What helps me deal with Insomnia

Want to share something that has helped me with insomnia and get through this.  I have dealt with insomnia before and during benzo tapering.  CBTI.    It’s a protocol for insomnia which has helped me through my journey (it rewrites your brain to sleep regardless of inhibitor’s).

The key takeaways from CBTI are the following:

- Bedroom is only for sleep and sex (would avoid sex as it sets off symptoms). Once your awake, get out of bedroom. Change in other rooms.

- Do not take naps during the day (I know how hard this is for us benzo people, and at times we have no choice, but to help regulate your sleeping again- I would try to stick to protocol)

- Couch is not meant to lay down on. It is to sit only. You can put your legs up. (trust me, I know how hard this is).

- Lets say a normal bedtime for you is 10:00-6:00, but your dealing with insomnia- then go to bed at 11:00 and get out of bed at 6:00. If that still doesn’t work, you keep pushing your exhaustion to 12:00-6:00. The idea to exhaust your body that it falls a sleep easier and is likely to keep you a sleep.

- Once you find a bed time that works and allows you to sleep better for a week, you can add another half an hour: ie: 11:30-6:00 then 11:00:-6:00 then 10:30-6:00.

- If you wake up in the middle of the night, get out of bed and sit on couch (I know how hard this is), until exhausted and go beck to bed.  Essentially, the bed should not be used to stay awake more then 20-30 min (protocol says 15 min, but I think 30 min is more reasonable).

- The protocol also calls for the tv (screens) to be turned off 1-2 hours before bed. I used to have to do that, but I have been fine with turning off 15-30 min prior to during benzo withdrawl.

- By doing all of the above you are rewiring your brain to associate bedtime with sleep.

- Other things that help me and help my brain understand its bedtime is wearing ear plus and a eye mask + a white noise machine (even though I am wearing ear plugs).  Having things that you do only near bedtime will trigger the brain to associate those things with sleep and will certainly help.

- Main key is to not give up on protocol. Brain will be rewired- just keep sticking to it.

- Also something that really helped me (from a depression and sleep perspective) was getting the Oura ring to track sleeping. I know its not very accurate, but it help me realize that if my heart rate was that low I was most likely sleeping whereas before I just believed I didn’t sleep at all.

If you already know of this protocol, please ignore my msg. I hope to help anyone else that read this. We truly need each other during this journey.

All the best buds!

 

Those are great tips and advice for "normal garden variety insomnia," but in my experience and from what I've seen on this forum over the past 5 years is that nothing short of

another Rx drug is going to touch Benzo-induced insomnia.

I could never nap during WD so that wasn't even possible even if I wanted to

Sleep restriction does not work during Benzo induced insomnia either

Getting up out of bed is a complete waste of time during Benzo induced insomnia as you'll just be awake out of bed.  What you need to do

is lay in bed and rest your body.  Even if you can't sleep, your body needs rest.

CBT-I and sleep hygiene do not work because Benzo induced insomnia is a temporary brain injury that results from GABA receptors not doing their job.

GABA is like your body's "brake pedal" it slows things down in your CNS and allows you to be calm and relaxed

GLUTAMATE is like your body's "gas pedal" it speeds things up and makes you wired, "fight or flight" type stuff in your CNS

Normally GABA and GLUTAMATE are in a "balancing act" so one doesn't overpower the other and make you sleepy or wired all the time.

When Benzos down regulate GABA, your body's "brake pedal" is temporarily broken.  Then your body's "gas pedal" (Glutamate) gets stuck

to the floor.  That's why a person might not sleep for days but still feel wired.

For those that have non Benzo induced insomnia, CBT-I is at least 80% effective or more versus drugs

For those with Benzo induced insomnia it's about 0% effective.

I have to agree with the way. I did cbti for my crazy benzo insomnia and it didn’t even put a dent in it. Nothing. I paid the guy who sprukes that he’s the best…. Nope. Drove 1.5hts away from home to see him too.

