[Sydonia044]

Hi,

I’ve been having severe problems with insomnia for the past 5 weeks now which I believe has been triggered by a mental breakdown due to body dysmorphic disorder, anxiety and depression. Prior to the last 5 weeks I could easily fall asleep for up to 10 hours or sometimes more if I wished, but now it feels as though I’ve lost the ability to fall asleep and if I do it’s for no longer than half hour. Many nights I will just lie there with my eyes closed all night unable to drift off I even went to AE hospital with 6 days of no sleep and it seems as though sleeping pills (zopiclone) is the only thing that can send me off to sleep, but for no more than around 5 – 6 hours. I’m getting really concerned now as I’m getting many physical symptoms. Does this sound like anxiety induced insomnia or something more serious? I’ve tried basic sleep hygeiene to no avail as well as listening to headspace app. Any help would be greatly appreciated as this  is causing me so much distress and worry and is making me quite house bound due to being so mentally and physically exhausted, but unable to fall asleep.

Kind regards,

 

Matt

[Martin Reed]

Hello Matt. Sorry to hear about your struggles with sleep.

It certainly sounds as though you are dealing with a lot of anxiety and it is quite likely that this is why you are struggling to sleep.

First, let me reassure you that you have not lost the ability to sleep.

Can you tell us a bit more about your sleep pattern for the past few weeks? When do you normally go to bed at night, when do you normally get out of bed to start your day, and how much sleep would you say you get on a typical night? Do you tend to struggle more with falling asleep at the start of the night, staying asleep during the night, or both?

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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.

[Sydonia044]

Hi Martin,

Thank you for your reply and for the reassurance as it most certaintly is a frightening thing. For the past few weeks I have been going to bed around 11pm – 12pm and getting out at around 7am – 9am. I usually try and wind down to a movie an hour before and then I’ll listen to a podcast or music designed to help with sleep during. At the moment without meds it seems as though I can only get around half an hour to maybe an hour of sleep at around 5am if I’m lucky and with meds potentially 5 or 6 hours of not very restful sleep. I seem to be having very vivid dreams also which I never really had before, well not to this extent. I would say I struggle with both, but maybe falling to sleep more so. Body jerks are also a problem at times and I feel as though I’ve become very sleep deprived and experiencing new and worsened physical symptoms. I really hope that this is down to just anxiety and not something more sinister? Have you heard of similar cases to my own who have managed to get their sleep back? Thank you again for reaching out.

 

Kind regards

 

Matt

[Martin Reed]

First of all, great to hear that you are taking time to unwind before bed. That’s important and something many people overlook.

The body jerks you feel could be hypnic jerks, which are harmless:

https://insomniacoach.com/forums/topic/jerking-self-awake-when-falling-asleep/

They could also be a “hyperarousal response” to normal physiological changes that occur as we fall asleep:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owKbQJOHezs

If you’re typically going to bed between 11:00 PM and 12:00 AM and getting out of bed between 7:00 AM and 9:00 AM, this means you are allotting between seven and 10 hours for sleep. This is a lot of time to be allotting for sleep, especially if you feel that you don’t usually manage more than six hours of sleep.

You would also likely benefit from making sure you get out of bed by the same time every day since this has a huge influence on sleep. Getting out of bed at different times can reduce sleep drive — meaning that sleep might be more difficult the following night — and it can leave us with all the symptoms of jet lag since our body clock cannot follow a regular, predictable rhythm.

Since one of the biggest complaints associated with insomnia is fatigue, and one of the biggest complaints associated with jet lag is fatigue, we can recognize that an inconsistent sleep schedule has a big influence on sleep quality and how we feel during the day.

I think you would benefit from keeping a basic sleep diary for a week, calculating your average nightly sleep duration and creating a sleep window based on this.

