Insomnia/Cannot Sleep

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I've been having a lot of trouble getting to sleep recently. Bed time for me is 11:30pm. But I'm not actually tired and usually just lie in bed trying to meditate or think about my interests to try and stop the constant stream of thoughts and reminders that keep bouncing around my head. I just cannot get it to shut off when it's supposed to. I've taken to trying to tire myself out by getting up again and doing quiet chores around the house to try not to disturb anyone. Even doing this I will find that I don't actually get tired until around 3:30-4am. Even then I find I'm wide awake again at 8:30am when I have to wake up for work, but spend the day tired, only to have the cycle repeat again at night. It complicates things that I have depression and generalised anxiety disorder so I know insomnia is a feature of these. I am on treatment for those, but it hasn't helped the insomnia.

I've been to the doctor and been prescribed different sleeping pills to try. They work, but I wake up non-functional and spend the day feeling out of touch with the rest of the world - even more so than normal. My speech becomes confused and I can rarely get the right words out - it's like the words are stuck in my head. Typing is better (thankfully) so I can still communicate. I've also tried amitriptyline and that's just terrible - I get to spend the day with a migraine and feeling exhausted.

I'm getting tired of this (ironically).

So, does anyone have any suggestions on how to fall asleep and stay asleep without resorting to sleeping pills (such as zopiclone) or amitriptyline? I've tried meditation and mindfulness, which certainly calms me down, but rarely gets me to a state that I can actually sleep - at least not yet.

As far as non medication strategies go I don't really have any to help you with your sleeplessness but I've been using Mirtazapine also known as Remeron and it's worked like a charm for the past 11 years for me. Precisely why I keep using it because it's so completely effective in helping me to sleep.

It's fairly inexpensive and it's covered by most drug plans at least in Canada so maybe mention this Mirtazapine to your doctor and see what he thinks.

Good luck!

Last edited by xatrix26 on 20 Dec 2017, 10:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Cheers! I've not tried Mirtazapine yet. I know it's in the same family as amitriptyline (both are tricyclic antidepressants) so should have the same sleep effects. I'm heading back to the GP first thing in January so I'll see what he says then. Do you/did you get any side effects with it?

Side effects include constipation, drowsiness, mood changes, and skin rash. I should also mention that it's primarily an antidepressant too. All in all the side effects are quite manageable and well worth positive effects.

Hmm, that certainly sounds manageable. I shall see what the GP says in January then. Thanks!

I tried Mirtazapine out for a tremor disorder & all I did was sleep & eat while taking it. I take Trazodone at night which is an atypical antidepressant that's used more for insomnia than for depression. You could also try Rozerem/Ramelteon which has an effect on the melatonin receptors.

I really feel your pain.
Its 11:42pm as I write this and I havent slept in probably three days. Maybe four. I lost track.

If you don't live somewhere sunny and can afford a sun lamp, I would try getting some UV light on your skin. It's been shown to help cure insomnia, and I have confirmation of this from my own experience. Every day that I get at least 10 minutes of sun, I sleep like a baby that night. My worst days of insomnia are when I haven't been out in the sun in days.

Thank you everyone for your suggestions. I will look into Rozerem/Ramelteon as well. I definitely need something at this point.

Alita - That's a good idea. I know I'm Vitamin D deficient anyway as I don't spend a lot of time outside. I'll see if I can find a UV lamp to help as well.

I took it for a while, prescribed for depression, but it's one of the few things to help relieve my insomnia. I would say that it didn't help me to get to sleep very much, but I had much better sleep quality once asleep - fewer wakings up and feeling more refreshed afterwards.

I did get one of the other common side-effects - incredibly vivid, almost lucid, dreams which were very memorable after waking. By the standard of what I can usually remember of dreaming, the dreams were also incredibly surreal, though never frightening (even the ones that seem like they should have been frightening when I look back on them.)

Mirtazapine is considered an "atypical" anti-depressant; although related to the tri-cyclic anti-depressants, it is actually a tetra-cyclic, and acts via a slightly different pathway than amitriptyline etc. This is why I ended up taking it, as my depression wasn't affected by tri-cyclics or SSRIs - the benefit to my sleep was an unexpected surprise. Interestingly, the Wikipedia page for Mirtazapine says that is has been "explored" for "...secondary symptoms of autistic spectrum conditions and other pervasive developmental disorders".

I use breathing exercises with some success. As a woman in her early 50s I was unpleasantly surprised to note I was having sleep difficulty, as I've always slept very soundly in the past. Apparently it's just one of the many joys (#sarcasm) of perimenopause.

Melatonin and kava root are helping me.

I do progressive muscle relaxation to fall asleep (also sometimes in the middle of the night).

I recently got a weighted blanket which seems to help my sleep. I always have to read a book/kindle to get off to sleep in the first place, but I would always have problems getting back to sleep if I woke up in the night. The weighted blanket helps with that- it somehow keeps my body from waking up completely and I get back to sleep much more quickly. I have also found that since I've been using it, I've been getting much more vivid and memorable dreams.

I always have problems switching my brain off at night- reading a book helps, but it has to be the right kind of book. Some books, like Tony Attwood, start me thinking too much as I start re-interpreting my life. Usually a bit of sci-fi or fantasy works best for me- that's the kind of stuff I'm interested in though.

This may seem really obvious but apart from setting your alarm, turn your alarm clock or phone or whatever you use to see the time in bed, away from you so you can't see the time.

I used to wake up at various times during the night and watch the clock, counting down the time until I had to get up. I used to get a lot less sleep this way. I turned my clock away and now that I'm oblivious to what the time is, the only thing to do is go back to sleep.

I tried mirtazapine too. Very good quality of sleep. Too much though, so I came off it.

Hi mate , some would say that 4-5 hours each night is enough and you should be happy.
It’s good to see you at least found a pill to put you to sleep.
As for staying asleep, I’m sad to say that, after three years of fighting the same issue, I was nearby to lose hope in a solution. I’ve tried several sleeping pills, and also Valium and rarely Xanax. Out of those, only
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managed to prolong my sleep, but I’ve only tried it a handful of times.
Hope these pills will help and you

Last edited by B19 on 06 Jan 2020, 2:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.: spam

I have this problem, too. Sometimes I am awake for as long as 2 hours just laying in bed with my mind racing on the day's events. I want it to do that before I go to bed, not after the fact. I'm going to have to play with the amount of wind-down time and maybe write in a journal, but I need other things I can do to shut my thoughts off once I write down all my concerns. Sometimes if I have several nights like this, I'll take 1 mg of melatonin and it will put me out in 20 minutes.