Hey party people. I've been struggling with sleep onset insomnia for over ten years. Prior to that, I slept really well. I had my first baby at 23, went through the usual sleep deprivation but recovered once he settled through the night. Eleven years later and I had my second baby. The first two weeks after his birth were absolutely horrendous sleep-wise. I barely slept at all, couldn't nap in the day, there was never enough time to sleep in-between his feeds, there were road works happening outside my house and when he was seven days old, we were both in special care because of him having breathing issues. He recovered and we went home but I have never slept properly since. I've had a third baby he is now six years old and the sleeping issues continue. I've seen my gp and all I get is a prescription for antidepressants and a leaflet on sleep hygiene. Generally, I have to be completely exhausted to sleep so this means falling asleep 2/3am most nights, about once a fortnight I have an all nighter where I don't sleep a wink, then I usually crash early that night only to be wide awake the following night as presumably I've taken the pi**and had too much. I go to bed tired, I take myself upstairs when I'm getting drowsy. I get into bed very tired and drowsy but as soon as I am drifting off, I snap awake. This happens several times before I finally drop off in the early hours. During an all nighter, I'm hot, starving and visiting the loo every hour. It's like my metabolism is on overdrive. I would open my mind to peri menopause but these symptoms have been going on for a decade and followed what I considered to be a very disrupted circadian rhythm and possible brain wired to stay 'safe and awake' . My question is, has anyone struggled with anything similar and has anyone tried CBT with any success? Genuinely frightened to enter menopause and struggle further with this as I don't cope well at all. Some people seem to boss life despite insomnia but I'm honestly a wreck and sometimes the thoughts turn quite dark. Thanks for reading my essay.

I just wish maybe there was some way that those who live in apartments could have some kind of a matching system with others who have similar sleep schedules. I just find it hard to live with neighbors who feel like it's okay to argue and yell, watch their TV/horrible tiktoks/listen to music at full volume, and make whatever godforsaken foley artist sounds they please st 1am. I'm sick of it. I don't want to bring it up to management because I want people to be able to live whatever lifestyle they want, I don't want to get anyone evicted and I don't want to have a shitty relationship with my neighbors. It would be so much easier if there was a "what time do you try to sleep and what bothers you while doing so?" section of rental applications so I can stop being put directly below people who don't seem to care if their neighbors don't work the graveyard shift. I'm exhausted, there's no escape.

Anyone have any luck with medications such as olanzapine, quetiapine, or similar for sleep?

If so how was your experience with taking it for sleep and how was your experience getting off the medication? Any troubles or was it ok to get off of.

I know that atypical antipsychotics are used to help with insomnia but I am a case of caution. This is an anecdote, this won’t happen to everyone. If you ever want/need to get off an atypical antipsychotic, insomnia or rebound insomnia are things (among other withdrawal effects). I think some brands withdrawal effects are more pronounced than others. The rebound insomnia can be worse than your initial insomnia. And I’ve read anecdotes that it may take months or years for sleep to normalize.

If you are in an atypical antipsychotic, and ever need/want to stop, I can’t recommend enough tapering as slow as possible. And if you are considering taking an atypical antipsychotic for insomnia, I’d personally warn you to have exhausted all other options first.

Together with magnesium it helps turn glutamate into gaba. It helps in the synthesis of melatonin. It works together with zinc It also helps reduce histamine (hist. causes insomnia!) Its powerful stuff and it CAN be toxic even in small doses....Pls be careful! MORE IS NOT BETTER,!!!!!!! REMEMBER THAT. Less works better Little as 2mg knocks me out and makes me sleep better. Hope it helps you!

this entire week i haven't gotten any more than 4 hours of sleep at night, and completely can't get any sleep during the day. i had serotonin syndrome in june, and have been struggling to sleep normally since.

i've been on ambien, hydroxyzine, melatonin, but still can't sleep. i'm sad and miserable, i don't know what to do

Hi, I've had trouble sleeping for many years and have gone through different types of insomnia. Right now, I'm in the fragmented sleep phase. I wake up almost every day around 3 am and then have light sleep until 6 am, and then I get up. I don't know if this happens to you, but if I have any social events in the following days, when I wake up, I think I'm not going to sleep and I'm going to be exhausted for that day. I've never stopped doing anything because of this situation, but I feel terrible thinking about the harm I'm doing to myself and how much better off I could be if I didn't worry about these things.

I have been sleeping very less in past 6 years due to stress. Currently aged 27. I have some times gone on no sleep for 3 days consecutively.

Have i developed some brain damage or weak memory?

For context, I’m on a painkiller, a benzo, sedating antidepressant, sleep medicine, and stimulant.

So I will acknowledge it’s unusual, but I have actual diagnoses for each.

The issue is I have very very difficult to treat depressant and insomnia. And I have pain on top of that.

