I have often had trouble with insomnia – but nothing that has lasted this long.
Usually if I have one sleepless night – I get into a spiral meaning I won’t sleep the next night so on and so on.
Usually, I’ll go to the docs and take one sleeping pill, which will get me out of the cycle, but this time around I go to be feeling so anxious about not sleeping I just don’t sleep.
I have been taking Zopiclone 7.5mg for about 9 days. I go to bed around 10pm, and tell myself I’ll sleep. I end up tossing and turning until about 12am where I give up and take the sleeping pills.
I just don’t know what to do from here? It’s never lasted this long and I just want a natural nights sleep.
It’s affecting my work, my relationships and my social life. I focus my entire day on trying to think of ways of how to sleep. I can’t stop thinking about it because I just want it so much.
What's the longest stretch of nights you've gone without sleeping?
I, too have always had trouble falling asleep. I suffer from depression and anxiety.
In the winter, I didn't sleep for two weeks straight. Strangely enough, I started sleeping 1 hour each night, and then gradually increased to normal again after several months. I seriously don't know I survived. I found out later that a concussion caused it, which is said to mess up brain processes. Also, my vitamin D was severely low. I was so delirious. Like you, I wanted sleep so bad but my brain would not turn off. It was one of the worse things I've ever experienced!
I was convinced it would not stop, but it did eventually.
What is your diet like? Do you take any multivitamins or supplements? Exercise?
Keep me posted, I'll try my best to help you along the way and share my experiences with you so you may know how to treat this. I had to take lorazepam maybe about a month just to fall asleep, but my doctor didn't recommend it forever since he wanted my body to eventually have natural sleep. You're not alone! I hope you're able to start sleeping again normally. It's amazing how we want to sleep but our bodies won't let us.
Thanks for your reply- it's really nice to talk to someone about this.
I had 0 hours sleep last night and I'm currently on an early shift in work.
It's been almost 11 days since I last slept naturally. All other sleeps have been 'chemical' - induced by sleeping pills.
I feel I may have done sleeping pills wrong though - as I've been taking them around 1am when I give up tossing and turning.
I have a good diet, I'm 23 and I take multivitamins everyday.
I just have a fear of not sleeping and it gets worse as it goes on. I don't know if I'm suffering from depression but the insomnia has introduced some bad feelings
Do you think I should stick with the pills and take them at 10pm to get a normal pattern back? Or to go cold turkey again like tonight.
You're suffering from classic case of anxiety induced insomnia. Sleep is a state of relaxation of our brain, and relaxation and worry doesn't mix well, so you will not sleep well if you're worried. So the fear is something you should address. The sleep will come back once the fear is gone.
Dealing with the fear is really hard, you need to find a way to relax, how to let go, how to focus on different things than sleep. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) might help, meditation might help, listening to a podcast can help. You need to experiment and find what works for you.
You might also visit a psychiatrist and try to address your anxiety medically. Just be careful with what they prescribe, benzodiazepine should be no-no. They cause dependance and tolerance with prolonged used. SSRI helped me when my insomnia started, they are safe, but not as strong as benzo and take a few weeks to kick-in (which seems like years for someone in your situation, I know ).
Zopiclone you're taking has similar risks to benzos. It causes dependance with prolonged use. It makes the brain unable to relax on it's own (but you're not at this point yet, so don't worry about that, it takes weeks). So try to limit the usage as much as possible. I know it's hard and frustrating (I myself have gone 3 nights without any sleep this week). But pills are not the cure, medicine doesn't have a safe and effective sleeping pill. The only way is to change the way you (and I) think about sleep.
Be strong, it will get better, you're not alone in this. There are milions of people suffering from exactly the same issue.
Oh dear! So you don't sleep at all if you don't take the meds? And when you take the meds, how many hours do you sleep? One thing that helped me get back on track while tapering off lorazepam was tart cherry juice, said to be rich in melatonin. I was like you, just desperate for a natural sleep rhythm once again. It felt like torture. Maybe try tapering off the medication and see how your body reacts, so your brain may adjust to getting back to rest naturally. During the day, do you get much sun or exercise? Exercise is good because it can help wear you out and burn off stress at the same time. With my experience, I can tell you that the good, natural sleep probably isn't going to come suddenly but gradually.
I have 3 pills of Zopiclone left and then my Dr won't perscribe me anymore.
I am terrified of not having there to help if I can't get some sleep.
I have been trying to go to bed everynight, trying to go to sleep naturally but I end up taking the tabs at around 12am becuause my body hasn't shut down naturally.
Does anyone have any advice on what to do when I have no more pills left?
Do you have a stress problem? If you didn't have to get up to go to work in the morning or take on whatever resposibilities you do, do you feel you would sleep better then? Do you sleep Friday and Saturday nights, when maybe you've got the next day free?
The worst you are probably doing is worrying about sleep all day. Do whatever you can that leads you away from thinking of the night and sleep, just try to enjoy the day without stressing yourself.
If you doc feels there's anyway you might sleep naturally, even if it means changing your job, I doubt s/he'll prescribe any drugs. In the UK, the drug licence only recommends us for up to 28 days; in the US, eszopiclone can be prescribed longer.
In essence, you've got to try and put all your cares and stresses behind you. You're still in your early twenties, you must find a way of enjoying life and stop worrying.
