Over-medicated and still can't fall asleep

[BluMac81]

Hello all. So here I am up at 1am writing this post, it has been commonplace for me for some time now where I usually don't fall asleep until 3-4 hours after I went to bed, and I was hoping you guys could offer some solutions to help me calm down at bed-time.

What keeps me from falling asleep is two things: first is my old insomniphobia dating back to 2002, a condition where the more I feel like I'm not going to get sleep tonight the more anxiety builds up in me and keeps me from falling asleep, and the anxiety comes from the fear of being anxious and panicy all day the next day after no-sleep, anxious about 'will I not be able to sleep yet again tonight? I'm gonna lose my ability to function in life! It's gonna put me a non-stop panic attack like it did before!'

That reason is well, fairly hopeless as I've conditioned my mind to think like that over many years, it's kind of like PTSD as those days of massive panic, sleepless nights, and trips to the ER have become a trauma in my mind.

The second reason, and the thing I think you all could maybe help me with, is this OCD-like compulsion to have everything perfect when I'm trying to fall asleep. When I first lie in bed, everything has to feel right, my right sleeve of my shirt being too tight, the sheet not being perfectly aligned, and especially me feeling like I need a drink of water and needing to pee every few minutes (even though I always don't have much to pee), I'll even press on my bladder to see if there is any slight feeling that I have to pee and if there is, I get up and do it. Needless to say, with all of this moving and tossing and turning combined with the sleep anxiety, my body never gets a chance to settle down into sleep. Any suggestions on that, something that will help me to rid myself of these compulsions and OCD behavior at bedtime?

Oh and FYI here are the sleep meds I take
Xanax - 3mg
Flexoril - 4 pills
Lunesta - 3mg
numerous pain relievers
(and if I'm sick like I am now
Benadryl 2-3 pills
Delsym 3 tbs
etc.

Anyway, I'm gonna give it another go, please wish me luck. Ya know, I was just watching "Fight Club" and saw at the beginning how the guy sees a doctor for his insomnia but the doctor refuses to give him any meds and says 'what you need is healthy natural sleep', I've been in that situation before, and man that was harsh.

Thanks all
Sinex night 3 pills

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Is your doctor aware that you're taking all those medications? Are you aware that some of those may interact with the others?

 

[Daniel E.]

Ya know, I was just watching "Fight Club" and saw at the beginning how the guy sees a doctor for his insomnia but the doctor refuses to give him any meds and says 'what you need is healthy natural sleep', I've been in that situation before, and man that was harsh.

They did get a lot of exercise in that movie, albeit violently.

 

[forgetmenot]

YOu need to stop taking all those pills they are doing more harm then you good Take them all to your doctor okay and get rid of them No wonder you are not sleeping god take care of YOU hun ok talk to your doctor about all these meds today

 

[BluMac81]

YOu need to stop taking all those pills they are doing more harm then you good Take them all to your doctor okay and get rid of them No wonder you are not sleeping god take care of YOU hun ok talk to your doctor about all these meds today

Um, how do you know they are doing more harm than good? If it wasn't for Xanax I'd be a nervous wreck right now, and you know doctors put me on these medications and they are with the VA so both my psychiatrist and my GP doctor know what medications I'm taking, and I'm sure they know better than you or I. How can sleep aids 'cause' insomnia (other than in withdrawls). You just seem very anti-medications, actually my mom says the same thing, that I'm on too many meds, but these meds help me function and it's not like I can just quit them all in one day, many of them cause withdrawls if I quit them, and I am tapering off of one of them now, but I only want to do one taper-off at a time for safety. That being said, Eclipse, you may have something there, maybe I'm wrong, maybe the doctors are wrong, maybe I do need to get off the meds, but which ones in particular do you think? I can't just get off of them all at once, that would be dangerous and painful.

Anywho, guys I'm just looking for your basic sleep hygeine advise, as well as a hypothesis as to why I get so restless and OCD and get racing thoughts at night, I don't get to see my psychiatrist that often because he's with the VA, so appointments are usually 4-6 months apart. I just really need to conquer this problem right now, all the tossing and turning and waking up and not being able to fall back asleep and lying in bed for hours upon hours without falling asleep are just killing me, seriously, it is very traumatic for me because I get these panic attacks when I start feeling like I won't be able to sleep at all in that night, and the panic attacks are the absolute worst, and the daytime drowsiness really messes with my performance in life as well. Maybe I'll try to find an "Insomniacs Anonymous" group somewhere around here, if there is such a thing lol. But seriously I just can't seem to settle down when I go to bed, I really need help with this because just thinking about 'bedtime' terrifies me because every night is so tramatic for me mentally. Suggestions?

