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Had my first ever bout of true insomnia on a holiday to Europe.
I was drinking and partying heavily, and all of a sudden was unable to grab a good nights sleep staying in all forms of trashy, overheated accomodation.
Since then it’s been an up and down battle with insomnia. Having to limit my drinking as it triggers massive bouts of insomnia.
Have seen the doctor and she’s given me Melatonin, which reduces the time it takes for me to fall asleep from about 5 hours to about 2 hours. The tablets will however not last forever.
Every night I get into bed my heart starts thumping and pounding. I can go the whole day without thinking about it, but as soon as the lights go out I concentrate on whether or not I will sleep well that night.
Some nights I don’t fall asleep until 4-5am and have work at 7am, other nights around 12am-1am.
Used to be a great sleeper, trip to Europe has ruined that.
Welcome to the forum. Generally speaking, your experience is not uncommon. Most cases of insomnia start out with an identifiable one-off cause. In your case, it was likely a combination of partying, an inconsistent sleep schedule, and a poor sleep environment. This is normal, and to be expected.
However, what can then happen is once we experience poor sleep we start to think a lot about sleep — we pay more attention to our sleep than we ever did before. We may even do things to try to improve our sleep (such as going to bed earlier or staying in bed later). We may also change our lifestyle to accommodate our newly disturbed sleep patterns (such as canceling plans with friends or calling in sick to work).
Unfortunately, all of these thoughts and behaviors make the problem worse. As sleep becomes worse, we worry about sleep more. As we worry about sleep more, our sleep gets worse. This soon becomes a vicious cycle that I am sure you recognize (one symptom is feeling sleepy until we get into bed and then we suddenly feel wide awake and alert).
Did you discuss CBT for insomnia with your doctor? From what you’ve shared, you sound as though you’d be a good candidate.
—If you are ready to stop struggling with insomnia you can enroll in the online insomnia coaching course right now! If you would prefer ongoing phone or video coaching calls as part of a powerful three month program that will help you reclaim your life from insomnia, consider applying for the Insomnia Mastery program.
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