one night I sleep the next I don't

5 months off and I'm back to a sleep pattern of every other day. After not sleeping the night before I sleep the folowing night. Once I sleep ,the next night I experience higher anxiety and can't sleep at all. I experienced this in the begining but can't belive it's back.

Anyone else ?

Same thing has been happening to me for the past two weeks. I've only been off basically for about 11 days now though. Absolute torture. I'm here at work after not sleeping again last night. Not sure how long this is going to last?

Hope you break through soon but your situation is pretty standard.

when I came off , My pattern was 3 days no sleep and would sleep the following. Good luck

Thanks, yes I had a 3 day stretch last week when I first came off of it. I made another post about being on Hydroxyzine and it have the opposite effect of making me sleepy. So it's possible that's also not helping. Going to take my last one this morning and see if it improves or not.

Same exact situation, could not sleep and must thus function today without it.

 

I am unemployed currently and have moved in with family members who understand what I am going through, for this much I am grateful.

 

If I was still working, I know I would have a hard time focusing. The WDs are bad enough, add sleep deprivation to the mix and the situation seems even worse. I hope you have some good coping methods to help you out. I am looking for some myself, and if I had any good advice on the matter I would share it. Sadly, I do not.

 

I do find coffee (a moderate amount) helps clear brain fog, but may increase anxiety. If you are lucky enough to have low anxiety and just feel fatigued, coffee could help in some instances, IMO.

BTW, when you do have a night of sleep, do you guys manage to get a full eight hours? Just wondering. I usually do, but sometimes I may get only four. It really depends.

Yes, I had pretty low anxiety and slept pretty well before this. I had some stressful things happen a few months ago which is what triggered the anxiety. I only needed something short term, and tried quitting after two and half weeks. By that time it was too late. When I do sleep it's generally been around 8 - 10 hours. I don't think it's been a deep sleep though. I've woken up and gone right back to sleep. My problem is getting to sleep. Once I'm there it seems ok.

 

Driving through Atlanta at 5:30am with no sleep sucks. The earlier in the morning the harder to cope. Once the day progresses a little it get somewhat easier. I try and force myself to stay up a little later (I could fall asleep when getting home) like around 9 or 10pm.

 

I don't have any tips as far as coping. I don't really have much choice as I have bills and a wife to think of. I'm just drinking a lot of water.

Yep If I'm at zero sleep the night before I sleep 6-8 hrs the following.

H.S. Looks like your still tapering off?

All i can add is taking magnesium 100 mg 4x a day has helped as well as lemon balm. I got on remeron for sleep 3.75 in January and it helped but I feel it need up doing more harm than good. I'm struggling to get off it even though I'm on 1 mg . I obsess feeling it's the main symptom driver in my situation . Doc's say it the benzo WD but I feel differently . If you can avoid any ad's for sleep avoid them .

Thanks for the responses,

 

I am, I'm in for a long taper, but I've accepted that. The first thing to go is my Lunesta, I'm down to 2mg from 6mg in a short span of time, which is what I was taking for insomnia. Hopefully my body will adjust when that's gone. I bought some magnesium a while back and will give it a go

Thanks for the info. I definitely going to steer clear of anything habit forming from now on.

 

What kind of magnesium do you get? What does it do for you? Lemon Balm? Thanks for any feedback. It's greatly appreciated.

 

I'm not sure if I'm going to take the Clonidine or not. It depends on how desperate I get. I'll let you know if I try it though.

Same exact pattern for me. Though I think I understand the cause of this pattern, such understanding offers little relief. I'm 4+ months out. But overall, even with the bumps, sleep is getting better for me....slowly.

I'm going through a similar struggle. Two nights no sleep and then I sleep some.

 

I *always* sleep with Lunesta (3mg) but have been trying to stop taking it. My wife says it is extended release so I can't split the tiny pills, but I have not checked that out further. Need to do that.

 

I was making some progress but then got a bad virus and absolutely had to sleep (sleep was a needed escape—even more than usual). So I took Lunesta for almost two weeks straight. Now I'm trying to get off of it again since others here have advised me that it could be delaying my withdrawal. And there is the morning after Lunesta brain fog as well.

 

Despite big progress recently with other WD symptoms, insomnia remains. There are some major stressors in my life, including impending job loss and a troubled 21-year-old son. I did have some insomnia pre-benzo, but nothing like this.

 

@Siggy I've been there many times (Atlanta traffic at 5:30 am). Fortunately, I don't commute now. All I can say is hang in there. Stay in the right lane, don't switch lanes unless you absolutely have to, and trust in your ability to stay focused.

