Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hi,
i actually have a similar issue. My insomnia started 2.5 yrs ago when I was abusing substances and doing regular all nighters, which triggered anxiety, and this anxiety never went away. I stopped the drugs and the all nighters but a few days laters I tried to go to sleep but I woke up from an insanely crazy scary vivid dreams. I was on a steep desert hill, being chased by huge 60ft aliens like those out of war of the worlds. The dream proceeded to get weirder and weirder. this freaked me out becoz I had only every had a dream once in my life. Since the insomnia begun my sleep has been fragemented nearly every day for the last 2.5 years, and I continue to hv vivid dreams almost every time I wake up. My sleep before was always dreamless and robust. I could sleep through anything.
So I guess the anxiety is causing the insomnia but why I hv dreams and some others don’t, I don’t know. I guess my body is on alert when I’m alseep so maybe it finds it harder to send me into the other stages of sleep. I can’t seem to shake of the anxiety. Time off work, supplements, medication. Nothing works.
Hi Hannah,
You say insomnia was caused by anxiety which was caused by a troubled period. I developed insomnia from anxiety caused by trauma as well. I sleep every day but wake up multiple times a night, and every time I wake up I awake from a vivid long dream. I was wondering whether your insomnia was characterized by this as well?
Hi Danny,
I’ve avoided using meds for my insomnia. My doctor said I could be prescribed an SSRI if I wanted but I said no because from my understanding they suppress REM sleep. My insomnia isn’t causing sleepless nights, altough it has in the past, but I am interested in an effective medication that would allow me to sleep 8 hrs straight but I would like to know it isn’t affecting my REM sleep negatively. Is there anything you can say on this regarding Seraquel?
I’ve heard a lot about the body building tolerance to melatonin. By giving your body melatonin it will start to produce less of it itself. Perhaps try a precursor like Tryptophan or 5-HTP. They aren’t actually precursors to melatonin but they are to serotonin which is a precursor to melatonin. In this case the melatonin in increase may be more subtle but at least your body will continue to make its own melatonin and should create even more with the added supplements.
What’s causing the insomnia in the first place?
I have insomnia and anxiety too, but I haven’t seen anyone yet. Is there a difference between seeing a psychologist or psychiatrist?
So you wake up out of dreams too, Jilly? That’s interesting. Before my insomnia I never used to ever remember dreams. I only ever remember having one. So maybe my bad drug experiences leading up to the insomnia triggered some PTSD symptoms. Except my dreams don’t relate to anything traumatic. But it could be a sign of something. Perhaps my brain is dreaming more because it feels in danger. I know some biologists claim that we dream as practice for survival situations. So my brain could just be intensifying this process as some sort of hyper vigilance.
Mine was also caused by external factors. 2.5 years ago I had some bad drug experiences and was regularly depriving myself of sleep to the point of hallucination. Then one night my sleep suddenly became fragmented and I was having anxiety attacks. I also always wake up out of a vivid dream as well. I kind of understand the cause, but don’t know the problem and what I need to do to fix it.
Despite all this, I realise just how much better off I am when I read through this forum. I just often forget this though.
Is it just the drugs causing insomnia or the seizures as well?
I’m much younger, but yeah. I have anxiety and insomnia. Lately, I can’t sleep for more than 1-2 hrs at a time and I always wake up out of a vivid dream. When my anxiety is really bad it takes hours to fall asleep and I wake every 20 mins, and those nights are torturous.
Since I acquired the anxiety from poor behaviour patterns, I can try to reverse it that way. I’m just trying to be mindful and calm throughout the day. The problem with this anxiety though, is that I get a new irrational fear every few weeks. Now it is a fear of sleeping and having a weird dream, even though I’ve had them for 2.5 years. This has put me at a low point with my anxiety and even caused depression, but I have no choice but to keep trying.
Have you had insomnia before? And how long have you had the anxiety?