So let me clear up real quick my nighttime 'routine' and what happens when I get in bed so you guys can maybe tell me what I'm doing wrong:

-At 7pm I do a daily cardio exercise for 30 minutes
-At 8pm I take all of my bedtime meds including: 1 xanax, 1 effexor, 1 lunesta, 4 stool softeners, 2 roboxin, 2 acetemanaphine, 1 ibprofen, 3-4 flexoril
-After that I take a hot shower
-Then 8:30-10:30 I just relax surfing the web, watching tv, playing video games, whatever
-Then I do my "just before going to bed routine" doing stuff like locking my door, charging my cellphone, etc., I also take right before bed more meds, 2 xanax, 2 acetemanaphine, 1 ibprofen, 1-2 benadryl, 1 clonodine or 4 prazosin (for nightmeres)
-I set up 2 glasses of water, lie in bed and do my daily prayer... and then...
-... I start obsessing, I'll actually adjust my clothes and my sheet so much that I feel like I have been doing sit-ups after a while, something feels to tight here, too loose there, adjust it, etc., then my mouth gets super dry so I drink some -water, soon I have to pee and then the clothes/sheet adjusting happens again.
-When I do finally feel like everything is adjusted right and I feel comfortable.... I 'try' to sleep, my options are to (1) think up a story or continue internal dialogue (which is mostly innovative ideas, plans, etc; this helps me to ignore additional 'adjustments' I start feeling like I need to do BUT it keeps me awake.), (2) think of only imagery, like imagine me playing a sport (but with no dialogue; this one has sometimes worked but tends to drift into a story/dialogue like in (1)), or (3) try to keep my mind blank, don't think of anything, just try to relax and let me fall asleep (however, I tend get bored and start thinking of things.... especially: "Why haven't I fallen asleep yet?!! It's going to be another one of those nights! Oh God no!!!)
-And then it goes on like that for most the night, I do eventually fall asleep but once I wake back up it takes a long while to fall asleep again, take just last night for example:

1. Went to bed at 10:30pm
2. Tossed and Turned till 2:30am
3. Woke up at 5:30am
4. Didn't fall asleep again till 8am
5. Woke up at 11am (for good)

It sucks, but I am thankful that I got any sleep at all. By the way, I know this is long, and I'm sorry, and if you've read through all of this then you are a true friend to me (because obviously you care enough to read all of my ramblings, lol!)

Please I need some advise, I know it may seem like no big deal to you guys, missing sleep and all, but it goes beyond missing sleep, it's the panic attacks that occur 'because' I am unable to sleep, as well as the fact that I am not able to function at work or school due to the insomnia, but the panic attacks are the main terror for me, even xanax just dampens them a little. I guess you can call all of this a case of 'hyper-vigalance', several doctors and psychologists have actually pointed it out that I am that, overly hyper-vigilant (with a super-sensitive amygdala). The fact is, several years ago when I was forcefully placed in the psych ward due to a suicide attempt, my insomnia and panic attacks were the trigger that made me do it, you can't imagine the hell that goes on in my head at night, and at this point, I'm desperate, so, please help me.

Thanks

 

[Daniel E.]

At 7pm I do a daily cardio exercise for 30 minutes

As you may know, the morning and early afternoon is said to be the ideal time to exercise in order to prevent insomnia. In other words, exercising at night can be too stimulating. If I have to stay awake, I will actually exercise to do so.

---------- Post added at 06:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:02 PM ----------

1. Went to bed at 10:30pm
2. Tossed and Turned till 2:30am
3. Woke up at 5:30am
4. Didn't fall asleep again till 8am
5. Woke up at 11am (for good)

Maybe just stay up if you can't fall back to sleep in 20 minutes or so. Like if you wake up at 5:30 AM, just stay up and become a morning person. That way, you also have some sleep deficit to help you stay asleep the next night.

Personally, I find it helps to keep my window shades open so that I wake up with the sun. That also may help with the circadian rhythm.

