Haven't Slept In Weeks, Help?

[EllieLexis513]

I can't sleep and it's not because I'm stressed or anything. I literally have not gotten more than 3 hours of sleep a night for the past two weeks and they aren't consecutive. I've slept in my bed, slept on the couch, slept on the floor, even tried sleeping in my parents spare bedroom and I just can't fall asleep. I've tried with the TV on, the TV off, exercising before bed, not exercising, sleeping pills, supplements... Tried napping during the day, but couldn't go to sleep.

I'm really fucking sleepy and all I want to do is sleep, but for some reason, no matter where I am, what I'm doing, how long I keep my eyes shut... I can't sleep. And it's driving me insane. Is there anything else I can do to try to sleep? I've never had a problem falling asleep before.

Updates

+1 y

Also, not sure if it's relevant, I get all the symptoms of actually BEING sleepy. Heavy eyelids, my body feels weighed down, I'm tired, all that good stuff, but the actual falling asleep is what's not happening.

Also, I tried teas (chamomile, too). I didn't list it because I kinda thought those went with the supplements, but now that I think about it, it doesn't really.

[redeyemindtricks]

Try doing ALL of these:

1)
ALWAYS sleep with ear plugs in yr ears, and a sleep mask over yr eyes. Always always ALWAYS.

You would be ASTONISHED how much innocuous sounds and light cues disturb sleep -- even if they don't actually wake you up.

2)
Fast for the first few hours of the day. Eat meals/snacks lower in carbohydrates earlier in the day. Eat your biggest meal -- with the most carbohydrates -- at the END of the day.
Remember this, from the "Yr trainer is wrong" discussion (on one of yr other threads a few days ago). This is almost certainly the cause of yr insomnia -- you are eating a diet that is not conducive to sleeping well, and yr body is giving you a big fat middle finger.

Here's the relevant research, again:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21475137

I'd bet good money that this, alone, will solve the problem.
It's a FACT that carbohydrate intake makes people lethargic and sleepy -- this is a biological response to insulin release. And, if you are asleep a few hours after yr biggest meal, then you'll avoid the "Chinese food syndrome" (= "fuck I'm hungry again", caused by blood-sugar crash and physical expansion of yr stomach)... because you'll sleep through it.

Also, the overwhelming amount of the research shows that you'll do better on yr weight-loss goals this way, too.

3)
Ask yr doctor for a prescription for prazosin or clonidine.
These are antihypertensives -- medicines that lower blood pressure. Their primary use is in fighting high blood pressure, but they work for insomnia (and are commonly given to insomniacs) because they QUICKLY get you into the deep-sleep phase.
If you take one of these drugs RIGHT BEFORE BEDTIME, then, getting 4-6 hours of sleep with the drug is equivalent to getting 6-8 hours of sleep without the drug.

Getting 4-6 hours of sleep with prazosin/clonidine AND a sleep mask AND earplugs AND carbs at dinner, is like getting 8-10 hours of sleep without any of those things.

*** DO NOT TAKE OVER-THE-COUNTER SLEEPING PILLS ***
OTC sleeping pills are fucking evil incarnate. The "sleep" they produce isn't even real sleep -- it's like drunken hypnosis -- and, worse, it lasts well into the next day. It's actually better just to be sleep-deprived.

__

[redeyemindtricks]

Also, incidentally, if you are bipolar, you may find that an occasional night of *complete* sleep deprivation -- yep, zero hours of sleep -- actually helps to alleviate yr depressive symptoms.

I know that sounds fucking crazy, but, I was a "severe manic-depressive" -- what they now call bipolar 1 -- when I was a teenager, and I discovered (by basically experimenting on myself) that completely going without sleep put me into this trancelike state that was... well, a lot of things, but, among those, a reprieve from depression.

Turns out, I was ahead of my time. My oldest brother mentioned this to one of his CO's, who knew about a military research project on sleep deprivation -- and it turns out that the US NIH was just beginning to study this effect more generally, outside of the military. So, I was recruited for one of the first studies, and it turned out that, yep, complete sleep deprivation can actually be therapeutic for severe depression.

Here's one of the published works:

[redeyemindtricks]

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12531127

[Blonde401]

If you're going to exercise before bed, never do it less than an hour before bed cause it can just make you more awake. Have nothing caffienated after 2pm, have a shower or bath an hour or so before bed, never watch tv or play with your phone before bed, just read if you must do something, make sure there's no blue light in your room. If none of these help, try some over the counter sleeping tablets. I'm a horrendous insomniac, I used to be way worse than I am now as I'm medicated now but it can be something really simple that setting it off.

