Insomnia Despite Exhaustion....

[erickamcc0523]

So, here it is at 4:15 in the morning, and I have not slept a single moment!!! Yesterday afternoon, thank God, I crashed out on the couch for about 3 hours, so at least I'm not running on completely no sleep, but I have such a full day (well... it's just 2 classes and a dentist appointment, but very full for me) planned, and I am concerned that I won't be able to do a single thing (or if I attempt it, the attempt will be worthless since I won't be able to function so well). At least at the dentist appointment, if they're not killing me, I can nap a bit, but man!! I have been doing this for the past several years, and I'm just really agrivated by it right now. I know that within the next few days I will have at least 2 or 3 where I won't be able to get out of bed, or even really be awake.... and that's the cycle that I go through. Anyone else?

[firewatcher]

Ericka,

I went for many years this way. Some nights I would lie there and think, "If I get to sleep now, I'll get six hours...If I get to sleep now, I'll get five hours...If I get to sleep now....." I have a circadian sleep disorder. I also think that all the norepinephrine coursing through my veins didn't help either (it is the wake up and go chemical.) If it is high enough, you won't sleep at all. You can try all the proper "sleep hygiene" stuff you want, but until you get that under control, you won't sleep regularly. I went through a year or so when the combination of Propranolol in the morning and Melatonin in the evening allowed me to have the best sleep quality I've ever had in my life. Now that I am more functional in daily life, I find that I have more difficulties with sleep again (doing more=more stress.) I try to keep the lights low after dusk, spend an hour relaxing before bed ("landing helicopters" my sleep doc calls it) so that I don't lay there and think. I don't watch the news and I can't see to read at night. To break this cycle it may take drugs: Klonopin, Ambien, Sonata (short acting--no hangover), Lunesta, whatever. Find the calm spot in yourself and go there for an hour before bed, practice deep breathing. I do understand, some nights I would average 30-90 minutes of sleep---it is insane! Please get some help! You can't go on this way.

Jennifer

[Stace915]

This has been happening to me lately. I will be up for 2-3 days at a time and I am SOOOO tired! I lay in bed but nothing... it is so frustrating, then I ended up with a day where all I can do is sleep. My sleep schedule is beyond screwed up... If you need someone to talk to in the middle of the night, I am usually up!

[ddschool]

Happening to me too, gradually getting worse over the past 6 months - I used to have no trouble falling asleep, and staying asleep 8+ hrs - now, if I get 1 or 2 nights of good sleep a week, I am doing well - it is so frustrating - I am trying to avoid getting a prescription for a sleep med, but I feel like I am groggy and cranky all of the time ....

[shadesofgrey49]

Ugh, I understand, and sleep is so important for us to function. Without it, brain fog and tachycardia and light headedness and nausea are worse.

[lieze]

Me too.

I've just started experiencing this myself.

One was weekend before last and I had to work the next day.

Needless to say I crashed right at 10 am for trying to push it after the sleepless night.

Then again Sunday night I was awake til probably 3 and then up at 6 when we load the kids on the bus. I did sleep last night but woke up in terror twice. Still felt the effects of the lack of sleep a bit today, hoping for a good nights sleep tonight.

lieze

[Sophia3]

Insomnia, on top of unrelenting fatigue/tachycardia, was my most disabling symptom when I was still working in 1990. Still there.

ONLY CONTROLLABLE to some degree with Klonopin.

Been studied by sleep specialists, did sleep/drug govenmt studies. ...is much a part of POTS, Postural changes trigger the adrenalin. Add to that I have alpha-delta disorder and get little REFRESHING sleep.

Hope you find ways to cope. One does eventually.My longest time awake with no NAPS or anything was 36 hrs, in early 90's. I used to see MANY sunrises.

Thanks to Klonopin for 18 years (ONLY @bedtime... .5 mg usually does it but sometimes entire 1mg) things improved but still can't BE asleep when i want. It was always worse with PMS insomnia, too.

No sleep on top of Chronic fatigue= insanity. Do whatever it takes to get rest.

What helps me is falling asleep to benign tv show on dvd (Horrible depressing commercials can ambush you while watching the most benign show) This also helps to mask my roating tinnitus (ringing of the ears)

Good luck to you.

p.s. Currently on season 4 of Gilmore Girls for the second time in a year. LOVED that show.

