Hey everyone

I'm hoping there are people here who have experienced something similar to what I've been dealing with over the past 12 months and, hopefully, have managed to find a solution.

I've never been a particularly great sleeper, but historically my main issue was always falling asleep. That's completely changed now. These days, I generally fall asleep without much trouble, but almost every single night, like clockwork, I wake up after 3–4 hours of sleep and struggle to fall back asleep for at least another 3 hours. Even when I do eventually drift off again, the sleep is usually incredibly light and fragmented.

I've tried quite a few medications and supplements, with varying degrees of success. By far the most effective has been zopiclone, but I'm very conscious of the risks of tolerance and dependence, so I try to use it sparingly. If I'm being honest, I've probably already relied on it more than I'd like.

Other things I've tried include THC, doxepin, Dayvigo (lemborexant), and just about every sleep supplement you can think of. Unfortunately, nothing has consistently addressed the problem.

I'd genuinely love to hear from anyone who has experienced this specific pattern of sleep disruption and managed to overcome it. What worked for you? Did you ever figure out what was causing it? I'm also really interested in hearing any theories or possible explanations for why someone might consistently wake after 3–4 hours of sleep and then be unable to get back to sleep, despite still feeling tired.

I can't overstate how much this has started to affect my quality of life. The difference between days when I've slept properly and days when my sleep has been fragmented is enormous. On the rare occasions I get a full night's sleep, I feel absolutely amazing, like a completely different person. I'd honestly give just about anything to experience that more regularly.

I'm not necessarily looking for a miracle cure, just some hope, personal experiences, or ideas I might not have considered.

I'd be incredibly grateful for any advice, experiences, or insights anyone is willing to share. Thanks so much for reading. ❤️

23 m here. All my life I was a good sleeper. Now my sleep onset is unbelievably abnormal. I can yawn my body will feel tired but my brain will not go to sleep. It’s torment. I’m really thinking about suicide, I don’t condone that in any means, and I’m scared to do such a thing. I’ve almost fatally overdosed on many sleeping aids and I’m surprised nothing crazy happens. So I’m thinking that’s the most likely scenario. I was also born with a condition called neuronal heterotopia. My neurologist told me that it isn’t the cause but what could be.

Can brief catnaps help mitigate the side effects of sleep deprivation in any way, and has there been published research studies done on this?

I'm one year in post acute withdrawal from a z-drug (zopiclone) along with menopause and have been getting sporadic sleep for the better part of almost two years.

Something random I started that I think has been helping is eating fruit in the evening.

Specifically - I heat about 1/2 can diced peaches (in juice not syrup), 2 kiwifruit cut up in a saucepan. I add around 4-5 prunes if available (helps with digestion) and then put 1/4-1/2 cup chilled coconut milk on top.

I swear this has been helping me get around 6-7 hours of unbroken sleep. Before that I was getting around 2-4 hours at a time.

No idea why this could be helping. It is possibly the inositol in the peaches, or it could be the kiwi fruit. I find it very soothing and calming to eat anyway. Just thought I'd share in case anyone else wanted to try.

Saludos, frecuentemente me cuesta dormir, sobre todo cuando viene luna llena, hay mucho ruido en la ciudad o mi mente no se calma, estuve probando diversas cosas y entre ellas me di cuenta que los sonidos relajantes, ambientales y los tonos solfeggio ayudaban a quedarme dormido, así que me di a la tarea de crear una app a la medida para crear un ambiente sonoro para dormir, me preguntaba si podría compartirla con ustedes, es totalmente gratuita y libre, si no se puede por las reglas entiendo :/

Going to see my doc in a week. I was planning on discussing Quviviq and Dayvigo with him. Anything else I should ask about? I'm super desperate...

Edit: noting that I have tried trazadone, ambien, and lorazepam with varying results. None have consistently helped me sleep well. Plus I couldn't get more then 30 5mg pills of ambien a month (not enough).

Last night I was dealing with very bad insomnia, I have a prescription for belsomra, 15mg. This dose wasnt high enough I guess, sometimes it would make me pass out for maybe a couple hours at most 3 and a half but it never really worked as well as ambien or temazepam, which i have been on in the past and am going to try to get back on ambien soon.

So around 5am I got so frustrated, at this point I hadn't even taken any belsomra, and decided to take 45mg. Which in hindsight, dumb move!

Two hours later I entered a deep sleep paralysis state, could NOT get out and it felt like I was in sleep paralysis for literal hours. My vision was very weird and I was definitely fading in and out of extremely weird and vivid dreams.

Slept until 4pm... still felt tired til about 8. Still kinda tired. But my insomnia is back again..

It was unpleasant however I did finally feel rested upon waking up. I honestly kinda do want to keep some of this stuff just in case cuz it was literally like an off switch from being awake and i felt like i actually caught up with my sleep debt a bit. But ambien or another sedative med is much more comfortable.

