Thread: insomnia

I've had insomnia for at least 10years. I used to get maybe an hour of sleep a night. They diagnosed me autistic from how badly affected my mental ability was until while prescribing various antidepressents and antianxiety meds I started sleeping more as a side effect. Finally everyone realized my main problem was sleep deprivation but noone has found the cause of it. For the past 2years I've been taking various sleep meds including seroquel, lunesta, ambien, and rozerem.

I didn't know there was any kind of dream besides lucid. I've always known when I was dreaming and while I usually don't try to control the dreams I often... cancel... dreams I don't like or that start to go beyond logical. I always think logically even in my dreams. If it can't happen I automatically stop the dream and start a new one. I suppose it comes from the fact that for years the only way I got any sleep was to induce dreaming. I'd start out making up stories and places in my head that would slowly turn into dreams and I'd go back and forth between controlling it and just watching a dream unfold. I probably started that around 4th grade (I'm 23 now) and as my insomnia started and then got worse I'd spend more time in my head than aware of my surroundings. I'd go through entire school days just reacting to the bells and then immediately going back to the stories or dreams as soon as I sat down in the next desk. It was the only rest I got and the only way to stay sane from the lack of sleep. I got to a point my body felt so tired and weak I thought I might die if I actually fell asleep.

So now I'm on sleep meds and I'm having weirder dreams. Dreams that I lose control of or that seem so real I almost question whether that event happened. It's little stuff but I dreamt about some work I had to get done at the stable and then the next day was surprised for a second when it wasn't done. Then remembered that was a dream. I wonder if my sleep and therefore my dreams are just becoming more normal but it's kind of worrying me that reality has blurred like that on occasion lately. Which prompted my latest internet search.

You guys seem to know a lot about sleep so I think I'll hang out here for awhile.

If you're worried about blurring the lines between reality and your dreams you should do reality checks throughout the days.

As for getting to sleep you may want to try some more "new-age" techniques for a while. If the mind has nothing to think about then it will likely fall asleep and rest, so trying this method for completely clearing your mind of thought.

If you have any questions feel free to ask. The Sleep and Health forum is where to ask about sleep specifically.

to DV and I hope you do hang out here

I've been looking up ways to fix my insomnia for 5+years. I've tried such techniques and made up my own. Which is what led to forcing dreams. It stopped me from thinking about anything else that might keep me awake and often times I could reach a point where I could make the character I was pretending to be fall asleep or lose consciousness and then I'd stay asleep for awhile. It doesn't matter how relaxed I am, how tired I am, or how empty my mind is I do not fall asleep without meds. For up to a week. To the point I start having severe physical problems. I also seem to sometimes get stuck in REM, or something close to it. When that happens I wake up 2-4hours later than I normally would and dreams seem to drag on and on and on without ending or letting me wake up. The sleep part of my brain is seriously broken and noone knows why. My insurance ran out and I'm temporarily on free state insurance so I can't have any more sleep studies or blood tests done for now.

Hmm... should I make a political argument for socialize medicine? Nah.

What kind of sleep aids are you on that are expensive enough to require insurance? Are you so bad that you need prescription barbiturates? Try things like Melatonin, GABA, Diphenhydramine...

You want a med/supplement summary? I take around 900mcg of melatonin a night. More than that actually interferes with deeper sleep. By itself it doesn't do much. I had sleep paralysis and kind of halucinations when I took only melatonin and then it took 6mg to do anything. I spent most of the night awake but unable to move or do much beyond stare at the inside of my own eyelids and the next day I felt as if I hadn't slept at all. I just used up some phenibut, tried GABA for several months (6?) with no noticeable results, various herbal mixes that honestly I forget all the ingredients and names.... I can probably hunt a few down again if you really want. They add to the prescription meds but on their own they do pretty much nothing. I've choked down lots of teas and various concoctions. I just bought another tea mix claiming to help sleep with Eleuthero, peppermint, cinnamon, ginger, chamomile, lemongrass, licorice, catnip, tilia flowers (how many things can you put in one tea?). I hate tea with a passion. Went on several different diets. Vitamin and mineral supplements. Adding b vitamins specifically caused worse insomnia after a week so now I take a multivitamin daily, b vitamin complex once a week, and flaxseed oil. Tried excercising various amounts. I'm actually very active and in good shape although frequently tired. I do martial arts, ride horses, go on day long hikes... Talked to an accupuncturist and herbalist. Have seen 6 different psychiatrists and therapists. 2 sleep clinics. 3 general practitioners. MRI's, blood tests, endless prescriptions for antidepressents, antianxiety, and antipsychotics from doctors thinking it was a psychological disorder since they couldn't find a cause.

For prescription meds currently I take 150mg of seroquel a night which is $200 for a prescription for 1 month and that is the cheapest thing I have. I take 3mg of lunesta most nights and occasionally switch it out for 5-10mg of ambien but ambien doesn't let me get as deep of sleep and gives me headaches after 4-5nights. Unfortunately sleep aids don't work long term so I have to take breaks from lunesta or it steadily declines in effectiveness. I get those through free drug programs and samples. I quit rozerem because all it really does is make you more sensitive to melatonin and I react fine to melatonin so pointless when I can just take otc melatonin. All the otc herbal stuff was costing me around $90/month and I have stopped most of those for now. Right now I'm only taking the melatonin and doing further research on other things before experimenting with anything else.

Your discription is me...

I have been on medication for over 2 years, before that I was just a wreck. I have prothiadin and zopiclone evry night, cypralex and valium during the day. When I sleep I CONSTANTLY lucid dream. I am completely aware of what is going on and think to myself that I am dreamimg. I try to mopen my eyes and know when I am not. I know this sounds strahge, but I find it so distressing. The content of my dreams would make great books and I never forget them. They are usually very sci-fi, which is strange as I have not interest there at all. I wake up in the morning feeling I have never slept. It totally controls my whole life, I think about it all the time.