Sleep Deprived

[Ghostybear73]

Another night of only 3 hours of sleep. Thank you Seroquel, Doxepin, Ativan and Clonodine for once again forgetting your job responsibilities. One day I am going to have a dreamless night and sleep solid or throw in the towel and make myself sleep forever. Since I have had sleeping problems for as long as I remember, I fear I am going to breakdown and make it so I sleep forever. That sounds so good right now.

 

[JarHed]

Hey Ghostybear

I have also had terrible issue with sleep for as long as I can remember. Nightmares, waking up a zillion times, and not being able to get back to sleep. A while back I had an opportunity to take CBT for Insomnia. It's a non drug program. And one I found to be very effective. I now have a good sleep at night and actually wake up , dare I say it, rested. I don't use any drugs to help either. I didn't think anything would help but this did. You can probably google it as I can't post links as yet. Do yourself a favor and check it out. You've got nothing to loose and much to gain. Best of luck.

JarHed

 

[Ghostybear73]

I'm pretty sure this is Cognitive Behavior Therapy. If so, I got kicked out. They were trying to help us relax, which they do at the beginning of class. Telling us to picture yourself here, breathe in, breathe out, feel the stress leaving your body and so on. Well, I hard a time doing it because she kept talking. Of course she was very quiet and was helping us to learn, but I told her to shut the f.....k up because I couldn't concentrate.

The next couple of sessions didn't go so well either. People in the group were mainly diagnosed with depression and I guess they couldn't understand or listen to some of the things I experienced because it made them "uncomfortable".

My therapist says I'm not ready to try group therapy again because I won't talk. His words, "what's the purpose of putting you into a group that you are not going to benefit from. When I can get you to start talking, then we will put you in there". Funny thing is, I got kicked out of DBT for talking.

I have been with him for over 2 years and I thought I talked pretty well. Apparently telling your story and processing your story is two different things. He is trying to prevent me from going into something unprepared and once again getting kicked out.

 

[Ghostybear73]

:woot: Thank you JarHed, at least I know it can be done. I hope I can get into group therapy again because your right, it would be nice to sleep well and feel restled!!!

 

[Tara1974]

I feel the same way. I want to sleep forever. I am so tired.

 

[macca]

Hey there Ghostybear - sleep deprivation sucks. I've been having trouble due to hyperarousal, for me the nightmares have eased off for now. I got the impression that part of the issue for you was to do with nightmares? I might have gotten the wrong idea from you mentioning "dreamless sleep", so forgive me if I've gone off on the wrong track. If it is nightmares, there is a kind of therapy for PTSD nightmares called Imagery Rehearsal Therapy that is supposed to work. I came across it before, and have found a link here:

http://ptsd.about.com/od/treatment/a/Imagery-Rehearsal-Treatment-For-Nightmares-Related-To-Ptsd.htm

I don't know if the hyperlink works, but that gives the idea anyway. I was going to maybe ask my T to try it, as I was having loads of nightmares and sometimes even thinking that I'd slept right through, only to have my husband say I was having nightmares all night, and he was too worried about scaring me further by touching me to wake me. But for me, the nightmares seem to have gone for the moment.

I hope you find an answer soon!

 

[JarHed]

Firstly the therapy that I had for insomnia was just me and my therapist. We didn't do anything like relaxation exercises. That does sound more like a group dynamic.

Here's a link, I'll try to post. OK, you'll need to add the web stuff to the line below so that you can get to this link, hope that works.

sleepfoundation org article hot-topics cognitive behavioral therapy insomnia

It explains what the therapy is like and how it helps you to regain a better more restful sleep for yourself. Don' give up tryin'.

P.S. It still won't let me post it. Good spam sofware. But if you at least look for the info at the sleepfoundation you should with a little digging find the article on insomnia therapy.



EDIT: OK, if you find the sleepfoundation you'll be able to find info on insomnia and treatment options. Best of luck and don't give up on getting a good nights sleep.

Jar