Ive basically developed insomnia, help?

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Around two weeks ago I went on break for uni (catch up study week) and I got a really bad case of the flu that's been going around. Basically the same time this occurred I lost my ability to sleep.

I've been to three doctors, got put back on endep which I was on for years and then upto 10mg of Valium before bed but even that isn't doing much and I'm probably going to have to get something stronger. I've also been trying to do meditation and listen to soft stuff before bed.

I just don't understand how the flu could cause this. My anxiety has been spiked and I just saw my psychologist again for the first time in 3 years.

I will note that I've always struggled with sleep my entire life which is why I sought my psychologist to begin with. I study law and usually go to bed at 3 am(before this happened) but yeah I've never been this bad and it's worrying me since my final exams are coming up in a few weeks.

Summary:
Got the flu two weeks ago and haven't had a decent nights sleep

Any tips on how to relax my mind or what to imagine to help doze me off?

Here are some of the things I did to combat my episodes of insomnia.

-reduce the stress levels at home and work
-WIND DOWN in the evening
-stable waking hours (up EARLY and to bed EARLY)
-bright lights in the morning
-pitch black bedroom with no clocks on show
-NO gadgets (leave the phone/tablet in another room!)
-cut out caffeine (that includes tea and fizzy drinks like cola and redbull)
-try honey and hot water as a supper-time drink
-write down anything that is troubling you before you go to bed
-put an extra duvet on top of the mattress but under the bottom sheet (double folded in half to give double thickness)
-make sure you are not over-heating - wear less in bed
-do any jobs that need doing early in the day - the evening is for telly, music or reading
-make sure you get time alone to wind down before bed

I’ve been having difficulty with sleeping since this summer as well. One thing that has really worked and helped for me is just calming down before bed. If you haven’t already, try concentrating on your breathing or meditating. That helps me calm down a lot before bed. Another thing that has worked is hypnosis. You can look up videos online and they really help my mind just calm down so I can go to sleep. Winding down is the key to help me fall asleep. Sometimes, if I need to, I also take Zyrtec (an allergy medication) before bed because I actually have allergies and the medication induces drowsiness as well. Hope this helps!

I've had insomnia for about two years. My psychiatrist gave me 25-50 mg of doxepin. It helps me because it also helps with depression and anxiety. Maybe you should talk to your doctor about it. I went so long without it though and at this point I have giant black holes under my eyes haha. Hopefully you'll get better before that point.

Miss a nights sleep intentionally, drink loads of energy drinks do your best to stay awake. You will become so tired you will sleep better.

DO NOT DO THIS. Trust me it won't help if you really have insomnia.

Thanks for the responses guys but I have figured it out.

Basically my brain is so used to staying up until 1-3 that if I were to go to bed any earlier it just wouldn't work (this occurred even before the flu as well).

And since the doctors and my psychologist were telling me to go to bed extra early and not study that was considered alien to my brain.

Basically last night I went back to my regular routine of staying up late and studying and then it was much easier to doze off!

Thank God this terrible period in my life is over!

I'm afraid insomnia is an absolute staple of Autistics and Aspies like us because the anxiety and depression that we feel prevents normal sleep cycles from occurring. For people like us, our minds are in constant overdrive throughout the day so we need a long time to slow down from that constant racing our minds do in order for sleep to occur. I'm afraid that artificial sleep inducements are a necessity as we cannot fall asleep without assistance and in some cases, a large amount of assistance like I need.

I wouldn't let it bother you too much, this is just one more thing we need to accept about ourselves. We are disabled persons and we require assistance for many of the normal tasks that NTs (neuro-typicals, aka: normal humans) take for granted.

Did you always have insomnia? Or did it start at a certain age? I always slept perfect up until about age 31, then gradually my sleep deteriorated into chronic insomnia (so bad I had to quit my job and move in with my parents). Since then, I have to take sleeping pills to fall asleep (Remeron and Lunesta together). I'm starting to think it was because of a stressful event that triggered my insomnia, and since I have aspergers my mind doesn't deal with it fully or correctly, so it gets stuck in some kind of "alert mode"...

Last edited by raw83472 on 09 Oct 2017, 12:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Its the vaccines. The flu vaccines too. Same thing happened to someone i know. Don't ever get vaccines.