 

But, if someone has a base amount of sleep like 4-5 hrs it might help them. There’s a few buddies here that I think their sleep problem is more related to anxiety, they would benefit from this.definitely

 

But I practice sleep hygiene and it makes no difference. Sitting up alone when u can’t sleep when u have benzo insomnia is only going to give ur depression more fuel. I lay in bed when I can’t sleep now and daydream. I rest.

While I can understand both replies above and agree that benzo counters CBTI - i have found it helpful in ways.  I have dealt with insomnia before, going through a TBI, SSRI tapering, serotonin poisoning and now benzo withdrawal- and I would agree that benzos are obviously a different type of animal and makes cbti less effective however I found sticking to the protocol, especially forcing myself to stay up as late as possible, was really helpful. I probably have slept within 65-70% through my withdrawal (not perfect sleep for sure, but 4-7 hours). Now at this point I find i can lay down during the day for an hour or two (not sleep) to rest the body to help me stay up to the bedtime that would get me to sleep. I am only sharing this as it has helped me.

You need a sleep drive for it to work unfortunately. My sleep drive and the drives of many others during benzo wd are broken. Some days I walk 20k steps, have a busy active life read before bed wear blue blocking glasses drink chamomile tea take melatonin and I’m still not sleepy.

 

I’m not arguing just mentioning that for some it doesn’t work and it’s important for those it doesn’t work for to know it’s not them it’s their condition. I started with the “there’s something really wrong with me” thoughts when it didn’t help me and that’s not a healthy place to be with chronic insomnia. I even had people here tell me “well there must be something else wrong with you” or “u obviously aren’t doing it right” when everything suggested hasn’t worked. Not helpful.

 

I still think putting in some of the steps are important like relaxing as much as possible before bed, dark room, no noise ect. But now when I wake up I read some in bed. Sometimes I go back to sleep but not often. But I am not alone in the dark in my lounge room feeling like I’m the only one on the planet awake. I did that for many months and my depression was off the charts because of it.

 

I’m really glad it helped you, especially after all u have been thru x u certainly deserve a restful nights sleep. Ur a brave soul x

While I can understand both replies above and agree that benzo counters CBTI - i have found it helpful in ways.  I have dealt with insomnia before, going through a TBI, SSRI tapering, serotonin poisoning and now benzo withdrawal- and I would agree that benzos are obviously a different type of animal and makes cbti less effective however I found sticking to the protocol, especially forcing myself to stay up as late as possible, was really helpful. I probably have slept within 65-70% through my withdrawal (not perfect sleep for sure, but 4-7 hours). Now at this point I find i can lay down during the day for an hour or two (not sleep) to rest the body to help me stay up to the bedtime that would get me to sleep. I am only sharing this as it has helped me.

 

But obviously Benzo induced insomnia was not one of your primary or "main" symptoms?  Some people don't get any insomnia or only have mild insomnia coming off Benzos and others get hit hard.  I didn't need to force myself to stay awake as it was NOT possible to sleep.  I averaged 5-10 hours of sleep per week for months and months and that is the type of insomnia I am referring to that will not be touched by anything short of another Rx drug!

 

Sleep restriction does NOT work for that group of people that get hit hard.

You are offering tips and suggestions that simply do not work for people that have insomnia as their main or worse symptom.  CBT-I is ZERO percent effective for that group of people, not less effective.  I know you mean well, but those tips are what everyone tries and they simply cannot touch a temporary brain injury.

Yes, if you get tired and have a sleep drive, staying awake later usually helps, but you are completely missing the point that NONE of the tips and suggestions you offered will touch Benzo induced insomnia.

 

I'm glad they worked for you, but will not work for 99.9% of people on this insomnia board/thread/forum

Trust me, I've tried everything Rx, natural and OTC for sleep and nothing worked for me for more than a few days so I stopped everything and let sleep return on it's own

 

Today, CBT-I tips and suggestions make a small difference for me, but back in the thick of my WD and having roughly 70 nights over a nine month span with ZERO perceived sleep, nothing worked and there are many others in the same boat on this forum.