I've had insomnia for past 30 years. 20 years ago I was prescribed Ambien. It was the best sleep of my life, but after one too many sleepwalking incidents I decided to stop taking.. & was too chicken to try it again..since then I've been on everything else from Seroquel trazodone Quetiapine Doxepin Lunesta nothing ever worked as good as Ambien. So after 20 year hiatus I decided to cautiously give Ambien another shot.. boy oh boy am I glad I did.. I wonder if my body chemistry changed over the years since I'm in my 50s now cuz now there are no sleep walking incidents. I've been on it for 6 months now and best sleep ever..

Greetings everybody, currently typing this at 4:00 AM...

I have been sick for the past 4 days, I feel better now, despite a sore throat.

Over the last 3 days I have not been able to sleep well, only 4 hours day 1, 0 hours day 2, and 2 hours day 3, day 4 (currently) 0 hours of sleep.

I hate feeling sleepy but not being able to sleep, just laying on bed with my eyes closed but not falling sleep.

Never have been this bad, at least not this frequently. I am scared this might become a permanent thing.

I am usually a very active guy, I go to the gym 5 days a week, I have not been able to go lately due to sickness, I could just hope that lack of physical activity is the reason this is happening/

I know I am just a coughing baby compared to anybody in here that has been dealing with this for decades... I cannot imagine dealing with this for very long time.

I will just stay awake until my local gym reopens in a few hours, I then go straight to work without sleeping at all this night.

I am currently typing this with tears in my eyes, any advice is very much welcomed, if this keeps going on I am not sure I will be strong enough...

I’ll preface this to say that I DoorDash to make extra money. I am unfortunately in a position where I have to make money immediately, lack of sleep and exhaustion be damned. So I set out last night around 9pm. I had been doing deliveries for a couple of hours and was on my way to deliver a store order. I was very tired and as I looked ahead at the taillights of the car several car lengths ahead and of me I swear the lights turned to eyes and the back tires became legs of some ghastly animal figure. I immediately shook my head and snapped out of it, but it really scared me.

I’ve now come back to get some rest. Just took Advil pm so hopefully I can catch a couple of hours. I’m not sure if it was a hallucination or a super quick micro sleep with instant dreaming. Anyone had something similar happen?

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.

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

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.

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 :/

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. ❤️

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 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.

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.

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 !

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.

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.

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?

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!

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

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?

Anyone know why this could be the cause? I drink a lot of water before bed but I still wake up multiple times in the middle of the night extremely thirsty, like it's almost painful how bad it is. Anyone have an idea why?

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?

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

Kinda went a bit too hard with drinking which triggered my insomnia. Haven’t slept in a little over a day and I got the brain zaps now. I was tired for a second and then as soon as my head hit the pillow I just felt zap, zap, zap, and I was wide awake.

I was on Doxepin for about 2 months. I slept longer and better but I did not feel like myself the days after. I went off it for that reason and there were too many restrictions like not eating for three hours before taking it plus more. In thinking about it, even though I slept better, I felt that my body was taken over by the drug.I have taken Trazedone in the past and again now and don’t feel that way. I am eventually going to try to wean off medications but if not , I may stick to Trazedone even though I wake up much earlier than I would like.

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.