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Martin,
My sleep has been getting a little better over the last several nights. last night, I woke and got out of bed only 1 time. I did wake a few times but just rolled over and went back to sleep.
The night before only out of bed 2 times. As opposed to my normal 4-5.
My sleep specialist says I’m hypervigilant from my anxiety. This makes sense to me.
I believe the CBT I am participating in for my anxiety is helping.
My insomnia isn’t the “I just can’t sleep” type. Mine is the “I’m afraid to go to sleep or my anxiety is so revved up I can’t even lay still to go to sleep” type. I can be nodding off reading and then still have trouble getting to sleep because I’m having sleep starts or my mind is racing or I’m so hypervigilant that every little thing makes me nervous.
I do still feel apprehension when going to bed and last night the 1 time I did wake up was after I had been asleep for about an hour. I bolted awake in a panic and was out of bed before I knew it. I did use the restroom and go back to bed so it wasn’t as bad as normal.
I am noticing some improvements in my anxiety and I think it’s helping with my sleep.
The issue of pain is off and on now. It does wake me sometimes but it may be that I’m sleeping so lightly that I wake up from it.
Last nights sleep was a bit of a mess. I did take .25 Clonazepam because I had been feeling more anxious the last 2 days and it felt like it was going to be one of those times that it would make me not want to stay in bed.
The meds (although very low dose) did relax me and I looked forward to sleep. Decided to watch a little bit of TV in bed with the wife and we were both falling asleep within about 20 minutes. So turned off the TV and lied down to sleep.
I think I fell asleep relatively quick and I did feel more relaxed than I had in a while. Mentally felt like it was going to be a good nights sleep.
Lights out was about 9:50pm and I woke up just 45 minutes later. I can’t even recll why very clearly except I think I was aroused by something. It wasn’t leg/hip pain. I got out of bed, used restroom, drink of water and back to bed.
Slept for 1 hour and awoken again. Same process.
Slept for 2 hours and awoken again. This time I think I woke up sweating. Been doing that lately. Repeat process. This time it took me longer to get back to sleep when I got back in bed. but CPAP reading says I was in bed for 2 hours.
Woke up again – repeat process.
This time in bed for about 20 minutes before wife’s alarm went off and woke me up. I had intended on sleeping another hour but I just got up instead.
Room temp is cool (66F) and only a sheet on my upper half. No pajamas.
Normally, even when taking medication, I usually remember why I wake up and how often. Last night was a bit of a blur but I don’t think hip pain played a part at all.
It seems like I’ve become conditioned to wake up every 1-2 hours from the pain so now I wake up even if I don’t have pain.
Now, I will say that the night before I woke up (or at least only got up) 2 times. I had one period where I slept for 4 hours straight. No medication involved. That night was 1 hour – 2 hours -4 hours.
The night before that I took 50mg Diphenhydramine (Benadryl) and slept 4 hours – 1.5 hours- 1 hour.
So I know there’s hope. I just don’t know what it’s going to take to break this cycle and return to my normal pattern of sleeping blissfully through the night.
The ordeal of my injury and healing and now recovering from the residual aeffects(hip pain/imbalance) I’m sure is a big part of it. The anxiety doesn’t help and I’m working on that with a therapist. Usually, that affects my sleep initiation more ], which has improved.
My best friend is also in the hospital and will be having open heart surgery Saturday so the stress from that is surely playing a part.
Open t any and all suggestions on how to break this pattern.
Martin,
Sorry for the delayed response.
If I recall correctly, my sleep restriction window was about 11:30 PM to 5:00 AM.
I’m not following a rigid sleep window per say but I do go to bed about the same time and wake up at the same time. Usually about 9:45pm – 5:00am. Sometimes I’ll stay up just a little later and sometimes I’ll sleep in until 6:00am or later if I can. The reason being, sleep has been so fragmented that I need to get some rest somehow.
I use my CPAP 100% of the time except for a few times when I started having the recent insomnia and anxiety issues.
I do use good sleep hygiene practices for the most part except for sometimes reading a little in bed and sometimes a little TV.
My anxiety (and related fears) are centered around sleeping and going to bed.
CPAP makes this more challenging due to the breathing not being so natural as I’m laying there waiting to fall asleep. This was not the case before the anxiety started.
I also have some anxiety about sleeping on my back or laying on my right side. Anxiety is a bugger. Makes you feel and think the dumbest things.
I’m confident when my anxiety is back in check, sleep will improve.
I do try to mentally separate the sleep issue as being related more now to having been injured. Even now, most of the time I wake up because of the hip pain. I’m working on this at physical therapy but man is it frustrating.
I struggle with not being comfortable “mentally” with going to bed and sleeping. I try to not let myself get worked up over it but it’s frustrating. Again, it’s just the anxiety.
Had no issues like this since 2014.