Here’s a basic sleep diary you can use:

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/insomnia-coach/Short+Sleep+Diary.pdf

Make sure you don’t go to bed before your new sleep window starts, and only go to bed once you feel sleepy. However, no matter what happens, make sure you are always out of bed by the end of your sleep window every day.

I hope this gives you a good starting point!

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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.

[Rion123]

I’m experiencing the same problem, how are you now?

[Sydonia044]

Hi Martin,

 

Thank you for taking the time to respond and for the information. I guess I’m just very concerend as it doesn’t feel like a sleep hygeine problem due to I can go days without sleep I just lie there with my eyes closed still concious throughout the night. I’m really hoping it’s nothing more sinister like neurotoxcity or something? I know I’m jumping to conclusions, but it’s really worrying as before I could fall asleep with relative ease and stay/get back to sleep with no problems also. Have you heard of similar cases who have been successful in getting their sleep back on track?

 

Kind regards

 

Matt

[Sydonia044]

Hi Rion,

Not much change at the moment. Are you also literally not able to fall asleep naturally? How many hours are you getting on average?

Matt

[Steve]

Hi Matt. I am not a doctor but I wanted to jump in here and assure you that it probably isn’t neurotoxicity or something like that. Especially since you were checked out at the hospital. I can assure you that almost everyone on this board, including myself, has thought that they must have some kind of disease when their insomnia first hit and wouldn’t go away. It sounds more and more like you have a high state of anxiety and you have worked yourself up about your insomnia so that you can’t sleep. You have all of the classic signs. I know because I am going through this myself. That’s why CBT-i, with its sleep restriction and stimulus control can probably help you, especially since you haven’t had your insomnia long. (I have had mine about 7 or 8 months now.) I also wanted to mention that you say you have vivid dreams. That can definitely be from the meds they are giving you.

I do have a question for you. You say that you are getting physical symptoms from the insomnia. Can I ask you what some of them are? I myself, besides the exhaustion, have the brain fog, dry eyes, dizzyness, tremors, weak in the legs and in the last couple of weeks, vertigo. (I have had CT scans and other tests and they have all come back negative.) That is why I am going to try doing the Sleep Restriction again in the free insomnia course Martin has here on the site. It is getting really tough to do my job and so I need to do this. I suggest you check out the free insomnia course yourself as I think the principals in it would help you immensely. Good luck to you.

Steve

[Sydonia044]

Hi Steve,

 

Thank you for your reply and I hope that’s not the case, but you’re right when something like this happens we tend to think the worse. Although, they didn’t really check me over all that thoroughly just a blood test and an ECG, which both came up okay apparently. That’s true though I’ve been dealing with anxiety and mental health for a while now so perhaps it’s the main culprit. How was you in the beginning were you also not sleeping at all days on end without taking a sleeping med? How is your sleep now are you able to get some hours of natural sleep?

I seem to be getting blurred vision, more depression and irrational/obtrusive thoughts, exhaustion, lack of motivation, altered/worsened digestive system, lower back pain on occasion, tension around the temples, worsened skin conditions. All in all it’s really getting me down and difficult to work on my other mental health issues when I don’t have one of my major anchors atm which is natual 8 hour plus long sleep. Do you know how your insomnia came about? Any potential triggers? I had to take time off work due to this so I understand. I’ll check out the free course if it’s been helping you?

 

Kind regards,

 

Matt

[Steve]

Hi Matt. My triggers were some surgery I had to have done, an expensive truck repair bill, and the death of a family pet. The triggers are gone now but the anxiety over sleep remains. I started having insomnia back in November of last year when I just awoke one night and couldn’t get back to sleep. It progressed into February where I went 4 days on one hour’s sleep. My sleep slowly came back to 4 to 5 hours a night but in very fragmented sections. A lot of times I even get less then that. It’s just not enough and my body is feeling the effects. As for meds, they gave me everything from anti-depressants to sleeping pills but nothing worked. Or only worked a couple days and then quit. My advice to you is that the meds aren’t going to make your insomnia go away, only mask it. And they also can interfere with the type of sleep you get. Plus, there is the issue of dependence/withdrawal. I do recommend Martin’s free sleep course on here. I tried it once but for various reasons couldn’t deal with the sleep restriction. However, starting this weekend, I will be trying it again. I heard the paid course is also very good. The difference is that in the paid one, Martin is a cheerleader/coach, which many of us need to get through the sleep restriction. Good luck with whatever you decide to do. I know how tough insomnia is.

