I got my sleep study results

I had overnight sleep study 2 weeks ago and got result from the doc today. Study was done by wiring me 25 sensors measuring EKG, EEG, BP, heart rate, oxygen in blood, breathing etc.

 

Study result was the following:

Sleep amount was good (7.5 hrs) but quality was bad. My BP did not drop at all but stayed the same it was during the wake. Oxygen level was little bit too low and some other issues. Bottomline was that despite of the sleep my sympathetic nervous system / brains stayed overactive during the whole night causing issues and bad quality sleep. I think that this can be well accepted result as typically CNS is overactive during the benzo withdrawal period.

 

I also got very good and simple instructions how to cool down my sympathetic nervous system and increase my sleep quality:

 

Main thing is to increase your sleep pressure towards evening

- Do not get sleepy during the day by eating light breakfast and lunch + 3-4 snacks during the day.

- Forget naps during the day and in case you become sleepy start doing something or go outside and exercise a little; walk, gym etc.

- Eat your main meal late in the evening 1.5 hrs. before bedtime. Add some carbohydrate type of stuff to you meal like pasta, rice etc. - all this makes you sleepy afterwards.

- When you became sleepy, go to the bed withing 15 minutes after the sleepy feeling.

In addition to this doc asked me to take melatonin. He said it does not have huge impact but might increase sleep quality 5-10%. He said it might be the necessary trigger to get to get better sleep in addition of increasing sleep pressure. Melatonin need to be taken immediately after the main evening meal.

 

Doc said that he has seen many patients, who have followed instructions above and sleep quality has materially increased. He also said that following the instructions given cools down sympathetic nervous system in couple of months. We agreed that i will meet him on October and we will review the results and agree if followup study is necessary or not.

 

Well I believed my doc as he has over 15 years experience of doing this and he consults lot of athletes including Olympic team. Decided start as per his instructions already today... Let's see how it goes.

 

interesting information.  does this sleep doc have specific experience with benzo WD though?    i had some interactions with a harvard sleep doc who simply could not believe what i was telling him..... the standard sleep hygiene techniques don't seem to work in WD or at least not in the early days. 

 

I hope you post some updates about whether these techniques work.  initially i thought melatonin was helping me.  if you google what the best dose is - its actually 0.3mg not the huge doses typically sold.  in any event i forgot to take it the other night and slept 5 consecutive hours - the most i've ever slept in the 8 weeks of benzo WD.  i am honestly thinking everything is just completely random - i try to link a good day to what i did or a bad day to something i did differently but it really seems the more i try to look for patterns or rhyme or reason - the less there is. 

 

i guess its amazing you slept for 7.5 hours particularly in a sleep lab with all the equipment!  But if the quality isn't there it doesnt matter.  So, do keep us posted on whether these recommendations helped.  i have been thinking about doing a sleep study but most nights i get no more than an hour so not sure what information would come out of it...i don't nap or sleep at all during the day.  never knew the human body could go this long without sleep and still function to some extent.

 

Very interesting about cooling down the sympathetic nervous system which for me is still a bit priblematic!  Thanks for posting and all the best for your continued progress ❤️

interesting information.  does this sleep doc have specific experience with benzo WD though?    i had some interactions with a harvard sleep doc who simply could not believe what i was telling him..... the standard sleep hygiene techniques don't seem to work in WD or at least not in the early days. 

 

I hope you post some updates about whether these techniques work.  initially i thought melatonin was helping me.  if you google what the best dose is - its actually 0.3mg not the huge doses typically sold.  in any event i forgot to take it the other night and slept 5 consecutive hours - the most i've ever slept in the 8 weeks of benzo WD.  i am honestly thinking everything is just completely random - i try to link a good day to what i did or a bad day to something i did differently but it really seems the more i try to look for patterns or rhyme or reason - the less there is. 

 

I have the same dilemma with trying to find a pattern to insomnia but can't find one. I know that I feel VERY stressed after being jerked awake at 5-6am and no amount of drugs will let me get back to sleep. I assume it's a cortisol spike and wait for it to leave my system. I felt like crap at work yesterday and stayed home today from the cortisol stress. Then just like that for no reason, I felt a release and feel calmer now.

