Ever since I was young, I’ve struggled with insomnia. It’s an absolute son of a bitch and now I absolutely require something to help me sleep. If I don’t, I can be up for 36 hours straight no problem. When I was 17 I started taking gravol (diphenhydramine) because I noticed when I took it, the sedating effects helped me sleep. Fast forward to today, I abuse it. My body’s tolerance has built up over time and this is no exaggeration, I am taking roughly 1.5G to sleep. I will take 30 gel pills then after roughly 45 minutes to an hour I will start feeling shaky, my mouth will go dry, I’ll have difficulties speaking or remembering things, my body will turn red and my heart will speed up.

I am starting to grow more concerned. I am 27 now, and I know I am damaging my body. The pull and desperation for sleep is what I thought drove me to use it. Now, I think this is just substance abuse. There’s been multiple times where I have stopped taking it, or my dosage/tolerance has dropped back down to only 4 50mg gel pills. The point at which I decided that this is enough has come from the past month. I have been taking nearly 30, 50mg gel capsules and my max dose has been 36 capsules, 1.8g. I’ve had multiple nights where I’ll completely lose my ability to think, or remember anything at all. My body will twitch and move violently. My finger tips become dry, same as my mouth, and I will vomit while I still struggle to move normally. These only happen within the first 4 hours.

I know the class of antihistamine blocks acetylcholine, inhibiting attention and memory. The hangover the next day from it now doesn’t really happen. My body has grown so tolerant. The purpose of this post is to find someone else who has gone through this as well. I have found so many articles about individuals taking massive amounts of diphenhydramine in an attempt to get high, but never taking large doses consistently.

I know my memory has taken a blow from all of this. I think I am coming to the realization that no, I do not take diphenhydramine to help me sleep. I abuse diphenhydramine and sleep just happens to be a side effect of that abuse. I am unsure on what to do moving forward. 10 years of abuse doesn’t just go away in a day.

Let me know of your experiences, or other folks you know that have been in this situation before. Thank you!

lve had insomnia for 8 years and only sleep 3 hours a night ever since a brain injury. Feel free to ask me any questions because I will not be sleeping for a while.

This post isn’t to inflame coffee drinkers or caffeine lovers. I am not advocating caffeine withdrawal, because it really sucks! I dearly miss my morning coffee and I am definitely more sluggish waking up in the morning now.

But… it’s week 2 and I’m sleeping a lot better, a solid 6-7 hours every night. I am not super irritable and don’t want to stab the whole world because I got 3 hours of sleep. I’m starting to feel like there is hope. My wife sort of likes me again so that’s a plus.

I’m not a scientist or a doctor, so take my advice with a grain of salt, but I think there is a small percentage of us who have very sensitive nervous systems who could benefit from being caffeine free. I hope this helps some of you.

Hi, I'm starting an orexin antagonist tomorrow. I'm desperately at the end of my rope. I can't drive or work or be around anyone because the insomnia has made my functioning and anxiety so bad. I can't do this anymore. I've tried everything aside from this class of meds and I'm just hoping for a positive story. I have severe sleep maintenance insomnia and it's ruining my life. I have heart problems and I'm prediabetic. I can't take this anymore.

I am utterly exhausted, not falling asleep until 4-7 am and only sleeping 1-3 hours broken up. I’m dizzy, emotional, and this couldn’t be happening at a worse time. Im not a great sleeper to begin with, but I go through severe bouts of insomnia 1-2x a year. Usually brought on by stress or something interrupting my sleep for more than a few days in a row. I have a botched nose from a septoplasty that resulted in bilateral nasal valve collapses, so my breathing has been detrimental to my sleep. Intake strips are a lifesaver, but I stupidly went a few weeks without them and kicked myself into this insomnia phase. It’ll last several weeks until it resides. I say terrible timing because I’m going on a road trip in a couple days. I’ll be driving 5-10 hour days, plus going on a hike in summer heat. Idk how I can get through this with my dizziness and exhaustion. so I figured It’s an emergency last resort, but it’s time to get on ambien for the next week, as it helps like clockwork when I’ve been prescribed.

I got in a visit with a doctor today (my policy has an open hmo plan and my original pcp is booked out). The guy was nice but he wouldn’t prescribe me ambien. I told him ive taken almost everything supplement wise, otc and lots of prescriptions and ambien has been thr only thing that works. So he said he’ll put me on trazadone. Isn’t that the most generic thing that gets prescribed for insomnia? Did he not listen to me? I told him it doesn’t work. He said he won’t prescribe ambien as the first option. He then prescribed me 25mg doxepin, since I hadnt taken it before. I told him drugs that target GABA work, unlike the antidepressants, but he said it’s a different mechanism from other drugs so let’s try that, and if 25mg doesn’t work tonight then up it to 50mg the following night (where I’m driving 10 hours the next day).

