Tips to help sleep: so many of us have that awful withdrawal insomnia

[brassmonkey]

Unfoldingsky--- I never sleep without ear plugs.  The foam ones are fairly comfortable and really help cut out the household noise.

[UnfoldingSky]

Hi US,

 

RERAs stand for respiratory event related arousals.   Do you have a copy of our sleep study report because if they were scored, it should be mentioned.   But even if it isn't, it might not hurt to call and ask to speak to someone about that.  I have asked my question of the head sleep tech as she is the one who does the initial interpretation.   But each sleep center is different as to who you ask.

 

Here is more information on Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome in which RERAs take place.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_airway_resistance_syndrome

 

And by the way, many people with UARS were misdiagnosed with depression as an FYI.   May not be applicable in your case but I wanted to mention this.   Unfortunately, depression is blamed on any sleep issue in which there isn't an explanation.   Sickening as heck.

 

I would definitely repeat the test, particularly if you think UARS is applicable.  Of course, you would have to make sure a lab tested for it but first things first.

 

Hi comp,

 

Hope you are doing well, thanks for your help.  I don't have a copy of my study.  Interesting that they misdiagnose it as depression.  I wonder if there is anything they don't diagnose as depression now..Ugh.  I had a study done years ago and recall they said I wasn't sleeping well and kept waking up but couldn't say from what.  I wonder now how that was impacting me and if this was a factor.  Doctor tried to say I had a food allergy but I wasn't sure where he was getting that from.  Didn't explain anything to me, how that would impact sleep...So it seemed like a waste of time.  

 

I may call the lab there. 

[UnfoldingSky]

Hi US,

 

I wonder if your cortisol patterns haven't recovered yet from your taper? Just an idea. There is a new book out called the Adrenal Reset Diet that is about much more than diet, but pretty readable. Has a big section on sleep. But I am quite sure there aren't any magic bullets

 

I don't dream normally. It can be probably from a million things, especially drugs, but it is considered a symptom of pyrolle disorder, an alternative medicine diagnosis, if you want to look into it.

 

Sweet dreams!

 

Hey thanks Meimei, you too!

 

I will take a look at the adrenal reset diet.  I've heard of pyrolle but honestly forget what it is, I will look that up too.  Someone else I know barely dreams so maybe would be helpful for either of us or both.  Thanks for the tips!

 

US

[UnfoldingSky]

Unfoldingsky--- I never sleep without ear plugs.  The foam ones are fairly comfortable and really help cut out the household noise.

 

HI brassmonkey, thanks for the tip.  I tried ear plugs a while ago and they never worked out.  There can be so much noise here that they won't stop it, plus unfortunately they hurt my ears.  I am glad they are working for you though!

[compsports]

 

Hi US,

 

RERAs stand for respiratory event related arousals.   Do you have a copy of our sleep study report because if they were scored, it should be mentioned.   But even if it isn't, it might not hurt to call and ask to speak to someone about that.  I have asked my question of the head sleep tech as she is the one who does the initial interpretation.   But each sleep center is different as to who you ask.

 

Here is more information on Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome in which RERAs take place.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_airway_resistance_syndrome

 

And by the way, many people with UARS were misdiagnosed with depression as an FYI.   May not be applicable in your case but I wanted to mention this.   Unfortunately, depression is blamed on any sleep issue in which there isn't an explanation.   Sickening as heck.

 

I would definitely repeat the test, particularly if you think UARS is applicable.  Of course, you would have to make sure a lab tested for it but first things first.

 

Hi comp,

 

Hope you are doing well, thanks for your help.  I don't have a copy of my study.  Interesting that they misdiagnose it as depression.  I wonder if there is anything they don't diagnose as depression now..Ugh.  I had a study done years ago and recall they said I wasn't sleeping well and kept waking up but couldn't say from what.  I wonder now how that was impacting me and if this was a factor.  Doctor tried to say I had a food allergy but I wasn't sure where he was getting that from.  Didn't explain anything to me, how that would impact sleep...So it seemed like a waste of time.  

