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I have slept a total of 5 hours in 6 days. What's wrong with me?

Posted by jdwspecial @jdwspecial, Jun 29 7:09am

I'm on day 7 with an acute onset of near total insomnia. I have slept a collective of 5 hours in these past 6 nights and I'm not sure I can go much longer like this.

I need to sleep and I'm completely exhausted but I just can't cross over into sleep no matter what I try. All I do is lay there, terribly tired with my eyes closed for hours on end only to watch the daylight peek through my window without sleeping. On the nights that I do sleep, it's maybe 1 hour and only after 4am comes around.

6/22/2024 - It started with a mild cold that kept me awake most of the night . This cold was annoying but nothing too bad. I slept poorly but got 3 or 4 hours.
6/23/2024 - The next day, I took a melatonin before bedtime and slept 6 hours or so. I felt fine this day and had a great cardio workout.
6/24/2024 - This is when it hit me. I did not sleep; not 1 minute and it seemed to come out of nowhere. As I laid there, my mind was racing and my heart rate was 20 bpm above normal. When I moved, it spoked to 110 bpm and seemed to pound.
6/25/2024 - By this day I am exhausted and needed to take the day off from work. I thought I could sleep off the cold I was fighting and catch up on sleep. When I tried to nap around 10am, I slept 1 hour but only after laying there for 90 minutes trying. When night fell, I had zero hours of sleep. Nothing, nadda.
6/26/2024 - I'm getting a bit scared. This isn't normal and I've never had this happen to me. I decide to go to the walk-in clinic. The doctor listens to me and concludes I'm having sleep-anxiety and prescribes Trazodone. When night came, I took the meds which seemed to make my hear race but I did feel very relaxed. Despite this, I got maybe 1-2 hours that night.
6/27/2024 - I'm starting to loose my mind but still have hope that the Trazodone will work. I take the meds that night and again I cannot sleep until 4 am rolls around and then it's only 1-2 hours.
6/28/2024 - I'm a zombie all day but after some reading I decide not to continue the meds and try Theanine and magnesium. As night fell, I took the Theanine and magnesium and oh boy, I cannot sleep, not 1 minute.

So here I am pleading for help. I don't know what's happening to me and I'm well into the stage of extreme anxiety. I've read about CBT-I, I'm doing the things like meditation, breathing, relaxation, exercise, meds, supplements, etc but nothing helps. Any time I lay down now, my heart races, my chest gets butterflies and I can't sleep. It's like I've completely lost the ability to turn off and my body is dumping adrenalin into my brain. I'm worried that the worst is in the cards for me if this continues.

Can someone help me figure this out?

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ripley | @ripley | Jul 2 11:12am
In reply to @1fancydancer "Zolpidem Tartrate 10 MG. Generic for Ambien. Most Dr's will only prescribe 5 MG but that..." + (show)
@1fancydancer

Zolpidem Tartrate 10 MG. Generic for Ambien. Most Dr's will only prescribe 5 MG but that doesn't work on me.
I also wake up during every surgery/procedure that I have ever had. Takes more than the usual person for me. If you are over 60 most dr's will not prescribe it because of fall issues. ex. getting up in the night to pee and falling. I was 41 when I started taking it and now am 68. I don't have many of the side effects that I did when I first started taking it. I guess that I have taken it so long I can function better than my husband when we have a fire alarm go off in the middle of the night or the buglar alarm (it is usually the deer eating my azaleas and rubbing their nose on the window. ) But their are some when you first start and continue for a couple of years. Within 10 minutes you will be asleep. As the years go by, you learn to adjust because it takes 2 hours to work at this point. I don't set an alarm either. I get up when I wake up - - - lucky me. 7 - 8 hours every night and rarely wake up in the night. Medicare will not pay for it because it is a controlled substance. It is cheap and I love my life therefore need to sleep. Sleeping is super important, particularly for us older folks. They have found a connection between dimentia and not sleeping but then again they found that with over-the-counter heart burn medication as well. Good luck. I know how you feel and it is super scary. Talk to your Dr. It's important to sleep. Tried Melatonin didn't work for me nor did any other all natural remedy Again, talk to your Dr. I do have an underlying issue with Cortisol.

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Could you explain more about your issue with Cortisol? I was recently tested for my osteoporosis and results showed I have high cortisol. I'm still waiting to hear back from my Dr about this. I believe it's a big reason for my chronic insomnia.

REPLY
1fancydancer | @1fancydancer | Jul 2 12:45pm

My body clock is flipped. I could be a night shift worker without meds. I think Menopause flipped it. I slept like a log before that. My body likes staying up to 3 or 4 in the morning and then I go to sleep and want to sleep until 10:00 in the morning. I was tested by an endocrinologist at 2:00 in the afternoon via a blood test. He said my cortisol was fine. Key is 2:oo in the afternoon. Previously I had gone to an all natural gynecologist doctor that had me do a test until 2 or 3 in the morning. I ate certain things at night not sure why but can't remember what it was because I did this 25 years ago. I then would swab my mouth and stick it in a test tube. Apparently the test came back that my cortisol was at its lowest point at 6:00 AM (supposed to be at highest point at that time) and then around 10:00 at night it started going up. At night your cortisol should be going down and at a low point. I know that the cortisol test was correct because I feel myself start perking up at 10:00 at night and ready to start cleaning the house. I just let that go with the current endro dr because I have too much else to deal with like breathing on a daily basis. I think my general practitioner dr feels sorry for me because I have so much to deal with and lets me enjoy my sleep. It is really the only time that I breath good and am totally at peace with life. My good nights sleep helps me cope with all of the Bronchictisis, constant bacterial infections and asthma issues better. Maybe a sleep Dr could do the test for cortisol on you. It could very well be your reason for not sleeping. However, Doctors have been taught that the reason people don't sleep is stress and mental issues. Mine was menopause onset. I am 68 and still have to take hormone therapy for hot flashes. My mom still had hot flashes in her 80's. Hormony therapy helps but with a bacterial infection the meds counteract a lot of the time my thyroid and hormone medication. It is never ending.

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