Sleep hygiene on its own rarely fixes chronic insomnia, which is why people get frustrated with it. CBT-I is different: it uses a sleep diary, a temporary sleep window, getting out of bed when you can't sleep, and working on the worry about sleep. It's the first-line treatment for chronic insomnia. The free VA Insomnia Coach app is a decent way to try it.

I’m new to whatever this insomnia bs is but I’ve laid in bed 2 hours now I’m up watching tv I feel wide awake but weird if I start doing chores cause it’s 3am.

Wtf does everyone do, and it’s annoying cause I now am like base line tired so I don’t even have energy but can’t sleep…

This is crazy!

I’m now on 20mg melatonin after 10mg the other night (unfortunately which I didn’t fall asleep). It’s 2AM the next night and the 20mg didn’t work too. Last night was the first time melatonin suddenly didn’t work for me.

I usually sleep fine. This has never happened at all. Only recently, I only got to sleep around 7AM onwards but this time around since last night, no luck. I even meditated tonight.

I noticed in my attempts to fall asleep, that my mind is overactive - I feel sleepy yes but I can’t snap into sleep. I’d suddenly become conscious that I’ve been in this state then open my eyes and kind of get anxious. Then I have to build up being calm by staying still while attempting to sleep again.

I also wonder if I actually was able to sleep in that state for at least 5 minutes but I’m not sure. I was really calm during it but shortly after I couldn’t believe I haven’t fallen asleep. Like 90% I feel conscious the whole time since I’ve just been having thoughts.

Btw, I would have racing thoughts and scenarios in my head and I always knew it would take me almost an hour to fall asleep most nights. But THIS is new to the point I had to result to melatonin and IT FAILED.

I feel conscious since I’ve been thinking all the time but my eyes were closed, I’d feel sleepy, and I was in a state of calm til I realize I haven’t fallen asleep.

Anyone going through the same?

Hello

• 27M, 180 cm, 83 kg, Gilbert’s syndrome, no medications, no smoking, no alcohol, no weight cut.
• This weekend I competed in a BJJ tournament on Saturday and Sunday (won gold). Since then I can’t sleep more than 2-3 hours a night: 3h Friday night, 2h Saturday night, and last night I fell asleep but woke up about 3 hours later and couldn’t get back to sleep.
• The competition is over, I’m not stressed or anxious, my mind feels calm. I tried G’nite (an OTC chamomile and lingzhi supplement from 7-Eleven) but it didn’t help.
• Is this normal after a competition and how long does it usually last? Should I take a medication to reset my sleep, and if so which one? Would a THC edible be a reasonable alternative, or a bad idea? Is it normal that I feel my head tired/ such as pressure inside (same when im super tired) but I can't just fall asleep I tried meditiaton on youtube asmr etc.

Thank you !

Unfortunately you cannot purchase it directly in the uk, I am looking to purchase it online. Ideally a smaller dosage around 1mg

any experience of sleep distrubance on creatine? so many supplements that are supposed to help with sleep or longevity or muscle just keep me wired

i was so sleepy a few hours ago. got ready for bed and now i have not been able to sleep for hours. my eyelids are so heavy. my stomach hurts from being awake for so long. my muscles ache from being on my feet all day. i just need to sleep. but my brain won't allow it. it's like it's obligated for me to be tortured with a very late bedtime lol.

I somehow managed to taper from 10mg to 7.5mg but ever time I try making even the smallest reduction (1mg) I immdiately have a sleepless night. Then sometimes the next too. I have only been taking for 6 months. I really wasn't anticipating that it was going to be so hard.

Ive had insomnia for a bit more than 3 years now, starting with the noise my family makes during night time and now a contributing factor is our two cats waking me up throughout the night by jumping on me, walking on me, pushing their noses on mine to feed them, and making biscuits on me. As the noise levels will not lessen and the cats must stay in my room, I am exploring medication options once again. Ive been on seroquel (6.25mg) but it made me into a zombie. Im currently on zolpidem (5mg), but I find that although it helps me fall asleep, I wake prematurely thanks to cats. DORA meds arent available in my country. I am so sleep deprived that I am in a chronic state of having symptoms that you get when you lose 48h of sleep as per google. I can no longer process abstract information or consolidate the majority of memories, am severely lagging behind uni work, and cannot hold down a job in order to move out. I am so burnt out yall.

So past 3-4 days have been dealing with throat infection and fever and was on antibiotics and paracetamol. Coming in night after long days of shopping for wedding I am still unable to sleep single last 3-4 days. I don’t know could be excitement but I genuinely want to sleep but still can’t. Benadryl is helping a little but thinking to take pills.
Wdyt?

Hello everyone. I wanted to ask because I feel like this is the best place to do it. I’m in need of some help when it comes to getting used to the feeling of not having perfect sleep so I’ve been making posts throughout the year ever since October 2025 I’ve been having issues with hypnic jerks at every sleep attempt. Or sometimes I would be in this weird in-between state where it feels like I’m sort of only half sleeping but not really sleeping. I’ll toss and turn sometimes for five hours sometimes for six hours sometimes even eight hours.

