Afraid of sporadic fatal insomnia.

[Drew1994]

Alright so for the past 6 months or so I've had on and off insomnia and recently it's flared up. I've tried taking melatonin and it has little to no effect. Diphenhydramine works somewhat but when I stop taking it, I have difficulty falling asleep. It's currently 3 am where I am now and I'm in my pitch black room and when I try to close my eyes and fall asleep I basically just lay there with my eyes closed and my mind races and my heart starts beating fast and I can't get to sleep. I read about a rare disorder called fatal familial insomnia which is when you literally stop sleeping and die but it runs in families. Since my family has no such disease I read about an even rarer form of it called sporadic fatal insomnia and it's aggravating my ability to fall asleep even more. Can someone help me out here?

[ServerError]

The sporadic (i.e non-hereditary) form of this illness has been noted about nine times in medical history. That's so rare it barely exists. You don't have it. You have regular old insomnia.

I flirted with the same fear myself earlier this year.

[AnxietySuckss]

I had this happen to me a year ago. Since then I can only fall asleep with lights and noise. A fan is amazing for me though. Try out different things, not just a pitch black room.

[zemikec]

Sounds like good ol' anxiety about sleep.

You're putting too much pressure on yourself to sleep. You're worrying about sleep. I had the same fears. I went to my doctor and he assured me that there was no chance of SFI. He was 100% sure.

I was prescribed Ativan just to prove I could sleep. Just a few tablets.

Sometimes I still get this, my remedy is just to go sleep on the couch or something. Works every time.