Deep sleep Vs light sleep.

Hi. My first attempt to taper basically ended up switching from benzo to trazodone plus seroquel (25mg at the beginning - 200mg at the end). It gave me akathisia and other issues so I basically reinstated some benzos and weaned off seroquel and trazodone.

In this way I gained some stability. No more akathisia and sleep improved slowly from 0-3 per night to 4-6 with one break, usually after 4h. I also cut benzos a little bit again. The problem it seems my deep sleep isn't improving. Actually it reduced. And I feel the need to lie down in my bedroom a lot even during the day. Really a lot and I don't like it. In theory, breaking my zolpidem dose into two parts and taking the second one after the first break I could mark even 7h sometimes. But my deep sleep doesn't change much in total looking at my fitbit: 20-40 minutes per night. Months ago I could mark 1h-1.15h of deep sleep out of 3-4h.

I don't want to go back to my shitty seroquel night or zero hours nights but I'm feeling as if I'm just improving numbers while actually reducing regenative sleep.

 

How much deep sleep do you need to feel ok during the day? What could I try to gain a little bit of strength and concentration during the day without disrupting my tapering?

 

 

 

In reality it does not matter how much deep sleep you need to feel good because you are going to get what you get during withdrawal and that is just the process that you have to go through to leave these dangerous meds behind. From what I understand, when sleep deprived, your body/mind will focus on getting as much lighter REM sleep as it can get because REM sleep helps restore the mind while deeper-stage sleep helps with cell growth (much more useful if you are a child). I used to love the many dreams that I would get during REM sleep because they would confirm that I had gotten some sleep.

I too find that during the nights I get next-to-no sleep I experience REM sleep. I know this because I will get up the next day thinking "I have had no sleep" but will then remember dreams that I have had. Interestingly the dreams feel vivid with no hint of mental tiredness either. If deep sleep is only for cell growth and REM sleep is for mental health then I would much rather be getting REM sleep!

Yes. I have these kind of dreams too when I'm close to zero hours or if I wake up after 3-4h and then I fail to sleep again. It's like entering semiconciously in a dream then waking up. I don't know if hypnagogic state is the correct definition https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnagogic but it's close to it.

 

Deep sleep is not only for children... I suffer backpain when highly deprived because it's where my body relax mostly.