Stress and Sleep

I am pretty confident that this will not touch Benzo-induced insomnia, and is more likely going to work after your sleep starts to return?  But it's a good overview of why you may not be sleeping outside of temporarily damaged GABA receptors.

Chronic stress strains the whole body by over-activating our sympathetic nervous system (the fight-or-flight response), releasing stress hormones like cortisol, making our breathing shallow and fast, and sending our heart rates up and our HRV (Heart Rate Variability) down

When the fight-or-flight response is active frequently it makes it physiologically harder to focus, meditate, relax, sleep, or even exercise because our body and mind are both signaling each other that we are under threat and need to be escaping danger, not sleeping or focusing on our work

Sleep, meditation, relaxation practices and regular exercise help us to recover from stress by engaging the parasympathetic (rest and digest) nervous system, but they are all physically and mentally harder to do when we’re overwhelmed by chronic stress

When left unchecked, chronic stress increases your risk of developing insomnia, anxiety-disorders, depression, and chronic pain[2-6]. Chronic stress exhausts us, makes us unhappy, disrupts our mood, causes tension and pain, and impairs our sleep.

Heart Rate Variability (HRV) measures the rate of change of the heart beat over time[2]. Having high HRV is a good thing. It means that your body can quickly adapt and recover from stress.

When we encounter stress in our environment, our heart rate, respiratory rate, and blood pressure should go up so we can quickly respond to a threat[1,2]. When we’re calm, our heart rate, respiratory rate, and blood pressure should be at comfortable resting rate. This is our body’s way of maintaining balance between thriving and surviving over time.

LOW HRV

Having consistently low HRV indicates that your body isn’t adapting to or recovering well from stress

This could mean a number of things:

You aren’t sleeping well

You’ve exhausted your body

You’re getting sick

Those of us with consistently low HRV have a higher likelihood of developing:

Injuries

Insomnia

Chronic pain

Cardiovascular illness.

Anxiety-related disorders

Depression

HIGH HRV

High HRV indicates that your body is resilient, recovering well, and able to bounce back from stress quickly

The following contribute to high HRV:

Restorative sleep

Mindfulness practice

Balanced diet

Regular exercise

Healthy relationships

Those of us with consistently high HRV are more likely to have better:

Focus

Calm

Performance (athletic and cognitive)

Breathing

Pain tolerance

Blood pressure

Sleep

Resilience

HRV is the most reliable, non-invasive biometric of stress, measuring the balance between the parasympathetic and sympathetic systems

The autonomic nervous system governs all the activity in our body from our heart beat, blood pressure, respiratory rate, and hormones to our digestion, blood flow, how much sugar is in our blood, our vision, our reproduction, and the list goes on.

Our health and survival (no kidding) are dependent on the dynamic relationships between the two branches of the autonomic nervous system: the parasympathetic (rest and digest) branch and the sympathetic (fight or flight) branch.

Parasympathetic branch

The parasympathetic branch is responsible for conserving energy for when we need it next[1, 2]. It is activated by safety. When we are safe enough to sleep, meditate, listen to soothing music or experience soothing touch, our parasympathetic system engages, lowering our heart rate and blood pressure, improving our HRV (heart rate variability), and supporting reproduction, creativity, and energy recovery. This rest and relaxation are key so that we have enough energy to survive a threat whenever it comes.

Sympathetic branch

The purpose of our sympathetic “fight-or-flight” system is to kick in so we can survive a threat[1, 2]. When we experience a threat, whether that be a lion or a stressful email, our heart rate and blood pressure go up, blood rushes to the heart and to our muscles, our liver releases sugar into the blood, and digestion slows down so we can escape from whatever is threatening us and reach safety.

The problem is that chronic stress from modern life is constantly sending signals to our bodies that we’re under threat. This excess of activity in our fight-or-flight response has real consequences for our well being and our long-term health.

Left unchecked, stress increases the risk of developing chronic health conditions such as insomnia, anxiety disorders, depression, chronic pain, memory loss, metabolic disorders, cardiovascular disease, and even birth defects in our children[3-25]. Chronic stress also disrupts personal well-being, relationships, and sexual activity. As we all know, stress commonly interferes with our ability to be kind and good-natured with our family, co-workers, and our friends. While low HRV predicts poor sleep, focus, and an elevated risk of physical and mental illness, high HRV predicts resilience, consistent performance, better sleep, and lower chances of getting sick

Outside of letting Time heal you, you might want to consider wearable devices that may help improve your sleep?  Remember, no device will probably work until you've healed enough to get some sleep most nights as nothing can speed up GABA healing and regrowth. 

Source:  Apolloneuro.com/pages/science