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I see a lot of people on here saying they still go out and do things or get stuff done when they've slept 4 hours or less and that's so not my experience with it. When I don't get at least +4 hours I'm literally bed bound in agony during this. Just existing is pain and I'm way too fatigued to do anything at all. Like if I get up to do anything I just stumble around bad.

 

Maybe it's my previous CFS causing this aspect but I don't know. The lack of sleep just utterly destroys me. I'm not alone in this right? I can barely hold my phone up to type on.

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To be honest, I got through this by drinking coffee. I limited my intake and drank none after 1:00 pm. Many people suggest avoiding caffeine during withdrawal, but it sure made it much easier to get up and go to work after only a couple of hours of sleep. I was also directed to studies that claimed that 30 minutes of meditation could provide the restorative effects of up to 3 hours of actual sleep. That may of also helped get through the day. Can't say for sure, but it certainly did not hurt.
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To be honest, I got through this by drinking coffee. I limited my intake and drank none after 1:00 pm. Many people suggest avoiding caffeine during withdrawal, but it sure made it much easier to get up and go to work after only a couple of hours of sleep. I was also directed to studies that claimed that 30 minutes of meditation could provide the restorative effects of up to 3 hours of actual sleep. That may of also helped get through the day. Can't say for sure, but it certainly did not hurt.

 

Hey thanks for the response. While I can't do the coffee since I'm ridiculously sensitive to everything now, I can sure as hell try meditating. Worth a shot. Thanks!

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It is a shame that you took benzos for such a short time and have to suffer like this. But it is not unusual, I hate to tell you. You have joined a very exclusive club: people who were injured by benzos and have to heal from them.

 

I got through a horrible withdrawal doing what people here suggested. I learned to distract myself from my awful miserable symptoms. That was key. Many days I just sat on my sofa and tried to just pass the time, because honestly I thought I might die from this stuff. I did not sleep normally for a year. All I got was micro sleeps, moments when the brain blinks out. This prevents you from dying from lack of sleep. But it doesn't make you feel much better!!!

I learned how to cope with many of my awful symptoms here on BB. Panic attacks, anxiety, etc. But what helped me the most was slowly getting a better understanding of WHY I felt so awful. Benzos work on your brain. When you get off benzos, your brain kind of goes crazy for a while. It is trying to balance its many chemicals, hormones and compounds, among many other things. Healing from benzos truly is your brain healing. And it will. You just have to hang on now, and never give up Life without benzos will turn out to be so much better.

east

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To be honest, I got through this by drinking coffee. I limited my intake and drank none after 1:00 pm. Many people suggest avoiding caffeine during withdrawal, but it sure made it much easier to get up and go to work after only a couple of hours of sleep. I was also directed to studies that claimed that 30 minutes of meditation could provide the restorative effects of up to 3 hours of actual sleep. That may of also helped get through the day. Can't say for sure, but it certainly did not hurt.

 

Hey thanks for the response. While I can't do the coffee since I'm ridiculously sensitive to everything now, I can sure as hell try meditating. Worth a shot. Thanks!

 

I meditate two times before bed.  One is breathing meditation that I do for 10 to 15 minutes.  Then 30 minutes later I go to bed, but I have a guided meditation to further calm my brain and reflect on good things in the day.

 

It takes practice. A lot.  For breathing, I recommend 4 seconds in, 7 seconds hold, 8 seconds breathe out.  FOCUS on the feeling when you finish inhaling and when you finish exhaling.  Let thoughts wander in, but also wander out.  I imagine with my eyes closed a target in front of me where the breath goes, and thats what I do.  Most nights now I go 10 to 15 minutes without stopping, but at first 3 minutes seemed like alot.  It works!

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It is a shame that you took benzos for such a short time and have to suffer like this. But it is not unusual, I hate to tell you. You have joined a very exclusive club: people who were injured by benzos and have to heal from them.

 

I got through a horrible withdrawal doing what people here suggested. I learned to distract myself from my awful miserable symptoms. That was key. Many days I just sat on my sofa and tried to just pass the time, because honestly I thought I might die from this stuff. I did not sleep normally for a year. All I got was micro sleeps, moments when the brain blinks out. This prevents you from dying from lack of sleep. But it doesn't make you feel much better!!!

