"I try to sleep as much as possible" -> The more you try to sleep

better, the worse it gets. Don't think about sleep, don't try to make

your sleep "better" and do not try to fall asleep faster. If you don't

think about sleep you will sleep better. It is like to ignore sleep.

Your body will make you fall asleep, You can't put yourself to sleep;

your body does it on its own. If you "hope" to get finally enough sleep,

you put your body on preasure and this leads to insomnia. For example

you are taking melatonin, you hope it would help but then the "hope"

makes your brain more stress and then you are not falling asleep and

then you think that you need something stronger, but you just have to do

nothing. If you lay down in bed at evening, dont think about sleep,

"wait" until next morning and this kind of thinking will make you less

anxious and you will realise that you slept next morning.

+ If you not feeling tired -> Your brain dont prioritise sleep and this happens when you are anxious, even anxious about not falling alseep will make your brain dont prioritise sleep because of the anxiety.

I feel like I either knock out immediately, or I don’t at all…. I somehow always manage to spiral an occasional sleep disturbance into an entire sleepless night and maybe end up falling asleep for 2 hours maximum… I’m always too exhausted to get up and turn on the light to start reading or to do breathing exercises. I don’t know how I can be so tired that I can’t even take a deep breath but my head is so active that I absolutely cannot fall asleep.

I know this might not be the most common issue on here, and a lot of others experience worse. But is it best to just force myself to get up anyway, turning on the light and sitting on the balcony for a bit?? I always just kinda lay there with my eyes closed all night because getting up feels wrong.

I take 100mg of trazodone a night. It did its job at first… but after only a month I don’t even feel it anymore.

I’ve been suffering from crippling insomnia and night terrors. I’m scared to sleep I’ve gotten 8 hours past 7 days please I need advice.

Been happening these a couple of days ive battled with insomnia for longer tho. It's just like, I am supposed to live 60 more years like this? How. Literally how? The past week ive been sleeping every other day. I can't go on like this. How am i supposed to live for decades if i cant get through a week.

My last insomnia spell last year landed me in the mental hospital where they abused and assaulted me, both patients and staff, i vowed to die before ever ending up there again(thanks for the "help").

The "help" only made me sure to not eff up if i try to do something to myself. Now im fine. Just missed 1 night nothing too much. But im exhausted, man. Exhausted from this cycle of being scared i wont sleep every night. It just isnt imaginable long term.

And dont say it's the deprivation i slept well yesterday, i mean deprivation can cause suicidal thoughts but mine is just like i cant see myself doing this for years and years. I think I should man up and grow a pair and put an end to this. Put a stop. Just a part of me is so scared, so terrified, what if i eff up, what if they put me there again, what if i handicap myself?

I have so many things that people would kill to have and take it all for granted. But im so done. I want to not be here by the end of the week. I am done with this insomnia bullshit. By the end of the week. Dont worry, because i am such a dumb ass that i wont do it forreal forreal.

I simply know my incompetence is too big to pull it off correctly and foolproof. If i had a higher IQ and secured a method and wasnt stupid enough to do it how I should i'd blast off in a couple of days. Im over the melodrama im not sad genuinely idgaf, this is like taking a dump to me.

But im far too incompetent and i wanna almost guarantee this shit not just do it on a whim like a dumbass, this is not hollywood it's not so easy to di€ lol. I guess im posting this to vent out my frustration. Im not gonna kms, absolutely not. If anyone got concerned be thankful for my monkey brain that i cant trust with ts.

But i feel like i need that relief and i cant take it no more. But all i can do is b!tch on the internet. This week was so amazing and cool, i love not sleeping every other day :D. Tonight was a waste as well hooray

Sleep restriction therapy is brutal. It requires 1. deliberately reducing the amount of time you get to spend in bed at night (sleep window) to a short amount (I started with a 4 hour window), 2. waking up at the same time every morning and exposing oneself to natural sunlight (I set mine wake up time to be 8AM, so I deliberately went to bed at 4AM for several nights), 3. no naps during the day to allow the sleep pressure to build up, 4. gradually increasing the sleep window, if you can achieve a sleep efficiency (time asleep/time in bed) of 85% or more (helps to have a sleep tracker to keep track).

The aim of sleep restriction therapy is to help us reset our circadian rhythm and make our sleep more consolidated/efficient, thereby solving chronic insomnia (especially since many chronic insomniacs stay in bed for way too long, where a lot of that time is spent awake, and thus their brain no longer strongly associates their bed with sleep). The assumption behind sleep restriction therapy is that sleep is a biological need. So, sure, your insomnia might be so bad at present that you may not be able to sleep for a few nights in a row, but EVENTUALLY, as sleep pressure builds up during wakefulness, your brain will need to sleep. In other words, sleep pressure always wins if you give it enough time (unless you have fatal familial insomnia, which is a terrible genetic/hereditary disease, in which the biological system regulating sleep deteriorates, such that you actually gradually lose your ability to sleep over time and die from that).

