Early mornings

[mr badger]

Anyone else have this?

I wake at or before 5.00 am and despite what I think about, I become anxious within about 10 mins. This happens whether I take a sleeping pill or not (about half and half at the moment).

My current regime is this:

Get up so I don't bother my wife (alarm time is 06.00 for us.

Take 2mg diazepam

Retire to sofa with sleeping bag round my legs to keep warm and watch crap on the telly. Not working at the moment so no need to rush for anything. Feel better by about 06.30.

I'd like to stop the diazepam in the next few weeks and, of course wake better and happier.

Any successes out there I can draw on?

(week 3 Citalopram, 2mg diazepam 1 - 3 times a day, Zopiclone 3.5 mg about half time)

[Geoff2301]

hate to say it...... when you're going through a bit of a bad patch, its par for the course!! Personally, I find if I try and lie in bed once I wake early, just get more and more anxious!!
All I can say is that it WILL pass and you will return to normal...... assuming you were normal to start with lol!! Unfortunately, you'll have to be a bit patient here as I always reckon time is the main healer.

[mr badger]

Thanks Geoff

I know it will pass in time, I'd just like to find some way of managing it a bit better for now. I'm not brilliant at this 'acceptance' thing, although I've had a sofa day today and feel pretty good to be honest.

EDIT - normal? Not as far bck as I can remember!

[Dragonsblonde]

Whilst I was starting on the Citalopram I used to wake up at 4.30 am every morning for a few weeks. I just kept my I-pod on the bedside table and if I couldn't drop off again I used to plud into some music or a meditation session and just relax in bed where it was more comfortable and warmer. It did stop though so just see it through

[mr badger]

Ta. Have done the iPod thing but didn't seem to 'cut through' if you know what I mean. I'm more visual so tend to need visual distraction/absobtion.

Did wonder if it was the Citalopram asserting itself. Apart from a dry mouth and poor appetite not much in the way of side effects.

[geejaybee]

I have had the same problem for the last few months. I have no problem getting to sleep but typically I wake up around 04:00 - 04:30 and can never get back to sleep. As the anxiety kicks in as soon as I wake its a nightmare looking forward to another very long day.
I have tried citalopram and Duloxetine but they keep me awake and made the anxiety even worse. I have just (today) been prescribed Trazadone as it is supposed to have a very good sedative effect and hopefully will make me sleep later.

[mr badger]

I know early waking is a stress response. 04.00 is the time we're at our physical lowest energy so the mind wakes you if it doesn't feel safe.

It's not the early waking that bothers me, it's the early anxiety.

Time will sort it I'm sure.

[jillyb]

I don't sleep very well either. I can normally get to sleep OK, but listen to the radio a lot in the night. Then I wake up with an overwhelming sense of anxiety and all the symptoms of it! I usually have to get up and come on here and play games and the symptoms start to go. I don't care if it's around 6am, but it is getting earlier ... so now I get up, make some horlicks and get back into bed and listen to the radio - I am becoming quite an expert on the cricket now! I have given up worrying about it - hopefully it will go one day and I will wake up calm and be able to stay in bed (which would please my husband!). x