Horrendous insomnia

[Worrier97]

Looking for some reassurance. I'm a 19 year old female currently suffering from terrible insomnia. It started with not being able to sleep prior to big events. Now I can't get to sleep at all. I've yet to find anybody with the exact same type of problem as mine. When I get into bed I feel extremely sleepy and notice my thoughts becoming disjointed and slowing down i.e the feeling of nodding off. I automatically notice this, and think 'yay I'm falling asleep' causing a surge of adrenaline which in turn wakes me up. It's like I've trained myself to react in this way to the sensation of falling asleep.

I usually eventually fall asleep from exhaustion at about 5-6am, and sleep for about two hours, if that. All the sleep I do get is jam-packed with vivid dreams. I'm so frightened and I can't see a way out of this. The more desperately I want to sleep, the more I seem to prevent myself from nodding off. I'm so worried that this is seriously effecting my health and that I'll never get a good night's sleep again.

[dale12345]

Do you drink a lot of coffee, caffeine even hours before can keep you from sleeping. Just remember you are not alone, insomnia is very common have it myself. You will sleep again. Do you have anyone you can talk to?

[Mojo61]

Have you tried listening to sleep hypnosis videos on YouTube? If you are concentrating on the person's voice then you probably won't even notice you are dropping off. I like Michael Sealy's hypnosis videos. His voice is very mesmerising and soothing.

[busterrufus]

I hd bad insomia at start of present anxiety. Dr gave me 7 low dose sleeping tabs. I tooko ne for 3 nights think they were zopiclone. I relaxed a bit when I'd had some sleep and didn't use the rest. Now drink chamomile then horlicks before bed. Doesn't always sleep, but usually do unless anxiety sky high. Also bath with epdom salts before bed.

[Beckybecks]

Don't worry, you'll get over this and you will sleep properly again.

My daughter had this when she as a teenager. Every time she started to doze off she would jolt herself awake.

The Doctor gave her something very mild to help her fall asleep and advised on a good relaxing bedtime routine . In fact it wasn't a sleeping pill but a anti histamine which just made her a little bit sleepy.

No caffeine, no computer, no disturbing movies on tv, no late eating.
A nice warm bath and a good book to relax.
It didn't take very long before she was back in a good sleeping routine.