Help please with insomnia!

[Robin Hood]

Hi! Friday-Saturday night, I tried sleeping without Pro Zopiclone (5 MG) (and I though taking it at 1:30-2 AM was a bad idea), but I was only able to sleep for like 3/2-3 hours at ~6:30 AM. Next day, I tried splitting the pill in half, I slept from ~12:30-~2:30 and (after I took the second half) from 3:30-5:30 then ~ 6:30-9:30. I was reading Wikipedia and came around a very rare disease that scared me to death (fatal familial insomnia, and it in rarer cases, it can appear by genetic mutations, and about people who didn't sleep for years and claim being healthy), (this is the last thing an anxious guy who has sleeping difficulties should hear. Sunday-Monday was a good night (i took Zopiclone). However, on the next day, I slept from 12:30-3:30, woke up, I ate, but couldn't sleep because my heart was beating rapidly, even when I tried to not think of FFI, I wasn't able to control my heart. During this night, I took Zopiclone at ~9:20 PM and felt asleep at ~9:45. I woke up at 11:30 and couldn't sleep. I ate (eventhough I ate before sleeping) but I was kept awake. I was no longer stressed. Do you think it will be a good idea to take Zopiclone at 4:20 (since it's effect is reduced after 7 hours) or during the day? I unfortunately became dependent on it. I have no class today. Do you also think what I went through is serious and I should seek professional help (I saw my psychiatrist yesterday, but it was only stress. He told me it's normal to wake up at night and have difficulty falling to sleep again). I tried positive thinking (saying I will fell asleep). I'm not stressed. I wasn't thinking about anything. I ate a dish of yogourt. But to no use. I hope I won't be screwed today.

Thanks a lot!

 

Edit: Forgot to mention that today also, felt my heart beating fast, but I think it slowed after it.

[Julie]

I think you should go see your doctor. Not so much because I think you should worry about FFI, but you sound anxious and maybe something can be done to help. Lots of things can help with insomnia, such as good sleep hygiene, meds and treating anxiety (you do sound anxious in your post). Psychotherapy can be of use too. If your doctor is worried about any physiological cause for the insomnia, he/she can order tests. But I do think seeing your doctor will help you get more reliable, personalized advice.

 

Best of luck and lots of zzz's for you!

 

Julie

[Jochi1543]

It's not uncommon to have "rebound insomnia" after you've been taking Zopiclone for a while and then skip a night or two. It will usually revert after one or two nights.

 

Sounds like you are stressed out and working yourself up a bit. Almost everybody has at least one night of poor sleep a week. It sounds like you are actually getting a decent amount of hours despite waking up several times throughout the night.

 

I agree with Julie that you should see your Dr. You may benefit from an anti-anxiety drug, a different insomnia med (like a TCA) or further investigation of your sleep habits (e.g. sleep study to r/o apnea or something). It'll be up to you and your Dr. to decide.

[Renin]

It's not uncommon to have "rebound insomnia" after you've been taking Zopiclone for a while and then skip a night or two. It will usually revert after one or two nights.

 

Sounds like you are stressed out and working yourself up a bit. Almost everybody has at least one night of poor sleep a week. It sounds like you are actually getting a decent amount of hours despite waking up several times throughout the night.

 

I agree with Julie that you should see your Dr. You may benefit from an anti-anxiety drug, a different insomnia med (like a TCA) or further investigation of your sleep habits (e.g. sleep study to r/o apnea or something). It'll be up to you and your Dr. to decide.

 

A TCA?

 

I say talk to your doctor; also, sometimes it takes awhile for your system to get used to certain meds - take them as recommended unless side effects make you stop.

[Robin Hood]

Thank you for the replies! I think I discovered what I have. Seems it's sleep misconception or sleeping while sensing the environment (like my hands). It rarely happens (maybe it used to happen before Zopiclone), shouldn't have ate bananas. My mother sleeps like this, and the doctor think it's okay. I also feel more refreshed than yesterday (I still have "sleep debt"). As for anxiety, I need to see someone, but I don't think taking drugs is the solution (maybe I'm mistaking).

