Hi
@Trilby -
Sorry no one has responded to your post yet and you are having sleeping problems. Sounds like high stress and anxiety from your tinnitus and ineffectiveness of your hearing aid are the main drivers behind your inability to sleep. There are several threads on the forum that address strategies for sleep so a quick search for such threads may be useful for you. Do you have trouble falling asleep and/or waking up and then trying to go back to back to sleep? Trouble falling asleep and staying asleep are two different things so if you suffer from both, I would develop strategies for both. I contributed to an earlier thread on this -
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...nd-maybe-get-some-guidance.38712/#post-501482 - and just posted this -
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...ment-imbalances-achieving-better-sleep.39047/.
I would advise caution on medicating for sleep issues. Several prescription medications grant you sleep but often carry risks of addiction and serious withdrawal symptoms if you try to get off them which could leave in an even worse condition than when you started. Also, be careful not to overdose on sleep meds whether prescription or OTC; overdoses on either could have serious consequences including death especially if taken with alcohol or together with other meds that conflict. I had a good friend in graduate school with me when I was earning my first Master's Degree that drank to excess often to cope with stress and forgot to wait long enough to take his sleep meds one night that he turned out to be abusing who then went to bed, never woke up, and ended up passing away in his sleep at 25. I am sure you will be responsible for whatever sleep strategies you adopt, but learning to address, control, and reduce anxiety and stress will go a long way. Start by making a list of things that cause you stress and anxiety, identify things you have control over and take steps to reduce stress and anxiety with respect to those things, and identify the things you cannot control and learn to accept that fact. Also do not isolate yourself, get outside, and maintain healthy relationships with friends and family you can talk to. I would try to develop stress and anxiety reductions strategies and sleep strategies before you turn to medication or medicate while you develop your strategies as a parallel task to help facilitate short-term relief and achieve long-term success.
I take melatonin and L-tryptophan before bed and drink tea that encourages sleep as well at night (
https://www.amazon.com/Celestial-Se...keywords=sleepytime+tea&qid=1579954684&sr=8-5). I would recommend you try some of the more conservative non-habit forming sleep supps like those combined with stress- and anxiety-reduction strategies and the development and implementation of good sleep hygiene plan before moving other prescription sleep aids that are out there. Also, a visit to a sleep doc may help as well.
I hope you find some relief from your sleep issues soon.
All the best,
-Oceanofsound26
Member