The thing is, you wont get some sleep while you're terrified.
You shouldn't try to fix your sleep, you should try to address your anxiety about sleep.
The thing is Zopiclone is not a cure, it doesn't address the reason why you don't sleep, it only masks the symptoms (your insomnia) by knocking your brain out, and it can do that only temporarily. These drugs cause real physical dependance and the rebound insomnia during withdrawal is nothing you've experienced. People go months with as little as one hour of sleep every few nights, because the brain is unable to self-regulate it's activity, because of changes this drug has done to GABA receptors. You really don't want to go that way, and thats why your Dr won't prescribe anymore.
The medication that helped me during initial stages was a combination of Escitalopram - a safe SSRI, chlorprothixene (while the SSRI kicked in). Chlorprothixene is an old antipsychotic with strong sedative effect, it doesn't cause physical dependance, but looses effectivnes in a few months. Tapering off was ok.
If you go down the pills you way just be aware that all sleep drugs loose effectivness after time, so you need to use the time of clear thinking to learn a way how to cope with your anxiety without drugs, either by yourself, or with help of a therapist.
My insomnia did not come on quite so quickly as yours, but I know the problem with facing the doctor. I'd go to see her, tell her my sleep problem and she'd simply say something like: "I don't give out sleeping pills." I'd explain that I didn't know how I'd go on, that I'd just lie awake at night just getting more an more bored and more and more tired and, of course, without medication, more and more worried. I'd then get another prescription, but it wasn't to go on, things would have to be sorted out, etc etc.
My insomnia kicked back up again! I thought of you. Isn't this terrible? It's been since Saturday night and each night I've gotten at most 4 hours. I've been stressing about a family issue and I can't seem to get it off my mind. The first time I had the week stretch of no sleep came out of the blue.
Cilatropam is much safer drug than zopiclone, but takes a few weeks to fully kick in, so it would be better to start taking them. You most likely will not feel any effect for few days.
Well, possibly the worst common side-effect of SSRI's is suicidal ideation.
I suspect if you don't have any success with citalopram your doc will try you with other antidepressants and anxiolytics. If you get moved on mirtazapine, you'll probably, almost certainly, end up with a weight problem.
If you don't feel you suffer from depression, I should make it clear to your doctor. I'm not at all sure antidepressants are safer than zopiclone, and if you're not suffering from depression ...
Suicical ideation is danger for people who already have suicidal thoughts, that's because SSRI improve the motivation aspect of depression, before acting on depression itself. This, sadly, causes suicidal people to be more motivated to actually perform a suicide.
From my personal experience it is sometimes very hard for a person suffering from depression to actually recognize how much they are suffering. Only after my condition improved I was able to look back and recognize that I was actually suffering from depression, and that depression was one of the drives behind my insomnia.
The problem with zopiclone is that with prolonged use it cause changed to the GABA receptors it it acting on. This cause the brain to be unable to calm (and sleep) by itself, and slow and painfull tamper is oftentimes required (a time when the insomnia is usually worse that the insomnia that make the person take the drug). That's why zopiclone is not a good drug for chronic insomnia threatment, and in some countries insure companies are even refusing to pay for prolonged threatment.
I was on escitalopram, and never noticed insomnia as a side effect. I think it might cause insomnia for people that are suffering from depression without they sleep being affected, as SSRI will make you active (motivated). So it might affect sleep this way. But for me, it allowed me to calm down, fight the sleep anxiety and in general don't worry that much about sleep, thus improving my sleep.
I think it very probable that any drug for treating insomnia will work on the BNZ receptor and successful research will be towards finding a drug that does it in the most natural way, but has it been proved that zopiclone causes long-term changes (damage) to the BNZ receptor?
People keep saying that you can take zopiclone and become addicted to it, but how do you distinguish that from a simply worsening problem with insomnia? No one's saying zopiclone cures insomnia, only that it treats it. And who says they know a cure for all cases of chronic primary insomnia? Simply because someone sleeps like a log every night does not give them licence to draw probably untrue conclusions about those who have a problem getting to and/or staying asleep.
Possibly I don't know too much about all the different forms of depression, but some, nervous depression fo example, will make it impossible to function properly. I think it's a fair idea to suggest that if you ask yourself whether you can work effectively during the day so long as you get enough sleep at night and decide you can, you might then go on to decide whether you are suffering from depression.
I slept about an hour each night all week. This morning, I didn't have to work so I stayed in bed, slept on and off from 5am to 11am this morning. I knew I was sleeping because I would dream, wake up, dream, wake up, etc.
I want to do stuff today and enjoy my weekend but I'm not very motivated. I have a headache from lack of sleep.
When I had a severe bout back in the winter, my doctor said my insomnia is from depression and anxiety.
I've tried sleeping pills and they don't work. Melatonin and tart cherry juice makes me tired but my brain won't shut off.
I'm going to try 5-HTP tonight, I'll let you know how that goes. This no sleeping business is making me feel bad, teary, depressed like I'll never sleep again but I'm trying to be hopeful.
Citalopram should help you sleep. My brother suffers from anxiety and it helped him, though he was very tired during his adjustment period. I was on citalopram 3 years ago, I didn't notice anything bad about it except I was a little more energized than usual but I still slept.
and it gets worse as it goes on. I don't know if I'm suffering from depression but the insomnia has introduced some bad feelings 
.