Is anyone else getting 2 or 3 hours sleep a night right now?

[Sleepdrifter]

I'm keeping active with my life, at least what's left of it, walk everywhere (walked around 7km today), take natural relaxation pills, eat a heavy meal and have a warm glass of milk before bed like always, and no sleep at all until maybe 7-9am. Only thing that works is heavy drinking. I am going for days with 90 minutes of sleep and a 20 minute nap for weeks. My mind gets the worst headaches or "sensations" . This isn't possible, the human body is supposed to shut down right!???

 

[Julgran]

I'm keeping active with my life, at least what's left of it, walk everywhere (walked around 7km today), take natural relaxation pills, eat a heavy meal and have a warm glass of milk before bed like always, and no sleep at all until maybe 7-9am. Only thing that works is heavy drinking. I am going for days with 90 minutes of sleep and a 20 minute nap for weeks. My mind gets the worst headaches or "sensations" . This isn't possible, the human body is supposed to shut down right!???

The things that you do during the day and evening sound wholesome.

Is there something else that's bothering you, and thus made you become a member in this community?

I'm only asking because you mentioned drinking, and I have been in that hole. I started drinking in order to be able to fall sleep, but the drinking caused me to only be able to sleep for a few hours from about 7 to 11 PM, which means that I was awake the whole night until I went to bed after work at 7 PM the next day. This sleeping pattern went on for several weeks before I visited a doctor.

If you can, try medication instead of drinking. Personally, I have found that Mirtazapin works quite good for falling asleep soundly.

 

[Sleepdrifter]

The things that you do during the day and evening sound wholesome.

Is there something else that's bothering you, and thus made you become a member in this community?

I'm only asking because you mentioned drinking, and I have been in that hole. I started drinking in order to be able to fall sleep, but the drinking caused me to only be able to sleep for a few hours from about 7 to 11 PM, which means that I was awake the whole night until I went to bed after work at 7 PM the next day. This sleeping pattern went on for several weeks before I visited a doctor.

If you can, try medication instead of drinking. Personally, I have found that Mirtazapin works quite good for falling asleep soundly.

There's stuff bothering me, but not in such a way it is keeping me thinking constantly. Don't want to take any more medication tbh, the withdrawals from mirtazapin were horrific, it was like being zapped with a power cord in the brain!

Usually my go to is exercise, a heavy meal, and relaxing ambient sounds like rain. Nothing works!! I literally just there getting too bored until I watch scifi stuff. I'll be awake from 9pm until 8pm the FOLLOWING day. Maybe get 15 minutes sleep. Stay awake until 7am, sleep until maybe 9am. I feel like I start dreaming during the day. It is really fucked up. Might see a doctor

 

[lofticries]

Have you tried avoiding all computer screens and phone screens 2hrs before bed. Also a diet high in caffeine and sugar could be disrupting your sleep.

 

[BitterlyAlive_]

I understand what you're going through - it's hell. I went through a period where I only got two or three broken hours of sleep a night, I remember one especially bad week where I got 9 hours of sleep total. I think this went on for about a year?

I don't know what made it ease up, to be honest. I wish I had some advice for you. It sounds like you're trying to do things right, I don't blame you for drinking to get some sleep. I really hope something changes and you can sleep again too.

 

[FinalDestiny]

Here's what I would do differently if I were re-experiencing this from the beginning;

1. Take account of any recent changes in your life. The pandemic has been hard on us all so be sure to take into account things you may be subconsciously avoiding or even very minor changes that you may have brushed off.
   
   
2. Spend some time talking yourself through each change (would be helpful to have another person to do this with but it can be done solo). Figure out your stance on the event. Try to get an understanding of whether you're acknowledging it and its impact on you or if you are trying to purposefully avoid it.
   
   
3. When you wake up from your 2 hour nap, try to gauge your mental state. This may be hard because you might be still half-asleep but, this is the best time I feel to get truthful responses from your subconscious. By "gauge" I mean to psychoanalyze yourself;
   • Did you have a nightmare or a dream?
   • Are you feeling exhausted still or are you feeling rested?
   • Do you feel any different waking up this time than you do from the last "restful" sleep you had?
     
4. Finally, start a journal for your emotional well-being. It will help you keep track of patterns that may reveal reactions to external stimuli.