 

I may call the lab there. 

 

HI US,

 

Definitely ask for an explanation since frequent wake ups are a definite symptom of UARS.   May or may not be applicable in yoru case but you definitely need to find out.

 

Hmm, was that doctor who claimed you had a food allergy taking that out of thin air since that can't be diagnosed from a sleep study?  WTF?

 

You also might want to ask for a copy of the study.  Forgot if I mentioned this but normally, they will give you a condensed report.   If that doesn't provide anough information, ask for the entire one which normally is about 10 pages.  You might have to shift through alot of information that is meaningless to you but it sounds like you definitely need answers on this.

[Nathalou]

I recently introduced myself as I am new to this forum. I tapered too quickly if six years if sertraline and started experiencing symptoms two months after last pill. This has led to insomnia as i was freaked out by my physical symptoms (headache, dizziness, nausea,...)and my anxiety heightened. Since ten days I have had about two nights of full sleep. The insomnia has become a viciuos cycle. I start to have heart palpitations in the evening in bed because i start to stress about...not sleeping. My heart races, my syltomach aches, i fear no sleep and think about the next day morning when i must work.

 

What can i do to cut this vicious cycle? I try meditation, breathing, herbal teas, dark room, etc etc... Must break the cycle!! Want so badly to take a xanax just to sleep but resist.

 

Am thinking of melatonin? Wish i could just drift off naturaly to deep restoring sleep like before...never had this problem!

[pepper59]

This happens to me, too. I took the xanax and within months I was still having it plus add hooked on xanax. 

 

I have an app called iSleep Easy that I listen to. I find it very helpful. I like the autogenic relaxation session. I tell myself I must stay awake for the whole session and find myself dosing off before it ends. There are lots of other options, and options for background sounds, too, that can continue all night or fade after time. I think I am hooked on it just like I am hooked on the xanax!

[Nathalou]

It's 02,40 AM where i live (europe) and i'm in my living room, soft light, chamomile tea and good book. When i'm not in bed my anxiety eases but get back to it and my heart races again! *sigh*

[dalsaan]

Hi Nathalou,

 

I broke this cycle by focussing on relaxing rather than trying to sleep.  I found if I relaxed through the night I was more functional the next day and it had the added benefit of giving me a greater chance of drifting off.    I also listen to a sleep hypnosis app and it works for me.

 

There is a lot of discussion on sleep on this thread and I recommend you read it - http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/604-important-topics-about-symptoms-including-sleep-problems/

 

It may be that we move this topic over to that thread anyway

 

Dalsaan

[Altostrata]

This is not a strictly psychological problem, it is a common withdrawal symptom.

 

Merged our many similar topics. Please read the community wisdom above.

 

Also see Early-morning waking with panic or anxiety

[justwanttobefree]

Ugh I am so freaked out right now. In the past I used to have racing disjointed images flash through my mind on overdrive while trying to fall asleep and it scared me so much. Last night my thoughts were all in cartoon and they didn't even feel like mine AT ALL. I was wide awake with my eyes closed trying to sleep and I just had the weirdest thoughts of getting possessed or people coming out of me and I am terrified today. Have been off prozac for 5 months so not sure if this is withdrawal or what. I just woke up and have a terrible headache and feels like I didn't sleep a wink

[brassmonkey]

Hi justwanttobefree--  racing twilight thoughts can be a major pain in the a** but they are nothing to be afraid of.  They have a habit of overstating the obvious but in a vailled and symbolic way.  Many years ago I nearly died of a gangrenous Gaul Bladder.  After two operations, one to remove it and one to clean up the resulting infections, I remember laying in bed semi asleep and watching the the legends of H*** crossing a bridge out of my body.  It was quite frightening but marked the point where I knew I would recover.  The possession and people exiting your body are the same sort of thing.  There will be many changes taking place in your mind and body, many of them will be frightening but they will all be for the better.  The trick is to not let them upset you.

