 and think sleep deprivation was a major factor for me too. It is literally used as a form of torture, it's just horrendous.
If you are in the UK, do get in touch if you would like to connect for peer support in other formats. You can read about our peer support here - app-network.org/get-help/pe...
Our insider guide about recovery from PP might be helpful to look at too - app-network.org/postpartum-...
The decision around having another baby after such experiences is such a difficult one. A lot of women decide not to have further children, but lots of women do go on to have another baby after experiencing PP. I had a second son in 2016 and fortunately didn't experience PP again. It is of course a very personal decision and we all have to make the decision that feels right for ourselves and our families, but know there is information and support available (including peer support) - if you do decide at any point that it's something you'd like to look into.
Again, I'm really glad you've found this forum and community, do write here any time.
With best wishes,
Jenny x
Hi Jenny,
Thank you for taking the time to reply to me.l and sharing the further resources for support, I am in the UK and will look into joining a cafe group. I am also sorry that you had to go through an awful time after your son and so relieved for you to not have the same after having your 2nd son.
I have been seeing a therapist for over a year trying to process and understand what happened after my daughters birth but as she isn’t experienced with PP I don’t know if the help I’m getting is the best for understanding what happened. APP is the first place I’ve read things that make sense. When I was feeling unwell after having my daughter my husband did read about PP and said he thinks that what I had but I didn’t even share with him fully what was going on in my head and I did speak with a perinatal mental heath team at the time (via 1 zoom meeting due to Covid) but managed to hide a lot of what I was going through due to the thought of having my daughter taken from me. I spoke mainly about the sleep deprivation and feeling desperate for sleep.
I am so thankful for my husband and what he did for me at that time and my own resilience in managing to make a recovery. It’s only now I feel ready to face what happened.
Thank you again for your message!
Hi Travel_free,
Thank you for your post, I’m also glad you’ve found this forum.
I had pp with the birth of my daughter in 2016 and I went on to have a son in 2020 (also born during Covid times) and fortunately I did not have pp this time.
Sleep deprivation was a massive factor for me too and second time round we did everything to protect my sleep.
I hope you do consider some peer support on here and/or a cafe group.
The links Jenny sent will be helpful.
Sounds like you have a supportive husband and hopefully you’ll be able to access some therapy soon and you can process what happened to you.
Take care
Rachel k