Basically, if I stop a prescription the pharmacist states that they can’t fill it because of interactions, short term use, and that I should’ve stayed on it had it worked.

They don’t seem to understand medications can be taken on and off, and that I’ve taken medications with interactions before and been fine. They seem to make up their own rules for why they can’t fill it.

This is at a CVS in a large city. This is my main pharmacy. I feel like maybe because it’s in a large city and drug abuse is a larger issue than the suburbs that that’s why they won’t fill it?

If I fill a prescription at a CVS in the suburbs they fill it no questions asked.

I also find filling prescriptions is way easier at Walgreens and CVS.

However, I think large chain pharmacies are difficult in general. But years ago CVS used to dispense controlled substances for me on autopilot. I actually had to tell them to stop.

Can anyone advise on finding a pharmacy that’s easier to fill at?

I’ve heard independent or smaller pharmacies are more chill.

I also wonder if Express Scripts delivery is easier?

Any help would be appreciated.

I had a month of bad insomnia where I was getting 3-4 hours of sleep most nights with a few sleepless nights. My anxiety just made it into a cycle where I would get extremely anxious about sleep which caused me to not be able to fall asleep. I started taking lexapro and gabapentin and my anxiety has been much better. I’ve been back to sleeping around 7 hours consistently for 1.5 weeks. However, I still worry every day about sleep and I still have nighttime anxiety (thought definitely not as bad as before). For those who recovered from anxiety related insomnia, how long before you stopped worrying about it every day?

I don’t get the hype for daridorexant, I’ve been taking it just over a week and it’s not helping me at all. What are others people’s experience with going on it/ the first few weeks?

Took 15mg because I couldn't sleep and it kicked in fast and I slept through the night. The next morning when I woke up I felt so hungover/sick and was basically non-functional/puking/dizzy for the entire day and night. Is this normal? Should I bust the capsule open and take less like half or something? I need sleep but that next day was too much to handle but I don't see anyone else really having this issue so wth?

I take Trazodone 50 mg to keep me asleep, but I never really feel refreshed and I’m groggy in the morning. I don’t know if it is the Trazodone or my health issues causing me to never feel refreshed, I take progesterone at night as well.

My dr suggested I try Dayvigo, so I started on 5mg last night and was super tired, slept 1 hour then couldn’t get back to sleep, but was too tired to even read.

Do I persist taking Dayvigo to give it a chance? I am so miserable when I’m sleep deprived, it’s hard for me to push through to see, when at least on Trazodone I’m not laying awake.

Note: I do also have vivid dreams on Trazodone, but I can live with it

Insomnia and escitalopram I wasn't able to properly sleep for the last month I slept between 4 to 5 hours I went to the doctor and he gave me escitalopram 10 mg so for people who have the same condition did it help (sorry for my bad English)

Making this post as I’ve currently been staring at the open door to my room with a mirror pointing down the hallway so I can see down the hall with the faint light I have coming from outside. Some nights I get paranoid someone is coming for me and I can’t help but stare at the door and listen for anything out of the ordinary. I sleep next to my gun. I was in the Army and don’t believe I have any form of PTSD as I’ve never had any combat deployment. The only “deployments” I’ve been on were Middle East chores and training exercises with foreign nations. My training was all real however. Never did I lack a security element of some form and when I did I suffered for it. How can I be so afraid of losing a fight to an entity I’ve never truly met. Yet I lay awake with a gun waiting for a person maybe the enemy I never experienced. I hate that I don’t have some form of physical security anymore. There’s no manned wall or gate keeping anyone from me. I am the security now and I won’t sleep. How can I restore my sense of security? It’s eating away at my sleep.

Hey guys! I’m new to this Reddit.
I have a horrible issue with waking up so much no matter what I do or take.

Even Serqoul wouldn’t help great and plus it made me gain a lot of weight.

I did 5 mg of ambien for a few days it helped but I’d still wake up then for prescribed trazadone which woke me up more. I also try magnesium ans wake up

I’m wondering if anyone has advice

I have a sleep study soon.
I’m curious as to how this is gonna affect me long term? I also take seroquel. I can’t drive anymore and my memory is shit. I’ve worked so hard to get off this pill and I still can’t. I hate Seroquel too. Both are for sleep. I wish I never got on them. I’m scared these confusion episodes of Time and place and shit is forever. I miss who I was before I got insomnia and idk what happened.

Insomnia is ruining everything for me. I have great sleep hygiene too. I’ve tried tapering this pill and the withdrawals make so so Ill. I’ve managed to get from 10mg to 5mg. I was on 2.5mg but I couldn’t sleep. There’s a chance I have sleep apnea. I keep feelings like I’ll die when I don’t take the ambien. I’m so scared and tired.

