[Cath]

Hello,
I have been struggling with insomnia for one year now. It is not the first time that happens as I have been struggling with insomnia crisis since my teenage years but it is the longest and hardest episode and I can’t see the end of it. It started with a burn out but persisted after work conditions got better. The more it lasts the hardest it seems to get back to normal. I believe my main challenge is to win back my confidence into my ability to sleep naturally (I have been prescribed medication like sleeping pills that only have make matters worse) and stop worrying about sleep so much. It is like insomnia has taken the lead and controls my life by preventing me from enjoying things that I love, going out with my friends… I have developed a lot of anxiety relating to insomnia and have a hard time not thinking and worrying about it during the day. At night I feel I am not relaxed and often ruminate before sleep. It is like a vicious circle. Has any of you experience the same? How did you overcome it? Thank you, Catherine

[Scott]

Hey @Cath!

I think your forum post describes what many on this forum have experienced, including myself. As you mentioned, it doesn’t matter if anxiety or insomnia came first, you create a vicious cycle that both feed off each other and perpetuate your sleep issue. Worrying about sleep usually makes sleep more difficult which leads to even more worry! When we allow sleep disruption to affect our daytime functioning, the more attention you’re putting on your sleep concern. We’re tempted to cancel our social events, stop our exercise program and so on but when you begin changing your life because of insomnia, you’re putting a spotlight on the problem.

Keep in mind, as difficult as it may seem right now, we don’t lose our ability to sleep just like we don’t forget how to breathe. When you start to worry about sleep, what is going through your mind?

Scott J

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[Cath]

Thank you for your reply. I think I did not react in the right way as I did let insomnia take the lead – I have been on a sick leave for months at work and stopped many activities as I was not feeling well to enjoy them as before. My ruminations are mainly about how I will manage my sleep issue and what I should have done in the first place to overcome it. I was not lucky with the doctors I met from the start whose only answer was to prescribe strong medication as sleeping pills and xanax with no advice on how I could overcome my sleep issue. I even met an acupuncturist who told me I could die of insomnia which made me very worried and I had the bad idea to search on google and find articles about health issues related to insomnia and even a test made on rats that were prevented from sleeping for 2 weeks and died of it. Internet is not always a helper! I am also worried that the sleeping pills I took altered my ability to sleep as if my brain was not functioning well anymore. I stopped medication for months but my sleep is not improving… I am now trying to ignore my insomnia as much as I can by going on my everyday life as if I had 7 hours of sleep but it is still very hard to stop worrying and thinking about it all the time.

[MelH89]

I can feel your anxiety radiating off of you. I see myself in your comments. I’ve had a few bouts that were caused by anxiety. Worried I may be going through one now due to worries about messing up my great job. CBT helps. I took sleeping pills for 9 years every night and have been off of them since the middle of May. It’ll pass. Please remember that. When your anxious and stressed, thoughts get sticky. Just take one day at a time and consider doing some therapy. It really helps.

[Peachykins]

Ive been there. So frustrated when Im so tired and still cant sleep. Maybe it’s like Im waiting sleep to take over but it isnt. I can feel myself twitching meaning Im ready to go to dreamland. But since Im so eager to sleep, it does the other way around. It stopped. And I only have 1-3hrs of sleep that night. Then it’s much worse the next night. But then we have to do something for it. We need to be disciplined enough to sleep and get up at the same hour the everyday. Dont take a nap. And when we cant sleep, let’s not be mad at ourselves. Just take time to read something then go back to bed when we’re sleepy.

[Author]

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