[chii]

Thank you for the replies! I think I discovered what I have. Seems it's sleep misconception or sleeping while sensing the environment (like my hands). It rarely happens (maybe it used to happen before Zopiclone), shouldn't have ate bananas. My mother sleeps like this, and the doctor think it's okay. I also feel more refreshed than yesterday (I still have "sleep debt"). As for anxiety, I need to see someone, but I don't think taking drugs is the solution (maybe I'm mistaking).

 

Anxiety is an interesting beast. I think that a combination of treatment is the way to go. I feel like maybe if you aren't experiencing full out attacks that medication may not be needed, but I believe that dealing with the anxiety through therapy or CBT would be beneficial. Just medication is a band-aid treatment (in my opinion)

 

Just my 2 cents.

[apache]

z-drugs have a greatly increased affinity for the alpha1 sub receptor of the bzd allosteric binding site on gaba-a receptors, meaning they don't target the bad alpha 5 site as much... which is what causes memory probs and habituation... but make no mistake, this doesn't mean z drugs arent addictive, theyre just a lot less addictive than something like xanax

 

what you're experiencing sounds like standard withdrawal, i'm on a high dose benzo for neurological reasons (not anxiety) and if i go a few days without taking the med, i feel anxious as hell, can't sleep, have tremors, am agitated and my baseline personality is bordering on 0 anxiety, relaxed, and i can sleep at will (i wish there was an extra 12 hours in the day so i could sleep more, lol).

 

u might benefit from trazadone, or amitriptyline... some people like sedative anti-depressents, others don't like side effects

 

interesting question though, in young people, why isn't clonidine used more often, it's used for stimulant caused insomnia and doesn't disrupt sleep architecture like z-drugs, and it doubt your normally extremely hypo or hypertensive.

 

of course, not medical advice, only a doctor can give medical advice

 

but i will say (i think i trashed your psych before??) that you seem to have more of a 5 minutes psychopharmacologist than a psychiatrist. things like this are so much more complex and often have a strong cognitive basis that need extensive support in addition to medication. i can't wait till we finally just give the psychologists the option to do an extra few years to prescribe, or set up separate streams like medical psychology, similar to dentistry sharing pre-clin classes with med students in some school. don't get me wrong, there's some great psychiatrists, but i would argue that it has the greatest variance in terms of people with a license who are absolutely incompetent to people who are insanely competent, since it's hard to objectively test a psychiatrists skill beyond protocol, and things as complex as the mind usually don't fit into protocols.

 

Hi! Friday-Saturday night, I tried sleeping without Pro Zopiclone (5 MG) (and I though taking it at 1:30-2 AM was a bad idea), but I was only able to sleep for like 3/2-3 hours at ~6:30 AM. Next day, I tried splitting the pill in half, I slept from ~12:30-~2:30 and (after I took the second half) from 3:30-5:30 then ~ 6:30-9:30. I was reading Wikipedia and came around a very rare disease that scared me to death (fatal familial insomnia, and it in rarer cases, it can appear by genetic mutations, and about people who didn't sleep for years and claim being healthy), (this is the last thing an anxious guy who has sleeping difficulties should hear. Sunday-Monday was a good night (i took Zopiclone). However, on the next day, I slept from 12:30-3:30, woke up, I ate, but couldn't sleep because my heart was beating rapidly, even when I tried to not think of FFI, I wasn't able to control my heart. During this night, I took Zopiclone at ~9:20 PM and felt asleep at ~9:45. I woke up at 11:30 and couldn't sleep. I ate (eventhough I ate before sleeping) but I was kept awake. I was no longer stressed. Do you think it will be a good idea to take Zopiclone at 4:20 (since it's effect is reduced after 7 hours) or during the day? I unfortunately became dependent on it. I have no class today. Do you also think what I went through is serious and I should seek professional help (I saw my psychiatrist yesterday, but it was only stress. He told me it's normal to wake up at night and have difficulty falling to sleep again). I tried positive thinking (saying I will fell asleep). I'm not stressed. I wasn't thinking about anything. I ate a dish of yogourt. But to no use. I hope I won't be screwed today.

