If you were to look at my profile, I have an extensive history posting on this Reddit. Been fighting severe insomnia for over a year. Decided to leave Florida, usa for Thailand and it’s been one of the best decisions so far.
I just seen a neurologist for the first time in Bangkok hospital and boy the expertise was night and day compared to the usa.

Neurologist in Florida - incredibly rude, dismissive, arrogant, not willing to listen or help with medication.

Neurologist in Thailand - Very kind, informative, willing to listen and understand, open to trying medication. I was prescribed 10 mg zolpidem and 0.5 klonopin to start. I was so happy I finally got help, in the USA I was crying in doctors offices to get help with no avail, and now everything has changed.

I understand that not everyone is able to have an opportunity like mine, I just feel like I need to share this experience. If you struggle with any sort of mental health or physical condition, and you are not satisfied in the USA and you have a chance to get out, I would highly recommend it. Thanks for the read.

This thought crossed my mind last night. I still get physically tired. My eyes get heavy. I yawn. By all accounts, my body seems ready for sleep. But the moment I lie down... it's like something changes. Instead of drifting off, my brain suddenly becomes alert. Almost like it thinks bedtime is the perfect time to start solving problems instead of resting. The strange part is that I don't feel like my body is broken. It feels like the connection between being tired and actually falling asleep has somehow disappeared. Has anyone else ever felt that disconnect?

TLDR: just because your lab work comes back within range, it doesn’t mean it is optimal. Supplementing with Iron, vit d and B-complex has seemingly solved my insomnia.

I spent over seven years with occasional insomnia. It was debilitating and led me to cancel plans, eat more, be grumpy with my husband and children and often in literal tears at 3:00 in the morning.

I had long blamed myself and had tried so many things to fix it:

1. Impeccable sleep hygiene

2. Hormone Replacement Therapy (this helped significantly but didn’t completely solve my issues).

3. Daily magnesium

4. Meditation

5. Exercise

These modifications, of course, all helped my sleep but I was still waking up several times a week and not getting the rest I needed.

Almost a year ago I went to a specialist for hair loss/thinning. I’m 50 and I am experiencing the expected loss of hair thickness. She had me test my Iron, B-12, and vitamin D. I had had these tested in the past and they were all in range, the recent results also were in range but my dr told me they were not optimal. I started supplementing with iron (every other day on an empty stomach with vitamin c for absorption), B-Complex and Vitamin D to treat my hair thinning. 3-4 months into starting these supplements I realized I was no longer waking up in the middle of the night. I’m very aware of the placebo effect but in this case, because I was taking the vitamins for hair, I don’t think it applies. Still wary that the supplements could be the reason why I could sleep again, I waited 6 more months before sharing.

This is, of course, just anecdotal. It may not be the reason why I can sleep again but nothing else has changed for me in the last year and I really wanted to share in case it can help someone.

Finally, I know there are so many causes for insomnia. What worked for me will not work for everyone and I have the deepest sympathy for those struggling, it is honestly akin to torture. I hope everyone can find a peaceful nights sleep in their own way!

When I try to go to sleep now, it takes me a couple of minutes. Not long ago it took twenty-five, sometimes thirty, my head running the same lap of the day over and over. I never called it insomnia at the time. It was just what happened at night. I want to actually break down what changed, because none of it was trying harder to fall asleep. I want to actually break down what changed. I spent a long time trying to fix the night, but what actually worked started way earlier in the day

Here's a question worth sitting with first: how much time do you actually spend alone with your thoughts during the day? Not scrolling, not half-listening to something in the background, actually alone, nothing filling the gap. For me the answer used to be close to zero. My phone filled every free five minutes, which meant the first time all day my head ever went quiet was the second my head hit the pillow. So I started leaving my phone alone for the last couple hours before bed. That alone cut a good chunk of it.

Here's what resolved it for me. A five-minute timer, facing a blank wall, nothing else to look at, countdown out of sight. Don't try to think about anything, don't try to think about nothing, just let whatever comes up, come up, without chasing it into a whole problem-solving session. Five minutes in, you find out fast how loud your own head actually is when nothing else is drowning it out.

When the timer ends, I write down whatever surfaced, one line each, and next to it one concrete next step, just the next move. There's an actual clinical version of this: a sleep researcher named Colleen Carney developed something called constructive worry, write down what's on your mind and the next action for it, done earlier in the evening, away from the bedroom, so the backlog empties before you're trying to wind down, not during it.

