Question about insomnia

For the folks who deal with this, is it mostly caused by just not being tired/having sleep issues in the past, OR, it is due to the extreme levels of anxiety?

 

I'm finding it's the latter for me. My muscles are jumpy/twitchy and my racing heart makes it difficult to stay asleep.

It’s also because benzodiazepines are such powerful sedatives.  Your body, which is indeed in a heightened state of physical anxiety (which often feels like plain old anxiety) will take some time to settle down and re-establish sleep patterns.  If you were Rx’d for insomnia it may take even longer. Benzodiazepines don’t cure insomnia. 

Yes the reason is pure and simple, you're getting over a benzo and that is why you're struggling for sleep. Everything else is just extra detail. I hope you are able to not compound the problem by fixating on it. It might be quite a lot of time before adequate sleep visits you regularly, the best thing to do is to try and accept it for what it is.

 

You're not a bad person because you can't sleep.

If you want to know why this is happening, it has to do with your down regulated GABA and the lack of balance with Glutamate.  Both are nervous system receptors.  GABA is your body's "brake pedal" or what slows things down and makes you calm and relaxed.  Glutamate is your body's "gas pedal" or what makes you active and alert or even fight or flight.  Normally the two are in a "balancing act" so one doesn't overtake the other.  But when your GABA is temporarily taken off line by the Benzo, Glutamate rules the day and night.  That's why you might feel wired all the time, have racing thoughts and are never sleepy.  It takes some time for your body to repair the temporary damage.  No one knows how long that will be.  But your body knows exactly how to repair the damage and put your GABA and Glutamate back into balance.  However, it is a very nonlinear process...UP and DOWN, one step forward, 2 steps back for some time for most.

 

I was rxd for insomnia but I’d take that insomnia over benzo insomnia any day. I just can’t sleep. And when I do I don’t dream. It’s just like I’m out then back again. It’s horrific

Personally, I'm a chronic insomniac. Sleep-aid drugs only help me for one or two nights, then I quickly develop a tolerance and throw the rest out. Books will keep me up too. If I'm reading one and I start to fall asleep, there's too much time between the book capturing my thoughts and actually falling asleep, so I wake up again. The thing that works for me is to put a somewhat interesting TV show on my computer and setting it to stop when the show ends. Documentaries with neutral and relaxing subject matter (so no political documentaries!) are good. Geology and outer space documentaries work for me because I know so little about either subject but find them both a bit interesting. I usually fall asleep in a couple of minutes so I don't haven't learned much geology. It can take me a week or two to finish a show because of falling asleep. When I'm not in the mood for documentaries, which is most of the time, I'll watch a TV show instead, usually a crime drama. I don't fall asleep as fast to these but they're more fun to watch. Sometimes I have to watch the end first so I'm not kept awake by the suspense. The trouble with these types of show is sometimes there's a loud scream in the middle of the episode which will wake me up. Audio are another possibility. If you're interested in history there are a lot of good history books out there, and there's no way a person would be kept up wondering how things end with a book like that. Also the book Eat Sleep Burn helped.

 

Edit: Removed commercial link

If you want to know why this is happening, it has to do with your down regulated GABA and the lack of balance with Glutamate.  Both are nervous system receptors.  GABA is your body's "brake pedal" or what slows things down and makes you calm and relaxed.  Glutamate is your body's "gas pedal" or what makes you active and alert or even fight or flight.  Normally the two are in a "balancing act" so one doesn't overtake the other.  But when your GABA is temporarily taken off line by the Benzo, Glutamate rules the day and night.  That's why you might feel wired all the time, have racing thoughts and are never sleepy.  It takes some time for your body to repair the temporary damage.  No one knows how long that will be.  But your body knows exactly how to repair the damage and put your GABA and Glutamate back into balance.  However, it is a very nonlinear process...UP and DOWN, one step forward, 2 steps back for some time for most.

 

Thanks so much! I have read this in one of the stickied threads, but I wondered what the reason was for why most people don't sleep during wd. I appreciate your response