Methods to deal with sleep disorder

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I'd say alcohol is a "false friend". While it helps you to fall asleep, it may constantly wake you up in the middle of the night. Maybe you can replace it with Phenibut or another molecule which affects GABA receptors (like alcohol does).

Edit: You already have benzodiazepines, which affect GABA receptors. So if you take them you can ditch the alcohol.

I would advice against taking anything daily which affects GABA receptors however, as it will cause dependency. When you stop taking it you will have the worst sleep disorder ever (happened to me a few weeks ago).

But if that works best for you, it makes sense to keep taking it.

Yeah I am aware of all of this and know about GABA. I've already been right the way through one cycle of escalating benzo doses, due to ever increasing tolerance, over the course of a few years, followed by a period of abstinence which resulted in a period of prolonged and horrific insomnia. However, this is the price to pay for continuous benzo use. I know that you cant just keep using them forever and forever increasing your dose. Well I suppose you could, but the results would not be pretty.

The pay off is that benzos obliterate my crippling social anxiety and enable to me to pull off the feat of autistic masking. So it is all a precarious balancing act, with the main aim of trying to keep my benzo tolerance down as much as possible, hence the use of all the other sleep aids at the same time.

As Johnny Cash once sang "I Walk The Line" I don't know what he meant by that, but it's how I feel. I'm just doing what works for now, but I know that sooner or later I am going to have to reset my benzo tolerance and go through the whole nightmare period of prolonged severe insomnia and rebound anxiety all over again.

The sooner the better in some ways. Although I am under financial pressure to keep earning money while I have the opportunity to do so right now.

Hang pulley above bed attach large hinge to the wall..attached to sledge hammer handle ...tie rope. underneath
hammer head , put rope through pulley . Retract hammer up to ceiling level ...then while rope is under tension, tie to edge of. plywood board on your bed, using a slip knot ..Sit on board releasing slip knot dropping hammer on head while sitting on the edge of the bed...ideally this method should knock patient unconcious , allowing patient to drop backwards with head hopefully dropping on bed pillow. Thus rendering patient unconcious ...!
[ Use this method Only under strictest medical Supervision.]
(Post provided under strictest comcepts of humour implied ).

Ok. That's a little more sophisticated method than what I tried as old teenager/young adult: Running around the block in the middle of the night, hoping I will be exhausted from it (it failed, but I kept trying it a few more times). Also sometimes tried to hold my breath until I became unconscious.

Can remember times when was desperate to get sleep ....! After trying so many different supplements that would knock out a normal person.. after 5 days of no sleep , gave in and went to the hospital... There answer was to send me to mental health worker??? . Eventually got to a doc whom could prescibe something worthwhile. it worked but after that got very intensive about keeping my sleep cycle as a big thing in my daily life. Got off the prescriptions
doing this method . But the supplements now do their job well .

Over the last 50 years, waterbeds have made some improvements in design. They are still available but you may have to search for a store that has them. Over the years, we would spring a leak sometimes but there is a kit that allows you to fix some of the leaks. The last for a long time. I think I might be on my third waterbed. But if you have animals that might be a problem. The fact that a waterbed is heated really makes them quite comfortable during you night time sleep.

I don't snore when I'm asleep (I've been told by several different people I've slept in the same room as), but often when I'm trying to fall asleep there's some phlegm at the back of my throat that makes a funny grunting sort of snoring sound and it wakes me before I've fallen asleep, if that makes sense. It's so frustrating. I sleep with two pillows but I can't sleep with any more because I get neckache.

So I tend to stay up most the night to get myself tired enough to fall asleep faster without being disturbed by the temporary snoring sound I make. This has a huge impact on my social life, as when I'm not at work I'm basically catching up on lost sleep. This is why I put off therapy for my other issues (anxiety, depression, RSD, etc) because I just don't have the time, and therapy sessions don't run at weekends or evenings.

I need to give myself plenty of time for sleep. I need to allow 10 - 11 hours in bed to get 8 hours of sleep. Unfortunately there's nothing I can do that's useful between sleeps so a couple hours are wasted everyday. I've learned to accept it as relaxing self time and not to stress about it.

Had Insomnia most of my life. Never took anything for it, but found that avoiding Caffeine, cigs several hours before sleep helped. As an adult, I found that turning off the lights a few hours before sleeping and slowly breathing and clearing my thoughts dealt with anxiety and I could get enough sleep to function, even if it wasn't 8 hours worth.