I learned how to cope with many of my awful symptoms here on BB. Panic attacks, anxiety, etc. But what helped me the most was slowly getting a better understanding of WHY I felt so awful. Benzos work on your brain. When you get off benzos, your brain kind of goes crazy for a while. It is trying to balance its many chemicals, hormones and compounds, among many other things. Healing from benzos truly is your brain healing. And it will. You just have to hang on now, and never give up Life without benzos will turn out to be so much better.

east

Thanks for the response EC.

 

Yeah, terrible luck on my part to get Absolutely slammed after a handful of pills. Whatever, the past doesn't exist anymore, just survival for the past 6 months. You know how it is.

 

What were the most helpful coping mechanisms you learned? Luckily I haven't hit microsleep levels of insomnia yet. Usually a day or two of terrible to no sleep followed by 5 okay to good days. Hate it, every time a 0 hour night rolls around I wonder if I'll be able to sleep that night too. Wish I could just accept it and make myself not care if I slept or not, it's just extremely painful when I don't, sure you know better than I do.

 

I have a pretty good grasp on what benzos do to our brains so I'm positive I'll improve given time, and that it's never the time we'd hope for or want.

 

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The advice that I always give to benzo/z-drug withdrawal insomniacs is to stay put in bed on bad nights when sleep just does not seem to be happening. Don't get confused by the sleep hygiene recommendation to exit your bed and return at a later time to try again. I found that this does not apply to withdrawal insomnia. Rest is what you are lacking during periods of prolonged insomnia so just keep your eyes closed and try to remain calm. Micro sleeps often will set in, even if you are not aware of them. Many was the time when my wife reported snoring from me when I insisted that I had been wide awake (didn't even hear the snoring). These helpful micro sleeps would have been missed if I was up and about instead of having stayed in bed.

 

 

 

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I listen(ed) to digital audio books with earphones. The subject is on something that automatically has my full attention. Without using this method to help me fall asleep, my early w/d days/months/years would have included many nights of zero sleep.

 

By listening to audio books, I averaged 4 hours of sleep nightly, during the first few years of w/d. I realize 4 hours isn’t much, but given how bad off I was, due to multiple intense benzo w/d symptoms, those 4 hours were much needed. I even went through chemo during this time and still averaged 4 hours of sleep, nightly. My Oncologist early on asked how my sleep was….I said FINE. He never asked again.

 

I got myself into this mess because of insomnia. I have a plethora of books I listen to…I love it, because I’m learning something as I’m falling asleep. :)

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The advice that I always give to benzo/z-drug withdrawal insomniacs is to stay put in bed on bad nights when sleep just does not seem to be happening. Don't get confused by the sleep hygiene recommendation to exit your bed and return at a later time to try again. I found that this does not apply to withdrawal insomnia. Rest is what you are lacking during periods of prolonged insomnia so just keep your eyes closed and try to remain calm. Micro sleeps often will set in, even if you are not aware of them. Many was the time when my wife reported snoring from me when I insisted that I had been wide awake (didn't even hear the snoring). These helpful micro sleeps would have been missed if I was up and about instead of having stayed in bed.

 

This is very true.

 

 

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alohafromhawaii makes an excellent point. If we follow the sleep hygiene suggestions, we are assured that we won't sleep while we are up, but if we rest quietly in bed, there is a possibility of sleep. I have gotten up in the past and after an hour or so, go back to bed, but I do not fall asleep.

This week after two nights of very little sleep, I finally slept for 4.5 hours straight last night. I relish those times.  When I do wake up, I pick up a book and read then put down when I start yawning, try to sleep, repeat. That works well when I first go to bed, but not so much later on.  Reading is my best option and helps to keep my brain from racing away.

 

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Strangely, I have found that on nights that I have a hard time sleeping, I also have a hard time creating a storyline in my head to follow into sleep. On those nights, I tend to have more of a blank mind and sleep just will not find me. A storyline distracts and at some point the line blurs between conscious though and unconscious dreaming.
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Alohafromhawaii, your comment about creating a storyline sounds interesting. I'm a bit opposite in that I can't sleep when my mind races with thoughts that won't stop. The thoughts run the gamut. I try to stop the racing thoughts, but it's next to impossible to accomplish that. Reading a book will stop the racing thoughts and I start yawning, but shortly after I put the book down, the racing brain returns.