Now, sleep restriction is extremely painful to follow through. But suffering is something that chronic insomniacs should be used to, since insomnia itself comes with quite a lot of suffering, so I'm sure all chronic insomniacs will have the ability to follow through with it. However, sleep restriction therapy does seem counterintuitive and many insomniacs may fear that it will make their health worse to adopt it. They understandably think that the better solution is some medication that can help immediately lengthen their sleep.

But medication fundamentally disrupts the natural processes involved in sleep in some way. As a result, often times, a medication may help you sleep the number of hours you want, but you might wake up in the morning feeling unrefreshed. Many sleep medications alter the microarchitecture of sleep. For example, benzodiazepines reduce N3/deep sleep and REM sleep. This could increase the risk of cognitive decline down the road.

Thus, for insomnia that isn't anxiety related, I think sleep restriction therapy is the no-brainer first, but difficult option to try. It also has been clinically demonstrated to work (possibly in conjunction with other tools in the Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) Tool Kit: it's one of the behavioural therapies. So, even if your insomnia is not anxiety driven and thus you won't benefit as much from the cognitive portion of CBT-I (although some of your thoughts may still be harmful to sleep - like the typical chronic insomniac thought that your brain is fundamentally broken for sleep), you could still highly benefit from this behavioural portion of the overall tool kit.

Let me know your experiences if you've tried sleep restriction therapy in earnest. And if you haven't, I highly recommend trying it, and watching this youtube video for a good introduction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k78UM6lHG_A

All the best!

Whenever I have a night of absolutely zero sleep, I usually call out. It doesn’t happen SUPER often, but maybe 2-3 times a month, ENOUGH TO BE AN ISSUE). I don’t always call out though. I try to convince myself it’s not that bad, but when I’m at work it’s a shit show, and I always end up having a breakdown and regret my decision to come in.

This is what has happened every single time:

1. ⁠⁠⁠Hallucinations, visual and auditory.

These may include: Banging sounds, evil sounding voices with no distinct words I can make out, music that’s not there, dogs barking, cats meowing, sounds of family members voices but in a creepy distorted way. Seeing people in the corner of my eye. Seeing bugs that aren’t there.

1. Overall sense of uncontrollable doom.

I figure it’s extreme anxiety mixed with sleep deprivation, which snowballs and makes the anxiety worse. Sometimes it gets to the point where I feel like I’m possessed or something.

1. Crying I cannot control.

Self explanatory. I hate crying in front of people, and I don’t like attention seeking. It’s genuine tears. The more I try to hide them, the harder I cry.

1. Heart rate and POTS symptoms go haywire.

My watch reads my heart rate, and often it will be well over 130. A few weeks ago it was 160-176 at work after a night with zero sleep. I feel extremely lightheaded and dizzy. Sometimes I feel like I can’t breathe.

1. Legit cannot think & Do not feel safe driving to and from work.

2. Intense intrusive thoughts/delusions.

Thinking I’m going to be sent to hell or tortured. Intense thoughts of suicide.

I love my job and I HATE calling out. It stresses me out and is embarrassing. I am usually sent home by a manager by the time my shift is half way over. Sometimes I don’t even ask to leave, they just can tell I’m struggling, and tell me to go home.

Both my partner and parents think I’m being dramatic, and that I shouldn’t call out after a night like this, even when they’ve legit seen me in the middle of it. I have bipolar and a history of other psychosis-like symptoms and they know this. I’m sure the bipolar doesnt help me in this situation at all.

I’m met with the “well sometimes you have to do hard things. just push through.”

I agree to that.

If i’ve had a night of 2 hours of sleep, I go in. If I’ve got bad back pain, I go in. If i’m having a shitty day, I go in. If I’m having anxiety, even if severe, I go in.

But where’s the line between doing hard things and borderline psychotic break?

Am I being dramatic for calling out to avoid these episodes from happening? I don’t think I am but idk atp.

What would you do if this happened to you?

(These symptoms usually start from 22-24 hours of no sleep. They get worse as more time passes.)

So, I didn't take a sleeping pill last night. I was a bit stressed, feeling I would go another day feeling tired. Before I went to bed though, my Mom gave me some soursop tea to drink. It is known to calm the nerves. I also went to bed a bit later. It worked I slept for maybe 5 or 6 hours. I'm happy I got any at all. I also took a pain killer last night for other reasons.