[EllieLexis513]

I've tried all of these and I don't eat/drink caffeine a lot, mostly because foods and drinks with them don't taste that great to me. I stop eating around 7pm because I'm on a diet to lose weight anyway. And there's no blue lights in my apartment that I know of.

Usually a shower puts me to sleep, especially if I wash my hair. It's like I'm already sleepy, but body forgot how to actually go to sleep. I feel sleepy. My eyes get heavy, my body is lazy, my mind is dazed, all the signs of being sleepy and then nothing happens.

[Blonde401]

Have you tried playing some relaxing sounds? Or just straight up tried sleeping tablets? Sometimes the healthy route just doesn't work.

[EllieLexis513]

I tried the relaxing sounds and they don't really do much for me. I tried sleeping tablets, too, though they were over the counter. I might have to get a prescription one from a doctor.

[Blonde401]

yeah the over the counter ones aren't as good as the prescription ones. I got addicted to them when I was at university, used to mix stuff up - painkillers with sleeping tablets just so I could sleep. Either way, they definitely do the job.

[Oram52]

What changed during past two weeks? You diet has improved so shouldn't be an issue. I am reluctant because of your bipolar disorder. You're saying you feel sleepy so your body is making melatonin.

First regarding herbal remedies different people need different doses. If you responded to specific remedy increase the dose after talking to knowledgable herbalist. Also have you tried 5-htp just curious in case it might just be melatonin.

Start of by downloading Flux. https:// justgetflux. com/
Change the settings two hours before if they don't change automatically. Make rooms more darker.

Also your mind is running and chatter wouln't stop. Put everything on paper just right down everything bothering you. Do that before trying to go sleep.

Learn to meditate meditate in the morning and night time before going sleep.

Comfortably lie in bed. Body relaxed arms on side. Focus on your toes and relax them, move to feet, ankles legs etc moving your way up to head. Use this as guide:
https:// yogaartandscience. com/poses/restpos/shavas/shavas. html

I'd suggest taking up yoga, it will help you relax.

[AlphaMale1]

I battled with the same thing for around a couple years. Was walking death warmed over most of the time. Here is how I corrected it:

Walmart sells an all-natural pill called, "Melatonin". I took a 5mg pill about a half hour before I wanted to be asleep. It took a couple weeks of doing this every night at around 10:30 PM. And it is a gradual thing. At first it made me more tired and eventually fell asleep for a few hours. As time passed I fell asleep faster and stayed asleep longer.

After around two weeks my internal sleep clock schedule was back on track and I am back to sleeping from around 11 PM to sometime around 7 or 8 AM.

[Spiorad_Aisce]

Sounds like an episodic bout of insomnia - Since you sleep really well, it seems bad to you at the moment - There are people who are bad sleepers who get bouts that last ages.
Okay, normally time is only cure, it should pass - If at any stage you feel it is severely affecting your life, go to a doctor for prescription strength sleeping pills that can be used to shock your system back into a rhythm but lots of people/doctors are wary of overuse because of addiction potential (they should be a last resort) - I know what I am talking about I had problems with sleeping pills in the past.

[akadatank44]

That is some weird shit right there lol. Cuz usually if you have insomnia you've expierenced it most of your life I don't know what to tell you. Sounds like you have something on your mind. And the not sleeping is making it worse cuz than your constantly thinking "fuck I need to sleep. ""Why can't I sleep." Maybe a massage woukd help. I'm guessing you've tried Melatonin?

[archiz]

savage what s up with you?
first you don t eat. now you don t sleep dafuq? are you on a death wish or what?
smthng isn t going well at all in your life for you to have these symptoms
sound slike depression to me

[EllieLexis513]

It probably is depression but that and my bipolar have only gotten worse the past couple of days and I thought that was a symptom of lack of sleep.

[archiz]

I didn t know you were bipolar
I never met someone who has bipolar
how does it affect you?

[EllieLexis513]

Severely. Anxiety attacks, binge eating, tamper flare ups.

I had to go on medical leave from work back in March because my episodes and blackouts were getting so bad.

