Insomnia

[Guest_68394701]

Hi all,

I seemed to have developed insomnia over the last few months. After reading a few posts I cannot identify a trigger other than my brain overthinking absolutely everything. 

I am 100% a catastrophiser and constantly worry about getting enough sleep along with every other element of my life. 

Tonight for example my son is at his first sleepover. I have no stopped thinking about him and would have preferred him to stay honest but I also know I can't let my worries interfere with his enjoyment.

I have spoken with my gp who has advised me to find a psychologist to work out the trigger which I have but there are no appointments available for a number of weeks. I have also tried every over the counter medication available to no avail. 

I'm getting desperate as it is affecting my family as well now and I am currently googling fatal insomnia which is not helping.

[bel123451]

Hi Guest_68394701

Sorry to hear you have been dealing with insomnia. From my own experience it can be debilitating but it is definitely not fatal since I am still here! It's difficult to say what worked for me because I was quite unwell at the time and undertaking a number of psychological therapies and also started medication. Perhaps it was all of these things. I had suffered with it for 3.5 years so it's great you are hitting the nail on the head so to speak. What helps me now to sleep...having a bedtime routine so relaxing before bed, not doing anything to stimulate your mind, I regularly listen to a sleeping meditation, which I find helps me to switch out of thinking/ruminating I suppose. There are a whole lot of sleep hygiene tips that might help, not sure if you are familiar with these already but they are easy to find on google. It's hard but another thing I have found very helpful is to put aside worries and limiting how much time I spend on worrying since I have found that worrying does not really change anything. I have also found mindfulness, specifically, placing my thoughts on a cloud and letting them float away particularly helpful in stopping the stem of thoughts that tend to dominate my mind sometimes.  

All the best, 

B

[Ggrand]

Hello Dear Guest,

I’m so sorry you have insomnia it can highlight our anxiety, mental health and our physical health so much that it can at times be very hard to function properly….

I was in hospital a number of years back for my mental health, in hospital I was introduced to sleep stories…YouTube have them, just search Sleep Stories, pick one that you want to listen to….close your eyes and try to listen to the gentle voice reading you a calm and gentle story, their is a few minutes of body meditation which is good to help relax and calm your thoughts…

While listening, your anxious thoughts might pop through, but just pull yourself up and go back to listening….I was told that as complexed as our brain is…it’s  impossible for us to think of 2 thoughts at once…maybe dear guest you might consider giving them a try…

Talk here anytime you feel up to it….we are here when we can to help support you through your horrible insomnia..

Thinking of you with kind and caring thoughts…sending you a g gentle caring hug…🤗

Grandy..

[Eagle Ray]

Hello Guest_68394701,

I’m sorry you are dealing with the insomnia. Others have given great suggestions. I have found listening to podcasts helps me, including podcasts I already know and like where there are friendly presenters with voices that are gentle, kind and familiar. I imagine this might be a similar effect to the sleep stories Grandy mentions. I found when I had bad insomnia it was the one thing that would start to send me off to sleep. Last night I felt a bit restless so I put on a YouTube video of Tibetan monks chanting while I was doing my dishes before bed. It really felt like it changed my brain waves so once I was in bed I went to sleep quickly.

I just thought I’d mention another thing in case it’s relevant, but please ignore if it isn’t. I developed very obvious insomnia in relation to hormonal changes in perimenopause. It was when hormone levels really dropped that I went from sleeping 7-8 hours a night to only 2-4 hours a night and sometimes not sleeping at all. It was quite a dramatic shift. I’m doing better now, but just thought I’d mention that too in case it’s a factor which of course depends whether you’re going through such changes yet. 

Take care and wishing you restful sleep very soon,

ER

[sbella02]

Hey, thank you so much for posting here, welcome. I'm so sorry to hear that you're going through this. I'm not a great sleeper myself, and I've seen firsthand how lack of sleep can affect every aspect of someone's life, so I'm here to echo and extend the advice that others have given. 

One thing that helps me if I'm overthinking and can't sleep is writing everything that's bothering me into my journal. It helps you process your thoughts and work out what might be triggering your overthinking/insomnia. I think of it as transferring all my thoughts somewhere else so my mind becomes less busy and can focus more on relaxing. 

Listening to ASMR or just relaxing videos can also help. Even if you don't find yourself falling asleep to it, calming videos can help to put your mind at ease and put you in a better headspace to try and sleep. 

Feel free to chat with us anytime, we're here to support you. 

All the best, SB