 

Thank you for causing me to write such a cathartic post.  I am sitting here raining tears thinking back on that dream twenty some years ago and how it marked so many positive changes in my life.

[Skyler]

6 Food Swaps to Make for Better Sleep

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/self/6-food-swaps-to-make-for-better-sleep_b_6746912.html

Edited March 14, 2015 by Petunia
added title from merged topic

[alex]

After 31 months of W/D and struggle with broken sleep,in this last wave my sleep has deteriorated to the point I haven`t slept a wink for several nights now.

Instead of getting better, it is worse than ever.

Puzzled,exhausted and sad about this f***n situation.

Anyone can relate?

[LoveandLight]

I'm not at the stage of you..but not being able to sleep just seems one of the awful symptoms...whereas sleeping would be such a relief..

[stan]

hi,

 

i write my testimony in beginning of this topic,

 

today, 6 years without any meds,

i still sleep in morning, as i have prostate, i awake each hour and as i have severe dry mouth, eyes, i drink a little water, what improved is i can lie horizontal, with back pains, but lie, first years i could not, too much pains in back, and chest, ribcage, and nasty nerves shocks, but my sleep cycles are still destroyed...and many nightmare, bad dreams,

Before taking paxil, i slept 9 hours, night, as an angel, only had sometimes some anxiety in places not secure such where i see bad boys, in Paris, but i avoid these  places or situations, and i was fine, working nice, happy

[DLB]

Alex, I have same issues as you with sleep. I can remember long ag I used to be able to nap in the day but now I get jolted up when I try. Been like that for whole time on paxil. At night I have some real bad nights of only 2 hours sleep but I function well for some reason. Most nights are 3-4 hours of broken sleep with the occasional 6-7 once a month. This has been going on since August and I am unfortunately used to it. Most people wrie of the horrible anxiety in the morning with these wake ups but I get none. It's just waking and sitting there for hours till I have to get up. I read your entire intro and am sure you will beat these waves of insomnia, just hang on.

[Wildflower0214]

Ya. Last three nights, two of them have been ZERO sleep. Cortisol surging. Burning. Awful. I don't know what to do.

[alex]

I am afraid at 31 months off, instead of getting better, I am loosing the ability to sleep....

Has anyone tried L-theanine??

I really need some help here.

[alex]

In the last month, and after 32 months off, my sleep has deteriorated so badly that I am sleeping very bad just every other night;the rest I'm getting 0 sleep.

That means 15 nights of 0 sleep, and the rest struggling..

This ain't getting any better with time...it's getting worse...

[DLB]

Is it possible that it has become self perpetuating? I know sleep is hard in withdrawal but could your worry make it worse? I know how you feel because when I was first FLOXED and then hit with paxil I literally did not close my eyes for ten days and it was the worst thing ever imaginable. Sometimes when I swear that I am awake now my wife tells me I was snoring , so I think somehow we do sleep sometimes without realizing it. Either way it is also my biggest fear to lose sleep but I can definately GET to sleep but to STAY asleep is a problem. Last night I went to sleep at 10:45 and got up an hour later then asleep again for another hour and awake for another then sleep for half hour then up till work in morning. It is really weird that I can fully function in the day like this when years ago before paxil, if I got 5 hours of sleep at night I was exhausted the next day. Right now I'm doing all the herbal sleep teas before bed and like I said I an get to sleep fairly easy. Do you wake panicking or just wake like I do? Lots of people wake in some form of terror when they have this problem but none at all for me and when I do dream they are pleasant. Hang in there Alex you beat it before. Try OTC sleep meds like doxylamine succinate ,it knocks me out when I need it.

[Meimeiquest]

http://wellnessmama.com/4936/improve-sleep-naturally/. I am sharing this blog post because of the section about the " dive" at the end. I did three or four rounds of face- in-ice water last night and it actually did seem to help a bit. One night doesn't say much, and I think it could be too shocking for someone with intense symptoms, but it's an option.

