Too depressed to sleep

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The depressing emotions and the physical toll of these, which come to me at the most random times, will not go away. It has been few nights of feeling this way. I have managed to go to sleep eventually, but after no longer being able to keep myself awake. It's another one of them days/nights, whatever you call it. While I am up, the emotions come and go, the body pain from the depressing emotions keeps a hold on me, specifically located inside my chest and the front/back of my head. If I lay down my brain just fires more and keeps getting sad and depressed, and the body pain is of coarse still there making everything worse. I despise these feelings so much, because it seems like the only way to get to sleep is by staying up until my body and brain decides it is time to shutdown and go into sleep mode. Every day has been a grind to stay positive, but these ones dig into me so much more. I would like to be content/happy again soon, I was doing well before a few nights ago, but then this happened and I'm not even totally sure why it did, nor do I know when it will go away. That's about it for my post. Perhaps it is a good time to shutdown from just about everything for awhile. What else can I do, I've tried many other things already.

I'm sorry you're going through this. I've been somewhat there myself with severe depression, except without the physical pain, so I feel you.

I can suggest a few things, but I'm sure you may have looked into them already so I don't know if it will help or not.

I've used Benadryl for sleep, and also Doxylamine, and sometimes it helps. I'm not going to go into doseage amounts here, but I'm sure you can look up a safe dose that will work if you want to try one of those, or even just ask a pharmacist. Also your tolerance may allow the suggested dose to work for you.

Also, there are some sleep hypnosis videos on YouTube that you might want to try. I've done them before and a couple of them have worked, at various times. There is also a site that has these binaural beats that simulate antidepressants and also some for benzos (and other things) if you have headphones on. That might work to help you sleep or for the depression.

I hope you feel better soon.

I get days that feel dismal and racing thoughts that won't let me sleep.All that can be done is ride it out.There are some herbs that are helpful,a tea of hops or chamomile.The smell of lavender,they have sleep pillows stuffed with it or to just rub the oil on your wrists.Valerian root in the capsule form helps me a lot.It smells bad,the stinky feet herb.Not good for a tea.
And like OOM suggested,there are some videos on you tube,I use the Zen music with Om.They have background sounds like water,rain,ocean,fire wood crackling and nature sounds.I find the sounds help distract my mind and they do help me.They have ones that are from an hour long to twelve hours.I hope you get some good sleep and feel better.

Have you tried melatonin? I have suffered from insomnia for a long time and It has helped me greatly and you can't even overdose it. When I have very bad anxiety and trying to catch Sleep I also take Stilnox.
I feel for you, It's really not nice to suffer from lack of sleep

Are you on any meds? Sometimes they can mess up your sleep but sometimes they can help.

when im in these situations I take two 5mg tablets of melatonin and 4 25mg tablets of Benadryl. it puts me to sleep in under an hour

This is a myth. Anything introducing extra amount of hormones into your body like melatonin does can cause damage or at least adverse effects if you take too much.

Despite that, I third melatonin. You can pick it up at your local pharmacy without a prescription and it doesn't taste bad either. It actually has a type of minty flavour to it.

Melatonin put me to sleep,but gave me vivid nightmares.

Dear Oliveoilmom,

The nights are getting better slowly, but my sleep schedule is now farked up.

For some reason all Benadryl does to me is make me feel loopy, and it's a bad time to be awake on Ben. Most powerful sleep aids sold over the counter don't work on me, and just make me feel loopy and stressed. Pharmaceutical sleep aids do work, but they can often come with some minor and rather serious side effects. I can't take that stuff anymore.

You bring up another good idea about the noise related aids. I took your advice and looked up some sleep hypnosis videos. The concept of these videos is concrete no doubt and I am sure that these help people, but for some reason I became anxious listening to the videos. I believe it is a combination of the unnaturally calm tone that the "hypnotists" use, the whispering, and low quality microphones used for recording. I also took a look at some binaural beats youtube= "Binaural Beats Antidepressants" and found one that made me kind of light headed after a few minutes. I could see this helping relax me when I'm somewhat stressed or already calm, but not when my mind is in a real bad place. Listening to a new one now, now this one is relaxing me some while I type, it wasn't at first but it wears on ya. It reminds me of the sound that an air compressor makes, but as if I am wearing ear plugs while one is on. For some reason I like that! Thanks... I wouldn't have given binaural beats much of a chance.