From what I’ve read, the dose isn’t standard for insomnia, but I do have anxiety so maybe that’s why he prescribed it? But the hangover effects are scaring me. Why couldn’t he just prescribe ambien? I need it for one week!! I asked if the 50mg doesn’t work then what and he said to call back. But I don’t have time to give 2 days of testing the drug. I want what I know works for this trip, where its a literal safety risk if I don’t sleep and the solution is ambien without any trials.
So I cried when I left and feel hopeless. I’m going to call the office tomorrow and say it didnt work (assuming it doesn’t) and see if they’ll switch to what I need. Maybe I can try to find another doctor who will help me tomorrow. I’m on a serious time crunch and so freaking tired, and it’s so frustrating because there’s a very simple fix to it all. Just here to rant because I hate how hopeless I feel when doctors have the answer but are gatekeeping it to protect themselves. I think if I find another doctor tomorrow I’ll end up just crying to them.

Hi guys,

After a year of SEVERE insomnia and reading pretty much every post on this sub, I feel like I finally understand a little better what might be happening to me.

Context: I’m 31F, and I’ve had trouble sleeping since I was 16. I always needed sleeping pills, and whenever my insomnia lasted more than 3 nights, I would end up having a severe bout of insomnia and running to a psychiatrist for Tercian (an antipsychotic medication also used for sleep).

I somehow managed to keep my insomnia under control until my late 20s/early 30s, while taking 3–4 antihistamines a night. Eventually, I would fall asleep 2–3 hours later, as long as I was alone. I’ve always had a very hard time sleeping next to anyone.

It was manageable — until last year.

My long-distance boyfriend broke up with me to be with someone else, and from that point on, I completely lost my ability to sleep.

During the worst period, I barely slept 2 hours over 7 days. Some people and even some doctors didn’t believe me. I would still go to work and literally faint from exhaustion, until eventually my body and mind completely gave up and I was hospitalized.

But hospitalization didn’t solve the problem.

Basically, the insomnia triggered extreme hyperarousal and tachycardia. The less I slept, the more my nervous system seemed to go into overdrive. I constantly felt like I was getting huge adrenaline surges. Then came panic attacks, hair loss, weight loss, brain fog, anxiety… My nervous system was completely wrecked.

At some point, I genuinely thought I couldn’t live like this anymore and had some very dark thoughts.

I spent thousands going from one doctor to another. Sleep specialists, psychiatrists, you name it.

And 9 times out of 10, the advice was: melatonin, meditation and CBT-I.

I’m sorry, but when someone has been barely sleeping for months and is physically falling apart, telling them to meditate and take melatonin can feel incredibly hopeless. I absolutely believe CBT-I and behavioral approaches have their place, but personally, I needed something to calm my nervous system enough to actually be able to work on the underlying problem.

After trying pretty much every sleeping medication under the sun, I decided to stick with one psychiatrist because he actually believed me and, more importantly, gave me hope.

He told me there was no miracle drug, but there were still plenty of things we hadn’t tried.

We started a sleep diary so I could track my nights properly. He also convinced me to stop fighting my sleep schedule and instead take my medication and try to sleep from around 3 AM to noon, and then gradually work on it.

And weirdly… it worked.

For a few months, things became somewhat manageable. I was sleeping roughly from 3 AM until lunchtime. Since I could work in the afternoon, I was able to accommodate this schedule. (I can already hear some of you asking: “But what if you have to work in the morning?” Honestly, I still don’t know 😅.)

I still had a lot of hyperarousal and tachycardia, even when I started getting some decent nights. I eventually understood that my body was still recovering from months of severe sleep deprivation and that those symptoms wouldn’t disappear overnight.

My psychiatrist prescribed a beta blocker for the tachycardia, which helped somewhat.

Then came the turning point.

I went to stay with my father for a few weeks during the holidays.

And suddenly…

I SLEPT.

Without sleeping pills.

From the first week to the third, I was almost unrecognizable. The hyperarousal disappeared. The tachycardia disappeared. The brain fog disappeared. The anxiety disappeared.

I was just… myself again.

And then I came back home to my tiny apartment.

And the insomnia came back.

That’s when I finally understood something I had completely missed:

My insomnia seems to be strongly linked to emotional safety/insecurity.

At 31. 😂 AMAZING.

But honestly, as horrible as this realization is, I’m also incredibly relieved.

Because for the first time, I feel like I may have found the root of the problem, rather than just fighting the symptoms every night.

So now I’m wondering:

For those of you who eventually realized that your insomnia was connected to emotional safety, hyperarousal, trauma, attachment, your environment, etc. — what actually helped you in the end?

Therapy? EMDR? Somatic therapy? Changing your environment? Medication? Learning to regulate your nervous system? Something completely different? It looks like it's something uncouscious that I have no access to !!