Nay

Do you have insomnia and or take medicine for it. During when burnout gets worse I tend to get little or even no sleep. I either get 0-4 hours on a night basis 0-4 hours once in a while and on a nightly basis i've always had sleep problems. before burnout, I didn't have these problems. Now, I do. Also other stuff like speech problems. I'm not entirely sure about clumsiness.
(Tho again I am currently in crutches cause I done something to my hip (doctors can't tell what) I gotta go to the a specialized hospital to check it out in a week. For the most part I can't really tell the difference.. I'm okay with fine motor skills. Mainly due to having a perfectionist need to write right (due to occupational therapy). By the way I wasn't even diagnosed with ASD when I was in OT. I was in there for a learning disability or so I remember. I remember (keep in mind this was when I was in kindergarten or first grade or second one of the early grades that are really basic and have a lot to do with writing. Me personally I didn't do that well in school.. I've never done exceptionally well in school sure good enough to get in honors classes. But I probably could get in them without good enough grades. I don't remember much of ot from the first time and a little form the second time (in 4th grade). This site has introduced a lot of personal development for me. Damn it.. This has become a monologue . I'm supposed to be doing something productive right now but it's proving difficult. The thing, I've noticed is that I'm still as smart and resourceful. I just can't access those things. My mental health is kind of a double edged sword tho. I'll do anything for acquisition of knowledge. And I mean anything Hell, I've thrown myself into a scenerio that I've put myself into a situation before where I'm in a pit of manipulators on the internet just to see what happened. I actually got to the top of that. It has given me some insights but at a price. I undergone various traumatic experiences to do so. sometimes I feel a little insane. but then again I remind myself that I'm not insane as I might think I am. At Least I can stop that. The way I succeeded was making people think that I was crazy. People knew I wasn't the most logically sound person so they stayed away from me. They also were afraid of me in general. I had to stop doing that at one point, because of becoming somewhat famous. But, Part of that was just exaggerating the bad parts of my mind. But then again. I didn't have to lie that much too. I just used negotiation tactics. and Intimidation tactics I learned from experience. That game was basically a simulator of the corporate ladder. Even tho it was a game unethical practices were rampant and in some ways part of the game. I didn't break to many rules in ethics all I did was convince people to buy for prices that are huge profit for me. I'd buy for 30% of value and sell for 70-100% if not more in some cases. Okay Monologue aside, I don't know if you are reading this but. My posts now are going to be lengthier atleast. Dont' expect me to be exceptionally active. I might be on from time to time but due to social issolation I doubt I will be on that much.

I hate when you monologue for 20-30 minutes then realize you are monologuing and are like wait I'm monologuing what do I do now Then don't really want to stop but stop anyway. It's definitely burnout if you notice these things.

1. Constant tiredness especially during more drastic times of burnout at the peak of burnout
2. I don't want to use the word loss but you find it harder to use your skills. It can be very scary at first
3. Any coping mechanisms you may have had when you were younger, you can no longer use or just simply have no energy to. (specifically if you have undergone therapies)
4. Trouble doing basic tasks you'd normally be able to do. Like taking a shower.
5. The biggest most obvious sign is an increase in meltdowns. Depending on how often you have meltdowns. It might be different but it has to be an exponiental increase like going from having a meltdown once a month to have a meltdown once a day or once every few days.
   

From the times I've been burned out which has been a few times so far. I've noticed that sometimes it's worse than others. I'd try my very best avoid situations where you can't get out. Or it's not an option. You seem to be able to do that which I envy... If you don't take medicine then honestly you should take medicine. In my opinion even though I can't function much if at all without medicine, I can still function vastly better. I'm not overly reliant on my medication tho. I could do go a few days without it. The problem is that I don't know your situation and since my situation is a little on the extreme side with various experiences I have had. (I.E. Child abuse, etc. ) It's hard to tell what situation you are in. but I'm assuming if you are a in college because of your username. You might be panicking but if you can take a break from college.. If you can immediately or in the near future. obviously it's hard to do that... I don't' take valium or antidepressant medicines in general those medications I've always had horrible reactions to which involved violent meltdowns and lack of emotion so honestly I was on antidepressants for like a week or two and have. it only made things way worse. [/color]

Yeah I'd much rather get deathly sick from not getting vaccinated than to have insomnia. Don't be stupid insomnia is a common thing in aspies.

For me insomnia started when I was very young but only lightly so and degenerated progressively into adulthood into a fairly serious situation. The more workplace situations that I was exposed to the worse it got, which is the kind of social situation that I have the most difficulty with. To the point now where it's always on my mind when I try to get to sleep.

Same thing happened to me... except my insomnia didn't start until I hit 31 years old (before that I always slept perfect and didn't even think it was possible to (not on purpose) have sleep issues). From there my insomnia gradually got worse until I couldn't sleep at all without a sleep aid (such as an antihistamine like Unisom).

From trying lots of sleep meds... I've actually found one that never fails to put me to sleep within an hour so, and that is Remeron 15mg-30mg. If you're still having sleep issues, highly recommend trying Remeron. Everything else (Seroquel, Unisom, Trazodone, Xanax, etc.) either only worked for a few days or didn't give me restful sleep. I still wake up in the middle of the night though, and that's the issue i'm currently working on...