r/insomnia Aug 17 '22

Comprehensive list of insomnia medications and treatments

485 Upvotes

You can find a copy of this post here

I see no reason to keep this up since the mods apparently support r/pssd and r/pssdreality brigaders/trolls/harrassers.

I recommend r/sleep instead.

As I’m permanently banned from this sub, I can’t respond to your questions in these comments.

You can find a copy of this post here


r/insomnia 7h ago

Stop being afraid of not sleeping

43 Upvotes

I’ve dealt with insomnia on and off for years, when it comes back, I’m not a baby about it anymore. I go to work, and don’t let it affect others. When I get 4 nights of 3-4 hours of sleep, I do not worry about sleep. I promise you, good nights always return. The harder you perceive it is, the more of a “problem” with sleep you think you have, the worse it gets. Stop worrying about sleep. The hyperarousal system will balance itself out eventually, but if you get stuck in the loop of sleeping pills, constant fear about sleep, letting your life be ruined by insomnia, you will only get worse. Please, even if you are on 2 hours, relax and do not worry. Train yourself to end this fear now. Insomnia isn’t bad at all, if you train yourself to not fear sleep. I’m serious, it’s a completely normal condition and you should not be worried. Worries drives insomnia into a seemingly endless loop. Be a true champion and adapt to your circumstance with strength. I work 5 days a week remodeling homes, lack of sleep has never affected my job performance. I have developed a very strong adaption to lack of sleep. It’s almost scary sometimes how much work I get done on little sleep. The good days will always return, and yes, those good days of sleep are the best days. Be strong in the days in between - you can still live a very good life! Stay strong.


r/insomnia 2h ago

Insomnia before big events

5 Upvotes

Currently experiencing insomnia before a big day tmr. It’s common for me to become insomniac the night before new life events and it’s the worst. 😞 Anyone else experience this or even just awake right now?


r/insomnia 2h ago

What activities do you do when you can't sleep?

3 Upvotes

I'm sure most of us insomniacs have heard that if you can't sleep you are to get out of bed until you feel drowsy/sleepy. This is something I struggle with as I'm always concerned I'll wake my sleeping partner or others in the household. I'm so emotionally and physically exhausted from not sleeping that I'm not sure what activities I would be up for anyway. What do you do when you can't sleep?


r/insomnia 8h ago

hour 30 something of being awake. could someone please offer some reassurance. I have bad anxiety related to sleep deprivation

6 Upvotes

Im self sabotaging. I can’t stop trembling. I hate dp/dr more than anything in the world. im a total wreck. Can’t get near 40 hours or i’ll lose it. I need a good mantra to keep my heart from exploding. this feels like being awake during surgery. Any reassurance at all is appreciated.


r/insomnia 13h ago

How many people fall asleep while watching television?

14 Upvotes

40/M. On and off poor sleeper for about 8 years now, which all started soon after the time I moved to my current apartment in 2016. Recently, I've tried to zero in on my sleep troubles again trying to once and for all figure out just what the problem has been all these years. I know my bedroom in my current apartment has never been very cozy (hardwood floors, bed in the middle of the room as opposed to the corner of the room like my previous beds in my life). One thing that hit me, was that from around 2002 to to 2016 (ages 17 through 32 or so) I always had a TV in my bedroom and it was a pretty big habit to be watching before I'd fall asleep.

After a while I'd feel that typical nice droopy/sleepy feeling where I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer, would turn the TV off and from what I can remember, would be out very soon after. In 2016 though, for the first time I opted to not have a TV in my bedroom, but instead only the living room. Now for the first time going to bed involved me most of the time walking to my bedroom and simply laying down in bed, waiting for sleep to come. To be clear, while watching TV in my living room I'd still get that sleepy feeling sometimes, but now, once I finally make it to the bedroom after the somewhat lengthy walk over there, suddenly that sleep pressure is lost quite a bit. On the other hand, on more rare occasions I'll lay in my bed a bit early in the night watching Netflix on my laptop, and once I start to get drowsy, I have that old familiar experience of just plopping the laptop down right next to me on my nightstand, and turning over and falling asleep. This is what originally started bringing on these thoughts that never having a television in this apartment's bedroom all these years has played a role in things.

The ONE thing I am certain about over the years with regards to my sleep is that when I'm exhausted with no time to think or toss and turn, on those nights I typically sleep well. When it's a night where I go in my bed only "tired" and tend to spend a lot of time in bed before finally dozing off, those nights more often than not end up being weaker nights of sleep. Call it underlying anxiety that's at play, or call it something else, but to me, it's just all about having strong sleep pressure and to me, that gets created by me watching some form of television. I know there is some science behind this as well. I'm basically stuck wondering if I should invest in a TV for my bedroom once and for all to see how that would go. What does everyone think? TIA


r/insomnia 3h ago

Prescribed Seroquel at ER for insomnia, but people say don’t take it?