 

Same exact pattern for me. Though I think I understand the cause of this pattern, such understanding offers little relief. I'm 4+ months out. But overall, even with the bumps, sleep is getting better for me....slowly.

 

What do you think causes this pattern for you, Laser?  I've had the same issues for a long time now.  I have some ideas about it, but always come back to "who knows what's going on for sure when it comes to sleep".

... @Siggy I've been there many times (Atlanta traffic at 5:30 am). Fortunately, I don't commute now. All I can say is hang in there. Stay in the right lane, don't switch lanes unless you absolutely have to, and trust in your ability to stay focused.

 

Oh yes absolutely! It's bad enough driving here while you've had plenty of sleep. Thanks. Hopefully this will cease soon.

Add me in too. Sleep good for 2 or 3 nights, then a bad night. I also notice any stress affects my sleep

I know what you mean, I have the same problem. probably one of the most frustrating things. It was better by month 4, but in month 5 I got back into that every other night pattern again. I feel better as the day goes on after a bad night, but after a good night I feel worst a bedtime. almost like I'm to tired to sleep. I feel like my brain can't adjust to sleep. Believe it or not I started drinking a little coffee before bed on that bad night and, it seems to help. Wakes me up a little. I feel like it's all from wd and, the brain trying to get back to normal.

 

Good luck

Siggy: Source Naturals Ultra-Mag

 

Laser; great ur sleep is improving

 

Ben; lunesta is a benzo in sheeps clothing! That's what put me in this mess.

 

Wolf ; good luck with the coffee and yes I relate to the night I slept well that following day starts to crumble late afternoon and you just know you not going to sleep. If I felt good like I did my first 3 months I'd be at the gym 4-5 days a week and sleep much better those nights.

Thanks Jrod for the info. I'll have to check it out. Ended up passing out at 8pm last night. I had been nodding off for about an hour and was fighting it trying to make it 9pm. I finally decided I should take advantage of my body going to sleep before it changed its mind on me. It happened once before last week where I was nodding off and then got past the drowsiness and took me a few more hours to get sleepy again. Hopefully now I'm off the Hydroxyzine, tonight will be my first night in two weeks to sleep two in a row.

That's great sig! Just try to wake up early and make yourself as tired as possible during the day. Once you establish a pattern stick with it,sleep is a huge part of healing thus getting over this storm.

 

Good luck

3 nights in a row of bad sleep, that means I should sleep good tonight! Ha ha!

Thanks Jrod. Yes I'm coming to the conclusion that I need tot try and spread the tiredness over a couple of days instead of doing 8-10 every other night. Well that was wishful thinking for me sleeping last night. I didn't sleep at all. So continues the one night on one night off program. Hydroxyzine can take 2-4 days to eliminate from your system. So hoping that's part if the problem, as I took the last one on Thursday morning. Anybody had any positive effects of using any of the supplements that have a pre-combined Taurine with Magnesium?

 

Sorry to hear about your bad track jenny21. Hopefully you'll get some good sleep tonight.

Wow Jen you've been off eight months that's great!  Did your sleep go south just recently or have you been struggling since the beginning?

 

Jrod

Hi Jrod,

 

My sleep was really bad in the beginning --like 3 hours per night. The last couple of months I was sleeping really good between 6-7 hours with a few bad nights in between. Now it seems to be bad again with more bad then good nights. It is so frustrating because I was sleeping really well.... I am a girl that has always loved her sleep, and lots of it so I can't wait for this to be OVER!!! I hope everyone sleeps good tonight, Jenny

I see no end in sight for this. I'm still only sleeping every other night. I've been off of the lorazepam right at two weeks today. Any idea hen I might actually sleep two nights in a row? I nearly fell asleep last night for about 5 minutes, but then my wife tells me to go get in bed. I took a 3mg melatonin. After getting up, using the loo, brushing my teeth and then taking my contacts out, I was back to being wide awake all night.

Siggy, it does get better. It just takes more time than any of us would like.

 

I took my last Lunesta five nights ago. Now I've had four nights in a row of some sleep, which is so much better than two nights no sleep and then one night sleep (that was my pattern for four months, unless I took a Lunesta, which as others here have said, is really a benzo as well).

 

Now I'm not taking anything—no melatonin or other OTC. No prescriptions. What worked for me? I could list a dozen things which I think helped, but there was no one thing. I'd be glad to post my quirky list of things that helped if you want.

 

I'm sure there are some challenges ahead for me, but I feel like (finally) the worst is over. So hang in there. Just know that you *can* function only sleeping every other night, and accepting that may lead to less worry, so eventually you will sleep.