 

About the sleep study: I have also read/heard about not to eat too late and a nap is important which is why a lot of countries shut down shops for a long lunch. I think it just depends on the person again and what works for each individual.

Good luck and hope it works for  you.

 

i guess its amazing you slept for 7.5 hours particularly in a sleep lab with all the equipment!  But if the quality isn't there it doesnt matter.  So, do keep us posted on whether these recommendations helped.  i have been thinking about doing a sleep study but most nights i get no more than an hour so not sure what information would come out of it...i don't nap or sleep at all during the day.  never knew the human body could go this long without sleep and still function to some extent.

Thanks about replies! My doc is not a benzo withdrawal specialist but insomnia specialist. However he see regularly patients who take benzos as it is typical in case of insomnia. He told me that sometimes he might have a patient taking 4-6 different drugs due to insomnia but he never sends them away but serves them and checks if he can help them with less drugs so he is not favour of prescribing drugs.  I'll update after couple of weeks how this goes. I think that bottom line is that does this work during benzo withdrawal but as i want to be drug free I give a try. Well i have seen several doctors and read several articles saying you should not eat late but this doc challenges this statement as he asked me to eat quite late in the evening comparing typical culture in my country. Well he might be right and he has already got lot of publicity in press due to his opinions.

thanks for the reply.  I too have read about not eating late but that is for "normal" people..... there is nothing normal about this.    I actually eat something at 10pm and often again at 2am.  i think we need to get blood sugar regulated to try to avoid the cortisol rushes.  at one point i tried to switch to eating nothing after 8pm and that definitely did not help my attempts at sleeping at all.....

Good point SSR1975! Well i give a try and report back what happens to me :-)

Very interesting information! This really dovetails with what I have discovered for myself over the last year and a half.

--Having a set sleep schedule, and not napping if at all possible, is really critical.

--I eat a fairly low carb diet, but save my carbs for dinner. If I don't have adequate carbs in the evening, sleep is often difficult. Too many carbs earlier in the day can make me sleepy.

--If I force myself to stay awake when sleep, (like for instance to watch a TV show), I often feel "wired" after that and have a hard time getting to sleep. This really reinforces that I need to get to bed when I feel sleepy.

 

The only thing I have an issue with is the melatonin. Some have found it very helpful, but for me it was a disaster at any dose, and gave me complete insomnia and panic attacks. I don't think it is a good long term solution for anyone, but perhaps for a few days it could be helpful for some.

 

How did the sleep you got feel to you? Did you feel like you had that much sleep?

Hi all,

Want to bump into this great thread.

I have taken melatonin -- about .2mg -- and found while it did help me sleep it increased my daytime fatigue level ... one of those weird paradoxes that took me awhile to figure out.

So interesting to think about the sympathetic nervous system..... i have found great help with the CNS from an osteopath...

atm I am taking Remeron to help with my sleep and it does the trick 5-7.5mg..... works for some.

SS

 

I have followed my sleep doc's advices for couple of days. First two night no success but now I had good 7 hours sleep without wake ups during the night. I have had low carb diet already some time and now I added some carbs to to evening meal. I also moved my dinner to 8.30 hrs pm instead of having it at 7.00 pm which was typical for me. I so not know if melatonin works but I haven't had any problems with it so i continue taking it. My plan is to do a benzo jump in 4 weeks, continue Elavil 10mg maybe an additional month and then look what happens. If everything goes smoothly I quit melatonin as well.

 

Have agreed to review my status on October and if necessary to do a followup sleep study in Dec-Jan timeframe. At this point of time I'm not so worried about sleep as 7 hours is great but want to what ever possible to cool down my overactive nervous system. Overactive sympathetic nervous system together with benzos GABA w/d impact seems to cause most of my withdrawal symptoms at the moment like burning. Haven't find too many posts/instructions how to cool it down but this is one more try.

Hi Thomas66, thanks for sharing the results of your sleep study, it's an interesting read. Also, congrats on coming this far, and good luck for the jump! 

 

I just stopped by to tell you that I have tried Melatonin for a month and didn't feel anything from it. Maybe it depends on the individual, but my guess is that benzo w/d leaves way to much glutamate into your system, and that little bit of extra melatonin hardly seems to make a difference amidst the electric storm. That being said, calming your sympathetic nervous system sounds like a great idea, by any which way!