[Lilu]

I found an excellent site all about insomnia, which thoroughly explains what happens when hyper-arousal is involved in causing insomnia.

http://www.insomnia-free.com/revisiting-hyperarousal.html

The hyper-arousal is of course a symptom of something else. For most of us here it's caused by withdrawal from psych meds. However, it also made me realize that it can be caused by sleep-anxiety. I've been dealing with debilitating persistant insomnia for over 7 months now, and have developed quite a bit of anxiety about it.

http://www.insomnia-free.com/sleep-anxiety.html

Now, I understand why my guided hypnosis for sleep audio sessions make me feel more agitated and anxious. They only add to the pressure of falling asleep. Since no matter what time I go to sleep, I wake up at 5 am or 6 am.

 

What I don't understand is why I'm having a hard time falling asleep lately. I don't feel anxious or overly tense, I'm very sleepy, can't even read, my eyes are so tired. But sleep just doesn't come. I just lay there. Even if I get up many times, I come back to bed, thinking that now I'll fall asleep, but nothing happens. I've resorted to sleeping pills again, but the damn things cause me to have crying spells.  I'm at my wits end. I do deep breathing, progessive muscle relaxation, hypno - nothing seems to help.   Help!!

[cymbaltawithdrawal5600]

I read your post on another person's thread today and looked at your sig where it says you are off all psychoactive meds since this month and I thought "Hurray for her!"

 

Then I see you post here and say you are still taking sleep meds and I am confused.

 

There are so many things I could say about your experience but I will keep them to myself as you react with negativity every time I try to help.

 

I am sorry to hear you are still having problems.

 

For me, the key was in this statement:

 

 

Since no matter what time I go to sleep, I wake up at 5 am or 6 am.

 

That is where to start. I hope you get it sorted some day.

[Altostrata]

Lilu, many people naturally wake at 5 a.m. or 6 a.m.

 

It sounds like your body is telling you it wants to adapt to an early riser schedule. You may find as you work with this a while, your sleep pattern will become more flexible.

[Lilu]

I went off of everything, and things were improving. I was dealing with waking up early. But recently I started having problems falling asleep. Had a night of no sleep and wound up having crying spells all next day. The next night, after I couldn't fall asleep again, I took Klonopin. I was able to sleep for a few nights, but then another sleepless night. The point in my post above is not that I'm waking up early. 5am or 6 am is a huge improvement from waking up at 2 am or 3 am or 4 am. It is the fact that something else seems to be happening. My nervous systems seems to be going into hyperalert state when I go to bed. Even if I feel very sleepy, I just can't fall asleep. The hyperalert state is very sutble. It's like quiet tension. I don't feel super anxious, but obviously I am. Often when I attempt deep breathing exercises or sleep hypnosis, that is when I become more agitated and alert.  This inability to fully relax and go to sleep seems to follow any type of stress, even something positive, like going to a party. It's like, the smallest stress or anxiety and my body goes into full flight or fight response.

 

I took the meds because all my attempts at calming myself down weren't working and I was desperate to sleep. I'm a total wreck when I don't sleep.  However, thanks to that article on Hyperarousal, I kind of see how even efforts to calm myself down, like hypnosis or guided meditations, ever progressive muscle relaxation - how these can backfire if I have sleep anxiety and am watching the clock and worrying about missing on sleep.  

 

Honestly, I'm not entirely sure if even that's what's going on. I often feel perfectly relaxed and sleepy, go to bed, and sleep just doesn't come. If I try to do something else, like read, I can't. My eyes keep closing, I feel very sleepy. I turn off the lights, snuggle with my body pillow, and...... nothing. Sleep just doesnt come.  I've had so many nights like this, where I resist taking a sleeping pill, and wind up being up all night, getting up a dozen times, having snacks, going back to bed, trying hypnosis, reading, deep breathing, you name it.  I just don't understand what's going on.