I’m avoiding pills altogether. I tried an amino acid but it failed. I wake every 2 hrs two too and I can generally total up to 6-7 hrs per night, and this is without meds. SSRIs stop the Serotonin from going back into its receptor but eventually the serotonin is metabolised, so you may need to up the dose over time. If you really needs meds then fine but I think they just mask the solution. Otherwise if you can manage around 6 hrs even if it’s broken up sleep, it’s still better than meds.
I’m here as well because it got so bad. Mine is caused by anxiety. I’ve also developed health anxiety, except it’s not just about my physical health but also my mental health. I have fears my brain is diseased and deteriorating and causing dementia, dizziness and confusion. Except the symptoms occur too randomly and too far away from each other that it has to be the anxiety making believe the symptoms are real.
It seems that most people on the forum seem to be going through worse, but I can’t seem to appreciate how much worse it could be for me. Its definitely motivating knowing I’m not alone. I just wish I had something more than online experiences to remember everyone by for when I can’t sleep or having anxiety attacks.
Hey Jilly, are you in a situation where you can’t afford to change jobs or do you think you can cope with that one late night? I ask because I did late nights for more money but I had to quit as this made my insomnia worse and now it hasn’t recovered to where it was. So if that one night makes it worse it maybe worth considering if a change would be good. Prevention is always better.
Do you mean you can’t sleep for more than two hours without waking up, or you can’t sleep more than two hours total in one night?
I’ve had anxiety and wakeful dreams both together for 2.5 years now. I think mine was triggered by severe sleep deprivation to the point of hallucination. The dreams were bad for the first couple of weeks but I made nothing of them and although I kept getting woken up by dreams, the eventually become pretty neutral. However, lately, for some reason, I have developed a fear of them and altough bad dreams are so rare, I seem to be scared of the idea of dreaming. This has reduced the quality of my sleep, but I’m just about able to get enough sleep so I can feel fully functional throughout the day.
I don’t fear waking up in my dreams and not be able to escape. In fact, becoming aware that I’m dreaming(also known as being lucid) is quite fun and this for me has been the only plus side of these wakeful dreams, but this doesn’t happen anymore. Maybe you haven’t had a lucid dream yet, but waking up in a dream and realising you’re dreaming, you can then go on and do fun things. Fly, ask your brain questions and get interesting answers, see people you don’t see anymore and hear their voices again. Maybe that will provide some motivation that may help you got over that fear.
But for me the problem has become the very idea of dreaming itself regardless of whether the dream is bad. I don’t want this to be the case because the last 2.5 years it wasn’t a problem at all. I haven’t been seeing anyone for CBT yet but hope to soon, and I’m also going to be starting meditation since I think it’s hyperarousal that is waking me up in the middle of the night.
I used free information I could find from the Internet on CBT most of which involved writing out and talking about traumas and fear etc, also dream journaling as well. These didn’t work and they just seemed to make me remember negative thoughts and bad dreams more and this made me more anxious if anything. I don’t really have memories of traumatic or negative experiences running through my mind so I don’t see the point of this aspect of CBT. Ive tried the sleep restriction and better sleep habits without success but if meditation is classed as CBT then I’m going to be doing that since it at least improves my focus throughout the day. Otherwise I haven’t actually spoken to a therapist in person. I don’t know how one goes about it. Do I see my GP or do I pay a specialist? There are expensive courses out there like the Linden Method but I’m not really in a position to be splashing cash on expensive programs, and even occasional sessions with a specialist sound like they’d be a bit too expensive for me.
I’m in a similar situation to you. Hyperarousal seems to be behind the cause of my insomnia but I don’t thinking I’m suffering to the same extent as you. I find myself waking up multiple times a night during dreaming but dreams are rarely bad or scary. I have tried CBT but with no success. It may work for you though. I tried meditation for 2 months but that didn’t work either, however, I did have a lot of things going on at that time. So I’m planning on meditating twice a day for 15-20 mins and also trying to be mindful throughout the day. I have seen a lot of studies that show meditation to be effective in normalising the sleep of PTSD patients. So maybe you could try give that a go if CBT doesn’t workout or you could do it along side CBT. Just a suggestion though.
