Really horrible insomnia. Caused by chemical imbalance?

Hello. I've been suffering from terrible insomnia since mid-May. I'm pretty sure it manifested from my stressing out about my new job (which I began around then). While I know that stress can lead to temporary insomnia, this is a bit beyond temporary.

Since May, I have had nothing bothering me (besides the insomnia; my job's pretty easy), so I have a feeling that the stress I endured in May did something to my brain. Fried it or something. I feel like this could be permanent. I either get really, really brief sleep (probably less than an hour's worth, I'm not kidding), or I don't sleep at all. Lately, I've been able to get much more sleep, but it consists of me waking up over and over and having lots of dreams. (So I'm definitely not getting into that coveted deep sleep zone. Although, strangely enough, there was one night a few weeks ago where I was so tired, I actually managed to fall asleep for hours and wake up with that awesome 'Huh? What time is it?' feeling that good sleepers take for granted. So maybe that natural ability is buried deep in the recesses of my brain.)

What's stranger is that, most of the time, I feel physically fine. There are days when I feel really tired, understandably, but it's almost as if my body is adjusting to what little sleep I get. I do take medicine for it, but it stopped working a long time ago. (Seroquel off-label for sedation- I think I must have a really high tolerance.) I could try other prescriptions if my psychiatrist is willing to offer them, but again, I do fear the tolerance thing.

Anyway, yeah. Suck City. To wrap it up, are there any of you out there who are well-versed in sleep as it relates to the brain? Have you ever heard of someone's brain getting zapped from stress or worry and just never being the same again? Do you know if my stress depleted some chemicals or damaged some receptors or processes in my brain? I'm not necessarily asking how to fix that- the human brain and sleep are two great mysteries as is. But if you have any ideas about what's going on in my noggin, let me know. Thank you!

I was prescribed Seroquel for sleep. I was waking up all the time, having weird dreams and it made my insomnia worse. I am taking another type of sleeping med and my doctor wanted me off them so introduced Seroquel as well. With the sleep med I would get 6-7 hours, with Seroquel it was 2 hours. That might explain some of the symptoms whilst you've been taking it.

Stress, Anxiety, Depression can all affect your sleep. Mediation can cause insomnia. Illness and/or infections can as well. Are you stressing about sleep now? Because that might be affecting you. I don't really have any answers. I take Temazepam, have done for about 7 years. Yes there is a tolerance, the dose has gone up, but I still sleep well on it. But once you're on it, it is incredibly hard to stop. But maybe there is something less addictive your doctor can prescribe short term to see if you can get back into a better sleep pattern again.

Best advice is to speak to your doctor but hope you can get some sleep soon

Quetiapine is poison, I was prescribed 300mg and my nights turned into hell because it gave me terrible side effects. I couldn't sleep because I started having restless leg syndrome. And at the time I thought it was anxiety and didn't link it to Quetiapine. After a few days I started reading about it and found out it was a side effect. Never going to touch that med again.

In total I took quetiapine/seroquel for about three years. I found it to be an amazing sleeping aid but it came with a huge pile of side effects. The drop that filled the bucket for me was developing tardive dyskinesia. After tapering off I now sleep 6 hours per night and get up rested (as opposed to 9 hours + additional one to actually wake up), using zopiclone 7.5 mg to fall asleep.