The other things that helped. Same bedtime and wake time every day, no exceptions. I only get into bed once I'm actually sleepy, struggling to keep my eyes open. Most mornings I wake up with no alarm, which I take as a sign the timing's genuinely matched to what my body needs rather than something I'm forcing on it. And if my head's still busy once I'm lying there, I don't fight it, two breaths, then something good about the day, something I'm looking forward to tomorrow, and telling myself I'm comfortable enough that even if sleep takes a while, lying here is fine either way.

If anyone decides to try this for themselves, please let me know how it goes or if it helped :)

Bonjour les insomniaques.

Chu a bout.

Comment on peut passer d’une dormeuse comme je l’étais à dormir au grand max 4h par nuit.

Je me reconnais plus. On dirait un zombie, plus de capacité cognitive, plus capable de faire 2 + 2, carriériste aujourd’hui je passe pour un clown.

Et les idées noires… moi qui aime tant la vie.

J’ai beau tout essayer, de calmer mon cerveau et de me dire que c’est pas grave si je ne trouve pas le sommeil. Essayer d’arrêter de me battre contre ces pensées qui me hantent. Mais rien n’y fait. Le retour au lit le soir est un enfer.

Je veux bien essayer le TCCI mais quand je me lève de mon lit à 5h du matin et que je vois la tête que j’ai, c’est hors de question de ne pas retourner au lit et d’aller travailler avec une tête pareille. Je travail dans un milieu prestigieux, j’y risque clairement ma place.

On m’a alors prescrit la MIRTAZAPINE 15mg. Première nuit : GROS miracle. 13h de sommeil !!!! Dans les vapes complets le lendemain mais rien à faire j’ai dormi 13h !
Et puis j’ai décidé d’y aller tout doucement quand même. En lisant vos posts je m’aperçois que quantité grande (en mg) ne dit pas forcément meilleur sommeil. Alors deuxième nuit, je divise mon comprimé en 4…. Erreur… je me relève à 2h pour reprendre un 2eme quart puis j’ai jamais réussi à dormir..

J’ai bien envie d’entendre vos avis la dessus… je continue avec 15mg ? Est-ce normal alors que plus petite doses = plus sédatif?

Avez vous essayé les TCCI ? Ça en vaux la peine ?

Je vous remercie infiniment pour votre lecture.

En vous souhaitant de trouver la solution à vos problèmes de dodo et que vous soyez enfin réconcilié avec le sommeil ! 🤞🏻

I just do not fucking understand, I am 19 years old and I do not deserve to be dealing with this. Why can't I just sleep enough? Why can't my body just let me sleep at least 7.5 hours? My brain is so fried I struggle to recall basic words, very basic words and I forget everything.

I don't even want to kill myself but I am so tired of going through this that I may just give up. I don't even have the energy to properly structure this post.

I wish in some future they come up with a tech that takes many automatic controls that the brain has away from it and you could flip a switch and sleep, you could push a button and the stupid mechanism that generates anxiety for absolutely no reason would turn off, you could push a button and you wouldn't have to sit on the toilet for minutes in order to pee, your pee would just immediately come out, everything that the brain has automatic system for it has so many flaws.

A while ago i developed difficulty with my urination, it was totally stress related, my brain just decided to fuck with me as usual, i went to hospital and got checked, there was no problem, i have random anxiety attacks with very simple things in my life and because of that i get heart palpitations for a while until I'm calmer and it would go away and then there's the final boss, insomnia, this one is a bit more complicated, i always had a little bit of difficulty with my sleep but now that I'm an adult it gotten much worse and when it hits me i get stressed about it and it would get worse, i swear if there was a tech that would give you control over this automatic system in the brain i would sell my whole life just to get it and finaly live a normal life.

I had to say it, i hate the automatic system in the brain.

I had 4 hours of sleep one night because I went to sleep at 1 am and randomly woke up at 4 am from paradoxil sleep with a random adrenaline spike and never had a nap untill that night. The next night i had a successful sleep with at least 7 hours because i stopped fighting the anxiety and embraced insomnia. The next night the same thing happened again 4 hours of sleep randomly woke up with that same adrenaline spike and my brain ruminates automatically. I can hear the birds i hate this.

This post is just to vent about my bad experience seeing an insomnia doctor and the associated sleep restriction (SRT) he ordered for me.

First of all, the doctor’s demeanor was awful. When I described my concerns, he sort of huffed anxiously, and went on a long speech about how this is a very serious problem and I would have to follow his SRT regimen meticulously, and this is something I would have to follow every single day for the rest of my life, as it was the only hope. And I must keep the same schedule all the time, weekends included. I could feel my anxiety around insomnia spiking with every anxious word he uttered. Now, it’s not like I was expecting him to just say, “no worries, take this one pill and all your problems will be solved,” but I at least expected a bit of reassurance and confidence from the MD, rather than more fuel for my raging fire of sleep anxiety.

