General I'm Worried About My Husband's Lack Of Sleep

[Ladyhope Somerset]

I'm Worried About My Husband's Lack Of Sleep

Most nights we are in bed by 10.30. Having taken his meds and mentally prepared for a good night of sleep he drifts off straight away. After 2 hours he's jumping out of bed having been woken by niightmares. He doesn't want to come back to bed because of the nightmares so stays up all night, he plays a lot of online chess.

I wonder if this is a common problem and if you have any suggestions other than heavy meds. He's been down that route and doesn't want that hangover again.

 

[Jimmy1]

Hey,

There are probably a multitude of answers to this one.
I went for over two years of getting very minimal sleep. Once a month I would sleep for six hours, only due to exhaustion.
Sleeping medication does not actually help you sleep, all I believe they do is knock you out. I have tried stillnox, valium, xanax, and many others, different medications to relax me, yet still woke up. Its definitely the nightmares; however, even now if something is on my mind I have problems.

I found avanza probably the best in the end as it is an anti-depressant and has a relaxant in it.
That is why a lot of veterans turn to substance abuse and alcohol abuse, but thats a road I don't want to go down again.

Speak to a therapist maybe. I can't really help with that.

Over the few days, I have been lucky to have had 12 hours sleep. Its just something I deal with.

But remember. Whilst he was serving, he was also trained to stay awake for hours on end and still function. But when it starts affecting his coordination and stuff, it can be a problem.

Hope I have been some help, maybe someone else can shed some light.

Jimmy

 

[Jimmy1]

Hey RG, I just want to amplify my point about being trained to stay awake.
Another point is that whilst in a combat zone, with things happening all the time, your state of hypervigilence comes into play.
So, if your hubby is having nightmares, he may be re-living those episodes, so his body and mind will revert back to the training that keeps him safe. Does that explain it a bit better???

Jimmy

 

[Ladyhope Somerset]

Thank you Jimmy for your replies. I'd only realised about the hyper-vigilance of combat since reading an article on here - just not in my awareness. And yes, he does re-live the specific events in his nightmares which force him out of bed. You've given me another little nugget of gold info though and that is "his body and mind will revert back to the training that keeps him safe", so thanks for that! He uses grounding techniques when he gets up but having the insight from yourself is invaluable.

With understanding gained from this site I hope to maintain my resilience.

 

[anthony]

Extremely common. The trick is not to try and get him to sleep with you with nightmares, or to just lay their bored, but instead attack the cause.... the nightmares. He has to talk about the trauma to help himself with the nightmares. That is step 1. The next part is that he must be willing to find resolution that his brain can understand, accept and interpret to remove guilt or blame associated to his past trauma.

 

[Joy]

Hi there,
My husband is going through the same thing. He recently has become super paranoid when we go to bed and had started hearing gunshots and seeing flashes when he drifts to sleep. He was just diagnosed this October and his psychiatrist has him scheduled for a sleep study in Dec. She thinks helping him to sleep better will help him to function better during the day. This seems pretty obvious. She also said that the study would help her choose the right meds for him. He tried one medication a couple of weeks ago and it turned him into practically a zombie. It was supposed to help him sleep, but it ended up just making things worse. It was horrible. Has your husband ever had a sleep study done? If not, I'll let you know if we find it helpful.

 

[Jimmy1]

I will actually be very keen to find out the results, so keep us posted.

I have not really had what you would call a good night's sleep since returning from Iraq in 06. Occasionally I will have a period where I get 6 hours or so in one stint, but not often. My main problem is when I wake in the morning, I don't feel rested at all.

Other people I know with PTSD have great drug and alcohol free sleep all the time.

Jimmy

 

[Ladyhope Somerset]

Hello Joy, a sleep clinic was mentioned at one stage for my hubby - the psychiatrists junior doctor was going to look into it but guess what, he moved on.
I hear what Anthony's saying about talking about the trauma's but as the winter is a very difficult time of year, leading up to a significant anniversary in January, it's unlikely he'll do anything until the spring.
I've selected to watch this thread now, so look forward to your update.
See you around.
Stella