Sporadic fatal insomnia

[Frantz003]

Hello everyone. I am a long time sufferer of anxiety and insomnia. I was on 5ml of ambien for years and I’m currently 24 weeks pregnant. I obviously do not take sleep meds since I got pregnant and to be honest, I have been sleeping like a baby throughout my pregnancy, however, last night I didn’t sleep AT ALL. Not even 1 minute. I would close my eyes and I had these irrational thoughts but no sleep what so ever. I feel like I’m dying right now and I have to go to work. I am terrified that I have SFI because I googled it and now I’m convinced I have it. Since it’s a disease that doctors and scientist still know very little about, I worry that maybe there are cases where people just stop sleeping all together from one day to the next??? I’m not sure if anyone can give me some insight on it? I am so scared that I won’t sleep tonight again and I’ll die and my baby too from this terrible illness. I need reassurance please. I am so scared 😭😢 has anyone gone a whole night with no sleep? Like not even a minute? It wasn’t the baby that kept me up either it was my kind I just could not sleep....

[ankietyjoe]

The lesson here is about Google and why you shouldn't ever use it.

SFI is rarer than a person who was hit by a meteorite on their way to pick up their third lottery win.

And yes, of course people have gone a whole night without sleeping. I've done it literally hundreds of times. Millions of people do.

[Carys]

Shall I tell you something interesting (and your post really took me down memory lane) - the first ever night I had where I was up all night and didn't sleep at all as when I was 5/6 months pregnant. I kid you not - that's why I've replied as it struck a chord with me. I was trying to sleep and couldn't find a reason for not being able to sleep. I can still recall it to this day, some 22 years later! (Yep, 'baby' and me both here and well ) I have had insomnia many times since then, hugely so in the last few years, but nothing like that one night where it felt like I was entirely unable to sleep. Usually I get an hour or a few, but this felt different. It was the strangest thing, I can still recall the light coming up and the birds singing and feeling strange about it all - and all I can think to explain it was that there were some hormonal changes that made me alert and then the more anxious I got the more it exaserbated it. I can even recall how I felt going to work the next day, practically unable to function. Did I sleep the next night - yes I did ;o) Fatal insomnia comes up on here often, and scares people stupid - but it is so rare that only a few families in the world are genetically linked to it and I'm betting yours isn't one of them.

When mine happened there was no internet, and I had no ability to look something up and wonder what had caused it - hence sleeping ok the next night. You might be so anxious now that you are going to put more pressure on yourself tonight, and as all of us know who haven't been able to sleep a bit of adrenaline about being anxious about not getting to sleep - and you can't get to sleep. I can categorically tell you that there is NO CHANCE AT ALL you have fatal insomnia.

I worry that maybe there are cases where people just stop sleeping all together from one day to the next???

I've done some reading on it in the past, not on my account but when others have mentioned it on here, no there have never been any cases ever where people stop sleeping from one night to the next. That is not the progress of the illness/condition AT ALL.

[Carys]

Taken from medical news today -

Insomnia during early pregnancy is usually due to factors such as hormonal changes. Many people experience insomnia at some point, during pregnancy. ... Insomnia tends to get worse as pregnancy progresses but can occur at any stage. In the first trimester, hormonal shifts are the most likely cause.

So, heres the thing, if you are going to google don't go looking for 'reasons for insomnia' that will come up with all the scary things that won't be the reason you have insomnia. Instead, if you search for 'insomnia in pregnancy' it comes up with lots of articles AND advice on how to deal with it and the reasons for it. I found it quite interesting actually, as I just guessed it was from hormonal changes, and seems that was likely the case for me. You have experienced insomnia for years yourself, I hadn't when mine started - so I think that you should rest easy knowing that its just 'more of the same' as you've had before and it'll pass. There are some medications that can be used during pregnancy for insomnia, so you always have that option to go and discuss with your doctor.

[ErinKC]

Lovely response from Cary! I will echo that I only ever experienced true insomnia when I was pregnant! The only other time is when I'm anxious about not being able to sleep. So, try to put it out of your mind, think of some relaxing things to do when you're home from work, have a drink of tea, don't look at your phone/computer too much, and maybe read a bit in bed before sleeping.

If I remember correctly, too, the 2nd trimester is when you get a sudden burst of energy after the more fatigue-riddled first trimester. So, there are definitely a lot of hormones at work there, AND just the many, many things to think about when you're soon to have a baby!

[lofwyr]

This old friend again? Unless you are in the famous family that deals with this problem--and you would know if you are in that family because they are ridiculously well documented--the odds of developing SFI has to be approaching one in a few billion, or even more. There are only a dozen or so cases IN ALL MEDICAL DOCUMENTATION. That goes back ages as well. I have gone days without sleep, sometimes by "choice," thank you US Army, but in the end your body swings back