Check-in for Current and Recovered Insomnia Sufferers--1/28

[mama2a]

In another thread we talked about starting an insomnia check-in thread. It's such a lonely disorder and I would love to hear how others are progressing and coping if only so it can give me the confidence boost.

1. Are you a current, recovering or recovered insomnia sufferer?

2. Did you develop insomnia only after having kids or have you always had sleep problems? What triggered it?

3. What are you doing to treat or cope? Is it working?

4. Any major break-through lately that has helped you sleep better?

5. GTKY---If you had 8 hours to yourself what would you do? (I know--dream big, right!?)

[mama2a]

Jan 28, 2015 9:18:36 GMT -5 mama2a said:

In another thread we talked about starting an insomnia check-in thread. It's such a lonely disorder and I would love to hear how others are progressing and coping if only so it can give me the confidence boost.

1. Are you a current, recovering or recovered insomnia sufferer?  I'm recovering. I've been sleeping really well lately, but then have a few bad patches of bad nights (ie, last night I don't think I fell asleep at all  )

2. Did you develop insomnia only after having kids or have you always had sleep problems? What triggered it?  I developed around 4months PP. It was a myriad of reasons, but ultimately my return to work and dealing with abscesses from Mastitis triggered it all because I was just in "mom mode" all day and all night. Currently (13 months PP) it's more a sleep phobia than anything else.

3. What are you doing to treat or cope? Is it working?   I've been doing CBT-I with a sleep Psychologist who diagnosed me with Psychophysiological insomnia which basically means I get into bed and I start getting worked up. It is definitely helping.

4. Any major break-through lately that has helped you sleep better?    Trying to control falling asleep doesn't work. Instead, I try to relax because then sleep will creep in.

5. GTKY---If you had 8 hours to yourself what would you do? (I know--dream big, right!?)    I would go for a 4-5 mile run, read, drink coffee, and marathon Netflix shows streaming.

[triplea598]

*Just FYI, I don't have an official dx since I don't want to get prescribed any sleeping meds, and the insomnia has slowly gotten worse over time.*


1. Are you a current, recovering or recovered insomnia sufferer? Current sufferer. As I'm typing this, it's 1am. I usually can't get to sleep until 2am at the very earliest.

2. Did you develop insomnia only after having kids or have you always had sleep problems? What triggered it? When I've gone through bouts of serious depression, the insomnia would be horrible. When my depression and anxiety were under control, the insomnia would go away. After I had DS, my insomnia seems to have gotten worse, even when I'm not dealing with depression. I think that recently for me, it's directly related to stress and anxiety.

3. What are you doing to treat or cope? Is it working?
I'm working on it a little with my therapist. She suggested meditation, but I haven't really tried it yet. Right now I pretty much either stay up, or give in and take a Benadryl or my Klonopin. These days though, those have hardly helped.

4. Any major break-through lately that has helped you sleep better?
Nope. I wish!

5. GTKY---If you had 8 hours to yourself what would you do? (I know--dream big, right!?)
Good question. Maybe a spa day? Idk.

[Deleted]

1. Are you a current, recovering or recovered insomnia sufferer? I'm a Narcoleptic with a Bipolar 1 diagnosis. Without medication I only sleep 3 hours at a time. I also have insomnia during manic episodes. It took two sleep studies to confirm my N diagnosis.

2. Did you develop insomnia only after having kids or have you always had sleep problems? What triggered it? Currently TTC #1. I've had episodes of insomnia since I was very young. I also had severe night terrors.

3. What are you doing to treat or cope? Is it working? I'm a long term Ambien user. I was up to 12.5 MG ER every night. Developed alot of weird behaviors. Sleep has been significantly better since I moved down to 6.25 MG. I haven't had a single episode of sleep paralysis since I reduced the amount. ::knocks on wood::

4. Any major break-through lately that has helped you sleep better? I never have any method that works more than a few months at a time. I sleep better on the couch by DH can't sleep without me in the bed. So we're at an impasse on that idea.

5. GTKY---If you had 8 hours to yourself what would you do? (I know--dream big, right!?) Organize my coupons.

[2kiddos]

1. Are you a current, recovering or recovered insomnia sufferer?
Recovering/current

2. Did you develop insomnia only after having kids or have you always had sleep problems? What triggered it?

After kids, during pp which kicked off my depression.

3. What are you doing to treat or cope? Is it working?

I take melatonin and ambien at night. Usually that combo keeps me asleep

4. Any major break-through lately that has helped you sleep better?

Nope, still working on it.

5. GTKY---If you had 8 hours to yourself what would you do? (I know--dream big, right!?)

I think I'd sleep 7 hours of that and take a hot bubble bath the last hour haha.