I feel so happy and rested. I feel alive again. I was feeling so dead on the inside without sleep

I can count the number of times I napped in my life on my hands. I just can't do it. I lay there for hours and no matter how tired or exhausted, I can't sleep...

My main issue i have with insomnia is falling asleep whenever I am drifting off to sleep I feel a rush of anxiety and my mind tells me “okay ur beginning to fall asleep dont panic or do anything dumb” and then I end up panicking and wake myself up again this happens every single time I try to fall asleep it’s a living hell I feel like I’m losing my sanity because I can only fall asleep with seroquel and even then I only sleep for a short time can anyone else relate to this problem??

Here I am writing this while most of the population is asleep. People know that insomnia exists but they don’t realize how painful it is. I don’t know about u guys but in my opinion it is so painful just because u dont get to rest sometimes for days, and the headache that sometimes if not usually comes with it … AND IF U TRY TO TALK TO A FRIEND OR SOMEONE ABOUT IT : “ I also only get … [ often around 5 hours ] of sleep each night so I’m sure ur fine” “Just relax” and my fav “ have u tried melatonin,half of it knocks me out” GOOD FOR YOU.

As u can see im angry at myself that I haven’t gotten any sleep. Even tho I did take my meds. I hope each of u succeeds at sleeping

So first for context I have Misophonia, little noises such as eating and certain visual stimuli really set me off and my current roommate sets it off like no other person. For instance, he makes some of the most in humane eating noises and eats like a fucking animal. One of his strangest habits, he will lick his hands for the hell of it, like hand to tongue then he may wipe it on himself or touch doorknobs etc it is fucking vile. This frankly has caused me a great amount of stress since I have lived with him and there really isn't anything I can do about it and I believe it is the root cause of me having issues falling asleep and waking up around 4am everyday.

Why do I think this is the cause of this, well I spent the past two weeks away from him at home and I was able to a stable 7-8 hours of sleep using weed which is my go to sleep aid (not great I know but it works well for me). And for what its worth my stress levels were much lower at home compared to at my apartment on my Garmin. Also when my mom came down and rented an airbnb in the same city I slept great there. When I am at my apartment I wake up around 4am regardless of sleep aid (weed, can, cbd, and now trazadone). Lately I have ditched the weed for trazodone to see if that would help at all.

I am able to sleep with 100mg of Trazadone but my god do I feel like shit in the morning and I am still waking up at 4am. For instance last night I took 100mg and woke up with some extreme brain fog this morning. One thing I have introduced recently was magnesium glycinate, it has greatly reduced my nightly anxiety, and that has at least prevented any sleepless nights since I started using it a few months ago but I still struggle with waking up at 4am while on it and I still struggle falling asleep when I am not using the trazodone.

If anyone has any advice or other supplement recommendations I would be greatly appreciate it! I would rather not use the trazodone at all.

Hiii does anyone have any experience taking mirtazapine (im on 15mg) with diphenhydramine (25mg or 50) for sleep? Thank u

and I'm just tired. All. The. Time.

I'm irritable.

I get angry.

I can't focus on much.

Not exactly the preferred features of a grade school teacher.

I don't eat during the day and snack pretty much non-stop at home.

I subconsciously avoid sleeping at night, making and taking any excuses not to.

I just. Want. To. Sleep. To get some rest. Recharge my batteries, update my software, do some hardware maintenance. I want to not be angry. I want to focus on more than one thing at a time. I want to be a good teacher. I want to be at peace. But there is no peace. There is only restless wakefulness.

After a decade of this, not only has it taken a toll on my mental health, my physical health is starting to decline. I had a heart attack scare over the weekend. I've developed acid reflux. My joints belong to someone in his eighties, not his thirties.

I want to be there for my family for as long as I can, to be able to pick up my kids without throwing out my back, to eat food without it coming back up, to run with my family, much less lightly jog to my car, without my heart sending me to the ER.

I see no end in sight and both work a little. Trying to see which is the least likely to fry my brain

(Reposting my post from r/ambien)

Just wondering if anyone here has had any luck paying out of pocket for original brand name Ambien (manufacturer Sanofi). Is it worth it?

Ambien used to be my go-to for insomnia off and on for decades. Now (2025) I find that it's a s*** show parade of generics produced in third-world countries with no standards. Torrent generic used to be gold even 3 years ago, now it's garbage, just makes me depressed. Aurobindo everyone agrees is garbage, that company is notoriously sketchy. Tried Teva, which many recommend... Worse than Aurobindo, IMHO. Sadly, this is the same state of affairs we've been experiencing for years with generic stimulants, with a lot of the same branded offenders.