Hi Misslizard,

During these days, what kind of things do you think about, if you don't mind me asking. I agree that you need to ride it out, though I think the period of time that you need to ride out is not always known. Unknowing of how long you will feel so dreadful, is a pain all by itself. I've never heard of hops tea, will look it up in a minute though, but I do know that hops are supposed to have a calming effect in supplement form. The only chamomile tea I can find in stores near me is the kind made up of only flowers, apparently, flowers do not contain much of the psychoactive chemicals that cause the relaxation which Chamomile is renowned for, but the bud of Chamomile does. At least that's what I read, which is maybe why I don't receive much benefit from Chamomile tea I try. I'll have to plan a long trip to the spice and tea store some time, and pick up some Chamomile buds. I plan on growing some Chamomile next year, and now I have hops added to the list. I really like the idea of adding lavender oil onto my pillow, it smells so good. I tried Valerian Root before and I felt nothing. Maybe it's just me or the supplier I got it from is bunk. I probably won't try that again though, and it does stink yup! I like the sound of fire crackling and rain. I'll check some vids on the tube of fire and rain... I might even record a track myself. There's this super realistic perhaps even real rainstorm generator in a video game I play, that's really nice, and it is never quite the same.




Hello Nanoscale,

I occasionally will use Melatonin, but I don't make it a habit. It helps when I'm not feeling so down as I have been lately. If I am not mistaken, Stilnox is a generic Ambien? I've taken another prescription generic Ambien, it didn't end up working well most of the time and I would normally end up feeling out of it for some hours, kind of like I feel when I take Benadryl, again no fun at all!



The meds do not help me lately.



!0_0! Damn...Well I'm glad that works out for ya. Knowing me I'd be up for hours hating my life if I did the same as you.



I believe you are correct. Also, taking it every day over a long period of time is said to be an unhealthy choice. The bottle I have says not to take it for over two or three weeks in a row, I forget which, and I don't feel like checking right now. It's apparently supposed to be used on an occasional basis, or to be cycled two or so weeks on and one off.

I've got the same thing, although I am not on any meds (I find medication very scary), but meditation helps me a often go to sleep. It takes lots of practice, but for me it really works out great.

I try not to think on those days.I get racing thoughts so I try to distract myself with music so I won't have to listen to my mind.I tell my self it is like an undertow,if you fight it it's worse but if you let go you will pop back up on the surface eventually.I don't guilt myself out anymore,it's an illness and it's not my fault I feel bad.If you live in a medical marijuana state you can eat some before bed.I run a fan and try to keep the room dark and cool,this helps me some.
I've always been amazed at how some people just lay down and go right to sleep,even when I can sleep it takes me about an hour to drift off.I had sleep problems even when I was little.
Hope you start feeling better,maybe as the days shorten your sleep pattern will stabilize.

Oh, I meant there is no known deadly amount...
But of course, too much anything and things are going to turn sour (except maybe money...)

Ambien and Stilnox are brand names for Zoldipem.

It's hard to help you without knowing what meds your on.

I had the same problem that your experiencing now when I was taking an antidepressant, once I stopped, my sleep problems went away.

Some people who take amphetamine salts have sleep problems as well.

I would talk to a psychiatrist who specializes in autism about it...

I know what you mean. The more you think of depressing thoughts, it's like you're making a bunch of depressioin babies faster then those friggin aphids and mealybugs in the garden can pop out their little demons! I admit it's nice to be here where there are people who feel similar to how I feel, that are willing to talk about it a bit, it gets my mind off things. I'm not usually one to vent or tell people my problems so it's kinda calming to get it out once in awhile and not feel so alone. I live in one of the lucky states where the green stuff is allowed for recreational and medical purposes, however I am bound by contractual obligations therefor I am not allowed to partake in that activity at this point in time. I'm amazed by people that can go to sleep easily too, can't even imagine how they just "turn off" at night. I have a fan, but I think I need to get a larger and louder one. I think I have a tolerance to my old fan so time to up the dosage, a box fan should do. Thanks I am feeling better now, even though I've been up for a long time, and stuck inside while it rained today. The depression is just trying to breed more bad thoughts, but I've been doing an alright job by trying not to think about them, and seeking good vibes in upbeat music. Maybe it's time for sleep now.