[Meimeiquest]

Sometimes I listen to something boring on the radio while trying to go to sleep, either at the beginning of the night or when I wake up. It gives me a "no pressure" feeling of I can listen or not, sleep or not. I set the timer for it to go off in 30 minutes. If I'm still awake then, I know I need to get up for awhile and start over, but after two or so, there's little hope of more sleep. I'm using taurine now which is taking the edge off of that early morning time, I can at least rest. Plus still using a smaller dose of inositol and the ever-needed magnesium, sometimes niacin. I am looking into possible progesterone therapy. But I'm at the age for that possibility, you're not.

[cymbaltawithdrawal5600]

Look up 'paradoxical relaxation response' and see if that gives you a clue to understanding it. Knowing what is going on won't cure it but it gives you a place to start.

[Lilu]

Look up 'paradoxical relaxation response' and see if that gives you a clue to understanding it. Knowing what is going on won't cure it but it gives you a place to start.

Hah! I did look it up. At least now I know that this happens to some people. Found an article explaining this phenomenon

http://homepage.psy.utexas.edu/homepage/class/Psy394Q/Research%20Methods/Assigned%20readings/Experimental%20Research%20Paradigms/Wegner97.pdf

 

So it looks like that's what's been happening to me, and I was making things worse by trying to relax and using all these relaxation and hypnosis tapes. Damn.

[cymbaltawithdrawal5600]

Yep, I was hoping that would spark something. It happened to me. Scariest thing that will ever happen to me, I think and that is putting it mildly.

 

I don't have a complete answer on how I got over it because it is something that has to go away on its own. The trick is to not make it worse and that is why I was so alarmed when you had stated in the past you were using meds for sleep. In my mind, that breaks your sleep even worse and now you just have to wait till those effects are gone.

 

What I do know is that it kind of starts with an acceptance of the condition and a willingness to live through it and to realize the body can exist with rest if sleep doesn't come. You will be getting an entirely different kind of sleep that unfortunately looks nothing like you are used to. I'd have to go back into my thread and look but one of the things I had to give up way lying down to sleep. Lying down and approaching the 'drop off' point would all of a sudden put my body into high alert. So I had to learn to rest in a semi sitting position. I don't know if I marked it in my thread but the first night I could actually lie down and have a few moments of sleep actually happen took a long time. I can't remember if it was weeks or more than that. And it took several months before the house noises ceased to wake me at night.

 

The reason I told you to look at the time is because wd insomnia seems to wake us all up way too early. My theory is that instead of the gradual process (that starts around 4 am or so for most people) it instead becomes a slam and once that happens sleep is done for that 24 hour period. In my case, if a dog barked or the house made a noise around that time, it would jar me awake. I used to become so furious that I would pound on my legs or beat my arms in the most intense anger at my body (not sure why I did not bruise) for betraying me. Then I would jump out of bed and hurl my pillow on the floor and throw my blankets around, the anger was intense. Every damn morning for what seemed like an eternity.

 

So 2 problems: cannot relax to allow the amnesia of sleep and inability to stay asleep during the gradual awakening process. I'll tell you where I am at in the process at the moment. I can fall asleep without problems most nights but I get into bed around 10 pm without fail (give or take). I have to have the tv on very low and on a timer for 60 min (I am trying to reduce that to 30). I generally wake at between 4 to 5:30 and if I don't do anything to disturb the sleepy state (I can go pee but not turn on the computer like I used to have to because I could not go back to sleep), I can come back and resume sleep till about 7:20 am. Right now it is stuck at that time on the clock.

 

What is really interesting is that the time has stayed constant at a little after 7 even after the change to daylight savings. I keep loose track of it and it is crawling ahead slowly: used to be that sleep attempts had to stop at 6:30 am or else I would provoke a nightmare. I don't know why that is and I have never seen anyone else describe it.

 

Lilu, you may not be interested but others might be. I'll try to come back to this thread and jot down the techniques I used to woo sleep if I can remember them. I already gave the first one: sleeping sitting up in bed, reclining on a backrest and a pillow. And being content with consciousness but resting while conscious.