Thanks a lot!

 

Edit: Forgot to mention that today also, felt my heart beating fast, but I think it slowed after it.

[Robin Hood]

z-drugs have a greatly increased affinity for the alpha1 sub receptor of the bzd allosteric binding site on gaba-a receptors, meaning they don't target the bad alpha 5 site as much... which is what causes memory probs and habituation... but make no mistake, this doesn't mean z drugs arent addictive, theyre just a lot less addictive than something like xanax

 

what you're experiencing sounds like standard withdrawal, i'm on a high dose benzo for neurological reasons (not anxiety) and if i go a few days without taking the med, i feel anxious as hell, can't sleep, have tremors, am agitated and my baseline personality is bordering on 0 anxiety, relaxed, and i can sleep at will (i wish there was an extra 12 hours in the day so i could sleep more, lol).

 

u might benefit from trazadone, or amitriptyline... some people like sedative anti-depressents, others don't like side effects

 

interesting question though, in young people, why isn't clonidine used more often, it's used for stimulant caused insomnia and doesn't disrupt sleep architecture like z-drugs, and it doubt your normally extremely hypo or hypertensive.

 

of course, not medical advice, only a doctor can give medical advice

 

but i will say (i think i trashed your psych before??) that you seem to have more of a 5 minutes psychopharmacologist than a psychiatrist. things like this are so much more complex and often have a strong cognitive basis that need extensive support in addition to medication. i can't wait till we finally just give the psychologists the option to do an extra few years to prescribe, or set up separate streams like medical psychology, similar to dentistry sharing pre-clin classes with med students in some school. don't get me wrong, there's some great psychiatrists, but i would argue that it has the greatest variance in terms of people with a license who are absolutely incompetent to people who are insanely competent, since it's hard to objectively test a psychiatrists skill beyond protocol, and things as complex as the mind usually don't fit into protocols.

 

I was once able to stay with him for half an hour, but he wasn't rushed that day. When doctors are rushed(he has 500 patients), they may not make good judgements. As for psychologists, yes, I think they should be given the right to prescribe, because psychiatrists are just medication givers. (Yes, you trashed him before). I should have reduced my frequennce of taking Zopiclone when I got Ritalin (because it was ADHD that used to make my mind hyperactive, now, when I go to sleep, my mind doesn't go wondering). I started taking back my normal dose of Zopiclone and was able to have a normal sleep, but the problem seems that it used my make me tired the whole day. For exemple, this week, I slept for an average of 9 hours per night (I slept more during some), but I used to start feeling tired around noon, and at ~4 PM, my nerves were so tired (and I couldn't study). Yesterday, I had to take Redbull (at 4 PM) for my brain to function (was still tired, but I could study). I went to bed at 9:42 PM with half a pill, but I felt only lightly tired (I was so tired before taking the half pill) it wasn't until ~3:30 AM that I felt normal tireness (and that was after taking a dish and a half of yogourt (for the second time during the night) and listening to an iPhone rain music ). I will try to do the same tonight (since I don't take Ritalin during the weekend).

 

Thanks!

[apache]

you can't be a good outpatient psychiatrist and carry 500 patients... and most psychiatrists don't know **** about the extremely nuanced symptoms what we call "adhd personalities"

 

i see my psychiatrist every week or two, for at least 1.5 hours, but often up to 3 or 4 if i'm the last patient. i keep a phenomenological diary of changes in habits, important events comming up. i get access to crazy resources, i.e. retro-active tax benefit because this person gives everything they have for their patients. plus, because the person has add, you learn so much about non-medicative aspects of add (which is like 90 percent of the treatment, honestly)

 

the model for treating mental illness itself is insufficient, and people carry their biochemistry (reductionistic-materialistic) mindset into how they approach psych residency. psychological/psychiatric counselling is an art you learn, which should be guided, but not dictated by research... psychiatry, cannot be evidence based unless it adheres to objectivist post 1970 thud experiment, much heavier dsm paradigm.

