Insomnia or apnea.

I constantly wake up after a short time.  I just cannot stay down. I've videoed my sleep too. Oddly enough it feels like it could have been 5 or more hours each time, but is only 2 each time.

 

I don't have trouble falling to sleep it's staying asleep which is difficult.  Is that the usual way for insomnia?  Or is typical insomnia strictly when you have difficulty falling asleep?

Alraic I

I have the exact problem. I can get to sleep but wake up almost 4 hours later...I use a FitBit to monitor my sleep. Download the data to the app on my phone. You can save the graph to jpeg. In mine you can see little "red bumps" where I get restless and a bump will pull me out of deep sleep or even REM sleep. I pulled out my CPAP and it worked great for a couple weeks, then not so much. IDK.

 

I stay of the PC at night or if I do I have amber glasses to block the blue light. I have tried everything...well almost. I can do alcohol, across the counter drugs send me into a loop now. I am going to quit caffeine soon or taper off (its a big time drug..). Stop drinking soda of any kind...

 

I jumped 4 months ago and thought it was getting better than boom.....two or three tough weeks! Hard to work in this state...

 

Hope this helps..

Stone

Pretty sure that’s insomnia, man. That’s what I have. I have no problem going to sleep, but staying asleep is the issue. Constant wake ups, 4 am surge, REM loops, up early every day. I wake up with fatigue every day because of this. I’ve wondered if it could be apnea too. Not sure. I sleep on my stomach/side so not sure if that makes a difference re: apnea.

After about a year of wd and not sleeping very well or at all, and always waking up about 4 a.m. with a lot of wd symptoms, I went to a sleep doc who gave me one of those take-home apnea testers. I'm a small framed woman, about 122 lbs, and was very surprised to learn that I have apnea, almost exclusively after rolling over onto my back from a side position. He said the apnea's the main reason I wake up. The CPAP was a disaster and I returned it.

 

So I shoved the guest room bed against a wall where I jammed a couple of pillows.  I started to sleep on my side against this and wedge pillows in front (crazy but very comfortable). It's not possible to roll over. Guess what? I almost always wake up around 4 a.m. on my side (not my back).  It's the physical discomfort from wd spasms that wake me up and then prevent me from getting comfortable again.

When I mentioned all this to the sleep doc, all he said was that he has a lot of patients who have taken Klonopin and none have this particular problem, esp. after a year since the last dose.

 

So now it's been 4 years post K, I usually fall asleep ok, sleep soundly for 3 or 4 hours, and then, Bam! A wd spasm wakes me up. Sometimes I can fall asleep again, but if I'm in pain, forget it.

Pentas, I was also on clonazepam for almost 20 years and have most of the same symptoms you have. I disagree with the sleep doctor concerning his "other" clonazepam patients. I am soon too years since my last dose and am still suffering in various degrees.

I also fall asleep very quickly, but wake up from anywhere to one hour later to four hours. Usually it is one or two hours. Getting back to sleep is the eternal problem.

 

Alaric thanks for the response concerning the dark chocolate. I shall keep eating a square each night beings the chocolate has other health benefits, as it definitely is not hurting my sleep patterns.

all above, same issue with me where I can get to sleep but wake up about the same time. When I started using my CPAP again it worked pretty well but then I fell back into the rhythm of waking up after about 4 to 5 hrs of sleep. Its a struggle to get back to sleep. Other than sleeping I am doing well after almost 5 months post jump. When I sleep I feel great with hardly any symptoms. After several nights of minimal sleep I get agitated and paranoid...

 

I hope something heals up soon.

nightengale, as another long term clonazepam user, thanks for your comments about waking up too early. At this point, I'm 100 percent sure my early awakenings are from wd symptoms, not apnea as a sleep doc told me. In the past few weeks, sometimes I'm able to sleep up to 5 hours each night. And when I do, I feel so much better! But then some physical discomfort or pain, like spasms or weird electrical sensations, wake me up and keep me up.

p

 

If you think you have sleep apnea absolutely get tested and absolutely follow through with the treatment if you do have it. It made a big difference for me