Maybe a storyline creation would help with this insomnia.

When I first go to bed, I do relaxation, deep breathing, pressure points and reading. which typically works to put me to sleep, but when I try it later in the night, I do not fall back to sleep.

Insomnia is so frustrating, as it adds other symptoms to the mix that becomes less noticeable following nights of somewhat decent sleep, which for me is more than 4 hours.

 

Strangely, I have found that on nights that I have a hard time sleeping, I also have a hard time creating a storyline in my head to follow into sleep. On those nights, I tend to have more of a blank mind and sleep just will not find me. A storyline distracts and at some point the line blurs between conscious though and unconscious dreaming.

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Good advice aloha.  I find if I just stay in bed, even if I don't actually sleep, will at least get much needed rest.  More often than not, and surprisingly, will drift off again.  I learned a while back to not worry about whether I will sleep or not.  Just makes it worse.

 

FightingFox - lack of sleep is what got me into this mess too.  And I, too, ended up with a whole lot more problems than lack of sleep.  I'm so sorry you ended up where you are from such a short term use.  It's wild, isn't it???

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Back to that storyline thing...last night was a bad one for me, but after an extended period of time with no sleep and only a few thoughts in my head I found a storyline to follow and fell asleep shortly after. The sleep didn't last too long and I found myself awake again but went back to sleep after picking up the same storyline in my head. I ended up having multiple wake-ups and each time I went back to that storyline, but I may have been able to have slept without it at that point. Racing thoughts won't do it. I think that you need to create an interesting but soothing story to follow in order to distract enough to fall asleep.
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keep breathing, deep, fast, whatever, but not shallow. i found this to be the door to sleep. it doesn't always work but to me it's the key.
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Good thread here. Let me offer a couple of thoughts that might muddle things up a bit more (unfortunately).....

 

"Stimulus Control" is the technical term of getting up out of bed and going to a separate room until you feel sleepy again. The goal is to condition the brain to pair the bed with sleeping, so when you can't sleep after 15-20 minutes of being awake in bed, you get up and leave so that your brain doesn't start subconsciously associating the bed with wakefulness. Then once you feel sleepy again, you return to bed. Repeat as often as needed and don't use the bed for other activities like watching TV, reading, etc.

 

The one caution on the "just stay in bed awake and rest" advice is that for many of us insomnia was a pre-Benzo condition and it may not be clear whether the post-Benzo insomnia is the original condition or caused by withdrawal.

 

If you are pretty certain that what you are experiencing is withdrawal insomnia, then I absolutely agree with the advice of trying to get whatever rest you can by staying in bed. But if it was a pre-existing condition than I think we shouldn't just throw out stimulus control, as it is one of the few non-pharmacological methods that has proven to be successful for many people.

 

I personally have used stimulus control, and it helps with sleep onset insomnia, not so much with early morning awakenings (which is my biggest problem).

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Interesting thoughts on the different insomnia issues. Mine was due to having a restless baby and a snoring husband. The baby eventually started sleeping throughout the night, but my husband's snoring, etc., did not stop, but actually grew worse over the years. I would take my pillow and go out the the sofa to try to find a quiet place for sleep. One night I was awakened on the sofa by the paper boy tossing the paper against the door, so contemplated going back to bed and lying awake listening to the snoring or hoping for some sleep on the sofa. Then I thought about our son's old bunk beds in the basement and discovered a quiet and peaceful place. I slept there from then on, so the originally problem is gone.  I think I am having re-bound insomnia from the clonazepam and then the withdrawal and now the healing. I believe I will eventually get better. Right now I am in a rough wave of little sleep. Today has been my worst day for exhaustion in a long time.

Good thread here. Let me offer a couple of thoughts that might muddle things up a bit more (unfortunately).....

 

"Stimulus Control" is the technical term of getting up out of bed and going to a separate room until you feel sleepy again. The goal is to condition the brain to pair the bed with sleeping, so when you can't sleep after 15-20 minutes of being awake in bed, you get up and leave so that your brain doesn't start subconsciously associating the bed with wakefulness. Then once you feel sleepy again, you return to bed. Repeat as often as needed and don't use the bed for other activities like watching TV, reading, etc.

