[Daf]

Just curious if anyone here gets two nights or more together of nil sleep at all or are they always followed by a night where you get at least some sleep.

When my insomnia was raging and I got many nil sleep nights – as many as ten in a month – I was lucky that a night of nil sleep was always followed by a decent sleep night. And that at least meant that the next day, though I felt fairly lousy and anxious, the anxiety was lessened once it became obvious (after 2 years of suffering) that a “nil sleeper” was followed by a good sleep night.

How is it for you?

Do you have many nil sleep nights? How often (number of times in a month) and are they interspersed with good nights or do you get more than one night together when you get nil sleep?

[Davy]

i can go days in a row without sleep my longest episode was 4 in a row
mostly i go 2 to days awake sometimes even 3
then at breaking point a take me sleeping drug and that gives me a good 5 hours
when i not take my sleeping drugs the max i can sleep is about 3 hours interrupted
so in a week 2 to 3 days without any sleep at all
that’s my normal i have weeks when it’s even worse
for me every night i do sleep is a gift is better than nothing even its only 2 to 3 hours

[Daf]

Thanks Davy,

Yes that is tough – that you get the zero sleep nights on consecutive nights
I was like you too. If I got 2 or 3 hours that was just miles better than getting nil – and I would feel fine.

How do you feel the next day after a nil sleep night?
I would always have this tightness in my upper chest and a feeling of mild nausea (though not actually sick), low mood. ‘orrble! Fortunately, for me, after two years I realised that I’d always sleep the following night, which lessened next day bad feelings a little. (I appreciate that’s not the case for you and some others on this site – and I really feel for you).

Another great annoyance was that there was absolutely no apparent trigger for a series of insomnia nights to start. The only pattern I could ever discern was that it was that in summer, the nil sleep nights were less frequent than in the winter months.

[Davy]

symptoms are the same chest pain ,nausea ,feeling groggy and depressed i even got fever a couple of times from exhaustion.and my heart beats faster from lack of sleep and my blood pressure is high.
i have no problem any more if it’s just one day without sleep i am used to it by now.
it starts to affect me when sleepless nights are coming in a row.
it’s just physically and mentally hard it takes over your whole life.
there are times i think this is going to kill me one day
but i told this in this forum before one good night of sleep makes us insomniacs feel we won the lottery
one good night and we become more human again
i am glad for you ,you beat this beast cos insomnia is no joke at all

[Jonathan618]

The most I have gone is 5 days in a row, zero sleep

[jazzcat22]

I’ve gone just under 48 hours without sleeping multiple times in a month and not experiencing much sleepiness except for some very quick microsleeps. Fortunately I am much better. It’s possible for even us severe cases to improve…although not become perfect (which my sleep never was, even pre-insomnia—but hey, it was sufficient to get me through 64 years of functioning well during non-sleeping-time!

[Daf]

Thanks for the feedback. It is interesting.

Some folks who comment often on this site and who are very dissatisfied with their sleep amounts often express amazement (and sometimes actual disbelief too) that there are people who can actually have any nights of nil sleep.

I often say to them that I respect the fact that their feelings of suffering are real. but also something of my own amazement too that they feel bad when they are getting some sleep every night and often averaging about 5 hours or more.

There is a huge variation of thought on what constitutes insomnia – real or imagined severe or mild!!!

[Daf]

…But, following on from my last post, I guess if someone feels bad after say 5 or 6 hours sleep, they feel bad – and that is their experience, which people with maybe more hard core insomnia should not decry.

But as we know, the average of real sleep for people is probably around 6 hours, you kind of wonder. (As my other thread shows and has Martin has mentioned on at least one podcast, if you ask a non insomnia sufferer how long they sleep for and they often get it very wrong. Reason: They’ve never thought about it too hard and tend to quote the difference between time they went to bed and time they got out, ignoring the time they had some er, “fun”, the time they spent reading, the time they took going to the loo in the night, the time they took to fall asleep in the first place and after middle nigh awakenings and the time they listened to the radio when they woke and before they got up. I Could go on. Expecting to get anywhere near 8 hours or even 7 for anyone over 25 is just setting oneself up for failure.

[Martin Reed]

I think it’s important to bear in mind that insomnia is not defined by sleep duration — and that’s because we all need different amounts of sleep.

Insomnia is defined as:

A predominant complaint of dissatisfaction with sleep quantity or quality, associated with one (or more) of the following symptoms:

* Difficulty initiating sleep.

* Difficulty maintaining sleep, characterized by frequent awakenings or problems returning to sleep after awakenings.

* Early-morning awakening with inability to return to sleep.

These sleep difficulties are present despite adequate opportunity for sleep.

For insomnia to be considered “chronic” or to be classed as “insomnia disorder”, the sleep difficulty needs to be present for at least three months.

More here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK519704/table/ch3.t36/

—

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.

The content of this post is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. All content is provided “as is” and without warranties, either express or implied.

[Davy]

@daf i hate it when people don’t believe us i like to invite them to life a week with me our days never seems to end as night turns into day and back again the only thing we ask is for a basic human function some sleep so we can reset

[RomaineCalm]

I’ve gone 48 hours on hill.

My sleep is usually can get a 45 min nap in and awake the rest of day/night. But my normal pattern is very early evening sleep onset for a hard 2.5 to 3 hour nap and awake the rest. This week I’m going on 5 straight days/nights on this amount and I’m dying. My body will not sleep at night. So frustrated and disappointed in my failing body at 51. Ive have maintenance insomnia for 15 months now. ???. What’s worse is my only support here at home isn’t very much support at all. He seems less and less interested as it gets old I’m sure for him.

• This reply was modified 5 years ago by RomaineCalm.

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