 

I did have some luck with antihistamines and sleep though.

I have had no luck with melatonin, either.  It may make me sleepy but then it causes depression or weird dreams.  I have taken about 1 mg.

 

Yes, sleep dr. gave me the sleep hygiene routine and said sleep therapist way to go but there is none by me.  There is sleepio online or shuti... anyone tried that?  I figure right now with suffering apparent withdrawal it wouldn't really apply.

 

Interested in the eating thing.... I have non 24 schedule but go to bed in the morning, if then.  Never nap, ever.  So would want to eat an hour or so, carbs, before sleep?  I often nibble in bed is that bad?

 

Would avoiding sugar help?

 

thx

Update about my situation: my sleep went broken when I c/t Elavil and jumped. Now I sleep typically 4-5 hours and then less than hour after wake up. Typically wake up happens already 4.30 hrs am. I will meet my sleep Dr to discuss what to do and wondering if I should go back to Elavil or just wait and see maybe 1 month more.

 

Any ideas when sleep typically comes back after you have jumped?

*following*

 

Thomas - this is great info - thanks for sharing!

 

keep us updated!!

 

edit- i wanted to add. I knew a eastern european woman who couldn't sleep unless she ate a lot of carbs (usually bread) in the hour before her bedtime -she slept soundly for decades as long as she did that.  Then there's the book "potatoes not prozac" - same idea - and the whole idea that carbs late in the evening will decrease cortisol and increase serotonin as i understand it. 

 

and now that we're talking about it - i might have to start that one into my routine. 

 

again - thanks for sharing - very helpful!

Update about my situation: my sleep went broken when I c/t Elavil and jumped. Now I sleep typically 4-5 hours and then less than hour after wake up. Typically wake up happens already 4.30 hrs am. I will meet my sleep Dr to discuss what to do and wondering if I should go back to Elavil or just wait and see maybe 1 month more.

 

Any ideas when sleep typically comes back after you have jumped?

 

Thomas, that was my pattern for quite a while after jumping off Elavil. Actually at first it was only 2-3 hours, then 4-5 hours. Even to this day I usually wake up after 4-5 hours, but I almost always can eventually fall back asleep and get 1-3 more hours (now at 1 1/2 years off, but I was on Elavil and benzos for 35 years!). 

 

I found that I could function okay on 4 hours if necessary, it didn't feel great, but it was doable. 5 hours was definitely livable. If you can just tough it out, I think that would be the best course of action. Going on back will just put off the inevitable adjustment period that your body has to go through.

Great post Meowie!

 

Good to understand your experience and how your sleep improved. Based on this I'll think twice before going back to Elavil, most probably not doing it but will give me more time to see how this goes as I am only couple of weeks benzo free. Thank you so much about taking time to repply!

I wanted to jump in with my experience of insomnia (nightly). I usually fall asleep too early while watching TV around 9:30 then go to bed around 10 and I am a little wired but take Remeron and about .375 mg Lorazepam by 11 and eventually doze off. But I wake every morning between 4-6 and take 1 mg Lorazepam. Sometimes I fall asleep and sometimes I lie awake for 3 hours till I have to get up. I'm exhausted every other day. The akathisia keeps me going during the day.

So, after reading about carbs and late eating, I'm going to try eating sweet potatoes with butter by 9 and even have a rich smoothie waiting in the fridge when I wake at 5am.

I'm weaning off Lorazepam. My Dr. says I could wean off in 3 months from 1.5 mg but the Ashton way is to take up to a year. I'm going for 6 months so need all the help with insomnia I can get. I did take 3mg melatonin but it made insomnia worse.

thanks for the reply.  I too have read about not eating late but that is for "normal" people..... there is nothing normal about this.    I actually eat something at 10pm and often again at 2am.  i think we need to get blood sugar regulated to try to avoid the cortisol rushes.  at one point i tried to switch to eating nothing after 8pm and that definitely did not help my attempts at sleeping at all.....

 

This had helped my sleep also.  I eat a snack around 10pm, and again if I wake in the night.  It has improved my sleep tremendously.   

I've also been able to get back to sleep in the middle of the night after getting up and having some carbs. 

