Chronic insomnia out of nowhere, nothing helps

Long story short: 40 year old male, before late December of 2015 could count on two hands the amount of times in my life I'd had trouble falling asleep. For the past 3 weeks, I've been unable to fall asleep for 2-3 hours every night. And I can't figure out why. And nothing seems to help.

I don't smoke. I drink one coffee a day, always before 1 PM, and my bedtime is around 12:30-1 AM. I am very physically active and exercise every day. I don't eat late meals. Prior to this, I am not under any new external stress. My relationship is really good and we've been sleeping together in the same bed for years. About a week before the new year, I started having occasional trouble falling asleep. It's now snowballed and I am lying awake every night for 1-3 hours. I still manage to get 4-5 hours of sleep, which I know is not terrible relative to what some other people deal with, but it's a lot less than I'm used to and I walk around feeling exhausted all day.

I have tried a number of solutions. Started with chamomile tea in the evening. Then, tried Valerian root. Then, Ashwagandha. Melatonin. Now, magnesium citrate. Have tried guided meditation. Counting sheep. Doing visualization. Replacing negative thoughts about sleep with positive thoughts. Everything I could find. Pot used to really help me any time I felt exceedingly stressed and/or couldn't sleep, but now, when I try it, I just feel awake and high.

Eventually went to the doctor. Heart and thyroid function are normal. He first gave me Ambien 10 mg and told me to try it for 7 days. It seemed to help the first two nights, and then didn't, at all. Yesterday, he switched me over to Xanax 1 MG. I took it and felt absolutely nothing in terms of euphoria, anxiety relief, or drowsiness.

I know that at least part of this now is mental - I'll sometimes nod off on the couch, but then, when I go to my bed, I'm wide awake. My bedroom is dark and quiet, and I slept in it fine for months before all this started. I'm practicing good sleep hygiene - taking time to wind down before bed, not going to bed until I feel drowsy, etc. And still, every night, I lie there exhausted but unable to drop off into sleep.

I'm at the end of my rope, here. I don't know what else I could possibly do. I don't want to stay on Xanax very long because I've read all kinds of bad things about what happens if you do. I know a big part of this is breaking the mental cycle of going to bed and worrying about going to sleep, but none of the techniques I've found for dealing with that have helped me. I'm tired of feeling exhausted and sick every day.

Help?

Sounds frustrating! You have tried a lot of solutions. Two things come to mind when I read your post. Have you tried going to bed later or getting up earlier - just until things improve. I know it sounds counter-intuitive but one common problem folks with insomnia have is spending too much awake time in bed. Often a short-term solution is to restrict the amount of time you actually spend in bed until the amount of time you spend sleeping increases. You said you sleep an average of 4 - 5 hours per night?. You'll want to restrict the amount of time you spend in bed to about one hour more than your average sleep (so thats about 5.5 hours). Going to bed at 1 - 1:30 pm is probably late enough if you are getting up by 7:00 am (no matter how poorly or well you slept) If you find yourself awake for more than 30 minutes at bedtime, get up, leave the bedroom and doing something relaxing for 30 minutes. Like sit on the couch and look at a catalog or leaf through a magazine and listen to soft music. Nothing too stimulating. Then get back in bed. If you are still awake after 30 minutes, get up again for 30. I know it sounds ridiculous but it works overtime. Also you mentioned that you doze a bit on the couch. Try to avoid this, so when you get in bed your body is really ready for it. Hang in there!

Currently going through the same situation, it's quite an obnoxious little thing isn't it? However I haven't tried going on medications yet, but weeks of sustaining on 1 hour to 20 mins of sleep is not what I would consider healthy, mentally. So I'm considering on trying some out. My sudden insomnia came when I got a cold with bad chest congestion on boxing day of last year. I've tried nearly everything to help me sleep better but to no avail. I got so desperate for sleep that I've been taking gravols and benedryls to try and get my brain to calm down and my body to get the rest it deserves. Now I don't have any advice to help the situation, but just know you are definately not alone in this!

/Rem


I suppose I should point out, I don't drink caffine, or smoke or do remotely anything that could affect my sleep. I also walk ( although now my walks are drunken stammers as I try to force an already tired body to do some light exercise ) since most people say walking helps with sleep, I'm not seeing any changes.