[Chitamaid]

So in a prior email I introduced myself, but I’ve had plenty of time, lying awake, to think about this. I have had some head injuries in the past 17 years–I am both a surfer and soccer player. I’ve not knocked myself out (for a sustained period of time) with the sports injuries; once I did fall backwards on the soccer pitch and I think I knocked myself out for a couple seconds. That was about 15 years ago. There have been other injuries over the yearswhere I hit heads with another player, hit my head on the sand while surfing, and generally do head the ball a lot in soccer. I always keep playing.

In both late October and late December of 2018, I had two bad head injuries, one falling down the stairs December 20 (broke my ribs but also had a big goose egg on the back of my head, near the occipital  ridge). The other injury I did lose consciousness and had to go to the ER (fell on a friend’s floor, twice, in the middle of the night b/c I had been drinking the night before and was dizzy).

After both of the aforementioned head injuries I went through periods when I slept well at night, but it only lasted a couple weeks. As of now, I am not sleeping unless I take at least 1.5 mg. of Xanax (which I am almost out of and cannot get another prescription for; I’m okay with that).

The actual question: what does anyone know about post-concussive insomnia? My psychiatrist is concerned, but GPs usually brush it off. I’ve had a CT scan and they did not find anything. Is there anything I can do for this? Glutathione? Anything? I cannot deal with my insomnia.

Thanks in advance for shedding any light on this matter. -Kelley

[Martin Reed]

Have you asked your psychiatrist about cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I)? CBT-I has been found to significantly improve sleep even in those who have sustained a traumatic brain injury. More on this here:

https://www.healthcentral.com/article/how-and-why-traumatic-brain-injury-harms-sleep

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