 

The one caution on the "just stay in bed awake and rest" advice is that for many of us insomnia was a pre-Benzo condition and it may not be clear whether the post-Benzo insomnia is the original condition or caused by withdrawal.

 

If you are pretty certain that what you are experiencing is withdrawal insomnia, then I absolutely agree with the advice of trying to get whatever rest you can by staying in bed. But if it was a pre-existing condition than I think we shouldn't just throw out stimulus control, as it is one of the few non-pharmacological methods that has proven to be successful for many people.

 

I personally have used stimulus control, and it helps with sleep onset insomnia, not so much with early morning awakenings (which is my biggest problem).

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LOL! A restless baby and a snoring husband. Girl, you have it bad but good for you for not giving up.

I am sure, as you trudge back to your sofa, you feel a bit annoyed.

 

I do have to share what helped me cope with insomnia dfue to BWD. It worked for me and I have met several others who found it helpful. I started listening to sleep hypnosids videos on YouTube. They have a bunch of them. I had not slept normally in a year when I started doing this. It took about as month for those videos to work. But they sure did. I like Jodi Whitely's the best but there are many others. Give this a try.

east

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Thanks for the tip east!!!  Hope all is well!!!

 

Snoring husbands...arrgh!  Though my husband tells me I snore.  The nerve!!!  Told him I was just dreaming I was a motorcycle.

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Good thread here. Let me offer a couple of thoughts that might muddle things up a bit more (unfortunately).....

 

"Stimulus Control" is the technical term of getting up out of bed and going to a separate room until you feel sleepy again. The goal is to condition the brain to pair the bed with sleeping, so when you can't sleep after 15-20 minutes of being awake in bed, you get up and leave so that your brain doesn't start subconsciously associating the bed with wakefulness. Then once you feel sleepy again, you return to bed. Repeat as often as needed and don't use the bed for other activities like watching TV, reading, etc.

 

The one caution on the "just stay in bed awake and rest" advice is that for many of us insomnia was a pre-Benzo condition and it may not be clear whether the post-Benzo insomnia is the original condition or caused by withdrawal.

 

If you are pretty certain that what you are experiencing is withdrawal insomnia, then I absolutely agree with the advice of trying to get whatever rest you can by staying in bed. But if it was a pre-existing condition than I think we shouldn't just throw out stimulus control, as it is one of the few non-pharmacological methods that has proven to be successful for many people.

 

I personally have used stimulus control, and it helps with sleep onset insomnia, not so much with early morning awakenings (which is my biggest problem).

 

When I first starting developing tolerance to Ambien and the sleep started to dry up, I had just thought that I was suffering from insomnia that was too great to be defeated by the Ambien. I went to see a psychologist who first suggested a horribly uninformed taper that just made things worse. I then did a rapid taper off the drug just to get off of it and the insomnia really hit hard. Neither the therapist or I knew anything about withdrawal so we still thought that it was a behavioral problem. She put me on CBTi and suggested a sleep restriction component that included staying in bed for no more than 20 minutes and limiting my initial attempts at sleep to a 4 hour period between 2 and 6 am. A normal insomniac would start to fall asleep due to exhaustion within a few nights and be awarded more sleep time. In theory, they would have trained themselves to fall asleep fairly fast every night. I tried the therapy for almost 3 weeks and stayed awake for 5 nights and then only slept for a couple of hours a night when I refused to out of bed at 6 am when sleep finally started to slip in. My sleep log startled my therapist to the point where she had to pull the plug on the therapy. Later I self-educated myself about withdrawal and said goodbye to that therapist since I had learned that the process just had to run its own course.

 

I always said that sleep restriction therapy MAY work for a normal insomniac, but is worse than useless for withdrawal insomnia. Desperation drives people like myself to try anything to sleep again, but not much works until the GABA receptors regain their normal function.

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Good thread here. Let me offer a couple of thoughts that might muddle things up a bit more (unfortunately).....

 

"Stimulus Control" is the technical term of getting up out of bed and going to a separate room until you feel sleepy again. The goal is to condition the brain to pair the bed with sleeping, so when you can't sleep after 15-20 minutes of being awake in bed, you get up and leave so that your brain doesn't start subconsciously associating the bed with wakefulness. Then once you feel sleepy again, you return to bed. Repeat as often as needed and don't use the bed for other activities like watching TV, reading, etc.

