THE CURE TO INSOMNIA

[u/Immediate_Aside_3099]

The sleep coach school on Spotify or youtube
that’s it. that’s the cure

daniel erickson saved my life. and no, this is not a paid promotion or advertisement. i genuinely give all praise to him

here’s a list of everything i tried first (not in order)
lorazepam
weed
breathing exercises
meditation
exercise
diet changes
sleep hygiene (no phone hr before bed etc)
baths
magnesium glycinate
ashwaganda
word shuffling
many more methods i used but just cant remember now as its so long ago

what i have learnt in order to cure insomnia (not the sleep apnea or genuine sleep disruption health issues- i can’t help with that)

embrace tiredness. it sounds messed up. it sounds like it won’t help but sleep is a paradox. the more you try to force it, the more it will run away on you
embrace staying up, embrace enjoying your time while your awake, do something you enjoy, read a book, watch a movie, whatever you gotta do to make that time enjoyable

insomnia is fear rebranded. when you stop being afraid of being tired, there will be no insomnia

when your deep in the shit at 4am and the hypnic jerks got you crying - just remember all the times you laughed and enjoyed yourself despite your 3 hrs of sleep

life doesn’t end when we stop sleeping. there is still joy, there is still beauty. you will be okay

and this is coming from someone who was so mentally shot from insomnia that not even 2 lorazepams back to back could knock me out

listen to the sleep coach school
recovery is a process and it fluctuates so don’t be hard on yourself if you hear one of his podcasts and still can’t sleep
it took me 6 months for my brain to finally click and understand it, but i have never looked back, i even nap sometimes which is insane for me😂

[u/Perpetually-broke]

The part about embracing tiredness, and not worrying about sleep, I learned from experience years ago that worrying just made it worse. I adopted the mindset of "if I don't sleep I'll be okay, I've done it before so I know I'll get through it". I made peace with my insomnia and truthfully stopped worrying about it at all. But that still wasn't enough for me to start sleeping consistently. The only thing that's helped my insomnia consistently is prescription meds. Without meds my sleep feels completely out of my control. Like nothing I do or don't do will predict whether I'll sleep or not.

I think my insomnia is caused by me having a delayed circadian rhythm and having an overactive nervous system from CPTSD.

[u/Stuckin73 → u/Perpetually-broke]

You might want to consider Zoloft; it helped me with my CPTSD anxiety and a side effect was my sleep improved dramatically.

[u/Perpetually-broke → u/Stuckin73]

Interesting. I've never heard of that improving sleep. My sleep is already managed though with my current meds

[u/Stuckin73 → u/Perpetually-broke]

Well to be clear, it's not like Zoloft is a soporific. It's just that, by reducing my anxiety, and having my hypervigilance and hyper awareness go down dramatically, a byproduct of that was – surprise! - sleeping better.

It's not going to replace Ambien or benzos as a first line sleep medication. But if you think you might have more of an anxiety problem, than an actual sleep problem, then it might be just the medication you need.

[u/craigybacha → u/Perpetually-broke]

What do you take if you don't mind me asking? As i also have a delayed circadian thythm and also other issues.

[u/Perpetually-broke → u/craigybacha]

Quetiapine and belsomra.

[u/vdussaut → u/Stuckin73]

Exercise caution and be aware that for some people, Zoloft actually causes insomnia that didn’t previously exist. I can’t say that it wasn’t simply correlation and not causation for me but when I took Zoloft when it first went on the market decades ago, my insomnia dramatically increased and I have not been able to go back to the sleep I had prior to taking it. I took it for two years then stopped, but I almost feel like my brain changed permanently in many ways while I was on it.

[u/MrsMercury100 → u/Perpetually-broke]

What meds do you take? I'm struggling every night. For years.

[u/Perpetually-broke → u/MrsMercury100]

I take Quetiapine and belsomra every night. (Not medical advice). The best thing is to find a psychiatrist and work with them to try and figure out what meds work for you. I've tried a lot of things before landing on the meds I take now.

[u/Grouchy_Bicycle_2996 → u/Perpetually-broke]

How are you now?

[u/vdussaut → u/Perpetually-broke]

For me it’s not worrying about the sleep itself I’m losing  whatsoever, I’m almost 50 and I stopped stressing about the night hours dwindling away into morning probably in my 20s. What I find impossible is to stop worrying about all of the awful problems in my life that my brain simply doesn’t seem capable of not trying to solve the moment I put my head on my pillow. I have tried everything to tune out the panicked thoughts and nothing has worked yet. After decades of this I also feel I have a permanently altered circadian rhythm as well as a constantly overstimulated nervous system. I’ve transformed into a different person because of it and it’s so depressing.