[Griffin]

I have this too. It's 5 am right now. I've had it for the last 6 years and it drives me to despair. My life is a complete mess and nothing I try has ever worked. Sleep drugs, and even melatonin, have no effect on me either. I, like you, have circadean rythm disorder, been to sleep clinics, the lot.

I end up lonely, wretched, more exhausted than ever, tachycardia, dizzy, etc.

At other times, daytime, I feel so ill from it and so tired, I can't stay awake, and then it makes the night time waking even worse. If I manage, which occasionally I do, to get my clock sorted, it just reverts back to hopeless the next time I have to go out like to a hospital appt. which wears me out.

I just wish there was a drug that worked.

It would be bearable if one had any energy to do stuff in the middle of the night, but of course one doesn't.

[Sophia3]

p.s. one supplement that CAUSES INSOMNIA is CoQ10. It helps with fatigue but . . . *sigh*

I did many studies on this supplement after being found deficient in it in blood work. Anything over 30 mg can disrupt sleep even if taken early in the AM on a healthy person. So ..it's maddening.

oh and exercise even early in the day can make my insomnia worse but I still try to do it a couple times a week for bones and stuff.

If you have TRUE insomnia/circadian rhythms are OFF, No normal sleep hygiene rules in the world will fix it!!!! Normal 'insomnia' may be helped. Been there, done that, confounded sleep experts.

Find your OWN WAY to help you sleep. Melatonin at low doses can help but also make you wake up at 4am and cause nightmares....another Catch-22.

[icesktr189]

are you on an SSRI? i know when i took zoloft and lexapro i have a horrible time getting sleep. the lexapro especially made me wired. also i find that my POTS is better when i get only 5 to six hours of sleep. its really weird because most of you need 8 to 12. BUT i do take naps during the day.

[erickamcc0523]

I haven't been on an SSRI or SNRI since July of 2008 (I was on at least 2 with 3 more mood stabilizers thrown in the mix... I feel worse, though, on a bad POTS day than I did on all of those meds, though I guess I was feeling bad enough on the meds since I no longer take them). I have tried Klonapin, Lunesta, Ambien (both the original and the CR), Rozeram (which is basically prescription melatonin as best as I can tell from reading the physician information on it), benedryl (although benedryl actually hypes me up), chamomile tea... you name it, I've probably tried it. Some don't help at all, the others might help for a few days, but then the effects "wear off", and I'm back to where I was before. I know I have one, maybe two, more nights of good sleep before I have insomnia again. I'm trying not to focus on it, as it kind of depresses me. Oh well, at least I have a few days off from school right around then, so I hope to not crash and burn.

[potsgirl]

I'm wondering how many people here have sleep apnea or have been tested for it? I'm in a couple of day stretch where I wake up about every hour or so, all night long. I get up and go to the restroom probably 3-4 times a night, but I have interstitial cystitis. I'm also possibly going into menopause, oh, yay!

I'm still considering a sleep study, but I'm such a light sleeper and need all the bells and whistles I can get to even fall asleep at home - a fan for white noise, cool room, total darkness - that I seriously doubt I'd fall asleep with electrodes strapped to my body in a strange room! Anyone had any experience with this?

Ericka, it might just take the right combo of meds to help you out. I take Klonopin, 15 mg of Paxil, and Trazodone and it still doesn't always do the trick! A big *YAWN* for all of us.

Cheers,

Jana

[Griffin]

I dong have sleep aponea but do have leg jerks which continually bring me out of slow sleep, so insomnia plus poor sleep quality.

[janiedelite]

This was the main thing I complained to my primary doctor at my last visit in December. I'm so fatigued all the time, but cannot get restful sleep. I have to take some kind of sleep aid in order to sleep a full night. Right now I'm taking Ambien in very small doses and only a couple nights a week. But I find that if I don't take something to sleep once in a while, I get more and more tired, my POTS gets worse and worse, and sleeping becomes more impossible.

I do notice that on the days when I've gotten better quality of sleep that my POTS symptoms are more tolerable. I have less pain, BP and pulse are more "normal," less chest pain and nausea, etc. If I go without quality sleep for a couple of days, my muscles start twitching, electric shock-like feelings start up and down my body, horrible burning skin pain, and all these things keep me from falling asleep.