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I finished my taper almost a year ago, and sleep has improved...


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I can usually manage about 5 hours of sleep a night now, sometimes a little more or a little less. What hasn’t changed is the type of sleep. I swear I dream the entire time! I wake frequently - for no reason or due to my daughter coming in, and I’m always in the middle of a dream. I know the REM rebound stuff is common, but this seems like REM rebound on steroids. Just dream after dream all night every night. I shouldn’t complain, since things are light years better than they were a year ago!
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I am glad that you are sleeping now. Insomnia can be the worst part of WD process.

 

I am still going thru the insomnia but its getting a little better.

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I am still experiencing this type of sleep at 15 months off. Broken sleep, vivid, bizarre dream after dream. At first I was excited to dream again, because I didn’t dream either while on Benzos, now I just want them to stop! I am also going through a rough wave of insomnia once again, it seems like it never ends. I have pretty much forgotten what it feels like to sleep normally.
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  • 5 months later...
Same thing here at 83 days off. Nonstop REM with constant intense dreams. They usually involve a lot of movement. It’s screwing with my sleep apnea and leaving me more exhausted than ever. My apnea scores are up and there doesn’t seem to be anything to do about it except endure.
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I am just over 4 years off and my sleep is still very top-heavy with REM sleep and lots of dreams. At least I am sleeping so I really can't complain.
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  • 2 weeks later...

I can usually manage about 5 hours of sleep a night now, sometimes a little more or a little less. What hasn’t changed is the type of sleep. I swear I dream the entire time! I wake frequently - for no reason or due to my daughter coming in, and I’m always in the middle of a dream. I know the REM rebound stuff is common, but this seems like REM rebound on steroids. Just dream after dream all night every night. I shouldn’t complain, since things are light years better than they were a year ago!

 

I’m exactly where you are. I’ve been off 13 months and the type of sleep is awful. I don’t feel like I get much deep sleep. I never feel rejuvenated or sleepy at night. Don’t feel groggy if I wake up in the middle of the night and still having plenty of headaches. Do you feel that way?

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I am just over 4 years off and my sleep is still very top-heavy with REM sleep and lots of dreams. At least I am sleeping so I really can't complain.

 

Do you feel refreshed or horrible when you get up? I used to could nap, I could fall asleep fast, and I always felt groggy to get up early. I slept like a 12 year old child.

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Until I have had my morning coffee, I feel pretty much the same regardless of a bad night or a good night.

 

Coffee don’t do anything for me. I feel like my brain has went numb. Like I’ve missed so much deep sleep that it’s permanently damaged.

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Until I have had my morning coffee, I feel pretty much the same regardless of a bad night or a good night.

 

Coffee don’t do anything for me. I feel like my brain has went numb. Like I’ve missed so much deep sleep that it’s permanently damaged.

 

It may feel like permanent damage, but I am pretty sure that it is not. I too missed massive amounts of sleep over a 2-3 year period and still have bad nights over 4 years out, but the improvement that I experienced tells me that the damage is reversible. In time you will probably come to the same conclusion.

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  • 2 weeks later...

HI ALOHA......my sleep is still terrible, but somewhat better than last year....just wondering.....did you take any supplements to help you sleep and do you believe that we should?  I have read ( from Heather Ashton)  that we should not take any supplements......Of course,  I have tried everything......took 6 mg. melatonin last night.....I guess I slept, but it still does not feel like normal sleep.    I never get sleepy and still cannot nap.....I still have tinnitus and some weird muscle movement in my legs that only happens before bed around 10:00 p.m.  Really weird,  I never had this before the POISON DRUGS......I tried Natural Progesterone,  but did not help...and am not sure about it...so I went off...….

 

THANK YOU. (sorry, I am not very good at writing)

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Greetings Runnergirl,

 

The return of sleep can take a very long time. At over 4 years out mine ranges from normal to not very good (although very seldom as bad as it was). I take melatonin and/or L-tryptophan often. It is hard to say how much they help because sleep seems to do what it wants to do regardless of anything that can be easily identified. The other night I took melatonin and almost slept undisturbed through the entire night (woke up 1 hour before my alarm, but went back to sleep). I took nothing and had a restless sleep last night.

 

Your writing seems fine to me. Wishing you some good sleep.

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So I take Benzos for 8 months including the taper and I could be looking at 4 years of hell and this may never get better? Did I screw my entire life up in just 8 months?
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So I take Benzos for 8 months including the taper and I could be looking at 4 years of hell and this may never get better? Did I screw my entire life up in just 8 months?

 

For me it was 4 years with some bad nights, but very fall from hell most of the time.

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But aloha, is your sleep refreshing? I’m 13 months off and last night I layed there for almost 3 hours before getting any light sleep whatsoever then I was back awake a few hours later.. I feel like I haven’t slept at all when I get up. I never feel groggy like I used to. Don’t ever even have the urge for sleep but my head and eyes just hurt all the time.
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But aloha, is your sleep refreshing? I’m 13 months off and last night I layed there for almost 3 hours before getting any light sleep whatsoever then I was back awake a few hours later.. I feel like I haven’t slept at all when I get up. I never feel groggy like I used to. Don’t ever even have the urge for sleep but my head and eyes just hurt all the time.

 

Yes, I now usually feel more or less refreshed in the mornings, especially after a good night when I slept better. After a while it just became a long blur of year after year of bad mornings mixed in with good mornings. Once I have my morning coffee it always feels more or less okay anyway.

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I am the same, although I am only month 3 off benzos. Only dream after dream, intense and long, wake up after every dream and don't feel refreshed in the morning. At what point are these now PTSD insomnia/dreams and not benzo withdrawal?
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I am 8 months off now and I find myself sleeping very lightly a lot.  Like I am awake, or just slightly sleeping and aware of it, and I know if I stay put, I will fall back asleep but sometimes it's really hard to just stay there for too long cause I feel so awake and my mind wants to do something else.  I have very intense involved dreams too.  Often they feel very real when I first wake up and sometimes I feel the need to go back and finish stuff in my dreams.
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I am the same, although I am only month 3 off benzos. Only dream after dream, intense and long, wake up after every dream and don't feel refreshed in the morning. At what point are these now PTSD insomnia/dreams and not benzo withdrawal?

 

I have always felt that a severe withdrawal experience can give a person PTSD (at least a mild version of it).

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