 

Maybe you can list things that worked for you too because you said you were able to stop the drugs for a time. All I know is that it has taken months for my sleep to just get to this point and I won't touch any drugs at all. As far as I know, they make it much worse but only because if they do induce loss of consciousness they do it in a way that the body cannot sustain and learn from.I think you have to do things to re-learn your body how to sleep. That is why the relaxation techniques made it worse. You weren't used to those things and they take thought and consciousness and effort, things that work against sleep. They are good for rest, though, in limited ways.

[WinningThrough]

I'm not sure this is the right thread or not for this question. I hope it is.

 

I talk to someone who has a lot of problems with insomnia. She was on different drugs for years and her problems started on the drugs.

 

She says that if she has a day where she feels better, she can't sleep. If she does sleep, she feels dreadful the next day. She says it's either one thing or the other. Feel well and don't sleep or don't sleep and feel awful. This really bothers her and she says she hasn't managed to come across anyone else with the same thing. I just wondered if anyone else had experienced this pattern?

[DLB]

Ok, the EXACT thing was happening to me and this past month it is better. Tell her it is withdrawal and I for one made note of that particular problem with my sleep.

[DLB]

Its been 7 months so far but slightly better now. Really weird because if i had 2 hours sleep i would feel great and when i slept 5 or 6 it felt like i was hung over. Now 5 is pretty much normal and i am at like .08 mg paxil after almost 15 month taper from 10. I think next week will be my last...

[Lilu]

I am handling the insomnia very badly. After being up all night, I reach for the ambien or lunesta or klonopin. I just can't settle down and dont want to do anything else. I 'm desperate for sleep. On days when I am calm and not stressed out, or when I do something particularly stimulating, I've been able to fall asleep and sleep till 5 or even a little later. For a very long time, 5 am was the wakeup time. Recently it's extended to 6:30 sometimes. But when I can't sleep because of the hyperarousal, I get sleep anxiety, and watch the clock and worry about getting to sleep, cause I know that I'll wake up early, and then sleep just doesn't come. At that point I'm desperate for a pill to knock me out if only for 2 hours.  Unfortunately, with gaba drugs, I get the crying spells the next day.  I swear them off, but in the moment when I'm desperate, I don't care. Last night was a night like that. 4.5 hrs of sleep and I felt terrible all day. 

 

I just don't know what to do about my mind and body going into a hyperalert state from any kind of stimulation, and causing insomnia. I haven't been able to find anything online about this. Has anyone experienced this? Even positive interactions, like going to a party, or spending an exciting day with my boyfriend, and I come home and just can't wind down. After times like this my breathing and my heart rate is fast or racing, I can't relax, my mind is racing... I could be so drowsy, I could barely keep my eyes open, and yet, sleep just doesn't come. Yesterday, I did fall asleep after a day like that, but was tossing and turning so much, it woke me at 1am, and then I couldn't fall back asleep. 

 

If relaxation exercises cause a paradoxical effect and I shouldn't do them, what am I supposed to do, when I'm so desperate to sleep?

[cymbaltawithdrawal5600]

The exercises don't cause the effect, it is your body's abnormal reaction to the relaxation that comes as the body is dropping off to sleep. When I would lie down and start to breathe slowly and start relaxing, all of a sudden my body would start vibrating inside and I would be jolted into a hyperarousal. So to short circuit this, I learned how to lightly rest (without moving) by reclining into a semi-sitting position onto my pillows. I would stay as still as I could and just try to keep my mind from getting agitated.

 

Step one was realizing what was going on and accepting that sleep was going to be elusive until my body healed itself. I had to learn how to 'rest'.

 

Rest is lying quietly and using something to 'drone' my thoughts. I used the Lord's Prayer, over and over and then the 23rd Psalm, repeated over and over. After that phase was over (when I could finally lie down and get brief naps during the night)

 I used the technique of counting backwards from 100 and every morning realized that I had never once, in all those months, never made it all the way to zero. That is how I knew I was actually getting periods of sleep.

 

No sleeping meds. We have all had to get used to going it alone so I know it is doable. Each sleeping med you take makes sleep all that harder to come naturally. Sleeping meds don't cure this. The short term sleep you do manage to get is not restful and restorative and that's why you cry so much - you aren't getting 'rest'.

