[Lpainter]

I am brand new here and excited to learn more! My question is – do you go off all sleep meds and supplements cold turkey when you begin this process? Or wean off them gradually?

My sleep issues began during a rough 3 year stint of working 14 hour days, 6 days per week, beginning at 3:30 am daily. Now that I’m retired and this ended a year ago, I have no stress/pressure but have PTSD from that time as there was emotional work abuse involved. So it’s hard to get to sleep and I wake in a brain panic still at 3:30.

To sleep now I’ve created a monster of a sleep hygiene routine taking advice from every ‘expert’ on YouTube (term used lightly), and use a huge amount of supplements plus illicit drugs. And unfortunately it all works. But I’d really like to get off EVERYTHING! And allow sleep to be natural as intended.

The fear of course is removing all of this in one shot and not sleeping at all for days on end. I’ve tried removing just one small thing in the past and it was disastrous. So do I bite the bullet and deal with the withdrawal? Or ease in? Any stories on how you did this are appreciated!

[Chee2308]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

Unfortunately, there is no right or wrong answer to your query. It all depends on you.

With that said, insomnia is strictly not a medical problem, it is more of a perception issue and more closely mimics a phobia problem. You simply just have an aversion of poor sleep. Phobias are not cured by taking anything external, it is an internal issue, because it’s all mental. Whatever you need to treat yourself, you already have it all inside you.

You also said it yourself, you want to sleep naturally, so you already believe the issue is internal not external. Would you continue to take medicine for a condition you never believed you have? If you don’t have flu, would you take anti-flu medication? Or if you don’t believe you have cancer, why would you start doing chemo and take all kinds of anti-cancer drugs, believing they all “work” in keeping cancer away?? The scenario doesn’t make any sense. If you never needed any medicine to sleep when you were born, why would you suddenly need them all now either? What actually made you sleep all these years including when you were a baby? All those drugs or your body itself?

Whatever you do to try to sleep automatically reinforces your insomnia. Because they keep you living in fear of poor sleep. That kind of stress is mentally stimulating enough to keep you awake. You must overcome these fears if you want to beat insomnia. Good luck and best wishes.

[Lpainter]

Wow this is an absolutely amazing reply, thank you!!!! This really is a perception issue – I can see that now. I cut all the stuff I take in half last night and slept better than the night before by telling myself sleep will come, not watching the clock, and not freaking out when I woke up multiple times throughout the night. I appreciate your time to type all this out for me 🙂

[Author]

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