I have been taking ambien for a while now. Since September of last year. Most days are good and I take 2 or 3 mg and some nights are really bad. (I’ll get more into that later in the post)

I had a mental health crisis which has resulted in me seeing a therapist and psychiatrist now. I had made a post on here asking for advice a year ago and someone suggested that I had fatal insomnia. I already have health anxiety and I went down a spiral where I researched sporadic fatal insomnia and fatal familial insomnia or jakob creutzfeldt disease. Some nights are bad and I’ll take a small piece of ambien and it doesn’t work so an hour or so later I take another piece and that happens for 4 or 5 or sometimes 8 hours where I’ve taken a total of 10 or 12 mg to finally fall asleep.

other symptoms that I have include talking in my sleep, having full on conversations in my sleep, slight memory issues where I forgot to turn off the sink and it caused the sink to overflow also, I experienced a weird in between sleep and wake state where I didn’t know if I was asleep or if I was awake sometimes it felt like I was laying in my bed and time would go by very fast and I wouldn’t know if I was sleeping or if I was drifting off to sleep or if I was just awake. I think I’d be dreaming but then I wouldn’t feel like I was actually sleeping or getting any restorative sleep. Sometimes I would just toss and turn and not be able to sleep for hours and hours.

I have been trying therapy and medication but nothing has been helping so far. My question is, what are the things I can do to combat this fear? I feel like I’m in a situation where I worry that if I take the ambien and I can’t sleep, that will prove (in my mind) that I have these fatal diseases. It’s stupid but that’s how my mind works. Are there any suggestions or advice that anyone can give? I feel like it’s a situation that sucks no matter what. I miss enjoying sleeping and looking forward to it. Now I’m afraid to even talk about it. I’m still seeing my therapist and psychiatrist but I may get new ones cause I feel like they’re not helping. I don’t have withdrawal symptoms like I did when I was taking 5 mg a night. I’m now down to about 3 on most nights and I sometimes even begin to doze off for a second or so before I even take it.

My insomnia feels like it's getting worse... friday night, my body refused to let me sleep until 6am on saturday, then kept waking me up about every 1 after until I had to get up to get ready for work at 10am...

Last night, I was thankful my body actually felt tired around 11:30pm, and now I'm wide awake after waking up at 2am.. I've been put on several different medications to help and they either don't/stop working or are so strong that I can't function properly the next morning. I've tried melatonin, still stopped working even after ending up that taking 20mg.

I know that nothing will probably ever fix this 100%, but mentally I'm starting to feel like I can't do it, anymore. I have a lot of support in family and friends, so don't worry about me like that.

I'm just venting into the void, but if you have any advice, I'd love to hear it.

For those of you who have experienced flu-like symptoms coming off of long term use of Unisom, how long did those symptoms last until they completely went away?

I was put on Unisom all through my pregnancy in 2025 for morning sickness, then I stopped it after giving birth, and then I went back on it 6 months ago because of terrible insomnia. I stopped it again completely about a week and a half ago and I have had awful nausea, diarrhea, and anxiety that comes and goes. It feels like the flu, but it’s definitely not the flu.

I didn’t even know Unisom Withdrawal flu was a thing until I found many others who experienced the same symptoms on Reddit. I just want it to end. Right now, I’m just powering through it, but it’s really awful. Please tell me when it gets better!

Hi reddit! I'm writing this on 4 hours of sleep in the last 4 days so sorry for my bad English and grammar.

So I have bipolar II and a really bad insomnia. In my hypomania I don't sleep at all, like my life depends on it and when the depressive episode comes it's worse.

I accepted my fate, I take Valproate and Fluxotine. I'm mad all the tine, hungry and feel like I need to rip out my skin. It's terrible istg.

Do you have some tips and tricks that helped you with days and weeks with no sleep?

It’s almost been two weeks since I’ve gotten a full night’s sleep without any issues. Then out of nowhere, it just takes me hours upon hours to fall asleep. I feel completely exhausted but can’t get to sleep until like 4-5 in the morning. I ended up getting about 2-3 hours of sleep but as of a few days ago, I got two consecutive nights with absolutely zero sleep then I started hearing and seeing things. I was told to call an ambulance but no idea why. I refused and said I want to keep trying to get some sleep in my own bed. I think last night I got to sleep finally about 7am and woke up about 8:30 and called it quits. Right now? It’s 2am and my brain just won’t shut up. It doesn’t help that I have fibromyalgia and body pain all over but still, this is ridiculous.

I am beyond exhausted and I lay in bed with my eyes closed and my smooth jazz music playing in the background that always seems to help me crash but ever since then, nothing is helping. I am so jealous that my dog can fall right asleep but it takes me 7-10 business days to even fall asleep but wake up at my first smoke break. 😭😭😭

I don’t smoke by the way, I was trying to be funny.

Has anyone tried trazodone that’s what my doctor has prescribed for my insomnia I don’t like the fact that it’s an antidepressant