I’d really love to hear what worked for you.

it was perscribed to me at the psych ward because melatonin was horrible for me, and i had a reaction to it. so they gave me zopiclone and i took it most of the time during my hospital stay for 3 months. i got out in february, and i didnt always need it to help me sleep so i didnt take it very often becausw i know its not good for you. i took one tonigjt because i have to wake up early for school, and had messed up my sleep schedule all summer. (not taking it at all.) i’d say this is the first time ive taken it since april or may.. even then it wasnt often. but this time, It just made me loopy af, as u can tell from the way these sentences dont make sense. . not actually tired.
im sick of these hard meds. did i somehow built a tolerance???? my psychiatrist is unavaible— as are all this time of year where i live. problem is,,, i need to sleep! now! and i’m obviously not gonna continue taking zopiclone if it doesn’t even work!

tl:dr zopiclone doesn’t work for me anymore even though i haven’t used it at all in months,,, and even than i hadnt been using it regularly.

I have been struggling with insomnia for more than 20 years. Most of those years Ambien worked for me, until it didn’t. Doctors have tried all the other medication’s designed For Sleep.
In doing research into peptide therapy, I found DSIP and was wondering if anyone has used it and had success? I realize it’s still investigational and not FDA approved. I’m desperate for For Sleep.

I've been having extreme insomnia and have barely slept since last Thursday night and I'm desperate for sleep. My doctor prescribed me a short course of Ativan and trazodone 50mg and told me to take the .5mg Ativan and half (25mg) of trazodone or even a quarter if I'm nervous about taking it.

I've taken Ativan before no issues but am so nervous about taking new meds but I NEED sleep desperately. Has anyone found success with these two together or even just a low dose of trazodone?

I have been on quite the rollercoaster with insomnia this year. I wanted to share that Remeron really works, like the only thing that gave me consistent sleep every night! I took it from February to May. It got me out of a really dark place and I am thankful.

However, I had a reaction to it I’m not seeing anyone mention. Pretty immediately, I started getting severe body pain. Like muscle and tendon pain, all over my body. Would move from one spot to the next. Ended up at a rheumatologist who said it was not a side effect but more of an immune response to the med. Pain lifted almost immediately when I stopped two weeks ago but then my sleep went back to zero. Went back on the remeron the last three days out of desperation, the pain came back. Not sure what to do, it’s such a catch-22.

I am an Amercian who moved to Australia a few years ago. I was on Trazdone 50mg in the states for years and it's the only medication that has helped me sleep. When I first moved to Australia I believe Trazodone was only listed as a dog medication. However now it seems it can be prescribed to humans and ordered through compound pharmacies. I was in Uni and making my own hours so able to get by without it. However I started shift work a few months ago and without Trazodone to calm my anxiety and help me sleep im not sure how long I can last.

Has anyone had any luck being prescribed Trazodone in Australia? What was the process?

How much do the prescriptions costs?

Is there any legal site or documentation stating its available for humans? I can't find the site I originally viewed years ago where trazodone was only prescribed to dogs to verify it has been updated for humans use.

Thanks for any information you have.

Ps. I tried Mirtazapine and it did nothing. Im not nessasary looking for other medications considering how well I know Trazodone works for me.

I was prescribed 50mg and I just took it for the first time and still barely slept. Does it take a while to start working like ssri’s? I don’t see how it will help me sleep if I have to drink water every 5 minutes because my mouth is dry as hell.

Anyone find this helps you the most? I stopped after 5 years and now can’t sleep with anything. On a cocktail of meds all day and night and can hardly sleep. It spiraled me into extreme insomnia, anxiety that’s out of control and depression. I just wanna go back and not have stopped like that. Trying to un-ruin my life.

Hey all, I am writing to hear some options for myself and my worsening insomnia. I have never had trouble sleeping in my life, if anything I used to sleep too much. Always wanting a nap or sleeping for at least 9 hours a night. Within the past few months, I have had trouble not only falling asleep but staying asleep. More so trouble with staying asleep. However, I am coming up on 48 hrs of not sleeping at all. I have never struggled so hard to sleep. I don't feel necessarily like I need the sleep, I'm not falling asleep at any time but my brain feels like it is going crazy. Melatonin has never really worked for me so I am looking for other options to help. Really hoping to sleep tonight.