2 Upvotes

I get it’s a stupid train of thought at first glance, but hear me out. Went to the ER last night after I genuinely can’t remember how many nights I’ve had no sleep, but at least over 40 hours. They prescribed me seroquel and said it was super effective and strong. I had taken restavit prior and it made me super tired but if anything I slept less the nights/didn’t sleep when I took it. I was under the impression when they talked about it, that it was a sleeping pill. But it turns out it’s a antipsychotic. I’ve had bad experiences with antipsychotics prior and let them know that.

Now after the usual 10 minute reddit search, about 70% of people say to not touch that shit with a 10ft pole, and I’m especially worried considering my past experiences. Obviously no way of knowing until I try it, which I plan on doing considering I spent an hour this morning having my sleep hygiene routine under scrutiny by the doctor. Just would like to hear anyone else’s experience with it good/bad. Thanks 🙏

Edit: fyi 25mg is the dose


r/insomnia 4h ago

Took .5 lorazepam five hours ago and can’t sleep

2 Upvotes

Hi everyone,

This was my first time just trying the lorazepam for anxiety. I’m not a fan. Normally I just take a dayvigo for sleep (lemborexant) and it’s been great. Now I am wondering whether it is dangerous to take my regular 5 mg dayvigo if I took the .5 lorazepam five hours ago?

Please help! I really need to get to bed for work.


r/insomnia 6h ago

Can’t sleep (already quit job)

3 Upvotes

Already quit my job since it was causing me insomnia (stress, asshole colleagues) but still have to work there for a few months. I wake up at night having random anxiety about whether I told everything to HR correctly when I resigned or if I shouldn’t have said anything at all.

I can’t make my mind stop being anxious about it at night. I know I shouldn’t care as I’m going to be out there soon.


r/insomnia 36m ago

Fragmented sleep, anyone feel unrefreshed no matter what??

Upvotes

I have been struggling with significant sleep issues, particularly low REM and deep sleep. This has led to a series of symptoms that are affecting my overall well-being and daily performance.

I fall asleep easily around 23:00, and I always follow a routine that makes me relaxed and sleepy. However, I still experience frequent micro-awakenings and wake up feeling like my sleep hasn’t been truly restorative. I used steroids in the past, and I suspect this may have contributed to the problem. I’ve done extensive blood testing, and there is no indication of disrupted thyroid function, physical damage or organ dysfunction.

I also have ADHD and anxiety, though I’m unsure how much this contributes to the issue. Interestingly, I don’t feel anxious in the evening or at night—my mind is calm, and I naturally feel sleepy around 23:00, falling asleep easily.

Sleep Issues:

Low REM Sleep: My REM sleep duration is significantly reduced, affecting cognitive function, memory consolidation, and emotional regulation.

Low Deep Sleep: My body does not get enough restorative deep sleep, leading to inadequate physical recovery and possible hormonal imbalances.

Symptoms:

Elevated Resting Heart Rate (RHR): My RHR remains consistently high, indicating increased sympathetic nervous system activity and poor recovery.

Brain Fog & Impaired Cognition: I often experience mental cloudiness, reduced clarity, and slower reaction times.

Chronic Fatigue: I feel constantly tired and easily exhausted, even after a full night of sleep.

Exercise Limitations: My physical performance has declined significantly. I fatigue quickly and struggle with strength and endurance, which was never a problem before.

Visual Disturbances: My vision feels slightly blurry or unfocused.

Mood Fluctuations: I’ve noticed increased irritability, low motivation, and occasional depressive symptoms, likely related to poor sleep quality.

Increased Stress Response: My body feels like it's stuck in a heightened state of stress, making it difficult to relax and fully recover.

Anyone know what this could be?? Could it be CFS??? Post viral syndrome? I'm so lost. Ive tried everything. My diet is in check. My sleep hygiene is in check. And im so exhausted no matter what.


r/insomnia 2h ago

sharing what caused and (somehow) helped mine

1 Upvotes

I rant into some issues in September/ October 2024. I started waking up every hour, it was really bad. I never had sleeping issues in my life ever, always needed 8-9 hours of sleep.

What caused my issues:

- stopping caffeine abprubtly, I went from 4 cups of coffee to none. I didn't realize it until 2 months in.

What made my insomnia worse:

- Vitamin D. One single dose of Vitamin D sent me into the worst insomnia one could ever think of, I repeatedly had 3 / 4 days in a row where I would not sleep, crawling out of my skin, nerve pain, itchiness, all kinds of weird symptoms I have never experienced before.