 

The one caution on the "just stay in bed awake and rest" advice is that for many of us insomnia was a pre-Benzo condition and it may not be clear whether the post-Benzo insomnia is the original condition or caused by withdrawal.

 

If you are pretty certain that what you are experiencing is withdrawal insomnia, then I absolutely agree with the advice of trying to get whatever rest you can by staying in bed. But if it was a pre-existing condition than I think we shouldn't just throw out stimulus control, as it is one of the few non-pharmacological methods that has proven to be successful for many people.

 

I personally have used stimulus control, and it helps with sleep onset insomnia, not so much with early morning awakenings (which is my biggest problem).

 

When I first starting developing tolerance to Ambien and the sleep started to dry up, I had just thought that I was suffering from insomnia that was too great to be defeated by the Ambien. I went to see a psychologist who first suggested a horribly uninformed taper that just made things worse. I then did a rapid taper off the drug just to get off of it and the insomnia really hit hard. Neither the therapist or I knew anything about withdrawal so we still thought that it was a behavioral problem. She put me on CBTi and suggested a sleep restriction component that included staying in bed for no more than 20 minutes and limiting my initial attempts at sleep to a 4 hour period between 2 and 6 am. A normal insomniac would start to fall asleep due to exhaustion within a few nights and be awarded more sleep time. In theory, they would have trained themselves to fall asleep fairly fast every night. I tried the therapy for almost 3 weeks and stayed awake for 5 nights and then only slept for a couple of hours a night when I refused to out of bed at 6 am when sleep finally started to slip in. My sleep log startled my therapist to the point where she had to pull the plug on the therapy. Later I self-educated myself about withdrawal and said goodbye to that therapist since I had learned that the process just had to run its own course.

 

I always said that sleep restriction therapy MAY work for a normal insomniac, but is worse than useless for withdrawal insomnia. Desperation drives people like myself to try anything to sleep again, but not much works until the GABA receptors regain their normal function.

 

Yup, understood Aloha. For me, I had a relatively smooth taper and have had no withdrawal symptoms except for a brief worsening of my insomnia for about two weeks (which felt unlike my baseline insomnia). The insomnia I have now is awfully familiar, because I'm pretty much back at the level that drove me to Ativan to begin with! So for me, I think it's the baseline insomnia versus withdrawal insomnia. As a result, I am putting CBT-i principles back into practice.

 

 

 

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welchie you made me smile about the snoring and the motorcycle. lol

Eastcoast, I have not had much luck with the sleep hypnosis videos.  Maybe I need to spend some time during the day to see what I might like, instead of late at night, when I just want to sleep.

The last week was such a non sleep wave for me, which ramped up my tinnitus and exhaustion.  I've had some memory issues also. I just keep hoping sleep comes back, again.

What I noticed is I am so sensitive sleepwise or lack thereof, to so many things. Food/sugar/high fat, bothers me, vitamins, moods, stress. I think about everything I eat or do during the day.

When I first started my taper, I stopped drinking any alcohol. After I finished my taper, I would have a sip of my husband's margarita and now and then a sip of wine. That was it. Now, I will drink a small glass of wine ( approx 2 ounces) every month or two. When I do drink wine, I sleep for 4-5 hours straight. It never works the second night, so I go back to not drinking for a period of time again.  I love it when it does work. That's the way everything is with helping me with my sleep. It is incredibly temporary. Not sure why, but I have read others say they go through the same thing, so it perhaps is somewhat common. 

Anyhoo, I am rambling. Everyone hang in there and thanks for the comments!

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The fact that my sleep pretty much vanished after this last cut from .055 to .05 seems to suggest I've been doing this too fast recently. I'm going to try and hold a bit because insomnia has just utterly exploded. I went from 1-2 nights a week of poor sleep to now every night is 4 hours at best for an entire week here. I really hope this isn't a trend, I was starting to really come around at the beginning of this month. I'm at such a low amount maybe I hit a threshold where it's no longer doing much of anything. Although I frequently hear it's rougher the lower you get.
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