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Hi,
I have had occasional insomnia, sometimes mild, sometimes intense, for many years. I’ve been having trouble lately. It started when I involuntarily went off my anxiety medication about three weeks ago – I couldn’t afford to refill at the time. I was off of them for two weeks but I’m back on them now, yet it will take a while, I suppose, to feel balanced again. In the meantime my sleepo has been up and down – one night I might sleep great, but the next I might not fall asleep until 3 AM and then get up at 7 (that was last night). I think it’s the anxiety over having loss of sleep that sometimes creates the insomnia – a self fulfilling prophecy. I try to relax and say, “I’ll get to sleep when I get to sleep, in the meantime I’ll read or find some other pleasant activity” but as the hours draw on the anxiety increases. How do other people here deal with this?Hi Charlie__7093:
“I think it’s the anxiety over having loss of sleep that sometimes creates the insomnia–a self fulfilling prophecy.” <<<< I think you nailed it right there, regardless of meds or anything else.
If we were perfectly logical all the time, I suppose your insight would mean no more insomnia. Instead, sleep anxiety can still hang around. Or as I think you’ve found, leave for a while and then pop back into your life.
it is indeed a vicious circle, maybe a menacing merry-go-round. I wonder if the next time you can’t get to sleep, or (like me) you wake up early and can’t get back to sleep, instead of seeing yourself as pinned on this go-round, you can visualize standing back and just watching it spin.
Sure, you’d rather it wasn’t there at all and you were still asleep, but at least knowing you don’t have to get on it. It could well be you don’t get a lot of sleep that night and are tired the next day, which I know is not fun. But you’ve been at this a while, and you have made it through 100% of the tired days so far.
Take care, you are not alone in this. And I do think your insight into sleep anxiety will help overall.
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