[archiz]

and meds can t regulate that?
Exercising or smthng
I had a friend who got panic attacks but in the end she used it for attention :P

[EllieLexis513]

Nope, I tried the meds for months, since October, and they haven't helped at all.

[archiz]

oh so it s recently that found out you have bipolar?

[EllieLexis513]

I've known I was bipolar since I was in my early teens. I just never had a name for it because no one thought to get me treated, but I always knew my brain was broken in way. I was diagnosed when I was 22. Between college graduation, student teaching, starting my career, and moving, and health insurance fiascos, I wasn't able to get treatment until this year.

[archiz]

That sucks
But you re saying the treatment isn t helping ya

[EllieLexis513]

Nope not in the slightest

[archiz]

So what are you gonna do now?
Try another treatment?
Is rhe breakup with your boyfriend still affecting you?

[Fearless_banana]

Need sleep mayne. Go to a doctors and try to get prescription ambien or trazadone to get you back on track. Are you taking fat burners if you are then that is most likely whats keeping you up.

[EllieLexis513]

Nope, no fat burners. Minus yesterday, I've been doing the diet you gave me.

[Fearless_banana]

That's good. I haven't had my other phone on for a couple days. Birthday weekend.. was keeping work aside. I'm going to be answering all my text when I get back from class today. Don't know if you sent anything.

[EllieLexis513]

I don't think I did.

[archiz]

Hey I want a diet and a work out routine too! XD

[Fearless_banana]

@archiz You can message me anytime w/ questions. I'll try n help you out.

[redeyemindtricks]

Ambien -- fuck no.
All sleeping pills, fuck no. Sleeping pills are pure evil. They're actually worse than just being sleep-deprived.

The right prescriptions to get are the ones I mentioned in my point #3.

Fuck sleeping pills.

Did I mention fuck sleeping pills?

[Fearless_banana]

@redeyemindtricks Ambien helped me get back on track when I was going through the academy. Long term they are terrible but nothing is wrong with taking an ambien for a couple days to get you back on track. Trazodone is much lesser and has helped me a lot over the years being an insomniac. Sleep deprivation is serious and is no way to live.

[EllieLexis513]

@archiz lol, he should just have a weekly Take on how to lose weight hahaa

[redeyemindtricks]

If you don't suffer from orthostatic hypotension, then, if you get one of those 2 rx's I mentioned, you can get the same benefits from 2 less hours of sleep. What would *you* do with 14 extra productive, alert, non-sleep-deprived hours a week?

[Fearless_banana]

Had to go to a doctor that specializes in sleep and had a American Board of Sleep Medicine (ABSM) cert. Most all of my family has insomnia. It's a really shitty way to live running on a couple hours of sleep everyday for long periods of time.

www.webmd.com/.../important-sleep-habits

[redeyemindtricks]

Dude, before I switched off of 24-hour sleep/wake cycles, I got between 10 and 15 hours of sleep/week, for over ten years.

That's /week, not /day. That's an average of less than two hours a day. For more than a decade. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about.

It wasn't pleasant, but, with the right drugs and the right timing of things like naps, even THAT is doable.
With an antihypertensive and an antihistamine before bed, the right megadoses of caffeine, and intelligent nutrition, you can *live it up* on 4-5 hrs/day of sleep.

Any ABSM-cert doc worth his or her salt should *absolutely* be scripting antihypertensives off-label for insomnia BEFORE scripting bullshit like lunesta or ambien. Anyone who gives "sleeping pills" first is a fucking quack.

[Fearless_banana]

@redeyemindtricks
What do you think about melatonin?

[redeyemindtricks]

Melatonin is an endogenous hormone. Furthermore, US drugstore dosages of melatonin are absurdly high (usually 1, 3, 5 or 10 mg, compared to a daily endogenous production of about 0.25 mg in the average person). So... you are blasting endogenous hormones at supraphysiological levels. I think you might know a thing or two about that.
Long story short --
• It works... until it doesn't work.
• Unlike non-endogenous pharmaceutical drugs, a hormone has multiple actions and multiple feedback loops, so it fucks up a bunch of other hormones and neurotransmitters in the brain if you take too much of it for too long.
• So, the cure can be worse than the problem, in the long term.

In the short term, melatonin supplementation **combined with light/dark therapy** can be salubrious.

[Fearless_banana]

@redeyemindtricks Interesting. I don't take anything on cycle but I never thought that running 10mg melatonin would be considered supraphysiological. I'll call address you as Dr for now on though lol. Another random question. What do you think about xanax when running tren at high dosages at night to calm anxiety to sleep. Saw a heated debate about this on an AAS forum.

