Obsessing over sleep?

Hello I just registered to this forum. A little background on myself with insomnia....

Basically about 6 years ago I had one night where I did not sleep. At all. Not a wink. I was overwhelmed by things in my life and of course when I was up thinking about it all and the later it got.....the more anxiety increased. Went to work like a zombie, and then started worrying if I would sleep that night and then the self fulfilling prophecy started, and obsessing over sleep.

Long story short it got so bad I wound up on an anti depressant and trazodone nightly. This worked well, I would have the odd couple days here or there where I'd have trouble but didn't get the obsessive thoughts and eventually my sleep would go back to normal.

Now I am off my AD's for about 2 months. Still on Trazodone nightly though. I was sleeping really well for the last 2 months averaging 7-8 hours a night even more on weekends sometimes! Was just on holidays and I was so relaxed I slept without any meds at all!!

Return to the present moment. This week has been horrid, I took zoplicone 2 nights in a row after laying in bed for a couple hours sleepless. They knock me out but then I feel like crap the next day and wonder if I would be better off just not sleeping? Last night I refused to take a zoplicone and was up Til about 2am when I finally decided to try gravol and then I fell asleep Til 8am when I had to get up for work. Man, 2 nights on zoplicone and then only 6 hours on gravol I am feeling pretty sick and hopeless today. Only change is that my holidays are over and I am back at work. But if I can't even handle the little stress of returning to work after a holiday I am wondering if I should go back on my antidepressants? Has anyone had experience with zoplicone? Do u think u r better off to just not sleep?

Hi,

I had a looong time experience with zopiclone. Due to my bipolar it is very important that I get my regular 8 hours of sleep, and so I took zopiclone nightly for a long period (more than a year). It worked. I got used to it. However it was crazy difficult to get off it. I managed to go down to half tablet a night but sleeping totally without it was not possible.

I don't know what the nature of your problem is. However if it is due to antidepressants perhaps you could speak to your psychiatrist about medication change or change of dosage (for instance morning rather than evening or the other way round). As to whether I would say you should take it or not -- well I can't tell you. For me with bipolar not sleeping just isn't an option -- tried and tested, two nights of less than 6 hours and mania comes in.

Big hug and I hope it gets easier soon for you.

Wow I can't imagine taking zoplicone every night. I guess everyone is different but I feel like it makes me crazy. I took it last night and did things in my sleep I have no recollection of.....scary!

I am no longer on antidepressants (was on citalipram). They did work where I had very little anxiety and if I had a bad night I summed it up to nothing other than a bad night and slept the next. I went off them 2 months ago and tapered under a doctors guidance. I am usually a good sleeper but this time one bad night turned into 2, then 3 and so on. I no longer have the 'meh just a bad night' attitude I had on the antidepressants. Now I obsess over it and create a mountain out of a molehill and feel like I'll never sleep well again.

I slept great over the weekend ! About 9 hours fri and sat with out any sleep meds. But back at work now and the pressure to fall asleep is on.....6 hours last night drug induced...hopefully this too shall pass.....

Fit_girl28 wrote:Wow I can't imagine taking zoplicone every night. I guess everyone is different but I feel like it makes me crazy. I took it last night and did things in my sleep I have no recollection of.....scary!

I had this experience with Ambien (Zolpidem) and I refuse to ever take one again. I wrote emails in my sleep, walked in my sleep, then fell on a chair I made hurting myself and ruining the chair, I shopped on Amazon in my sleep... Just Say No.