 

psychiatry isn't a real medical specialty, it's not an valuative thing, but most will agree that it requires a very intuitive (which doesn't mean hunch, it means non linguistic abstract idiosyncratic conceptualizations - like a chess grand master recognizes a pattern you'll never read in any single book - and hence, there is no objective linguistic test for chess proficiency because the skill is so nebulous, idiosyncratic, and diverse between individuals as to be inexplainable.

 

in the end, people who do poorly on their board scores (and don't get the "objective" answers to questions which don't have objective answers) often end up as life savers, making a huge difference, whereas someone with perfect board scores can be the reason multiple people kill themselves throughout their career. if psychiatry wants to stay within medicine, then i think it has to go into the free market... because being board certified doesn't assure me as much as it would an anesthesiologist, whose performance is being relatively objectively monitored day in day out (because, it's by it's nature, easier to track outcomes and trace them to action... when they classify therapy types for psych it means nothing, because ppl apply cbt in different ways depending on who they are, their attention span and a million other factors... it's not as easily reducible.

 

if psychiatry were forced to go free market, you'd see the same disparity you see in psychology (which has exactly the same flaws in certifying competency as psychiatry, except it acknowledges it a lot more... with the really good guys making 500 k a year, and the craptastic ones making 50 k.

 

what dose of ritalin are you on, ir 10 mg *2 (ir formulations such for people with anxiety)? you might prefer an extended release formulation like concerta so you have a relatively constant plasma concentration, if you have a constant schedule and that's important to you vyvanse (lysdextroamphetamine) might be good, take it at 9 am good to go til 10... plus... theres a bajilion factors like your schedule, whether your primary concern is impulsiveness (and it's not punching people like most people think, it's an impulsive act to make a witty remark that you may be justified in making, but which is bad for your interest or goal, long term, in your perception), distractibility, avoiding side effects (anxiety and better sleep), there's also exercise, software you can get, a whole list of nutritional supplements... this is why your psychiatrist sucks by the way, i could go on for 2 hours, your brain/mind is the most complex thing in the universe and cannot be conveniently placed into tidy little boxes like sinus infections.

 

if you add 0.1 mg of clonidine at night (you may even need to cut that low dose in half) you'll fall asleep no problems, its an alpha-2 centrally acting agonist, it basically centrally supresses sympathetic tone, and near the end of its' action, can be peripherally acting, causing minor vasoconstriction, in contrast to the vasodilatory effects it has for most of its time of action. this only matters if you're diabetic, older, have high bp (i'm assuming not since your psych put you on a stimulant, but you never know, you can bull**** ur life away at 250 k if u want in psych n it's impossible to improve you're incompetent because the nature of the discipline is so nebulous).

 

don't worry, things will work out

 

disclaimer: always talk to your well informed m.d. before making health decisions, the above is just my opinion, and i'm not a physician

 

 

 

I was once able to stay with him for half an hour, but he wasn't rushed that day. When doctors are rushed(he has 500 patients), they may not make good judgements. As for psychologists, yes, I think they should be given the right to prescribe, because psychiatrists are just medication givers. (Yes, you trashed him before). I should have reduced my frequennce of taking Zopiclone when I got Ritalin (because it was ADHD that used to make my mind hyperactive, now, when I go to sleep, my mind doesn't go wondering). I started taking back my normal dose of Zopiclone and was able to have a normal sleep, but the problem seems that it used my make me tired the whole day. For exemple, this week, I slept for an average of 9 hours per night (I slept more during some), but I used to start feeling tired around noon, and at ~4 PM, my nerves were so tired (and I couldn't study). Yesterday, I had to take Redbull (at 4 PM) for my brain to function (was still tired, but I could study). I went to bed at 9:42 PM with half a pill, but I felt only lightly tired (I was so tired before taking the half pill) it wasn't until ~3:30 AM that I felt normal tireness (and that was after taking a dish and a half of yogourt (for the second time during the night) and listening to an iPhone rain music ). I will try to do the same tonight (since I don't take Ritalin during the weekend).

