Persistent insomnia for 3 years,daytime sleepiness,fatigue and terrible brain fog have made my life a total mess
Hello everyone! Presently I am a 27 year old guy who has been dealing with chronic insomnia for the past 3-3.5 years.Initially,it was mild, but now it has become a bit serious.Every night,I have to take 0.25 mg clonazepam tablets so that I can get some sound sleep.But,even if I sleep for 6-7hours, I suffer from excessive daytime sleepiness and brain fog.Also,for me going to bed at 1.30 am has become a habit that I haven't been able to modify.Use of smartphones is pretty common now a days,but there is something more to my insomnia,which makes it a bit complicated.
During the daytime,I feel sleepy,but whenever I get a chance to take a short nap in the afternoon, I just CANNOT enter deep sleep,NO MATTER how much sleepy I might feel.
If I take clonazepam before bedtime, I get decent amount of sleep ,and manage the earlier listed symptoms throughout the day.
But,whenever I try to sleep without the medicine,I CAN NEVER enter the deep normal sleep that is needed for the body.On such occasions,I START EXPERIENCING VIVID AND CLEAR dreams after falling asleep and this continues till I wake up in the morning.Even after having slept for 6-7hours, (with those dreams in between), I feel as if I was WIDE AWAKE THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE NIGHT..I feel extremely tired,sleepy and experience terrible brain fog.My pupils get constricted.Apart from that,I get awful sensations of electric shocks all over my body whenever I try to do some strenous task.I just don't understand why the hell such symptoms appear when I sleep without the prescribed drug, and even after sleeping for 7 hours.😣 And those VIVID dreams make me feel as if I was FULLY AWAKE for the entire night.But ,such symptoms are very mild or mostly do NOT appear when I take 0.25mg of the prescribed drug.
I am concerned as it has severely messed up my mental health.
I wonder what the likely causes behind this could be!! Could it be Narcolepsy( although I have never experienced cataplexy), damage to the Parasympathetic Nervous system or some other form of damage to the Hypothalamic neurons!! I am planning to consult a sleep physician soon , but would love to know whether I am the only one who's going through this hell or not.And if anyone has experienced them, then please tell me how u cope with such pathetic conditions.
...I am so sorry you have been dealing with this for so long. I know you must be exhausted and beyond frustrated.
I agree with Simone, and encourage you to follow up with a specialist. I am also going to share a few articles that might help you in the mean time.
This one addresses sleep hygiene.
https://insomnia.sleep-disorders.net/sleep-hygiene
Here are two articles that discuss the effects of stress on sleep:
https://insomnia.sleep-disorders.net/living/stress-interference
https://insomnia.sleep-disorders.net/living/stress-conditioned-responseoffers some great tips on self-care in this article:
https://insomnia.sleep-disorders.net/living/purposeful-self-care
I hope you are able to get some answers and relief soon. Please know we are here for you any time!
Sending you hugs,
April, Insomnia.Sleep-Disorders.net, ModeratorThank u so much for sharing these articles..It was very kind of u to do so...I shall definitely go through them.
Hi
and welcome to our community. I’m sorry to hear you have such difficult and complex issues with sleep. I am so glad you have the clonazepam to help you. That respite must be so valuable. It sounds like a trip the sleep specialist will be very important. There could be all sorts of things going on and it’s valuable to get a proper sleep analysis done. We are not medical experts here so cannot provide any type of diagnosis. We can only encourage you to seek professional support and to remind you to take care of yourself as much as possible. You are very correct in saying that disturbed sleep can cause mental health issues. It is so important to get things treated. Please let us know how you go with the sleep doctor!
Cheers.
Simone (Team Member)Thanks a ton for replying..Yes,this terrible insomnia has devastated my mental health..I will surely consult a sleep physician whenever possible and keep u updated...Actually ,I had earlier visited two neurologists.When I told them my symptoms, they suggested that it was all due to severe stress,depression and anxiety and prescribed clonazepam 0.25 mg every night.One of them further added that those vivid dreams, terrible brain fog and sensations of electric shocks all over the body were due to extreme weakness of the central nervous system,but nothing severe.However,the symptoms have still not gone away and it's very unfortunate 😔.