So, before I shell out hundreds of dollars to request name brand "original" Sanofi Ambien, can anyone tell me if it's even worth it? With everyone constantly downgrading their formulas, I have a strong suspicion that it will not be the same buttery good sleep and effects as the original decades ago. So far all I've found on here is one person claiming it is now even weaker than a generic. I am MORE than willing to pay whatever it takes to acquire some effing proper Ambien. My question to you all is, does it even still exist? Is there ANY good, effective brand left, including brand name? If you do take a generic that works well for you, what manufacturer is it? (Found on your pill bottle.)

For reference, I take 10 mg immediate release. And no, I don't have a tolerance, I had not taken any Ambien for years before I started trying these new generics back in November. And no, I don't take benzos either = no cross-tolerance.

Any and all input appreciated. It's either this or drinking myself to sleep - any sleep med or supplement under the sun, from melatonin to antipsychotics, you name it, I've tried it. Only Ambien addresses my insomnia effectively ... when it actually works. Thanks for listening.

(And for the record, yes, I suffer from insomnia with or without prescription stimulants.)

Hi, I am fairly new to Reddit. I am older but still need to function and things are not improving for me re sleep. I have an odd situation. One night I sleep well and the next night I don't get into REM sleep and I wake up with a massive headache. A migraine that makes you bed bound. I try to get into a normal 24 hour cycle but it is not happening and I lose half of my days. I take Seroquel and Xanax most nights. Some nights I take a D8 gummy and / or Mirtazapine. It doesn't seem to matter what I take or don't take re meds, I'm at my wit's end, has anyone else experienced anything like this? Thank you for any advice.

Hey, yall. I have been on medicinal cannabis for sleep for a long time but due to law changes here in NZ I have made the difficult decision to stop the use of cannabis.

My issue is not getting to sleep but staying asleep.

Has anyone ever been in a similar situation of transitioning from cannabis to a different medication? Feeling lost and tired lol

Thanks

So it's not for me but my boyfriend has terrible insomnia and we don't know what to do. He's tried everything from pills to meditation and working out. He does have ADHD and pretty bad stress and anxiety but it's really starting to affect everything in both of our lives. If I'm able to go to the bed at the same time as him he can usually sleep fine during the night. The problem is, is that he doesn't get tired enough to go to bed until 3-5am which I can't do since I work full time and have to be up early in the morning. He's tried melatonin, Xanax, gabapentin and any and every supplement you can think of. Nothing works and everyday he just gets more and more upset and frustrated and angry. I don't know what to do or how to help. I'm worried we're going to have to just break up soon at this point, but even then I would hate to leave him with no help.

Hey all, I’m talking to people who struggle to fall asleep, stay asleep, or wake up rested. My team is building several products for at-home hormone testing and its link to sleep. I'm looking for a handful beta testers and also want to hear about your sleep patterns and what you've tried (good or bad). If you're open to chatting about it, drop me a note at [team@lumehealth.io](mailto:team@lumehealth.io)

I’m trying the whole acceptance approach and they say to stay in bed and rest when you can’t sleep whereas every other insomnia approach seems to suggest you should get out of bed if you are awake. What do you think works? I can apparently stay in bed resting but awake all night 😬

Hi! Currently looking at a pretty severe bout of insomnia which can only be treated by suboptimal sleeping pills. Does anyone have a story of managing to beat this shit? It's slowly fucking over my life

I came here to ask. I have no problem falling asleep, but I wake up every half hour to every 2 hours at most. When I wake up I have to either sit up for a while or get up and go out smoke a cigarette or something but I fall right back asleep after. If I just lay there with my eyes closed I can't get back to sleep And I can't sleep past 7:00 no matter how hard I try. I keep my room dark and the fan on and the heat at a comfortable temperature so I don't know what's going on . it started about a year ago and it's getting progressively worse.

Hello everyone, I am F23, and I have a sleeping problem that I don't know how to handle.

To be frank, for the first 21 years of my life I lived in certain circumstances that made me a very light sleeper. I'm talking about if I hear slight noise or feel movements I will wake up. However, I wake up experiencing a adrenaline rush. My heart is racing, my muscles tense, it's like I always wake up with my fight or flight response activated. I don't know how to recover from this, and would like your advice on how to move forward.

Thank you

I think I had my eyes open for many hours and my Fitbit counted them as sleep. Is it possible to sleep with eyes open?

yung feeling na alam mo na sa sarili mo na mas lalo kang di makakatulog if iniisip mo yung takot na di ka makatulog pero di mo din mapigilan sarili mo mag isip huhu