 

Thanks!

[Robin Hood]

I have an 10 mg dose that I take once per day 5 days a week. My appointment is next month, but if I feel the need, I will ask to see the doctor ASAP.

 

you can't be a good outpatient psychiatrist and carry 500 patients... and most psychiatrists don't know **** about the extremely nuanced symptoms what we call "adhd personalities"

 

i see my psychiatrist every week or two, for at least 1.5 hours, but often up to 3 or 4 if i'm the last patient. i keep a phenomenological diary of changes in habits, important events comming up. i get access to crazy resources, i.e. retro-active tax benefit because this person gives everything they have for their patients. plus, because the person has add, you learn so much about non-medicative aspects of add (which is like 90 percent of the treatment, honestly)

 

the model for treating mental illness itself is insufficient, and people carry their biochemistry (reductionistic-materialistic) mindset into how they approach psych residency. psychological/psychiatric counselling is an art you learn, which should be guided, but not dictated by research... psychiatry, cannot be evidence based unless it adheres to objectivist post 1970 thud experiment, much heavier dsm paradigm.

 

psychiatry isn't a real medical specialty, it's not an valuative thing, but most will agree that it requires a very intuitive (which doesn't mean hunch, it means non linguistic abstract idiosyncratic conceptualizations - like a chess grand master recognizes a pattern you'll never read in any single book - and hence, there is no objective linguistic test for chess proficiency because the skill is so nebulous, idiosyncratic, and diverse between individuals as to be inexplainable.

 

in the end, people who do poorly on their board scores (and don't get the "objective" answers to questions which don't have objective answers) often end up as life savers, making a huge difference, whereas someone with perfect board scores can be the reason multiple people kill themselves throughout their career. if psychiatry wants to stay within medicine, then i think it has to go into the free market... because being board certified doesn't assure me as much as it would an anesthesiologist, whose performance is being relatively objectively monitored day in day out (because, it's by it's nature, easier to track outcomes and trace them to action... when they classify therapy types for psych it means nothing, because ppl apply cbt in different ways depending on who they are, their attention span and a million other factors... it's not as easily reducible.

 

if psychiatry were forced to go free market, you'd see the same disparity you see in psychology (which has exactly the same flaws in certifying competency as psychiatry, except it acknowledges it a lot more... with the really good guys making 500 k a year, and the craptastic ones making 50 k.

 

what dose of ritalin are you on, ir 10 mg *2 (ir formulations such for people with anxiety)? you might prefer an extended release formulation like concerta so you have a relatively constant plasma concentration, if you have a constant schedule and that's important to you vyvanse (lysdextroamphetamine) might be good, take it at 9 am good to go til 10... plus... theres a bajilion factors like your schedule, whether your primary concern is impulsiveness (and it's not punching people like most people think, it's an impulsive act to make a witty remark that you may be justified in making, but which is bad for your interest or goal, long term, in your perception), distractibility, avoiding side effects (anxiety and better sleep), there's also exercise, software you can get, a whole list of nutritional supplements... this is why your psychiatrist sucks by the way, i could go on for 2 hours, your brain/mind is the most complex thing in the universe and cannot be conveniently placed into tidy little boxes like sinus infections.

 

if you add 0.1 mg of clonidine at night (you may even need to cut that low dose in half) you'll fall asleep no problems, its an alpha-2 centrally acting agonist, it basically centrally supresses sympathetic tone, and near the end of its' action, can be peripherally acting, causing minor vasoconstriction, in contrast to the vasodilatory effects it has for most of its time of action. this only matters if you're diabetic, older, have high bp (i'm assuming not since your psych put you on a stimulant, but you never know, you can bull**** ur life away at 250 k if u want in psych n it's impossible to improve you're incompetent because the nature of the discipline is so nebulous).