 

We keep telling you that you can survive quite well without 'sleep' and only getting 'rest'. Alto, Dalsaan and quite a few others of us have lived through this so we know. You just have to start doing it. Or keep taking pills. There aren't any other solutions.

 

This is some of Alto's story, the explanation for the arousal is in it:

 

"Reacting with "fight or flight" to the least stimulation, the dysregulated alerting system causes inappropriate production of the "fight or flight" hormones norepinephrine, noradrenaline, and cortisol. Spurts of elevated cortisol cause many symptoms, from muscle stiffness and pain to waves of anxiety, panic, and despair. CNS instability causes symptoms my doctor calls "autonomic dumping." Excessive glutamatergic activity and inappropriately raised cortisol at night causes the awful withdrawal insomnia.

 

Sleep disorders are very, very common in withdrawal syndrome.

 

The cortisol level may be elevated enough to show up in conventional testing, but since it is not related to adrenal or pituitary tumor, medicine doesn't know what to do with that information.

In my case, because of damage from withdrawal, my alerting setpoint has been set too low -- hyper-vigilance. My doctor calls this a meta-homeostasis.

 

The brain wants to keep us alert to respond to (non-existent) threats, spontaneously sends out waves of anxiety, and wakes us up when we become too inattentive. Tragically, the alerting response is triggered by the relaxation of sleep. This is not a circadian rhythm disorder. It is entirely iatrogenic.

To re-establish the brain's natural ability to sleep, the glutamatergic system has to be gradually tamed. Too strong an intervention, even deep sleep, will cause the meta-homeostasis to increase glutamatergic activity. The paradoxical nature of the condition is particularly hard to understand.

Withdrawal also made me hypersensitive to neurologically active medications and prone to paradoxical reactions. For two years, I was treated with very low-dose Lamictal (1mg) to reduce glutamatergic activity and, at night, 2mg of melatonin at 7pm and low-dose Lyrica at 9pm to induce sleep. I steadily improved, then the Lyrica went paradoxical, triggering the alerting reaction. I suffered a horrible relapse of glutamatergic hyperactivity. For the last 16 months, I have been increasing the Lamictal little by little. 5.4mg now seems to be effective in permitting me 4-5 hours of sleep a night."

 

She was treated with the Lamictal by a sleep specialist, I think it is somewhere in the site. Look for her story or ask her.

[freespirit]

If relaxation exercises cause a paradoxical effect and I shouldn't do them, what am I supposed to do, when I'm so desperate to sleep?

 

I think it's valuable having a number of different strategies, given that the nervous system is so upended by WD. A lot of this is a matter of trying things and seeing what happens as a result.

 

For one thing, you might experiment with what happens if you do some bits of relaxation throughout the day..to see if it helps prevent the overstimulation in the first place. It could be as simple as doing a couple of minutes of slower, deeper breathing or spending some time in nature, or some other relaxation method.

 

I know this goes against everything that people say, but I find sometimes doing things a bit more stimulating in the evening actually helps me rest better. Even though I'm often exhausted by that time, I take a short walk around the block at a slower pace. I play video games at times, right up until bed. Then at least I'm going to bed in a better mood and not spending the evening worrying if I'll sleep or not.

 

For me, making sure that I do some forms of relaxation through the day makes a huge difference. As does doing some form of regular exercise and spending time outside. I find these things help balance my nervous system, even if only temporarily. And it takes away the feelings of helplessness, which only contribute to worsening things within the body/mind. And it also means when things become unstable, I'm more quickly able to move back towards some semblance of balance.

 

Qi gong has been much more doable for me than sitting meditation, especially during periods of agitation. I've done a lot of this practice (sometimes hours at a time) and have not had any negative impact from it. The body is doing gentle movement, which gives the mind something to focus on. Some aspects can be energizing, and some more relaxing..which means I can tailor the practice according to my current needs. There's a link on my introduction.