How many people cant sleep well

[BeTheLight]

Hello all!
I found this website today and had to join you all as I also have PTSD and need to connect with others who know what I am going through !
I had an incident in 2015 at the tail end of the summer.
I started suffering from night sweats, lack of sleep, then the irritability.
It is now 2019 December and I still have the same horrid sleeps.
As I wait to speak to a psychiatrist or psychologist I take cipralex, risperdol and buspirone.
I go to sleep and wake up again and again and again. Cold. Vivid dreams. Nightmares. These dreams are so real I can wake up and write a book about them citing each event. Colours smells feeelings everything.
I wake up hours later just bagged, bitchy, and EXHAUSTED.
I dont need children to know what a bad sleep looks like.
Its been 5 years and Christmas time is making things worse.
How do you all sleep with PTSD. I AM SO curious to know.

 

[MrMoonlight]

I'm really happy you found this site...full of people who get it. My sleep routine is to stay up until I can't hold my eyes open any longer. I think there and many people who have challenges at night. It gets creepy for me come evening, I lower all the blinds and make sure the house is lit end to end with din lighting. No dark corners you know. I get awful sweating many times at sunset and I just try to keep my mind busy with distractions until midnight or one and then crash. I don't have nightmares like you, I don't have any dreams and haven't for a long time. Christmas is difficult because it serves as a reminder of what happened. I just corrected myself as my therapist did yesterday. I was going to say "serves as a reminder of what's to come" but nothing is coming that stuff is in the past. I'm not doing Christmas decorations this year so I can lower the 'energy' of the holiday.

I hope you get the help you are looking for and you aren't alone. You've got a tribe now.

 

[BeTheLight]

Wow. I am so moved.
I thank you for reminding me there is a tribe of people willing to chat help etc. I am so thankful.
Honestly!
I am thankful for your advice with the therapists words about what it to come.
Glad to hear your advice about the light and christmas and such.
It all helps a lot.
I dread going to bed also! I was so sleep deprived as i have never been given nor taken meds for sleep.
I went to the hospital a week ago for sleep deprivation... Saw a psych nurse and she said there are specialists who deal with ptsd but my psych thought my regular GP had a handle on it. HAH!
I took some pill and i went to bed and woke up. No dreams .. No nightmares. Until i ran out because i was given 7 days.
Its funny because the doctors and nurses say take it WHEN you need it.
When the hell dont i need it. Secondly how the hell do you know beforehand if youll actually sleep ok? Vicious cycle.
I am glad i went to emergency and explained how sleep deprivation gets me edgy..angry. Irritable. Exhausted on and on.
I am REALLY pushing for help here in British Columbia Canada.
I am sad to see addictions get more help than other psych. I know that because i also work in psych and had my father and sister both overdose in the same 6 months.
I know if any one of us went to an addictions center for help and resources we could access more help that route fyi.

 

[Mee]

Welcome. :)

It’s my night time.... and here I am!
I get nightmares , nightsweats etc but my real challenge is hyper vigilance at night. I used to have insomnia ( before ptsd) and dealt with it really effectively with good sleep routines and not lying around if I couldn’t sleep . Hyper vigilance is different because it would have me never rest even when I am dropping with exhaustion.

 

[BeTheLight]

Welcome. :)

Mee,
Hello and thank you :)
So glad you reached out to this post.
Thank you !
I really wish you the best and hooe your on your journey to heal as the time goes on.
I am really hearing a lot about hypervigilence.
That totally fits.
I was abused verbally and physically by my mother. It was just her and I at a year old. She was stressed. She came from an abusive mother also.. She tried her best to control her rage. She didntm know she was manic depressive aka bipolar, ptsd, ruminating anxiety until years later.. I was 18. She told me at 21. Moms hypervigilant and so am I.
I have used hypervigilance as a means of survival. Even in my job in a jail /psych type setting .
You WANT to be hypervigilant.
Thing is ive been off work for almost 2 years and the switch hasnt shut off!
I will look into this more and keep seeking ways to sleep better. Thank you !

 

[somerandomguy]

I had horrible sleep problems until my pdoc put me on hydroxyzine.

 

[BeTheLight]

I had horrible sleep problems until my pdoc put me on hydroxyzine.

Thank you so much. Good to know.
P.s. i tried out the sauna the other and slept like a baby. Woke up a few times but really well rested.

 

[notsurewheretoturn]

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.

 

[hithere]

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!

 

[VioletButterfly]

Sleep, what's that? I will doze off for a couple of hours and wake up with huge anxiety and/or horrible dreams. Sometimes, I have to turn on the news to calm down (counter-intuitive, eh?). Sometimes, I can distract myself by trying to make up stories to tell my little lamb while hugging clouds (pillows). Sometimes, I tell myself that I just have to relax a little and not concentrate on the "s" word. So, I might doze off for another 30 minutes to an hour off and on through the night. I stay exhausted. I've tried sleep meds, but I can't tolerate them and I can't deal with smells, so I'm just taking it one day at a time until I can get insurance to allow me to go to a doctor again. Sorry you're having difficulties with this. Ugh, it's the worst!

 

[mamachick]

Once I fall asleep I sleep for 12 hours if not disturbed. Falling asleep has got much better since a december event in 2008. However, just the past couple weeks I am having trouble falling asleep, making me sleep most of the day which is a real setback. I just don't want to get my days and nights mixed up again. Hopefully I will return to normal after the anniversary date???

 

[Freida]

I think its easier to ask who can sleep well rather than can't--- way smaller numbers :)