 

don't worry, things will work out

 

disclaimer: always talk to your well informed m.d. before making health decisions, the above is just my opinion, and i'm not a physician

[Monaco]

Disclaimer: Did not read the entire thread due to the length of some replies.

 

I don't know how to describe it, but if your anxiety and insomnia are very much related to certain stressers, carefully consider the residency and specialty that you choose.

 

It (usually) does not go away during residency.

 

I had to do some off-service rotations in PGY-1, and I really suffered mentally and physically at times. Like you, I struggle with insomnia. I do not sleep well, if at all, when I am on call - even if it is home call.

 

I did not take this into consideration when thinking about specialties (I wasn't really an organized or focused medical student), so I thank my luck in ending up in a specialty that seems to suit me much better than others.

 

Never had sleeping problems before clerkship and residency.

 

Do not use alcohol or other substances to augment the effects of your prescription medications.

 

I wish you the best of luck. I hope you find your healthcare providers supportive and an asset to you (no such luck in my case)

[Robin Hood]

Disclaimer: Did not read the entire thread due to the length of some replies.

 

I don't know how to describe it, but if your anxiety and insomnia are very much related to certain stressers, carefully consider the residency and specialty that you choose.

 

It (usually) does not go away during residency.

 

I had to do some off-service rotations in PGY-1, and I really suffered mentally and physically at times. Like you, I struggle with insomnia. I do not sleep well, if at all, when I am on call - even if it is home call.

 

I did not take this into consideration when thinking about specialties (I wasn't really an organized or focused medical student), so I thank my luck in ending up in a specialty that seems to suit me much better than others.

 

Never had sleeping problems before clerkship and residency.

 

Do not use alcohol or other substances to augment the effects of your prescription medications.

 

I wish you the best of luck. I hope you find your healthcare providers supportive and an asset to you (no such luck in my case)

 

I'm not currently in med school (when people seek medical advice, they post in the med student forum).

[Dino]

It seems you are pretty anxious. The pounding heart seems to indicate this.

Do you, by any chance use Red Bull, ephedrine or pseudoephedrine during the day? these, especially ephedrine and pseudo can stay in your system over 24hrs and cause some of these Sx. If you don't and don't have heart problems, you may need anxiolytics instead of the big Z.

Do you keep thinking about things that make you nervous while trying to sleep, even worrying about not being able to sleep?

I suggest you go see another physician if your FP is not available and discuss these issues.

Zopiclone is known to cause parasomnias in some people and can even make you sleepwalk during the day, seemingly awake, but you won't be able to remember your day, which is purdy bad if you are a student.

Anyway, I'm just a layman, so go see a Dr to discuss these issues and find a possible alalternative.

[apache]

could be the 10 mg ritalin ir, although q.d. am is a paltry dose. if you mix with energy drinks and stuff you've got a recipe for fun

 

zopiclone has minimal alpha5 subunit affinity, so memory isn't much of a problem, compared to regular benzo's, it's a longer half life though, so you might be drowsy in the morning. zopiledem is better for falling asleep since the half life is around 3 hours i think, same alpha 1 subunit propensity, so there's habituation potential, but nowhere near short half life benzos like lorazepam, alprazolam, nitrazepam and the rest of the short half lives.

 

i think worrying about falling asleep is a big thing, when you quit that, insomnia just seems to disappear, i've never had insomnia since i employed that method around age 10, when i had hardcore insomnia.

 

hehe, for a little bit of trivia, did you know that beta carbolines, which are found in coffee, act as non selective inverse agonists at the BZD allosteric site on the GABA-A receptor, meaning they cause the opposite reaction of benzos... anxiety, insomnia, memory enhancement... hehe, coffee also has minor MAOI activity, in addition to habituating your adenosine receptors by competitive inhibition, meaning when you quit... vasodilation and counteraction of the dopaminergic action of the ritalin you take... coffee, it's not a drug at all , as long as you can get everyday to avoid withdrawal, lol

 

It seems you are pretty anxious. The pounding heart seems to indicate this.

