Insomnia - help

[Thomas]

FYI, I have finally taken 10mg/day of Oxazepam. Sleep improved immediately to 4-5 hours / night (which is enough for me to feel "normal" during the day)
No change otherwise. Maybe a slight increase in feelings (but this is so impossible to measure and I had to face difficult life situations), which would be quite logical compared to when I was lacking sleep.

[Thomas]

FYI, I switch to a combo: 25mg of hydroxyzine + 2mg of melatonin and... WOW ! Sleep is back to 6 hours / night
But I still need them, yesterday night I forgot and this night I woke up at 3am...

[arahant]

FYI, I switch to a combo: 25mg of hydroxyzine + 2g of melatonin and... WOW ! Sleep is back to 6 hours / night
But I still need them, yesterday night I forgot and this night I woke up at 3am...

I guess there's a typo, it must be 2 mg melatonin.

I've been taking melatonin 5 mg - SR added to my buspirone trial. That's a slow-release melatonin capsule, and WOW!
I feel that I am sleeping like when I was a kid, 6-8 h straight...
It reminds me of a time where we had no worries and bills to pay.

[Thomas]

Yes, sure, typo corrected.
What is strange / interesting is that I tried melatonin alone and hydroxyzine alone... without any significant result.
This morning, I was asleep when my alarm clock rang... first time in at least a year.

[IHateProzac]

I used to have sort of insomnia. Difficult to fall asleep & easy to wake up but in between I would have comfortable shuteye time. Now, I feel like sleepy all the time.

[sovietxrobot]

5mg melatonin per night completely regulates my sleep schedule. it also has a synergistic effective with buspirone. I noticed a significant anti-depressant effect when using both.

[arahant]

5mg melatonin per night completely regulates my sleep schedule. it also has a synergistic effective with buspirone. I noticed a significant anti-depressant effect when using both.

I second that, I added melatonin 5mg extended release to my buspirone regimen three months ago, and it worked like a charm. I started 3 mg yesterday just for searching the smallest effective dose. My mood has been pretty good.

[gaydolphinorgy]

I have to use an acronym to remember the symptoms of my PSSD, that’s how bad things are. MIST is my acronym, standing for Memory, Insomnia, Sexual and Tinnitus.
Of these four symptoms Insomnia and Sexual are joint number one in how much distress they cause me.
Its been nearly four years since my disastrous tangle with just three Sertraline tablets, in this time I have not had one night of solid sleep. A typical night would be, go to bed at 2300, listen to the radio or a boring podcast for around an hour, at some time during this hour I will fall asleep only to wake and be shocked to see its only 0130. The rest of the night is spent just lying there awake. If I’m lucky I will eventually fall asleep at around 0600 and maybe get an hour or so before waking at 0700.
I never feel tired the next day and don’t feel the need to sleep in the afternoon, however I feel tired in the normal way late in the evening ready for the cycle to repeat.
I really don’t know how I’m still functioning.
I’ve tried antihistamine type sleeping drugs which sort of work for one or two nights, but their effectiveness stops after this and besides I don’t like the way they affect my emotions. I have tried all the usual “tricks” recommended on the internet, which probably effective for someone who is going through a short period of insomnia.
I met someone who is a neuroscientist who works at the local university and whose speciality is circadian rhythms….ideal I thought. He seemed genuinely interested in my case and explained in layman’s terms about how CRs work. It seems the rhythm synchronises not only with daylight but with exercise and food intake. He recommend eating and exercising at strictly the same time each day and to keep the same bedtime (2245 in my case) and to use a daylight lamp set to switch on at my desired waking up time (0700 in my case) and using blackout curtains. He believed this regime would put my circadian rhythm back on track.
I stuck with this for nearly a year with absolutely no improvement. I wore a Fitbit to monitor my sleep and the results were all over the place, mainly light sleep when I did manage to get some with fleeting periods of REM sleep.
I asked my doctor if I could be seen at a sleep clinic, she was most reluctant as she said it was usually for people with sleep apnoea, but did refer me when I asked her who these clinics were for if it wasn’t for someone who hadn’t had a wink of sleep for three years (at that time)
I was eventually called for an assessment and was fitted with a host of sensors and a data recorder and sent home for the night. I didn’t sleep at all that night and yet when I returned the equipment the next day they diagnosed sleep apnoea (surprise, surprise). I went along to their workshop to see what the recommended treatment was all about (CPAP machine…a mask which keeps a positive air pressure to stop airway collapsing… or something) The workshop was as I predicted full of overweight pensioners who smoked and had multiple other conditions who I’m sure would benefit from this machine…I tried it and it did nothing for me. This diagnosis has implications for your driving licence, so don’t even go there. Another example of lazy doctoring with no intention of getting to the bottom of the problem.
The only thing I have found that works sporadically is really heavy exercise in the morning, sometimes this gives me a few more hours sleep, but nowhere near pre PSSD. This doesn’t work all the time and exercising heavily in the afternoon makes matters worse.
I did try to build a spreadsheet to record virtually everything I did and ate during each day vs. sleep quality… it didn’t reveal anything to me, though I might give it another try.
Anyone suffering with just one of these four conditions would be in tears after four years…I don’t know how I (we) cope.
21G

Hi, what were your sleep test results for AHI, RDI and oxygen desaturation? How long did you use the CPAP for? Have you gotten your testosterone levels checked?

[Twentyoneguns]

Hi
Pleased to answer your questions. I wasn't given any results regarding the sleep test other than that i had sleep apnoea. I used the CPAP machine for about 2 weeks but just couldn't get on with it....I could get no sleep at all. My testosterone levels over the last 3 years are:

2/19 18.0 nmol/L
8/20 12
1/21 13.5
2/21 15.8

Reasonable for my age (63)

Since the post you quoted, my sleep has worsened. I fall asleep easily but now wake less than an hour later, maybe a few very short periods of sleep til I have to get up at 7.30.

I recently went to a hypnotherapist to try and sort this out...after one session I had remarkable results....I slept for a solid 5 hours (1am til 6am) and my chemical like depression just seemed to melt away. I had morning wood for the first time in ages for several days and libido was significantly increased. Music seemed so much more bright, and had motivation to get things done, also not obsessively checking genitals. Fantastic....I was looking forward to my second session of hypnotherapy full of hope....but the effects were already begining to fade...the next session didn't seem to have any positive results...in fact the depression took quite a dip. Placebo/Nocebo ....who knows.

Hope this helps/is of interest to you.

Regards

21