Last night I woke at 2 am which is much earlier than normal for me. Finally at around 3 am I think I took 1 mg Lorazepam, benadryl and 4 valerian but the difference was that I drank a fruit smoothie also. I crashed until 6:30 or 7 and didn't want to get up which is a big improvement. I'm going to try to quit the benadryl and valerian and see if the carbs alone can keep me to sleep, I don't have to work tomorrow so can experiment a little.

I'm also eating some carbs at bedtime and I think it helped get me to sleep.

Thanks for all the advice guys. :)

 

I met my sleep doctor as a follow-up visit in order to discuss about my sleep quality. I told him that my sleep quality changed bad due to c/t of Elavil and jumping away from benzos. I told him that I sleep only 4 hrs and maybe two times one hour on top of it waking 3-4 times a night. We also discussed about Asthon statement about REM (4-6 weeks) and SWS (some months) sleep recovery after jump. He told that where I am is typical for short term benzo users and recovery takes longer in case of longer benzo use or if the sleep of the patient has been fragile already before benzo use, in the other words if benzos are described in order to improve sleep it might be that sleep problem is not benzo withdrawal related but something person had already earlier. He also said that all of the patients he have had doing benzo withdrawal have got normal sleep over the time and benzos do not cause permanent harm/damage.

 

 

Well I got small set of instructions how to move forward:

- continue eating carbs late in the evening

- continue taking 3mg long acting melatonin

- keep away from Elavil

- exercise more during some days and check how it impacts to sleep - exercise need to be slow or moderate without too much sweating

- add propranolol 20mg drug and take it before sleep as it drives BP down and cools down Symphatic nerves system.

 

He said that my sleep shoud recover before x-mas - well wait and see...

 

Agreed to do light follow-up study in early January measuring BP and heart rate 3 days in a row.

Hi Thomas, thanks for keeping us updated. It's reassuring to hear that benzos don't cause permanent damage and I hope that you will see some improvements soon in your sleep.

 

Love and healing,

xoxo

 

**  FOLLOWING  **

 

Insomnia is one of my most challenging circumstances.  I was given a benzo to help with sleep.....oh the irony.  The interesting thing is I don't have any difficulty falling asleep at night.  However, I wake up like clockwork about 3 hours after falling asleep and then eventually fall asleep again only to awake 5 hours after falling asleep.  I have a sleep monitor at home and it shows very little deep sleep, some nights no deep sleep at all.  This has been an issue since January of this year..... exhausting.

 

-RST

Hey, I don't know about you RST,  but monitoring my sleep would be the perfect way to make sure I don't get any! 

You know, like those insomnia articles you find on the Internet, that start with the many ways in which a lack of sleep damages you.  Yeah, thanks for scaring me, I will sleep so much better now! 

Hey, I don't know about you RST,  but monitoring my sleep would be the perfect way to make sure I don't get any! 

You know, like those insomnia articles you find on the Internet, that start with the many ways in which a lack of sleep damages you.  Yeah, thanks for scaring me, I will sleep so much better now! 

 

new0girl, you are absolutely correct.      It could lead to obsessing or worrying about it.  I don't do that as much anymore.  I've tried to change my behavior so that now, in my ideal model, everything I do is predicated on rational thought that is grounded in a solid knowledge base and an understanding of the issue.  This approach helps lead to wise decisions.  I'm not always so disciplined to not let things worry me, but I'm much better.  But, I see my sleep monitor as letting me know what is happening so I can assess my sleep protocols and then change things that I can and accept what I cannot. 

 

As bad as my sleep is right now, I can still function.  There was a time early on in this debacle where I didn't sleep but maybe 1 hour a night for three weeks.  On some nights, I didn't sleep at all.  Now, I'm getting between 4 and 5 hours of poor quality sleep.  But that is an improvement and it has improved in a series of plateaus.  First it went to about 3 hours per night and stayed there for a long time.  Then, three hours sleep followed by awakening and a little more sleep. etcetera, etcetera until I got to where I am today. 

 

I am reasonably optimistic that over the next 12 months, I'll see a return to relatively normal sleep patterns.  Before the insomnia became a problem, I progressively developed poorer and poorer sleep habits and so, in retrospect, it's not surprising that I ended up with sleep problems even prior to benzos.      Now, I'm trying to deal with benzo withdrawal, gabapentin taper, and the longer-term issues brought on by my prior poor sleep. 

 

-RST