More info: Sleep Restriction for Insomnia

 

[forgetmenot]

Sorry Bluemac i was not aware your doctor was aware you are taking all these meds togethers or has more then one doctor been prescribing and the other one is not aware of what that doctor did prescribe sometimes this happens too many doctors are prescribing things the other is not aware of Sorry you do what your doctor has told you to do just make sure they are all aware what the other one is doing okay I am not antimedication bluemac i have just started one myself just meds do interact and they can cause harm if all your doctors are not aware of what is happening hugs

 

[David Baxter PhD]

To be fair to Eclipse and consistent with my question, not all of those medications are prescription meds, and you need to be aware that over-the-counter remedies can and often do interact with your prescribed medications. My question was whether your doctors were aware you were adding the OTC drugs to what they prescribed.

 

[Daniel E.]

BTW, exercising at night and even before bedtime might not be problematic after all:

To investigate the influence of different intensities and durations of exercise before bedtime on the sleep pattern and core body temperature of individuals considered good sleepers, we selected 17 healthy males and all underwent 5 nonconsecutive days of study. Measurements of polysomnographic parameters and core body temperature were taken at baseline and after each experimental protocol, performed at night. We found increased sleep efficiency (p = .016) among all protocols compared with baseline data and increase in REM sleep latency (p = .047) between two experiments; there was decrease in the percentage of stage 1 sleep (p = .046) and wake after sleep onset (p = .003). Core body temperature did not change significantly during the nights following exercise. Exercise performed before sleep does not impair sleep quality; rather, its practice improves sleep in good sleepers who are nonathletes, and may be considered to improve sleep pattern.

Physical exercise performed before bedtime improves the sleep pattern of healthy young good sleepers - Flausino - 2011 - Psychophysiology - Wiley Online Library

Similarly, from a 1999 study:

These data are inconsistent with the general opinion that vigorous exercise shortly before bedtime disturbs sleep.

http://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/A...leep_disturbed_by_vigorous_late_night.15.aspx

 

[BluMac81]

I seem to have fell back into my insomnia problems since daylight savings started and we lost on hour here in the States. I go to bed at 11:30pm (when I had been going to bed at 10:30pm) and I just toss and turn, like today, went to bed at 12am and I tossed and turned obessing over how my mouth kept getting dry so I had to drink a lot of water, and then I have to pee a lot, then my mouth gets dry again and the cycle continues, it has me moving about every 3 minutes or so, how do I stop this obessive routine, it's hard to ignore any discomfort (the dry mouth) when I'm in bed since there is nothing to focus on but my body. I'm still on Lunesta 3mg, and some muscle relaxers for sleep, I also take benodryl, melatonin, and clondine (for nightmeres, though it doesn't work).

I wonder if it has something to do with the terrifying nightmeres I've been having lately, I've had dreams of war, death and dying for several months now. Like the other night I actually dreamed I had died and I was so convinced it was real and I paniced and woke up. Then there's all those war dreams, part of the whole PTSD thing I guess, but it sure isn't pleasant and I think these nightmeres are giving me an aversion to sleep, like I don't want to fall asleep cause then the nightmeres will come. I know one thing I could do is exercise more, I've got a busy college schedule but it mostly involves walking and sitting around, and when I get home I like to play my video games and time sure flies playing those, maybe if I switched to playing Just Dance 3 where I break out a sweat I'd sleep better, but it's hard to get me to exercise "early", meaning before 4pm and my classes, I really drag in the morning, likely due to the meds.

The other problem is the over-sleeping I've been doing on days where I don't have an appt, I'll wake up after 8 or 9 hours of poor sleep (lots of nightmeres and tossing and turning) and I still feel like I need more sleep, because I just hate having that feeling of being sleepy all day, it just ruins my day, so I don't want to take the chance of doing that, so I just keep sleeping and sleeping till I get a certain "feeling" that I'm rested, and that's at about the 11 hour mark. It's just a terrible cycle I'm in lately and I'd appreciate some suggestions.

 

[Daniel E.]

but it's hard to get me to exercise "early", meaning before 4pm and my classes, I really drag in the morning, likely due to the meds.

What about just starting a 5-minute or even 1-minute new morning exercise ritual? I like to exercise throughout the day.

I'll wake up after 8 or 9 hours of poor sleep (lots of nightmeres and tossing and turning) and I still feel like I need more sleep, because I just hate having that feeling of being sleepy all day, it just ruins my day

But does sleeping more even help? Certainly, there are diminishing returns with everything. So trying something new may be more helpful, e.g. doing a new social activity.