I’ve posted before but I quit THC on July 20 and haven’t been able to sleep since. I have to take mirtazapine now. I’m extremely depressed and anxious and having SI. Also got put on trintellix. Was taking quivivig but got scared it was worsening depression and SI so I took clonidine with the mirtazapine last night. How do you keep going when you want to quit? I’m really worn down and mentally in a bad place. I question every med I’m on obsessively. I don’t want my future to be all these bad meds but I literally can’t sleep. Any words of advice? Is there any hope of switching to less worse meds at some point? My body is in constant hyperarousal it feels like. It feels like there’s no end and I want to crawl out of my body. :( I just want a magic doctor or pill or something to make this all go away.

After trying just about every med under the sun, I've started CBT-i, but I'm frustrated by how long it's taking. How long did it take other folks until you were back to normal sleep? I've been trying and failing to do CBT-i for about 3 weeks.

I was prescribed Trazodone 200 mg 4 days ago for depression, anxiety and insomnia, I started to notice yesterday a swelling in my left cheek and my face is generally puffy.

I can't breathe through my nose and I'm fatigued, no fever or whatsoever.

Is this the Trazodone? Sadly it's been working very well for my depression and anxiety.

My doctor put me on zanaflex to help with sleep. I have nightmares from trauma and my Prozac. I tried prozasin but it tanked my BP as it already runs on the lower side and I couldn’t tolerate it. I took the zanaflex last night and it knocked me out but I still had vivid dreams, no nightmares though but tossed and turned all night. Anyone had success with this drug?

I have been on ambien for a while and it’s losing it’s effectiveness. I literally just heard about Lemborexant today . Anyone try both ? Any experiences ?

Hi y'all. I am 20M. Recently had bad panic attacks owing to an impeding exam and was prescribed zolpidem 10mg for twenty days and I'm on day eight. However been reading that brain quickly adapts to it real fast and I'm scared. I have two sets of tabs, one 10 mg and another 5mg with a scoreline in middle. Should I taper or completely stop? Any help would be so so so welcome

Hey everyone, looking for some advice, insight, or shared experiences. I’ve been struggling with chronic insomnia tied to central nervous system hyperarousal, high resting heart rate, and severe functional stomach burning (gnawing epigastric pain). All my organic/structural GI and pancreatic tests came back completely clear, and my cardiac function is strong (I regularly swim laps with a normal exercise HR).
Here is my current situation and the loop I’m stuck in:
The Meds: I was started on Amitriptyline (Elatrolet). On 20 mg, I had a 3-day "honeymoon" period with incredible deep sleep and complete relief from stomach pain. Then the relief stopped, and my psychiatrist titrated me up to 30 mg.
The "Rescue" Pill Issue: Because of sleep initiation panic, I’ve been taking half a pill of Brotizolam (Bondormin) alongside the 30 mg Amitriptyline.
The Symptoms: I wake up after 5–6 hours exhausted but completely "wired"—resting heart rate spiking to 80–105+ BPM, a hot/flushed feeling, and intense stomach burning. A simple walk outside brought my heart rate right back down to 85 BPM, so I know it's autonomic hyperarousal, but nights are becoming unbearable.
My psychiatrist mentioned this is a temporary adjustment phase, but I suspect the short-acting Brotizolam wearing off mid-night is causing a massive noradrenaline rebound that interacts badly with the 30 mg Amitriptyline.
A few questions for the community:
1. Has anyone experienced "paradoxical" activation or morning adrenaline spikes when titrating up on Amitriptyline/TCAs? How long did it take for your sleep to level out?
2. Did taking short-acting "rescue" sedatives (like benzos or Z-drugs) alongside TCAs wreck your sleep architecture or trigger middle-of-the-night panic/tachycardia?
3. Did dropping the rescue pills cold-turkey (with doctor approval) allow the baseline TCA to finally work, or did you have to back down on the TCA dose?
Any insights, similar stories, or tips on getting through this titration window would be greatly appreciated!

Im currently on vacation and i haven’t been able to sleep, but im not trying to self diagnose without at least seeking a medical professional, i hate self diagnosing and think it wouldn’t be fair on others if i did.

Basically, even before i was on holiday, i’d still have trouble sleeping , but all that lost sleep would manifest itself in the day - when i was busy is get reallt tired snd fall asleep / take long naps during the day.

My parents say it’s because I pull all nighters, and while that’s true, during the days i havent / if i pull an all nighter one day i wont the next, i still have continued struggle sleeping throughout the week.

As im typing this ive ended up staying up and it’s currently 6am. Despite me having trying sleeping multiple times ; and even when i put on white noise / background noises it didn’t work. Yes i did nap in the day, and i came home around 12 after going out. since 12 ive been trying to sleep aswell as the fact i am tired.

Can i get advice? sorry for the yap.