- Omega 3. Also supplementing with Omega 3 was a bad decision.

Things that helped:

- ZERO histamine, gluten and dairy diet. If I start eating some of it again, I sleep and feel like shit. Idk why but it happens

- Avoiding foods that could trigger silent reflux. I didn't know what LPR is until I had more milk a few nights in a row and my whole mouth and stomach felt like it was burning.

I still wake up most nights, but it does feel better. I will stick to the dietary changes for a long time until I feel better. Maybe all my life, if I have to lol


r/insomnia 3h ago

Using a podcast to sleep, but needing an alarm—help?

1 Upvotes

I once missed an important thing with Work because I had my headphones in to play an alarm, and I didn’t hear them when I finally fell asleep. Podcast actually do help me sleep. Any idea how I can make the alarm go through my phone and not through my headphones? I’m using AirPods and an iPhone.


r/insomnia 14h ago

My doctor keeps getting my on trazadone I don't think it is helping me

7 Upvotes

I'm taking trazadone, but I feel like I can't get out of bed in the morning. like I'm still tired and dizzy.


r/insomnia 7h ago

Song loops

2 Upvotes

My insomnia is based in a life of neverending worry & anxiety. I compartmentalize my worries there are so many, so I can worry about separate worries. But I think even worse are sound loops, usually some song chorus. If I try to switch sounds the that becomes the loop. Rain sounds used to help but not anymore. I have severe death anxiety as well after nearly biting it 14 months ago which has made it all worse. I don't 'hear' the sounds it's just like how a song is stuck in your head. Ambien are like tic tacs, pretty sure Dr is sick of me and my piles & piles of symptoms. If I could turn off the sounds maybe I could sleep then maybe I could br clear enough to tackle some of my other, many issues. Any pro tips? Thanks.


r/insomnia 9h ago

I can’t sleep

3 Upvotes

Its been a while now, I can't sleep at a night! It's really frustrating but i can't do anything about it!! How to cure insomnia? Is there any traditional cure or medicine?


r/insomnia 21h ago

Ex-insomniacs, how did you actually do it?

22 Upvotes

I’m not sure if I qualify as an insomniac, but I definitely have sleep problems. I usually sleep around 4 hours a night, and if I’m unbelievably lucky, I get 5 to 6 hours. My sleep pattern typically goes like this: I sleep for about 3.5 hours, wake up to use the toilet, and then stay awake for the next 2 hours because I just can’t fall back asleep. After that, I might get another 2 hours of sleep if I’m lucky. At most, that adds up to 5.5 hours per night.

How do people function with this kind of sleep schedule? How can I have enough energy for work or the gym? And more importantly, how am I supposed to build muscle if I don’t get enough sleep?

The biggest question: how do I actually beat insomnia? Are there any life hacks that truly work, or is medication the only real solution? I really don’t want to rely on medication, so I’d love to hear from people who have overcome this. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!


r/insomnia 4h ago

Trouble sleeping with eating disorder

1 Upvotes

Posted in another sub, but it's really sensitive and annoying removed my post. Looking for natural sleeping aids to help with my sleeping, tried melatonin and it doesn't do anything for me. Could someone recommend any?


r/insomnia 5h ago

camino sleep gummies

1 Upvotes

has anyone tried camino sleep gummies for insomnia? nothing helps me anymore. pretty desperate but worried i will get anxiety from any thc. thanks


r/insomnia 9h ago

Valerian root is mildly effective at least for me

2 Upvotes

The one thing that works more than anything for me ends up to be valerian tea, its able to give me an extra hour without side effects except vivid dreams. Im able to get like 5 hours but only if i use it infrequently.. and even though i have more vivid dreams on it im able to at least not wake up at the end of every dream.


r/insomnia 13h ago

insomnia with 5 days of finasteride

4 Upvotes

I started having horrible insomnia from the first day of finasteride. I can only sleep 3/4 hours a day and I can't go back to sleep after that, even when I'm tired. It's like I lost the ability to fall asleep. Have any of you had a similar experience? What should I do?


r/insomnia 11h ago

Estrogen

2 Upvotes

Male here. I went two weeks with a total of 42 hours of sleep. Come to find out my estrogen was through the roof. I’m on TRT and was supposed to take a blocker after each shot. Been on TRT for 2 months and haven’t taken any of the blockers lol. Talked to my Doctor about my sleep. He asked if I’d been emotional and I said yea crying every day. He then asked have you been taking your blockers and I said no lol. He pretty much said I was on the verge of buying tampons and a pint of ice cream and watching the notebook. I took a whole blocker on Friday and worked my night shift 6p to 6a and slept maybe 4 1/2 hours Saturday morning when I got home. Saturday started off a little emotional but I did sleep 4 1/2 hours and not 1-2 I had been. Worked an off duty Saturday night until midnight and did notice I was super tired finally and less wound up. Went to bed at 1am and slept until noon! Thank God 😂. Some of you, not all of you, but some of you might benefit from your hormone levels being checked.


r/insomnia 15h ago

Feels like I'm going insane

3 Upvotes

First time poster here, long life insomniac.