Do you, by any chance use Red Bull, ephedrine or pseudoephedrine during the day? these, especially ephedrine and pseudo can stay in your system over 24hrs and cause some of these Sx. If you don't and don't have heart problems, you may need anxiolytics instead of the big Z.

Do you keep thinking about things that make you nervous while trying to sleep, even worrying about not being able to sleep?

I suggest you go see another physician if your FP is not available and discuss these issues.

Zopiclone is known to cause parasomnias in some people and can even make you sleepwalk during the day, seemingly awake, but you won't be able to remember your day, which is purdy bad if you are a student.

Anyway, I'm just a layman, so go see a Dr to discuss these issues and find a possible alalternative.

[tigars53]

My trick is to go to sleep when you feel tired, even if that happens early, like 9-10pm.

I found that if I continue to study when I feel tired, I eventually come to a point where I feel perfectly awake again (around 11pm-midnight) and I'm unable to go back to sleep after that. Well not until I feel tired again (around 3...)

Of course, when I'm stressed it' always harder to fall asleep, but going to bed as soon as I feel tired helps me a lot.

[apache]

yeah, this is preferably to z-drugs... all natural

 

Get a gym membership and go to the gym regularly. Daily.

[Robin Hood]

I finally stopped taking Zopiclone (after my exams ended). I slept well Friday night, after taking herbal tea. I slept for 8 hours (I slept poorly the night before, in part because I had an exam). But last night, I started getting really tired at 5 AM, I wasn't much tired before. I slept for only 4 hours. Still 2-3 nights to go (my psychiatrist told me that it takes 4-5 nights to go back to normal sleep). (I still have an on-need prescription). I may seem anxious, but what scares me with a poor night sleep, is that the next day, I will feel drowsy. I'm going to bed, if, at 1 AM, I'm still not able to sleep, I will take a half-pill, because I can't stand feeling dead during the day.

[Dino]

Get a gym membership and go to the gym regularly. Daily.

 

This is great advice.

Imperative!

[Dino]

I finally stopped taking Zopiclone (after my exams ended). I slept well Friday night, after taking herbal tea. I slept for 8 hours (I slept poorly the night before, in part because I had an exam). But last night, I started getting really tired at 5 AM, I wasn't much tired before. I slept for only 4 hours. Still 2-3 nights to go (my psychiatrist told me that it takes 4-5 nights to go back to normal sleep). (I still have an on-need prescription). I may seem anxious, but what scares me with a poor night sleep, is that the next day, I will feel drowsy. I'm going to bed, if, at 1 AM, I'm still not able to sleep, I will take a half-pill, because I can't stand feeling dead during the day.

 

So, how are your sleep and energy levels?

Are you exercising regurlarly?

 

Hope you're doing better.

[Robin Hood]

So, how are your sleep and energy levels?

Are you exercising regurlarly?

 

Hope you're doing better.

 

My sleep is back to normal, even without pills. Except the other day where gym made me awake till 1 AM.

[Dino]

My sleep is back to normal, even without pills. Except the other day where gym made me awake till 1 AM.

 

Good to hear!

One last tip - Don't exercise for at least 3 hours before sleep. It keeps some people awake.

[Robin Hood]

Good to hear!

One last tip - Don't exercise for at least 3 hours before sleep. It keeps some people awake.

 

Or 6 hours?

[Dino]

Or 6 hours?

 

I guess everybody is different. You must be a natural night owl trapped in a morning-person's world.

I can commiserate with you on that.

[apache]

lol, that's my main problem, i don't have insomnia, but i tend to sleep naturally from 3-10 or so, especially when we get no sunlight in the winter... in the summer i can get by on 6 hours a sleep no prob... and go to bed earlier... in the winter i stay up late and sleep less. there's an actual disorder called delayed onset sleep disorder, lol

 

I guess everybody is different. You must be a natural night owl trapped in a morning-person's world.

I can commiserate with you on that.

[drkwhy]

My sleep is back to normal, even without pills. Except the other day where gym made me awake till 1 AM.

 

lol, Try not to exercise close to bed time. I did at 8 or so and couldn't sleep until 1.