[Sydonia044]

Hi Steve, did you do anything to get those 4 or 5 hours back? I would kill for that right now as I literally feel as though I’m not sleeping at all perhaps half an hour to an hour of very fragmented sleep. I agree in regards to drugs I really don’t want to go down that route especially with hypnotics and benzos although I am on something for my depression and anxiety unrelated to those specific types. I am now waiting to see Hugh Sellick in London who has personal experience with insomnia and CBTI treatment so fingers crossed. I just prey it’s possible for us to both get enough sleep to feel refreshed and functional again. Where are you from?

[Steve]

Hi Matt. I am from New York State. I didn’t do anything to get those hours back. I think I just realized I had insomnia and not some incurable disease and the stress left me some, although I still have stress about insomnia. I have just started the sleep restriction program so I am very tired. I only have a 5.5 hour window to get my sleep and the first night, I only got 45 minutes of sleep. Last night, which was the second night, I got about 4 to 4.25 hours of sleep in. I am really exhausted right now and that is what the sleep reduction program is supposed to do. Make you so tired you sleep and retrain your brain to be able to sleep in your bed again. It’s going to be tough to do this and also go to work this coming week. I now know a lot of my symptoms are from lack of sleep because when I got up this morning, I felt like my old self for a couple hours. But 4 hours of sleep doesn’t last long and a couple hours later, all of my symptoms (the hand tremors, shaking, inability to focus, the headaches) came back again. So I’m presuming if I had a medical condition, I would have felt that way as soon as I got up. I hope I can get more sleep soon to get rid of these symptoms for good. Good luck with your appointment and I hope you start getting better sleep as well, although you are probably going to have to do CBT-i and its sleep reduction as well.

[Sydonia044]

Hi Steve,

How does the sleep restriction program exactly work? The thought of getting out of bed if you can’t sleep in say 20 minutes seems daunting especially if your mind isn’t letting you fall asleep at all. I can imagine it’s even harder when you have to work I had to take a leave of absense because of mine although I’m not sure what’s worse as I’m pretty housebound now because of it and I guess working and being active possibly helps build sleep drive more? I just don’t understand how I can go 6 days with about 1 hour of sleep I mean does that still sound like insomnia to you or something else? Before I would crash out so easily if I didn’t have 1 night of sleep and could easily sleep for even 10 hours at a time. Are you also getting blurred vision? Keep going Steve we can beat this! Would you like to keep in contact through the phone messages? It would be good to support one another if possible?

 

[Steve]

Yes Matt. It certainly sounds like insomnia to me. If you want to know how sleep restriction or CBT-i in general works, go to the top menu on the page and click on Resources. You’ll find tabs devoted to it. And yes, I also get blurry vision. I now have what’s called dry eyes from it and have to use eye drops. Yes, let’s keep in touch. Feel free to post on here or answer one of my posts and we can do it that way.

[Rion123]

Hi Matt/Steve,

I’m experiencing the same thing until now. Many nights I just lie in my bed with my eyes closed all night unable to drift off. I’m kind of panicking that I might have lost my ability to sleep. I had a panic attack 2 weeks ago and few days after that I started to have sleeping problems and this is giving me more anxiety than I already have. Luckily I was able to sleep several hours Friday night, but Saturday.. I had a very vivid dream but it didnt feel like I slept at all. Sunday night (Monday morning now)..i didnt get any sleep. I’m incredibly worried and freaking out, I desperately need help.

[Author]

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