Have a read of my first thread if you want to find out my situation.

The past few nights I've been finding it very hard to get to sleep. What happens is I feel relaxed and tired, I'll maybe start to think about something and feel myself starting to fall asleep then what I'm thinking about turns into a messy nonsense and I get a distressed, confused feeling and 'wake' up and usually feel the need to switch the light on to get some kind of sense of reality and orientation back. I get very depressed and concerned at this time that I have a permanent cognitive deficit and that I'm just a shell of the person I was before. I'm now in psychotherapy for my depression which I'm really hoping will help me to be more positive.

Any similar experiences? Any remedial suggestions?

B

Hi (((Benjamin))). I did go back and read your other posts.

So sorry for your troubles. What you describe about trying to fall asleep, then waking yourself up, I've only experienced on occasion. Very frustrating!

I have MS, so really don't have any answers for you. But I was wondering (until I read that you are only 28) if you had been in Utah years ago: seems we named a town after you!

DH and I visited England about 4 years ago. When the news weather lady said it was going to be "misty", I wondered what the heck she was talking about. That afternoon when we were taking the bus tour of London I found out! It's just like someone is lighting squirting you with a spray bottle, Lol!!!

Hope you improve quickly. You going to get back on your BMX?

Hi Twinkletoes. No, BMX is finished for me. The past 2 months have been far and away the worst time of my life and I'm not going to ever risk experiencing this again. I've been thinking about taking up base jumping instead.

The lack of sleep has left me totally spaced out and I feel back at square one. PLEASE, if anyone has any suggestions for helping me sleep I'd love to hear them.

Hi Benjamin. In my travels through recovering from a concussion and sleeping, I found I had to practise relaxation techniques and "train" my brain to stop with the nonsense thinking. This took time and it was frustrating! A few times I did resort to medication. Eventually, my sleeping got better.

I am 5 months post concussion, and really struggled with realizing it was going to take some time and not to push. Each time I overdid it, especially in the early days, I ended up in bed for at least a day. I had to "surrender" to allow my brain time to heal.

Good luck and try to learn what makes your symptoms worse and stop doing those things! Early warning signs for me are a headache coming on, irrirtability, fatigue, brain fog. When that starts, I go rest somewhere quiet. Often I will wear a sleeping mask over my eyes and put silicone ear plugs in my ears (sensitive to light and noise these days).

It was exactly the same for me. I just had to accept that I could only do so much in a day, not try to do too much or do anything too strenuous and would need a lot more sleep than before my concussion.

Hey my Friend,

Let me tell ya ... I HEAR YA!! Since my head injury, sleeping was absolutely impossible. IT WOULD NOT HAPPEN, PERIOD. This went on for 4 days and no sleep caused me to badly hallucniate and stay sick constanty.

I started on Lunesta which (for me) was a total joke!!! My doctor is intimately familiar with head/brain trauma and tells me that "inability to sleep is the least frequently discussed subject with TBI's and PSD's."

Thank GOD I had a good physician in West Palm Beach. What I take now, JUST TO SLEEP, is 1.5mg of Xanax combined with 10mg of Ambien. That takes about 4 hours to work, but it does do the job.

Let me know where you are ... I can call my doc & ask him if he knows anyone who's a Sports Meds/Family Practice doctor who knows as much as he does in your area. If so, I will pass the info to you immediately.

Joe

Hi, fior 6 and half years I don't think I had a decent nights sleep. Sometimes it seems like I simply have my eyes shut like supposedly relaxing other times I go to sleep and wake up about every half hour - or go to sleep soundly for an hour, wake up and can't go back to sleep.

I had previously been given a light dose of nortriptyline - didn't work. Melatonin - didn't work and I finally begged the doctor for "real" sleeping pills and he has given me zoplicone 7.5mg. First of all he told me that I could only have 3 tablets a week so I was taking one the night before I wanted to have a decent day. Last week I saw my psychiatrist and asked him if I could take them every night - like please please and he agreed. My GP had been worried about the possiblity of becoming addicted to them - but I don't care what I have to take even if it is for the rest of my life in order to get a decent nights sleep - and guess what I have been sleeping all night - waking only once BLISS!!!!!! I have now had 10 consecutive nights of sleep!

Lynlee

I have had a lot of trouble sleeping too. On a no exertion "diet" and when I get into bed at night my mind starts racing. I have 2 suggestions:

1. Yoga nidra-- you can get a CD and it really helped focus my mind and relax.

2. My doctor put me on Trazadone. I took it every night for about a week and now just take it as needed.

3. Before I got the prescription I used Advil PM. But that can cause rebound headaches. SUpposedly there is less of a risk of that with Tylenol PM.

<3 E

For sleep troubles, try 3 mg. Melatonin. (There is also a time-released formula out there, as well as 5 mg. strength.) It's a natural hormone, gentle and effective, with zero side effects. Good luck!