[Lujesa]

Hi all
Thanks for accepting me to this forum. I am at the end of my tether with severe insomnia. Last night I did not sleep at all and have had very little sleep over the past 6 weeks and only then with Zopiclone, which I know can’t continue but I am so totally exhausted. I have previously tried CBTi but it did not work for me unfortunately. Where do I go from here?

Thanks,

[Martin Reed]

Can you tell us more about the CBT-I you tried? What did you change and how long did you experiment with those changes? If they had worked, what would be different?

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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.

[Lujesa]

Thanks for your reply Martin. I have completed a prescribed CBTi course here in the UK and I have continued to use the techniques. I found sleep restriction of no use as I cannot fall asleep at all [unless I take some form of medication], going to bed late and getting up early made no difference to this. I have tried to come off sleep medication by tapering several times but after 5 days of absolutely no sleep, I am desperate. I was recently admitted to hospital as an emergency after collapsing due to complete exhaustion – at this point, the doctors insist I have to take a hypnotic, so I am going round and round in circles. With medication, I can fall asleep easily and then get about 6 hours without interruption. I have been taking either low dose Zopiclone or Phenergan nightly for some months.

My goal is for my natural sleep drive to return and not to have to use medication which is what I had hoped to achieve from CBT. Can this be achieved somehow without experiencing severe sleep deprivation? I have had every medical test going – nothing has been found – and now my GP wants to start me on an SSRI but I don’t think I’m depressed, just suffering sleep deprivation exhaustion.

Thank you.

[TC]

Hi!
I had a an acute insomnia episode 2 years ago. I was probably 9 nights in a row with no sleep
Worst time of my life, horrendous. I wanted to kill my self and I felt hopeless and miserable.
Always been a healthy person I have got 2 young children
My gp put me on antidepressants and I was so desperate that I accepted them and took them for about a year.
At the time of the insomnia I found out my iron levels were depleted and funnily I am struggle again with my sleep and iron levels are low again.

After treatment my anaemia improved but I was so so traumatised by the fact I couldn’t sleep that I enrolled CBT and it did helped a lot.
I do feel for you and I was panicking already because last week I couldn’t fall asleep for few nights but somehow I found Martin and he has helped me a lot so far!
Just hang on in there!
Eventually,we will all sleep
Bw

[Lujesa]

Thanks for your reply. It’s very scary to find yourself in this situation but it helps to know others have been there and survived somehow. My medical tests have not shown any physical problems. Today I feel so exhausted I don’t know how to carry on. Its very tough.

[TC]

Yes, I know. When I was going through it I thought I was not going to make it.
I literally stopped living.
Couldn’t go to work, couldn’t look after my children or
Myself, was a waste and I never had this kind of problems before.
It lasted about 3 months but after 2 weeks the sleep gradually started to get better.
If I could give you an advice I would say talk to someone who is kind to you and be kind to yourself.
Talking to my husband about how miserable I was feeling helped me to feel a bit better.
I wish I would have known about this forum 2 years ago!
Insomnia can be very lonely and I promise you It will get better although now it seems it won’t.

Do not think much about not getting enough sleep (specially if you do not have commitments in the morning) just let it go and think how lucky you are you have no underlying conditions.
Martin’s course is probably well worth it. Haven’t enrolled myself yet but I can see it will give you skills forever.
All the best

[Martin Reed]

Hello again Lujesa!

Did sleep restriction at least reduce the amount of time you might have been spending in bed, trying to make sleep happen? Or, did you find that it had no value or benefit whatsoever? (Either option is perfectly fine, I’m just trying to get more of an idea of your experience here.)

Sleep restriction (although it has an awful name!) shouldn’t deprive you of sleep since it usually involves allotting an amount of time that is at least as long as your average nightly sleep duration over the past week or two.

Is there a difference between your approach to sleep in the days when it wasn’t an issue or a concern, and now?

Do you feel as though your struggle with sleep might be influenced by trying to make it happen? How much effort do you find yourself putting into sleep? How hard do you try to avoid nighttime wakefulness when it shows up?

As you have seen here, you aren’t alone. What you’re going through is hard, so please be kind to yourself, too.

—

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.

[Lujesa]

Thank you for replying Martin. Sleep restriction did reduce the time I spent in bed but I couldn’t fall sleep so I found it frustrating. I didn’t understand how it would help me when I wasn’t able to sleep at all. My problem appears to be that I have lost my sleep drive and I am going night after night with absolutely no sleep and although I try so hard not to resort to sleeping medication, I get the point of desperation and have to take something. I am exhausted and it’s so hard to keep going – so, yes, I probably am trying too hard to sleep and giving the problem too much attention but as I cannot work, socialise, drive or do more than the most basic tasks, it’s very hard not to. I am seeing my GP tomorrow morning, and I know he will tell me that I have to take sleeping tablets but I wonder if they are part of the problem, as now my brain doesn’t seem to know how to switch off without them. If so, is this likely to be permanent or does your brain recover eventually?

[Martin Reed]

The thing about sleep drive is we never lose it — when we’ve been awake for long enough, we will always fall asleep.

What can temporarily overpower sleep drive are all our ongoing (and understandable!) attempts to make sleep happen.

Ultimately, sleep cannot be controlled — and the more we try to get rid of wakefulness the more our brains might learn to believe that wakefulness is a threat that it needs to be alert to protect us from. Ironic, I know!

We can’t switch off our brains (just as we can’t switch on sleep) — and the more we try to control what cannot be controlled, the more we might get tangled up in an ongoing struggle that can make things more difficult.

I hope there’s something helpful here.

—

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.

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