Insomnia

[dbagg 86]

Last year or so my legs get super hot and I'll almost fall asleep when it seems to hit.  Once it starts it goes on all night and I never really fall asleep, just lay there and sweat.  Any ideas?

[nnm 36961]

1 hour ago, dbagg said:

Last year or so my legs get super hot and I'll almost fall asleep when it seems to hit.  Once it starts it goes on all night and I never really fall asleep, just lay there and sweat.  Any ideas?

https://sleep.me/product/cube-sleep-system
 

Worth every penny. 

[nnm 36961]

[troph 24929]

Fuck I just went through 16 weeks of insomnia and just now found this thread. Why it’s in lulz is beyond me.

Started with Covid then entrenched asthma like symptoms for 12 weeks then 6 weeks of back to back withdrawals from prednisone (on high doses for about a month) then Xanax (on it for about two months) holy hell that was a bitch and back to back to back severe anxiety and insomnia. Sleep was buttfucked wrecked so bad. Many zero hour nights. More under 4 hour nights than I could count. I’m finally on a nice stretch of two weeks of decent sleep but PTSD all over. 
 

hydroxyzine has helped a lot, but in weaning off that now.

Valerian root is good, some consider it a natural Xanax. Who are we kidding there is no other Xanax. But it works I like it.

magnesium glycinate is good.

i take body health “sleep” that has all the amino acids and neurotransmitter precursors. It’s good.

and 150mg of hemp oil.

i don’t take all of these at the same time but they are slowly turning it around for me.

 Insomnia suuuuuucks.

[bolverk 29828]

1 hour ago, troph said:

Fuck I just went through 16 weeks of insomnia and just now found this thread. Why it’s in lulz is beyond me.

Started with Covid then entrenched asthma like symptoms for 12 weeks then 6 weeks of back to back withdrawals from prednisone (on high doses for about a month) then Xanax (on it for about two months) holy hell that was a bitch and back to back to back severe anxiety and insomnia. Sleep was buttfucked wrecked so bad. Many zero hour nights. More under 4 hour nights than I could count. I’m finally on a nice stretch of two weeks of decent sleep but PTSD all over. 
 

hydroxyzine has helped a lot, but in weaning off that now.

Valerian root is good, some consider it a natural Xanax. Who are we kidding there is no other Xanax. But it works I like it.

magnesium glycinate is good.

i take body health “sleep” that has all the amino acids and neurotransmitter precursors. It’s good.

and 150mg of hemp oil.

i don’t take all of these at the same time but they are slowly turning it around for me.

 Insomnia suuuuuucks.

It really, really does. And that PTSD-type aspect about it is what makes it so bad. Once the thought enters your head that you're going to have a hard time sleeping, it's hard to shake, and, of course, the anxiety from that fear prevents you from falling asleep.

Like I said on the previous page, sleep podcasts and the like have finally turned the corner for me. In addition to the ones mentioned, I've since discovered one called "Fall of Civilizations" by an English guy with a soothing voice. Each lasts 1+ hours, and he tells the story of various ancient civilizations from their rise to their fall. It works like a charm every time.

Now, I do also take B12, magnesium glycinate, and melatonin close to bedtime, but I have been able to ditch other meds. I also tend to run a fan for the white noise with air blowing over my face/head.

The combination of the podcasts, vitamins, and a fan has so far proven to be a successful combo over the last couple of years. Sometimes I'll throw in some THC-A if I'm feeling especially squirrely (i.e., anxious) before bedtime.

Sorry about all your troubles, Troph.

[troph 24929]

I’m on a decent roll, slept well last night. 
 

I forgot to mention ketamine infusions and a stellate ganglion block for anxiety and ptsd. Not sure if our sleep issues are truly caused by ptsd so YMMV but I had enough of a cluster of issues that both treatments were warranted and they have been instrumental. 
 

yes to white noise and podcasts, the fictitious baseball games sound awesome.

[Pods 7594]

A friend of mine got me a lectrofan white noise machine and that thing is fucking amazing. 

https://www.soundofsleep.com/lectrofan/#lectrofan-classic

Not only does it not pause and repeat the loop, but there are 20 different sound settings. 10 white noise settings and 10 different fan sounds, all at different frequencies. Paired up with a fairly large speaker. 

There are 2 industrial fan sounds that are low frequency and far more effective for me than any other white noise machine, or fan, that I have heard of. 

 

[Pods 7594]

Another thing that's worked for me is using binaural beats. It works especially well for anxiety and I also use it during the day periodically to help me de-escalate and de-stress. 

It plays a different frequency sound into each ear and the brain interpolates a third sound that kind of fuses the two. This can be any pitch, the binaural beats part is that they are separated by a specific frequency, usually based on the wavelength of brain waves associated with a particular activity. 

6 Hz is a sweet spot for me, it's a wavelength our brain produces when it's in relaxation and transitioning to sleep.

Like the sound machine I mentioned above, it works best for me if it's a low frequency, so I use one with 2 low frequency sounds, separated by 6 Hz. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/6-hertz/1652720399?i=1652720401

@troph If you are comfortable talking about it more, I'd be interested in hearing more about your experience with ketamine infusions and the stellate ganglion block. I've got anxiety, PTSD and chronic pain issues disc replacement didn't fix, so I brought up ketamine infusions with my doc. He said ketamine makes anxiety worse and wouldn't consider it. I've read other people who have gotten anxiety relief from it, so it's something I'm considering bringing up again.