I have to have some food energy in my system to sleep through the night. Otherwise, I become restless and fitfully doze after a few hours of sleep.

You might try having a snack. A chunk of cheese, Yogurt, some peanut butter on a few crackers. My best is a slice of cheese broken into 4 pieces on 4 saltine crackers. The salt is helpful as it satisfies a slight salt craving. (The salt on 4 saltine crackers is not a salt consumption issue) I find about 150 to 200 calories does the trick.

Taking some magnesium (not mag oxide) can help. A magnesium rich snack would be worthwhile.

My neuro suggested I take L-Tryptophan to combat fractured sleep, but I haven't had any luck with it. Maybe it'll work for you though, if you wanna give it a try. He said the next step would be a really small dose of Trazodone at bedtime. Haven't tried that yet.

SA,

I'll just throw this out there from my personal experience.

My sleep issues were horrendous for about 9 months. Now at 22 months, I still have them but they're much improved. ADs with sedative effects have helped me avoid some of my issues. However, the most effective strategy for better sleep is to avoid too much activity and/or stimulation. If I do this, my sleep is actually pretty good. If I over-do it, I know I'm in for 2-4 days of poor sleep.

I learned this the hard and scientific way... repeat, repeat, repeat... eventually my concussed brain linked the two. At your early stage, though, there may still be other issues impeding your sleep as well.

Take care and keep us posted.

I felt compelled to respond to this after reading because wow.. sportsaddict, everything you describe, from your duration since injury, symptoms, med confusion and uncertainties, and general feeling and struggles sound almost identical to my own story.

I've now just passed 4 months and although I've seen many improvements (people are constantly telling me all the time), it's still a hard battle because I'm still not permitted to be my former active, social, happy self. It's like I've just gone from a smaller cage to a larger cage..but it's still a cage! It almost gets harder to deal with and you get more confused as to what's causing what feelings and symptoms (the pcs, anxiety, fatigue?). I tend to place my problems on lack of sleep too, and figure if I just got more of it, I'd be better much quicker. But I'm not so sure anymore. Yes, things would be better but it's incredible how your body adapts. I dropped all prescription meds, only take diazepam on the odd occasion when I'm incredibly worked up/upset in the middle of the night after waking up suddenly (those really desperate nights).

I wish you all the very best on this journey. Know that you have others out there sharing your isolating, confusing and frustrating experience. We'll get through this

First, thanks for sharing and letting me know I'm not alone in my struggles. One of the hardest parts is I often feel like at 4 months I'm worse than I was at one month. Which is why I think I'm going med free. I basically have nothing to lose....I just pray I start seeing a glimpse of hope.