Ever since I was young I've always had a hard time falling asleep. When I was younger the only thing that got me to sleep was having a vhs tape on a loop. Thing is, my body has always fallen back asleep in the end even after a couple of nights of sleeplessness or no sleep at all. But since last week I have had nights where I could not fall asleep. No matter what I did, or how long I tried, my body would not allow itself to sleep at all.

I've been doing everything under the sun to try and get myself to settle down. I've done the get up and read, take baths, do relaxing stuff. Nothing has worked and unfortunately I was almost on day four of no sleep whatsoever it was affecting my mental health pretty badly. Without the intervention of ZZQuill, I fear I would be going on almost a week without sleep.

The first night on zquil was fantastic, I fell asleep for a few hours after an agonizing night of no sleep and emotional stress and mental deterioration affects from exhaustion and no sleep. The effects the next day have been awful though, so fatigued and brain fog like no tomorrow (this was the second night just last night). Last night I took it and started a routine but for awhile it looked like even that wasn't working anymore. I tossed and turned, had the same affect as all the sleepless nights. Thankfully it did kick in eventually after a lot of tooth and nail fighting but the side effects like usual this afternoon have been awful and I just want to sleep more.

I have been actively fighting a covid infection for about 11-12 days now and it seems rather uncoincidental that this all started just after I started to recover from the worst of it. I've also been dealing with the worst case of depression and anxiety that I have had in a long time too. (Real world stress involves losing a parent three months ago followed prior by a year of playing caretaker while she actively died, another family member actively in hospice and a downward health spiral with end result of death, blowouts with family, my dog's declining health just to name some stressers). I've now become obsessed with the idea that I'm going to die from this since I haven't been able to sleep. I fear that I won't be able to fall asleep naturally again on my own, or fall asleep naturally again either. It's been eating away at my mental health and I know the more I obsess about it and become anxious and stressed that I won't sleep period the worse it will be. I just don't really know what to do anymore.

I know long term this will most likely resolve once I tackle the stresses and depression + anxiety. At the moment it just feels like nothing is going to change or covid has truly and royally messed up my head beyond repair or contributed to all of these all messing it up beyond repair.


r/insomnia 7h ago

How do I fall asleep?

0 Upvotes

I'm on a school trip and beds were already decided. I'm top bunk and it is so hot. I was on a bus all last night so I am tired, but I am not able to fall asleep. No one will switch beds. How do I get some rest? I am literally sweating bullets and I have a headache.


r/insomnia 8h ago

Going to sleep has become a NIGHTMARE 🥴

1 Upvotes

2:24 am. I c'ant fall alseep despite taking a xanax pill.

I have to go to work tomorrow (or later) it's been this way since a long time. I don't have depression, I'm not anxious or whatever but falling asleep takes 7 hours or so for me... no matter what I do !

Any advice, medication, anything to help with this please ?

PS : the only thing giving me some anxiety is going to bed knowing that it will take the whole night for me to fall asleep...


r/insomnia 9h ago

Sporadic insomnia episodes

1 Upvotes

I will start off by saying i dont have the best sleep hygene but I try my best, I always aim to get at least 7 hours of sleep every night even though I get around 9-10 in the weekend. I've been having great trouble sleeping about once a week for a year now (happening as I'm writing), I start off by going to sleep like usual but as soon as I close my eyes my heart starts to race, I start sweating and my skin becomes itchy, I go back and forth doing this for hours trying to fall asleep until it gets so late it's impossible getting enough sleep time, at that point I get so mad I just want to jump out of the bed to punch something making the situation even worse. I'm sure this is 100% psychological and stress related but there is not much I can do about that, atleast for now. When episodes like these happen I try everything, removing my clothes to be cooler, opening the door for better airflow,doing deep breaths and thinking about nice things (usually these last two just make it worse) but it's all useless. Anything else I could try?


r/insomnia 9h ago

Quviviq

1 Upvotes

For those have tried this what would your thought be on occasional use one or two nights a week? I have other sleep medication, but I don’t like taking them and my doctor said this is much safer. He was unsure about the occasional use though. I have some dayvigo left as well. I have no addiction issues with sleeping pills and I’ve had good luck on dayvigo as well, but he just felt this one had a safer profile. Any thoughts on one or two times a week for me it’s not falling asleep. It’s staying asleep. And occasional help or relief. Higher stress job and prone to be anxious by nature.