[Steve]

Rion,

You can try taking Martin’s free sleep course here or even his paid one. He is a good teacher by all accounts. Just be forewarned that neither one is an easy course and it could take a couple months to get you sleeping again. Martin should be on here Tuesday or thereabouts and he will tell you more about it.

[Rion123]

Yes, I started yesterday. Do you have insomnia also? How many sleepless night did you have before?

[Steve]

Hi Rion,

Unfortunately, the fact that you slept a couple extra hours Friday does not mean that your insomnia is ready to end. I have read that insomniacs do sleep some extra hours every third or fourth night in order to get some sleep. I know from my own experience that that is probably true. By now, insomnia is so ingrained in your subconscious that you have anxiety over not being able to sleep. You could try pills but for a lot of people, they don’t work. Also, you have to think of the side effects. The best way to beat it is with CBT-i. Martin can explain that more in detail.

[Sydonia044]

Hi Steve,

That would be good to keep in touch and yes the blurry vision is horrible indeed! Do you have blurry vision all day long if you don’t manage to sleep? I will problably implement the CBTI as best I can before seeing the specialist.

Hi Rion,

I think we need to concentrate on CBTI for now. If you can find a specialist in your area then I would advise to do so or enroll on Martin’s free course here for the meantime (I’m on day 6 right now). Seeing as there are quite a few of us with the same issue it gives me some sense of relief knowing it’s not likely something serious. Mine started after a panic attack/mental breakdown about a month ago. Have you always suffered with anxiety/depression?

[Steve]

Rion,

Yes, I have had insomnia since October of last year. It sucks to say the least. Especially when I remember that just a year ago, I was still functioning normally and doing anything I felt like doing. Like sleeping when I wanted to. Mine was triggered by stress including a divorce, surgery, expensive truck repair bill and the death of a family pet. I guess emotionally, it was too hard to handle all of those within a relatively short period of time. And then by the time I was ready to handle, I had anxiety about not sleeping and the insomnia just stayed with me.

[Rion123]

Mine started too after panic attack.. I had panic attacks before.. but the 3rd panic attack made me overly stressed/depressed , I thought I was going to die or something, is there a chance that the cortisol/stress homeone that our brain released during panic attack damages our brain/ability to sleep?

[Steve]

I doubt it damages it. We are just stressed because we can’t sleep and the more we can’t sleep, we stress. It’s a vicious circle.

[Aiva]

Hi Matt, I thought I’d jump in here to say if you’re really very stressed then you may need to see your Dr about some short term anti anxiety meds to simply help you reach the point where you can BEGIN to be constructive about improving your sleep.

This was my experience last July.  After a bad reaction to some insomnia meds (Belsomra) prescribed by my sleep specialist  I landed up in hospital with heart arrhythmia.  Turns out the extra beats were benign, there were just around 20,000 of them, and my heart was sound.  But of course that experience was very frightening and I ended up developing acute anxiety. I was a crazy lady, I thought I was going to die, I wanted to just fall on the floor and turn to dust. My husband put in an emergency call to my sleep specialist and he wrote a prescription for Valium (Diazepam).  Now this stuff is not great for long term use as it is addictive and I didn’t want to be on it but it was a life saver, it reduced my anxiety to the point where I could think about going to bed and getting some sleep.  He also prescribed an anti depressant Mirtazepine  which in low doses helps with sleep.  Anyway, I did not want to be on any more drugs ( I hate prescription meds as a rule) BUT I saw this as a holding pattern.  After 3 months of mostly reasonable sleep I weaned myself of the Valium, all good, tapered over a few weeks (was only on 5mg to begin with).  Then after that I tapered off the Mirtazepine .  This was not so easy, I got hit with rebound insomnia, it was pretty awful for a few weeks.

Anyway, fast forward a couple more months until April this year when I tried out Melatonin, which is another sleep aid (although not addictive like the others above).  Unfortunately this affected my heart for some strange reason too (although it was great for sleep) so I had to quit it after a couple of weeks.

SO here I am today, trying not to get anxious at bedtime, trying to get to the point where I feel sleepy (this is hard) and trying out Martin’s plan for SR.  The only hitch now is that my cardiologist wanted me to quit some other medication that hasn’t caused any problems in 6 – 7 years and now that I’ve stopped it I can really feel my heart pounding at times.  All of this is not good for my anxiety levels I can tell you!  I  am seeing my women’s health Dr tomorrow so I will ask for her guidance.

I hope that sharing my story it will help you, I definitely think that you should see your Dr about your anxiety levels.  They can be so high that they are counter-productive as I experienced last year.

 

[Sydonia044]

Hi Aiva,

 

Thank you for your message, unforuntely, I’ve tried many benzos and antdepressants and they don’t seem to touch me too much. I think for me because I also suffer from body dysmorphic disorder I need to get my obsessive and destructive thinking patterns/obsessions under control for the most part. You’re right meds are not the long term awnser it’s a case of trying to accept the things we cannot control in order to reduce the anxiety, but I know when you don’t sleep it’s a massive battle to tame it. I hope your meeting goes well with your Women’s health Dr. and try and stay positive.

 

Kind regards,

 

Matt

[Martin Reed]

Some really good peer support going on here. I just thought I’d add a couple of videos to address some concerns I’ve seen since my last response:

The quality of your day isn’t​ entirely dependent on the quality of your sleep: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgVyzX_HHxo

If insomnia doesn’t cause any health problems why do you feel aches and pains after a bad night? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucWebU7ukkI

Finally, although the idea of getting out of bed when implementing stimulus control can seem daunting, it can actually be quite empowering and reduce mental fatigue since you will have a clear plan and roadmap in place: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FooE0_XW4_c

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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.

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