I have had severe sleep deprivation/insomnia for about 9 months now. It has just seemingly gotten worse and worse. I have now been in a state of constant headaches and exhausted mind, eyes, and body. I am so damn tired. But no matter how long I lay here I can't shut off. It's been days since I last had any recollection of drifting to sleep. It feels like my brain is fried. I have been much more desperate with trying to get Dr help this past week or two. My body feels so hot all the time. I feel a confusion pressing on/into my mind. They've given me hydroxyzine, gabapentin, trazedone, prazosin, Klonopin, and a couple other things along the way. I've tried a bunch of vitamins. I've tried magnesium glycinate, melatonin, I drink tons of water. It feels like I'm just locked awake. The only thing that they gave me that can sometimes help is Klonopin. But after I ran out of that they basically refuse to give me more. Now I just feel helpless. As I'm stuck awake and losing my mind more and more each day. Please, can someone tell me there is hope and maybe suggest any other things that could potentially get me out of this nightmare. Also I should also say I've tried the behavior stuff where you force yourself out of bed and into bed at certain times to maintain sleep hygiene.

hello!! to make a really lengthy story short,, ive tried more sleeping meds than i can count on one hand and they have either worked for little bit and then just stopped working or they never helped in the first place. its gotten to the point where my psychiatrist is just attempting to recycle old prescriptions that ive already taken and apparently gotten used to. my question is, if youve dealt with something similar at what point did your doctors start taking you seriously? what did they try and what managed to help you?

i take 4 different medications to help me sleep at night on top of a beta blocker and a muscle relaxer. they dont work very well if at all sometimes,, its really starting to affect me worse and worse and i dont feel like anyones listening to me how they should be. not to mention the reason i’m having such a hard time sleeping. no one even seems concerned,, which is so odd because im not sleeping, im barely eating, and im losing weight FAST!! and no ones even the slightest bit worried??

While I’m attempting to sleep, I always think about what happens when I start to sleep. Since you never ever remember the beginning of the sleep, you always remember the middle and the end of the sleep, I find myself feeling anxious about that.

I often worry about “what’ll happen to myself if I keep resting like this?” and “will I be numb or pass out or just not able to move?”

How can I avoid that cause I think thinking about that too much prevents me from reaching quality sleep?

Just took Lunesta (generic) 1mg for the first time last night and felt absolutely nothing. Has anyone else experienced this?? Do I just need a higher dose????

I have been taking Quiviq 3 days now at 50 mg, but i have such drowsiness and dizziness the next day that lasts the WHOLE day. It seems unbearable, but I want to stick with it if it will lessen or go down to 25 mg. Any advice? And very broken sleep so far. Wake up a ton, but do fall back asleep. Any luck on 25 mg, and less next day grogginess? I think my system can't handle this one, but don't wanna give up yet if there is hope for it to resolve. Please help.

Melatonin, Amitriptyline, Seroquel out for me. Most likely Remeron, too. Lucenta works one out of 5 times and horrible hangover follows.

40 year career, high stress,long days, 6 & 7 day weeks. Raised 2 kids with normal parental stressors. Terrible insomnia . 4 years ago changed careers. Great job , no stress, plenty of time off.
Still can’t sleep. Writing this a 2:45 am. Alarm goes off at 4.
Really thought/hoped it would get better. Any thoughts or suggestions?
Over the years been to doctors, Shrinks, different meds. Got stuck in the self medicating for a bit. That I was able to fix .That’s a long story but it led to the doctor and shrink.

I was thinking about this today. People always ask me if I miss getting a full night's sleep. Honestly... that's not the first thing that comes to mind. What I miss most is how little space sleep used to take up in my life. I'd go through my day, get tired, go to bed, and wake up. That was it. Now it feels like sleep is part of every decision. Should I have coffee? Should I go out tonight? Should I take a nap? Should I look at the clock? I don't just miss sleep. I miss not having to think about it all the time. Does anyone else feel that way?

For the past few years I have been unable to sleep at night. So I steel as many hours of sleep as I can late in the day after work and then I stay up all night.

Anyone else?

Hi everyone
So ive been having insomnia for a year and half now, i was first on seroquel and zoloft, i stopped both gradually and was fine for 2 months, then i relapsed again, and was put on remeron and dayvigo 5.
My sleep got better, but when i wake up in the morning, my legs feel like a tree trunk of how stiff it is, and its so painfull to walk on it!! It needs couple of minutes to get better, but never fully better throughout the day! Whenever i walk i feel the pain in my sole and ankle it feels like its on fireeee. Also i feel its very weak sometimes and i feel like dragging it to move! When i travelled all these symptoms got worse i could barely walk and it got very swollen that i thought i had plantar fasciitis.
I was wondering is there any solution for that? I really feel like suffering..

My dog woke me at 3:50 am to poop cuz he got scraps from my bf at dinner. Been trying to get back to sleep knowing I’ve got work later and it’s compounded by incoming period and on and off migraine. Ugh at least with my cats I can close them out of my room to get uninterrupted sleep but the dog has been peeing on stuff if I don’t allow him in. Even if we didn’t have cats and had a dog door he gets into stuff and eats poop so he needs to be supervised 🫩