[redeyemindtricks]

baha that's 20 to 40 times endogenous production, homes.

In *short-term* studies, the brain has been pretty robust against feedback loop degradation from this sort of thing, but... again... 20 to 40 times physiological levels. I dunno bout dat.

Also, in the US, melatonin is a "dietary supplement", meaning that the quality of the melatonin that you actually get is dodgy and inconsistent, too.

ON THE OTHER HAND --
@ellielexis513 if you are still reading this
You may want to consider taking a 1-3 mg supplement of melatonin about 3-4 hours before yr bedtime, because it has actually been shown to have effects against "metabolic syndrome" -- basically, the weight gain that you are trying to fight off right now.
bibliotecadigital.uca.edu.ar/.../...pathologic.pdf

So, even if it doesn't help you with yr sleep, it could actually play a (small but not insignificant) role in helping you keep the weight off.

[lyannamormont]

I think this is a condition that you might have a sleep disorder. Have you seen a doctor? Have you tried melatonin? There are natural ones you can easily get from the pharmacy.

[Realistic07]

I say relax and just go to the doctor and explain it to them you could have insomnia or something else going on, so that's my answer go to the doctor.

[queen_in_the_streets]

Have you tried having an orgasm before going to sleep?

[EllieLexis513]

I don't masturbate and I'm single and I've never had an orgasm before so that's never been an issue.

[queen_in_the_streets]

Maybe it's time, maybe your body's trying to say "I need an orgasm"

[EllieLexis513]

I don't care about sex. I'm never horny.

[wankiam]

are you in the uk? i know the light nights can affect sleep so perhaps try black out blinds

[EllieLexis513]

Nah, I'm in the USA

[wankiam]

still northern hemisphere though so maybe its the long days. i know i sleep less in summer

[EllieLexis513]

Sleeping less is one thing, but I'm not really sleeping at all. I used to fall asleep around 10pm and wake up around 7am. Now it's like on and off spurts of 15 minutes and I've never gotten more than a total of 3 hours in the past couple weeks.

[wankiam]

camomile tea can help

[orphan]

if you're not sleeping through the night w/o waking up.. you're not exhausting yourself in the day.

the best sleep i got in my life was when i was a bicycle messenger eons ago.

[EllieLexis513]

So how do I exhaust myself? I exercise, lift ways, run around all day actually... except the past few days because I was just too sleepy to drive my car. What else should I do?

[orphan]

are you on any meds

[EllieLexis513]

Nope, none. I was taking Lamictal but I stopped back in April.

[orphan]

Then despite what you listed, do more physical activity.

[LaVilaine]

I think you need to speak to a doctor about this. Persistent insomnia can be serious.

[Anpu23]

The Monroe Institute has some hypnosis tapes that aid in sleep that you could try.

[EllieLexis513]

Never tried hypnosis before

[Anpu23]

https://www.monroeinstitute.org/ I was thinking of their hemisync for lucid dreaming.

[SatyricLord]

I can't sleep either. The world is out of balance. And no sex!

[womenarecrazy]

Maybe stop trying to sleep

[April10]

Maybe give meditation a try.

[666threesixes666]

Take up smoking pot. I can sleep on command.

[Iron_Man]

Something is on your mind

[EllieLexis513]

Yeah. Sleep.

And no, I'm not being sarcastic.

[Iron_Man]

Is there a summer trip in your near future or something else? Any life troubles?

[EllieLexis513]

My bipolar episodes have been getting worse the past few days, but I thought that was a side effect of the lack of sleep. And I changed my diet. I'm fighting my binge eating and haven't binged in like 3 or 4 weeks, which I used to do every day. I'm contemplating quitting my job when classes start in August because I'm not happy where I teach, but I'm not working right now since it's summer break. But of all those, the only thing I think about is my bipolar disorder and lack of sleep. The other stuff doesn't really cross my mind that much.

[Iron_Man]

I am sorry about that. Well it will pass, every once in a while I find myself wide awake after only sleeping 3 hours and I have to just get up even though I am still tired but can't sleep

[SleepingSnorlax]

Have you gone to the doctor?

[Andy90]

try going to the dr.

[Marinepilot]

Take Tyenol PM.

[JAZZMINAA]

Insomniac.