argh! insomnia

I see my psychiatrist next week and he and I gotta talk.  I have had so much trouble sleeping for the last several months and he does not seem to realize how serious it is.  Of course I am anxious and depressed.  Who wouldn't be when they were living on about four hours of sleep on a good night?  Most people need more sleep than that, right?  So do I.  I am so tired I can't stand it.

That is all.

Kelly you and I are in the same boat. I cannot sleep. I take ambien. The max dosage. I sleep a few hours. Then i'm awake. I have actually started drinking because it will help me to fall asleep. My doctor doesn't take it very seriosuly because I an extrememly sleep apnea-ic. I fall asleep at the drop of a hat, but I don't stay asleep. I seldom hit deep sleep and that is the killer, so to speak.

I have no idea what to do. None of this happened before surgery. I went to sleep and slept well every night. Then about six months later this crap showed up and i've been miserable since. Sleep apnea and insomnia. Sounds like needing chocolate to live but being allergic to it. Thats how I feel. It's miserable.

My ambien makes my vision get blurry for a while and I might send some goofy emails.  Then it wears off.  It does not make me sleep.

I've had insomnia all my life, but I have had times it has not been this bad.  This is ridiculous.  I'll have to consider taking up drinking.

Um, I'm half-kidding about that.

Hi, Kelly, I am feeling you on that! I am going this week to talk to my doctor as well. I rather send goofy emails and burn eggs on my stove occasionally LOL then to get only 4 hours of sleep. My life is kinda upside down since he took me off of ambien. That's the only thing that worked for me. AND I have tried many. :(  Good luck to you, and email me all the goffy emails you want too! LOL

Have either of you tried valerium? I suspect you have since you've been dealing with this for such a long time, but it has worked so well for me in the past, I thought I'd mention it.

I''m the same as Nik. I take Ambien and can fall asleep at the drop of a hat, but it is the staying asleep that gets me. So, here I am at almost 3:00 a.m., reading the forums. *sigh*

 I've had insomnia on and off for most of my adolescent and adult life. My thoughts race at night, I use it as a time of reflection. Here's what I found: Ambien makes me sleep eat, and sleep drive. I once woke up and saw burger king wrappers on my table, thought someone broke into my house because I dont even like burger king, but i left my purse in the car so thats how I know it was me. 

I also used to  turn to alcohol for sleep, but I gained a lot of weight that way, and right now I'm really afraid of getting an ulcer, so I'm afraid to have nightly drinks (I already had a few alcohol slip ups post op and I'm only 2 mononths out of surgery, ) I had to turn myself around and stop it before something bad happened .  So, what I do now is drink peppermint tea, and sleepytime tea.  Kava tea is great, you can get it at whole paycheck aka wholefoods.  Go easy on the chocolate shakes in the late hours because chocolate has caffiene in it. 

I am only 2 weeks post op but I am having the same issue now. I go for my first follow up Monday, and I hope to discuss this with him. I haven't tried anything yet bc I knew my appointment was coming up. On the other hand, littleskies post about being allergic to chocolate sure made me chuckle because I AM allergic to it. Not horribly, but enough I use to have to be careful or I would break into nonstop sneezing.

I developed horrible insomnia around age 42.  I lived on about 3 hours sleep per night, still do - 4 if I'm really lucky.  I was a teacher, and it became so bad I would cry on the way to my  room in the mornings because once that first bell rang, there was nothing but a whirlwind of a day ahead of me.  I learned later I was in the beginning stages of menopause.  Menopause for me was one of the most difficult things I have ever experienced physically.  I had a partial hysterectomy at 29 and figured I would not even know when I went through that stage in life.  I was placed on sleep/depression meds and told I would take them for life.  But eventually, for me, I realized my insomnia was due to the change of life.  I never have returned to a full nights sleep; I'm 56.  Five to six hours sleep is miraculous for me.  Your psychiatrist needs to listen to you this time.  It is unbearable to live on such little sleep.  I hope he can help give you what you need to get some good rest.

Have those of you who suffer from insomnia for years ever had a sleep study?  Sometimes it can pinpoint the root of the problem.  It can't always fix it but sometimes if you can direct the treatment to a particular area you have better success.  Insomnia is such an awful struggle.

Littleskie, you mentioned you have apnea and fall asleep at the drop of a hat.  Are you on CPAP.  I know I was having difficult with my sleep, seemed to be waking every hour or so.  Thought it was my aging bladder (as I often got up to use BR) but once I was diagnosed with sleep apnea and got used to using the machine (took about 3 months to get used to sleeping with it) I am sleeping through the night!  Still hard to believe that I can close my eyes and then open them when it's time to get up.  I hope that with surgery (scheduled for Feb) my apnea will eventually disappear and I can stop using the machine....in the meantime, I am grateful for the improvement.

Sorry you are all having such a hard time and hope you get some better answers soon.

A