Do you sleep?

I have issues with sleeping as written in my 'sleep study results' post. I haven't been able to take a nap either because I do not fall a sleep... 

 

well something strange happened today. I desided rest a little and closed my eyes in the bed. Roughly half an hour later my daugher who was in the same room said to me that I had slept 20 minutes because I snored. However I felt that I did not sleep but just rested. Now I'm wodering can it be the case that I sleep / can take nap but I do not recongize it as a sleep.

 

Really strange...  any comments and/or experiences about similar issues?

Hiya

This happened to me before benzos too.

Yes, u dont know u are asleep. its not deep sleep but its one of the stages where u are  still kind of aware of your environment.

I get this sleep too but lack the deep sleep.

Yes, this is a very light sleep.  I've had full nights sleep like this.  The only way you really know it happened is because time passes.  It's very frustrating.

Yep, this has basically been half of my nights for the past two months. I've felt like I've been awake for a whole night but my girlfriend will say I was snoring. I don't think it's a sign of deep sleep, certainly not for a 'normal' amount of time anyway. We never truly know because many studies show that we often under estimate or over estimate the amount and kind of sleep we've had.

 

But I know exactly what it feels like, the thing you are talking about. I cannot nap but when I go to bed I just lay there for the allotted time and hope for the best 

Thanks to all of you about your comments! Seems that I'm not only one but light sleep seems to be one of the wd symptoms.

 

Johnnyboi, maybe you have slept as well when taking nap 😊😊😊

Yep this is microsleeping. You brain is quickly cycling different wave stages. That’s why you don’t feel like you’ve slept. I had plenty of this. My wife told me I would snore when I felt like I had been wide awake. She actually did an audio recording whenI would occasionally snore.

 

The good news is that it will get better. I could typically go 2 - 3 nights sometimes with only micro-sleep. Now I sometimes have trouble staying awake! Just try to deal with the crappy sleep the best you can until you get better.

I have this type of sleep often, it's been prevalent this week.  When I wake up, I often ask myself: did I sleep?  I must have.  It's a suspended kind of sleep.

Thanks Siggy and Ginger, you well desribed how I feel as well as my typical question to my wife and daugther is 'did I sleep' so this must be wd driven thing but not well documented anywhere. Many of us have it so can not be anything else than wd causing it. Really good to know it becomes better.  Novadays I have started look at watch before try taking nap in order to understand afterwards if I slept or not 😊

Yes it is light sleep. I had a sleep study twice and i thought i only slept one hour but it were almost 3.5 hours that i slept, but it wasn't deep sleep. Still i am glad with this sleep. It is better than nothing. And maybe a first step to recovery. I am stuck in light sleep now for 8 months. Broken short light sleep with multiple awakenings and sometimes unable to go back to sleep, but in acute phase it was even worse. So revovery just very slowly...

Thomas, I keep a notepad and a pen by my bedside. I often wake up at night with that panicky feeling that I won’t go back to sleep. And not get enough sleep, which of course would be a major tragedy... I always do one thing then. I note down the hour and say to myself that if I don’t fall asleep in half an hour, I shall get up. Then I lapse into some kind of unconsciousness. Wake up again with that same feeling. Look up at the alarm clock and the hour I noted down. Turns out I slept like two hours. Once I cross the threshold of seven hours, the anxiety of "not getting enough sleep" disappears. I could then go on sleeping forever. I sleep with the best sleeping pill in the world - my Kitty. She always puts me back to sleep. The mere sight of her when I’m tired makes me think: "I’ll lie down with my Kitty just for fifteen minutes and get some rest. I won’t fall asleep of course, as I have insomnia." I wake up after three hours...

Thomas, I keep a notepad and a pen by my bedside. I often wake up at night with that panicky feeling that I won’t go back to sleep. And not get enough sleep, which of course would be a major tragedy... I always do one thing then. I note down the hour and say to myself that if I don’t fall asleep in half an hour, I shall get up. Then I lapse into some kind of unconsciousness. Wake up again with that same feeling. Look up at the alarm clock and the hour I noted down. Turns out I slept like two hours. Once I cross the threshold of seven hours, the anxiety of "not getting enough sleep" disappears. I could then go on sleeping forever. I sleep with the best sleeping pill in the world - my Kitty. She always puts me back to sleep. The mere sight of her when I’m tired makes me think: "I’ll lie down with my Kitty just for fifteen minutes and get some rest. I won’t fall asleep of course, as I have insomnia." I wake up after three hours...

 

Thanks Estee! This notepad idea is good, I need to test it. Well, basically I do the same now without notepad so I sometimes tought I have keep my eyes closed 10 minutes but actually slept hour or two. At this time I so not count total sleep amount but would be nice to understand it. My guess is than many of us here in BB underestimates how much we have slept.

I just recommended this great book to someone on the BB forum. Did exactly what I wrote in my post to you. Soon after I wrote this post. Decided to lie down with my Kitty for a while. And fell asleep for three hours. I only managed to put in earplugs "just in case". Cause she snores

 

She’s now snorring peacefully as I’m writing this. She can fall asleep with one eye half-opened. Animals can teach us a great deal about how to live a good life. According to the above book, astronauts can go on three hours sleep. Guess I can, too. The next night I will sleep better. The key is not becoming obsessed with "having enough sleep, cause otherwise I cannot function." It’s absurd and only leads to lots of sleep-related anxiety. Which in turn causes insomnia.

 

For those who have had a sleep study performed, I've got a question. What did the results of your sleep study report? Do they actually pinpoint a brain or body condition that is related to benzo or z-med use, withdrawal or post-withdrawal? I've chased sleep for the past several years and out of frustration my PDoc recommended a sleep study -- but in the same breath said he didn't know what benefit it would give me since I have no indications of sleep apnea. Are these studies geared around the diagnosis of sleep apnea, or is there more to it?

Thanks Estee about book reference, I'll look at it. Did not know kitties are snoring

 

Overwatch, yes I got more information than sleep apnea only so for me the big think was knowing there is no problem with my EEG waves. In addition to this I got message that my BP does not drop 10-20% which should be a case but doc told me that my brains are more or less wake all night. So yes, you get more information but it is other story what can be done from the treatment point of view as choices are 1) more pills, 2) cpap machine in case of sleep apnea, 3) weight management, diet, sleep hygienia etc. - so in my case I went with option 3 type of approaches but as my sleep issue is benzo wd driven there is not much I can do for it. I think doing sleep study during benzo wd is more or less nice to know type of think and treatment afterwards can give some advantages but basic issue stays and healing happens over the time as described in the Ashton manual. .. well, it is I need to bealieve right now. You can check my study results as I posted it earlier.

 

 

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