I had horrible sleep problems until my pdoc put me on hydroxyzine.
Good to know.
Wish you all the best
It comes in cycles. Shrug. I’ve been in a nightmare and night sweats and surviving on 2 hours here, catnaps there, jaunt since sometime in October. Other times it’s an insomnia jag. Sometimes I can get a fantastic 5 hours in the middle of the day but couldn’t sleep at night to save my life, or a fairly consistent easy 7 hours at night. Or up 2 days, sleep 1. A lot hinges on 4am. As long as I’m getting up at 4am for a banging full day, or going to sleep after 4am for a solid 4+ I’m fine. It’s my witching hour. I’m always up at it. Even if I go to bed at 330am, I’ll be jolting awake at 4oo. Once I start missing my 4am mark? I’ve learned something is going to be up with my sleep. Doesn’t tell me which way it’s going to go, just that I need to make myself flexible if I want to absorb the blow instead of getting knocked on my ass.
If I start getting tired for no reason, though? I really need to look out. Insomnia, nightmares, and wrecked sleep is hard, but sleeping 20+ hours a day is impossible.
Thank you for sharing!
Good job with the self awareness. Your body like mine sleeps better duing the day.
So strange how that works !!
I have insomnia and take medication.. Otherwise, I have flashbacks, stressed sleep, without a muscle relaxer and take something else for anxiery, in my sleep. (Thank God for meds and the makers of modern medicine)
Flashbacks. Good point.
Thanks for sharing !
I have the same dream over and over of me leaving or attempting to leave my old property and I am scared to leave because of my partner.
It is a prime example of my real life experience. Although he appears in the form of a wolf.. And when i look i see him in the woods. I am afraid for my pet dogs. For myself.
Yes. I was the woman who said i am leaving and was told i wasnt going anywhere. Was almost killed in the process. I never went back. I got back one of 2 dogs.
Its been 5 years and counting and every night there he is.. My nightmare in many forms.
Welcome! Another hyper vigilant insomniac here. I tend to go to bed sometime between 4-5am when I know I can sleep because I'm so exhausted. Even then the slightest sound will wake me.
I can sleep for a couple of hours and if everything seems OK, maybe get another couple.
I can't take meds due to allergies and intolerances so have to rely on St John's wort.
From what I've been told, there are two types of insomnia; sleep on-set, where you just can't get to sleep and sleep maintenance, where you just can't stay asleep. Sleep maintenance insomnia tends to kick into sleep onset when you wake and that's the vicious cycle we all know about.
The ongoing argument I have with my gp is that you know when you can't sleep, but as you say, you don't know when you go to sleep if you're going to keep waking up every couple of hours. I get so tired sometimes, I'm not safe to leave the house.
I think we can all count ourselves lucky that we have this site.
Thank you for reading this post and giving feedback! Much appreciated.
I feel for you, for all of us and as you say this site is great!
Saint johns wort sounds like a good idea. Never thought of that! Good to have some type of alternative with an allergy.. that isnt easy !
Yes the sleep cycles are intersting i definitley have the maintenance issue here! Not every night but most nights.
I hear you on the issue of being tired and leaving the house. I went to the hospital the day after i almost hit a pedestrian from being tired and not with it. Forgot to look when backing up my vehicle in my own driveway too. Just so unsafe.
I am on a disability right now and am off work.
I really fear going back to work knowing when i awake most days i am d.o.n.e. tired and i think to myself i just couldnt do it. I couldnt safetly.
I wonder how many of us are also on a disability because of ptsd. Or ptsd combined with other mental health issues. We can all relate!
literally for decades i didn't really sleep. I was fall asleep then wake up just as you describe. when it was really, really bad I had strange sleep behavior like screaming out in my sleep, waking up on the floor not that I fell on the floor but in my sleep I moved to the floor because I felt safer than in a bed. dealt with alot of exposure therapy during that time, emdr, and that crazy behavior dissipated. Still the wakefulness, the watchfullness while i slept , or I'd have morbid thoughts and s/i always in the night.
So I learned to deal with it by getting out of bed no matter time, and doing chores that still needed done like laundry, even grocery shopping 24 hour stores, did a lot of work like emails and data analysis. I decided to not freak out about the loss of sleep and use the time to get stuff done quietyly while the rest of the family slept. Eventually I would relax and fall asleep for a couple hours, then awaken, the fall asleep. I would get really exhausted around 2 or 3 pm and I would go to sleep for about 20 mins. This worked well for me for decades. I just processed some knife attacks in 2016 and 2017 and my sleep became better. Still not a good sleeper and I just chose to not let it bother me. (too much) I still have occassional episodes of s/i in the night and morbid thinking and when it's really bad I use the crisis text line or get up and journal, or try reading or watching a hallmark movie on netflix.
I've posted this before but this past year I discovered diffusing essential oils and I can't believe how well they work for me. (and my husband who also has ptsd and is a horrible restless sleep, bad dreams, up and down through the night) I diffuse about an hour before going to bed and I will sleep soundly the whole night and feel rested. I use some blends from do-terra called balance, or on-guard, or just plain lavendar or mryh. That has been a wonderful discovery and it still is working for me! I don't think it's just placebo effect because my husband sleeps so soundly too and he has no idea why I diffuse oils, he just thinks I like it. I never told him it helps with sleep.
oh yeah, i just remembver this. I read an article once that said the best time to work out is at night before sleep because you will sleep well, but that people choose to work out in the morning because of scheduling routines, morning works well. I did two years at the gym at night from 9pm to 10 pm and i did sleep really well, especially when my work out was swimming for an hour. I let my gym pass expire because the gym is painted brown and it made me depressed, and I realized why brown makes me depressed; it was the color of the rooms I was abused in. I love the color brown but painted brown walls makes me gloomy as Fu--. I just can't do brown painted walls!
I wonder if next time you are near a brown room you can tolerate it and feel the bad feelings.. And know you are older and have the control in that brown rooml. So glad your still here to share that story of vomming from the dark to the light. God bless.
Doterra. Yess!! Well i mean any SUSTAINABLY produced.essential oil is kick ass.
Sustainable as in.. I tried an oil called something weird looked it up and it was from africa.. Widely poached and essentially going extinct because of the essential oil industry.
The on guard is a great smell yes.
Good tips!
I have a diffuser but my partner is allergic to everything i put in there haha so i do use that and it helps a lot. Basic lavender here. Ylang ylang.
Sorry to hear about your knive attacks. I know from my workplace all too well that thats going to be a ptsd pass right there. X2. Big huggs.
Maybe learning to trap a knive will help you overcome that, practice with kid toys and get good at it. Master it. There are good videos on youtube on how to trap a knive and break bones while you do it.
It sucks facing your fear but i hooe my advice isnt off the charts but helps.
If you dream of your attack dream that they have a pocket knive and you 1 up them with a machette or a bayonette.or a samaurai sword.
Thats funny my partner thinks that incense and diffusers are just "there" too haha. Until he used orange and lemon oil to remove stickers off of some of his stuff and saw me putting it in his lemon loaf :)