I've also had a period of about a year and a half where I could only sleep for about two hours a night. I always had bad sleep habits so I never paid much attention to it.

At the time I had no idea myself that I was worried about any specific issue. I was working out, eating healthily, living a pretty balanced and healthy lifestyle.
It did eventually cause a lot of other issues such as hallucinations (auditory) and some unnecessarily aggressive overreactions.

Now that I've had some time to gather myself and really process what I had been going through. I feel like it was a direct symptom of stress from the prior (not current) president's agendas and my idea of where the country is heading overall.
In addition to the above, I also had some direct stressors from two traumatic triggers from unexpected events in my life.

I think you currently aren't able to sleep for a reason. And if this is a brand new symptom, it may not be immediately impacting your health but slowly you may find your mental state deteriorating.
I'm not trying to scare you, rather I am just trying to stay grounded with perspective of my experience with this.

Good luck, I hope you can figure out what's going on!

 

[Julgran]

There's stuff bothering me, but not in such a way it is keeping me thinking constantly. Don't want to take any more medication tbh, the withdrawals from mirtazapin were horrific, it was like being zapped with a power cord in the brain!

Usually my go to is exercise, a heavy meal, and relaxing ambient sounds like rain. Nothing works!! I literally just there getting too bored until I watch scifi stuff. I'll be awake from 9pm until 8pm the FOLLOWING day. Maybe get 15 minutes sleep. Stay awake until 7am, sleep until maybe 9am. I feel like I start dreaming during the day. It is really fucked up. Might see a doctor

I see. It seems like you need to deal with the root problem that's bothering you, instead. Such relaxing ambient sounds don't help much if you keep ruminating about serious problem while trying to relax, for example.

Good luck to you!

 

[summers]

Yup, running 750mg/day dnp. So between sweating like a pig and having a constant headache, the best I get is about 3-4 hours throughout the day. At the same time, down 11lbs in 7 days.

 

[Sleepdrifter]

Yup, running 750mg/day dnp. So between sweating like a pig and having a constant headache, the best I get is about 3-4 hours throughout the day. At the same time, down 11lbs in 7 days.

Ouch

Have you tried avoiding all computer screens and phone screens 2hrs before bed. Also a diet high in caffeine and sugar could be disrupting your sleep.

Don't drink coffee, not even caffeinated tea, and only the occasional honey. Been surrounded by computer screens all my life.. probably fallen asleep in front of them more than without

Here's what I would do differently if I were re-experiencing this from the beginning;

1. Take account of any recent changes in your life. The pandemic has been hard on us all so be sure to take into account things you may be subconsciously avoiding or even very minor changes that you may have brushed off.
   
   
2. Spend some time talking yourself through each change (would be helpful to have another person to do this with but it can be done solo). Figure out your stance on the event. Try to get an understanding of whether you're acknowledging it and its impact on you or if you are trying to purposefully avoid it.
   
   
3. When you wake up from your 2 hour nap, try to gauge your mental state. This may be hard because you might be still half-asleep but, this is the best time I feel to get truthful responses from your subconscious. By "gauge" I mean to psychoanalyze yourself;
   • Did you have a nightmare or a dream?
   • Are you feeling exhausted still or are you feeling rested?
   • Do you feel any different waking up this time than you do from the last "restful" sleep you had?
4. Finally, start a journal for your emotional well-being. It will help you keep track of patterns that may reveal reactions to external stimuli.

Honestly it is probably simpler than that. I left a job recently because the day/night shift work was messing up my head too bad, went to a temp job with easy 9-5 but they let me go leaving me unexpectantly unemployed. This is stressful but contingencies are always in place for that. I have spent a lot of time drunk and unemployed. However if I'm not drinking - it's not possible to get more than 2 or 3 hours in per night. Sometimes less. It is probably the summer heat or climate. I just didn't know you could have so little sleep for several days and still function. My understanding was that you would die, go insane or somewhere in between after a while.

 

[veryhappyhuman]

You sure it isn't the heavy meal that's messing up your digestion and hence keeping you awake?

I read some people have also tried melatonin as a sleep aide. It's naturally produced by the body so not exactly a drug. Maybe worth a shot.