Has Anyone's Sleep Gotten Worse?

I took a CBT-i course immediately after quitting the Ambien. In the first 6 weeks my sleep gradually improved to where I was getting 7 hours a night for a week straight. This was 6 weeks out. Then I had a few bad nights and decided to cold turkey kratom. I was having bad nights here and there. Then my sleep got choppy. I was waking up a bunch sometimes with racing heart other times without. Anyways. Since early October I have had possibly the worst sleep yet. Basically every night is just maybe a few 2 hour blocks and then some toxic naps followed. I am so confused as to why I am getting so much worse. Is this normal?

BTW my quit date was 06/13

CBT-I is usually pretty good for people with normal insomnia, but the drug induced recovery insomnia is a totally different animal. It has more to do with your brain not being able to put yourself to sleep like it normally would due to reduced amount of GABA receptors. Eventually these do repair themselves.

 

One other hard to thing to deal with during recovery, is that it isn't linear. This includes issues with insomnia. I had the exact same thoughts as you, but as long as you are aware that it will be very up and down for a while, it might help cope with it a little better. I would get VERY frustrated that I had a week or more of "good" sleep and then go back into weeks long terrible insomnia. Just know that eventually it will start working itself out the more you heal. I went from missing 1, 2, & 3 nights at a time consistently, to sleeping pretty normally now. I think I roughly counted something like 80+ 0 hour nights, and much more nights where I might have gotten 1–4 in one year. Most nights I now sleep 6–7 and some days I can hit 8–10. A lot of nights now I can barely stay awake. Although occasionally I still go through a rough patch, but nothing near as bad as when I was in the thick of it.

 

I've talked to a lot of insomniacs here over the years. Some people of course do better than others and get there quicker, but even some of the insomniacs that were worse off than me improved a great deal given time to heal. I know it's super frustrating to deal with. I've been there for sure. Just do the best you can to cope and whatever you can to prep for the bad nights ahead of time. It will get better! 

 

Edit:

I also add that I believe Kratom is a GABAergic drug. So I won't be surprised if it was helping while taking it and causing a problem after stopping.

I had something pretty similar happen to me. Right when I quit, my sleep went in the toilet for about a month. I'm talking about zero hours. Then it came back for about three months even while having some pretty severe depression. I was sleeping like 6-8 hours a night at that point. Then around five months off it went back to like two to three hours a night and then just gradually improved over time to where I sleep about 6-7 hours a night now.

Mine got worse after I jumped when it was horrific to begin with

Yup, mine got worse at month 3 after my cold turkey.  Then for about 3 -4 months I was only averaging 5-10 hours per week!

 

Like Siggy, I had at least 70 zero nights and a lot of 1-4 hour nights. 

 

It slowly got better, but I still had bouts of insomnia long after I was sleeping well.  It's part of the process for many.

 

And I still get a rough patch of sleep here and there, but as others have said, it's not nearly as bad as what it was during the thick of my WD.

 

Currently I get 6-8 hours most nights and occasionally 9-10 (on the weekends)

 

 

Nerd1211, We jumped about the same time as I jumped 6/26.  After the first two weeks of next to zero sleep, I am averaging about 2.20 hours of Rem and Deep Sleep in total with the balance being very light seep or awake.  I am aware of being awake at least 8 to 10 times a night where I look at the time.  Going into month 5, I had 5 days of back to almost no sleep and had difficulty in falling asleep.  Thankfully it lasted only 5 days.  Chatting with individuals that have gone though this helped me not only to expect this setback but also to accept it as a sign of my healing.  I dropped by anger over having this recovery take so long after my very short time prescribed usage, and I am taking one day at a time.  The one underlying message from success stories is that healing takes time and there is really nothing that I can do except wait it out and try to enjoy each day the best that I can.

My sleep got better (from averaging 2 to 3 hours to averaging 5 to 6 hours) about 2 months BEFORE I jumped. Since I jumped, 2 weeks ago, it has gotten worse again. All I can do is hang in there. I like to re-read posts about sleep improving. One good thing is that, when I first started my taper, I couldn't even "rest". I would pace the room with my heart pounding. Now, I can lay in bed and stay still and be relaxed even if I am not sleeping. I do get up and use the restroom a couple times but, otherwise, I can stay in bed and be relaxed. It is SO slow to have sleep come back! SO, SO slow....

 

Wish it were faster.

 

HM

My sleep has gotten worse in the past week.

I lay in bed for hours (probably 6 hours of nothing) with no perceived sleep. Then I feel something resembling a brief electric buzz, almost vertigo sensation in my head and body and it jolts me awake. Then I have a full body restlessness and the only way I can manage even a little a little sleep is by curling myself into the fetal position.

 

I really hope this passes soon.

Knightnightly, I have the same thing, even though taking Trazodone.