[qlove1215]

In another thread we talked about starting an insomnia check-in thread. It's such a lonely disorder and I would love to hear how others are progressing and coping if only so it can give me the confidence boost.

1. Are you a current, recovering or recovered insomnia sufferer?

Recovering...maybe? I think my insomnia stems from the nightmares I have when I do sleep each night. I've had nightmares every night with my earliest memory of one being only 5 years old. Two days ago I started on Prazosin, technically a blood pressure drug, but off label helps with nightmares for PTSD patients. It'll take a while to build up the dosage to be effective but I'm hopeful. I also use ambien some nights, Klonopin some nights and melatonin.

2. Did you develop insomnia only after having kids or have you always had sleep problems? What triggered it?

I've had it for as long as I can remember, it was worse while I had PPD but seems slightly better now- of course I'm on better drugs...

3. What are you doing to treat or cope? Is it working?

I suck at this. I've answered this already, way to put the cart before the horse or whatever that saying is.


4. Any major break-through lately that has helped you sleep better?

Hoping Prazosin will help with the nightmares and that will lead to a break through!!

5. GTKY---If you had 8 hours to yourself what would you do? (I know--dream big, right!?)

Watch a movie (is Still Alice in the theaters?), nap for sure and maybe some light shopping.

[mama2a]

Feb 4, 2015 13:51:57 GMT -5 qlove1215 said:

In another thread we talked about starting an insomnia check-in thread. It's such a lonely disorder and I would love to hear how others are progressing and coping if only so it can give me the confidence boost.

1. Are you a current, recovering or recovered insomnia sufferer?

Recovering...maybe? I think my insomnia stems from the nightmares I have when I do sleep each night. I've had nightmares every night with my earliest memory of one being only 5 years old. Two days ago I started on Prazosin, technically a blood pressure drug, but off label helps with nightmares for PTSD patients. It'll take a while to build up the dosage to be effective but I'm hopeful. I also use ambien some nights, Klonopin some nights and melatonin.

2. Did you develop insomnia only after having kids or have you always had sleep problems? What triggered it?

I've had it for as long as I can remember, it was worse while I had PPD but seems slightly better now- of course I'm on better drugs...

3. What are you doing to treat or cope? Is it working?

I suck at this. I've answered this already, way to put the cart before the horse or whatever that saying is.


4. Any major break-through lately that has helped you sleep better?

Hoping Prazosin will help with the nightmares and that will lead to a break through!!

5. GTKY---If you had 8 hours to yourself what would you do? (I know--dream big, right!?)

Watch a movie (is Still Alice in the theaters?), nap for sure and maybe some light shopping.

I was browsing around online and found a book called "Sound Sleep, Sound Mind" which I think gets into the nitty gritty of how our meta-thinking and inability to actually FEEL emotions and feelings can impact our sleep. I am picking it up at the library tonight, but I'm really excited to read it and think it may help me. Nevertheless, I was on the author's website and saw a piece on "Nightmare Therapy" along the left-hand side and am wondering if it would be of interest to you? www.sleeptreatment.com/

[qlove1215]

mama2a Thank you for the suggestion- I'll check it out tonight!

Have you heard of the CBTi app? I found it on my phone (iphone) last night and haven't played with it yet but had found CBT therapy helpful back in high school (15 years ago now, I figured I could use a refresher!)

itunes.apple.com/us/app/cbt-i-coach/id655918660?mt=8

[mama2a]

Feb 4, 2015 19:56:09 GMT -5 qlove1215 said:

mama2a Thank you for the suggestion- I'll check it out tonight!

Have you heard of the CBTi app? I found it on my phone (iphone) last night and haven't played with it yet but had found CBT therapy helpful back in high school (15 years ago now, I figured I could use a refresher!)

itunes.apple.com/us/app/cbt-i-coach/id655918660?mt=8

I haven't heard of the app but I'll check it out! I'm doing CBT-I with my sleep Psychologist right now so I got the logistics, but one of the annoyances is that I see him every 2 weeks and sometimes I feel like I need more support in between when the going gets rough....

I started reading Sound Sleep, Sound Mind last night and so far it's really resonating with me...and I've read lots of sleep books! He talks about one of the biggest issues with those struggling with insomnia is that they don't have the ability to "close" the night and make your body ready for sleep. I think this is exactly what happened to me at 4 months PP because DD was still getting up once a night to nurse and therefore I had a hard time getting out of "mom mode" to go to sleep. I haven't gotten too far into it, but the book also talks about how those suffering with sleep problems have difficulty feeling their emotions and instead just do meta-thinking (which is thinking about their emotions) which creates ruminations and the inability to ever feel resolution.