I. HATE. Insomnia.!

Life in Recovery
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I’ve spent so many decades merely “passing out” instead of “falling asleep” and now, ever since I’ve been clean, my sleep has S U C K E D !

7 months of:

No sleep, little sleep, erratic sleep, restless sleep … falling asleep, one or two nights, here and there, at 9 or 10pm then being WIDE AWAKE at 2am and unable to fall back asleep for hours, if at all, then? … not falling asleep 'til 2am or … Midnight or, say … 5am or … 3am or … 6:30am, if at all, then? … trying to stay up all night and day, without sleep, to “reset” my sleep schedule, being utterly EXHAUSTED at 9pm, lying down and staring, WIDE-EYED, into the black abyss that surrounds me UNable. to. sleep. Then? … trying everything I can think of: hot showers before bed, no caffeine after 2pm, stretching, getting up after 30 minutes of not sleeping and doing anything else until feeling sleepy, meditation, ASMR, trazodone (Prescribed. Hated it/Didn’t work) … and, NOW, for the past week-ish (in conjunction with all of the aforementioned): my neck and upper back have been/are in agonizing pain and THAT, at times, causes headaches (psst! Hey! YOU! 🫵🏻 Did YOU know that neck pain and occasional headaches are NOT conducive to sleeping?)

:thinking: Soooooo . . .

I.

Am.

Starting.

To.

LOSE IT!

Other than that . . . things are fan-freakin’-tastic!

“Superfantastic,” if you will!

:eye::biting_lip::eye:

Ne-VER Be-TTER.

Wünderbar! Smashing! What was that British show? ah, yes: Absolutely Fabulous! Now … would I lie to youuuuu? I mean, I’m up … past 4am … posting so what could POSSIBLY be wrong???
:crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face: + :banana::banana::banana:

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Top of the mornin to ya @RoseCityRonin messed up sleep patterns is enough to drive a person mad. Im sorry youre struggling.

I didnt see that you tried meditation. Try the insight timer app, its free. Id suggest starting with a yoga nidra guided meditation. Worth a shot!

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Oh yeah, I listed meditation.

:pray:t2: for the advice about ahem:wink:

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Sorry missed that you have tried meditation. :confused: thats gotta be super frustrating. Hopefully today you can take it easy

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Well, let’s see…I slept from 10:0something PM to 11:03 PM and now my eyes are burning and my neck is screaming. Is THAT “taking it easy”? :rofl::rofl::rofl:

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Yeah no…lol

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Insomnia can FRO and go die a slow painful death somewhere else. When I was experiencing awful insomnia years ago, it pushed me to the brink of insanity. It was not pretty. Meditation helped a bit, but I see you’ve tried that. Outside of the things you’ve mentioned I’m not much help. So I will FRO with insomnia! :joy:

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Insomnia, lack of sleep can seriously fuck up our brains. I was sleep deprived for looooong months, mostly because I was breastfeeding my twins at night and because basically they were shitty sleepers. Older son is only 2 years older then them so he was also waking up at night like crazy. When they were sick sometimes they were few night in the row I didn’t sleep almost at all cause always at least one of them was awake. My husband couldn’t (didn’t want to) help me bcs “he has to work and he must feel fine”. I was constantly sleepy, exhausted and later on I was feeling I’m losing my mind. Literally. I was going to Dr to ask for help, but I don’t even know now what I was expecting from him :joy: There were moments I wanted to hurt myself, just a little but strong enough to go to hospital for a few days and get some rest finally. I didn’t cause I was worried my h not gonna handle situation. Just wanted to vent and tell you, I know this pain and Im very sorry for you. Unfortunately no advice. I’m so glad I’m over it and I hope your struggles would pass soon as well.

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I was ‘an insomiac’ for years. I still get restless sleep when stressed or living in challenging times (hello present day!).

I found this book to be helpful in my sleep journey. Your local library may carry it, or perhaps get it, if you request…

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Insomnia caused many relapses for me… ironically, the scant few hours of sleep I got sober left me feeling better than the several hours of passed out sleep.

After about 3 months of healthy sleep habits I started to get more sleep.

I couple years sober I sleep better than I have the last 25 years.

Schedule a sleep study with your doctor, if you are indeed sober they can get to the bottom of your reoccurring issue.

If I’m not mistaken insomnia is one of the greatest factors in risk of relapse.

Stay diligent friend. Wish you well

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The last paragraph is my brain on a daily basis. So far out in left field lol the fun part of being so tired is when you get all happy & hyper…til
You’re not anymore :joy:

But on a real note, I also struggle terribly with no sleep. I’ve checked everything off that you have. Trazodone worked for about 1 week. I’ve tried every sleeping aid and natural stuff. Actually, I just remembered I saw a video on Tik Tok that said peanut butter can help and 100% cherry juice. I’ll try peanut butter tonight & get back to you lol

This wasn’t really a reply with any tips but you’re not alone!! :slightly_smiling_face:

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I went through the same struggles for a while. Even with an exhausted body, my racing mind kept me awake for hours. Constant neck pain and tension headaches, caused by the stress of not sleeping. Do you exercise at all? Once I got back in shape and consistent with it, I fall asleep so much faster than just a couple months ago. I also take magnesium which seems to help. My chiropractor said it relaxes muscles. I cut out caffeine almost entirely, which was more bc of daily anxiety, but definitely helped the sleep too.

Now I know I stay up later than I should, and probably don’t get as many hours as I need, but I do sleep straight through the night. Which only just started happening this past month. You’re just behind me time wise. Might just be taking your body a little longer to adjust.

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How is your sleep now, @RoseCityRonin, almost a year later? :palm_up_hand:

I have been sober for 20 or so months now and mine is nothing to write home about. E.g. last night I spent 8+ hours ‘sleeping’ (after lying awake for 2+ hours before I fell asleep) and my sleep monitor tells me that a) I only got 45 minutes of deep sleep and b) I woke up 13 times :exploding_head:

I think I am starting to understand why I have never been a morning person, I am simply not well rested. Time to talk to the PCP about that!

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I sleep like garbage. It sucks.

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Sorry to hear that!