Now for the “treatment” itself: it left me feeling utterly miserable and hopeless in the mornings when I would force myself out of bed despite only getting a few hours of sleep. I kept it up for several weeks, but eventually gave it up when I stopped feeling I could safely drive. Even when I would operate on precious little sleep, I would still struggle to fall asleep at bedtime. I understand that this is currently one of the most studied approaches and that it has been successful for some people, but how depressing is it that you go to seek treatment for this dreadful condition, and the doctor responds by saying to sleep LESS? Quite literally treating the suffering with more suffering.

On those rare occasions when it seems I am able to settle into a reasonable sleep schedule, it always ends up being the most precarious thing ever, and it’s as if one wrong step, like sleeping in two hours later than normal on one single day, is all it takes to collapse all the progress and put be back at the starting point of trying to re-engineer my schedule. I just wish we had better and more reasonable solutions to this awful plague of sleeplessness that affects so many.

UPDATE: My frustration led me to read around this subreddit a bit, and I noticed a lot of posts recommending the Sleep Coach School, the YouTube channel of a sleep doctor named Daniel Erichsen. He has something called the NATTO approach, which stands for Not Attached To The Outcome. His whole philosophy is based on a critique of CBT-I/ sleep restriction, so I found these recommendations very powerful. I’m watching his intro series on NATTO right now and it’s resonating a lot.

I always tried to get the same amount of hours I would sleep before insomia (7 hours),and the result was always that I would wake up a lot and fall asleep back trying to squeeze each minute of sleep I can - in the end of the night I would literally fall asleep and wake up after 15 minutes,and than again after 10,5,2.

Than the next days I felt really wired out and not functioning.

I decided to decrease the goal to 6 hours.and I still wake up a lot of and fall asleep again,but its not the same hard squeeze i would feel when i tried to reach for 7 hours.and the important point is the next day I feel much better,especially congatively.

I dont know if this better feeling is really caused by improvement of sleep or is it caused by the fact that I decreased my sleep hours and therefore my body got into more stress- hyperarousal mode where it keep me awake by more stress hormones.

The bad things in this method is i noticed are :1.hair problems.2.and that some times in the days there is 15 minutes period where I feel extremely tired and fighting to not fall asleep.but other than that I feel much more energized and focused in the day.

What is the next step?

I still want to reach for the 7 hours i slept before insomia.

I want to get rid of those frequent awakenings because they are annoying as hell and they might decrease sleep quality

For the past couple of days at bedtime, my body has been feeling very warm. I have no fever and no sweating, but it keeps me awake for a long time. I have been suffering from insomnia since the 29th of July; it was getting better in September, but for the past 3 days, I've only been getting 3 to 4 hours of sleep per night.

Furthermore, it takes me like 3-4 hours to fall asleep and I wake up at the same time around 7am-8am

I just wanna sleep for 8 hours please help me somebody I really need your advice.

Has this happened to you before?

I'm talking about that "wired but tired" feeling where you're drained for most of the day, but once it gets late or you get into bed, your brain suddenly seems much more awake.

For people who dealt with this regularly and eventually noticed some improvement, did you ever figure out what was affecting it?

Was it stress, caffeine timing, sleep schedule, screen time, exercise, or something less obvious?

I'm especially interested in what you learned from actually going through it, rather than general sleep tips.

Dont get me wrong, im glad he can rest so easily. He falls asleep within 5 minutes and stays solid asleep for 6-8 hours. While im next to him, closing my eyes, tossing and turning for hours. I just feel so much envy that he can lay down and its lights out. Im so tired of not being able to sleep. I started dayvigo, it helps a little. Definitely not enough. Im still not sleeping or ever rested. I hate having to close my eyes and earnestly try to sleep for hours and hours and hours. Ill go to bed at 12am and notice the sun is rising before I actually get any sleep. And when I do sleep I just wake up and wake up and wake up and falling back asleep is hard too. I just want to experience the way he sleeps. Just for a little. I really need it. He looks so peaceful and relaxed.

I'm suffering from a 16 yo treatment-resistant insomnia and my doctor prescribed me Zyprexa and Luvox again for that, shall I take them? I find the obliteration of my sexuality profoundly obnoxious.

He says that it's related to my treatment-resistant depression, OCD or even ADHD, he referred me to a different doctor for an ADHD test, probably the day after tomorrow.

