The cause is clinical depression. The past two weeks I've had insomnia and haven't been able to fall asleep for several hours lying in bed, which is unusual for me. I have been careful to avoid caffeine in the evenings, but it doesn't seem to be helping. Any advice for how to deal with insomnia?
Set an alarm (start with only a bit earlier than when you'd normally wake up), try to breath deep in and out so as to regulate your pulse to a slower rate, start watching something you know is really boring before bed time, take short naps (20 minutes) throughout the day if you feel tired but not too many or too close to one another. The cup of milk before bed (or hot caffeine free beverage) is also a good option if your body works like that.
Sort of. I was in psychotherapy from January to June, but it did not help me very much so I quit. I'm not on meds, but that was an option I was told to look into but never did. So I'm just treating it with lifestyle changes for now, with mixed results. I can't say I'm doing great, but at least I'm not total shit.
Hi! I have pretty much exactly the same problem, the only difference being that I've always had sleeping issues that seemed to get worse after I developed depression. What I find helps me is to lie in bed, turn your lights off, and play meditative or sleep-relaxation music: you can find hours worth of those things on Youtube and Spotify, and they're pretty helpful (for me at least) as you don't have anything to distract you and so end up focusing entirely on the music, which works as a lullabye of sorts. I won't lie and say that it works every single time, but as a general rule it works well. Hope this helps!
Ask your regular doctor about low dose Trazodone. It shuts the slot machine in my head off so I can sleep at night. And ask about treating your depression, I promise you that walking through life with a clear head is better than depression....
Talk with your doctor about getting your depression taken care of. maybe a low dose of something may help. ive heard meditation or yoga may also help. what helps lull me to sleep on bad nights is native flute with rain on youtube.
Hi: I encourage you to see a physician and have your depression (re)evaluated. It may be time for medication as your depression symptoms have worsened (the insomnia) but only a physician can determine that. If, after taking meds for a while, if that's what ends up happening, you still find that you are bothered by insomnia, some of these things might help (and they help depression in general): getting some exercise every day (doesn't need to be a marathon ), getting some fresh air every day, eating properly (B vitamins help the body manage stress), good sleep hygiene (Google it). My experience with the insomnia that accompanies depression is that some of things that people do to alleviate "regular" insomnia actually seem to make things worse, like reading, writing, counting sheep, etc. I found that "soothing" things worked best: relaxation exercises, guided relaxation meditations (not deep meditation), breathing exercises, etc. Again, I think your first action should be seeing a doctor; true clinical depression can get bad very quickly and your symptoms have worsened in the last little while. Wishing you lots of zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz's. :sleep: and hoping your depression is alleviated soon.
I have had lifelong issues with insomnia. I thought that after coming out it might improve. It didn't. I've learned to not even go to bed until I'm ready to fall asleep because tossing and turning just makes me angry, and anger is never a good recipe for falling asleep. If I'm not asleep within 10 minutes or so, I just get back up until I'm ready again. I don't have any good advice here because I haven't figured it out myself yet. Good luck.