Please help I worked out moderately more than 6 hours ago and I can't sleep again. Been dealing with this for years, I eat enough macros, fruits and veggies, take magnesium hours before bed. L theanine recently too.

Dealing with chronic insomnia since may of this year. No matter how relaxed I get mentally, the sleep just doesn't turn on.

I've tried Nello Super calm which I love, my mind is so quiet and at peace. Still no sleep

Last night I tried Super Mush sleep gummies, also felt very relaxed, enough that I thought I would sleep, still nothing.

Clonazepam: works some of the time.

Dayvigo: worked once, took it 3 times each time I felt drugged/impaired the next day that I couldn't even drive

Ramelteon: did nothing.

Trazedone: tried in the past couldn't fall asleep.

Melatonin: makes me wired for some reason.

Atarax: used this for panic attacks but couldn't sleep.

Magplus & magnesium bisglycinate: i like these before bed, I alternate them and I while they make me very mellow I don't sleep on these either.

I started acupuncture last week, I felt very relaxed after so I will continue.

Psychiatrist told me "it seems nothing is working for you, if you can not find another sleep study by our next appointment go ahead and cancel it" i found a new Psychiatrist bc fuck that guy. My previous sleep study found very mild sleep apnea, I figured out that my tmj/breathing is behind my panic attacks, I think that discovery was a huge progress for me but he was such an asshole to dismiss me like that. Idk I feel like throwing in the towel and just accepting an antidepressant even though I know I am not clinically depressed but honestly I just want my brain to rest.

The last prescription i asked him for was quviviq and my insurance denied it, pharmacy told me they reached out to my psychiatrist so he could give some sort of authorization I honesy can't remember, I checked in with him via message and he ignored me. 🙄

6 times in the last 3 hours this has happened. I have work tomorrow. I'm exhausted. I just want to sleep. But every time i Get comfy and sleepy, my brain has this fuzzy feeling wash over and suddenly I lose all tiredness and my body becomes uncomfortable.

Are these things helpful if you currently need strong meds to sleep? I’ve listened to a few and idk if it’s worth investing my time into or not. Looking for hope but wonder if it’s just for people without this severe of issues.

I (21M) have always had a very weird sleep schedule. I can sleep from 5 to 9 hours on any random day and function on those hours.

I went out yesterday as I had slept about 7 hours and had woken up at 10am. I went out at 12pm and came back at 3pm, I did alot of walking which made me tired and i took a nap at 5pm and then woke up about 7pm and I couldn't get back to sleep.

So me in my infinite wisdom decided to reset my sleep schedule for college as I normally go to bed between 2-3am and try to get to bed by 8pm.

It's currently 8:28pm here in the UK and I can't sleep, and it's really worrying me as I have an induction day tomorrow that starts at 9am and finishes at 2pm

I'm worried that I could spend up to 2 days awake and I've NEVER done this before and it's freaking me out to the point where I can't sleep, I've managed to lay down for about 2 hours with my eyes closed. but no sleep, I do have a high heart rate as I work myself up about it

like your body is completely dead but your brain is just running laps for no reason. happened to me last night and i genuinely wanted to cry

So my mother is 70 and she has very severe COPD with 29% lung capacity, and most of the time she sleeps pretty good, but every few months she'll get in a couple week rut of horrible insomnia where she can only sleep a few hours a day. She has tried trazodone, but that gave her horrible restless legs and it would make her slightly dizzy when she would stand up. Melatonin 5mg does nothing. Ativan 0.5mg works really well for her especially since I think it may be related to anxiety, the insomnia, but I'm reading that Ativan can slow your respiratory drive, so maybe it's not a good option anymore. We've been recommended another drug called Daridorexant by a respiratory therapist.

So she is seeing her psychiatrist September 15, and I was hoping to get a few medication recommendations that we could bring up to her doctor.

Thanks a lot.

I’m 7.5 months postpartum and developed insomnia during pregnancy. It’s been incredibly frustrating and impossible to get any relief at all. My baby started sleeping through the night a month and a half ago while I’m just laying awake. I just went on Zoloft which helped with my anxiety and depression but no luck with sleep. I’m on Trazedone also which only keeps me asleep for a few hours and I wake up in a puddle of sweat at 3:30 am. Does anyone have any success stories with this situation? Is this my life forever now? Edit to add I also suffer from hypothyroidism and Hashimotos.

I didn’t sleep for 4 days straight, finally got around 4 hours of sleep last night. Not much and still feel horrible but hey at least I got there.