Extreme Insomnia — Haven't Slept in 4 Days

I havent slept in 4-5 days, and by that I don't mean poor sleep, I mean I have NOT slept at all for 4 days. I have been taking Melatonin or Lorazepam and neither seems to work for me.

At this point the muscle fatigue is really bad to the point that even sitting up is just... heavy. I don't know what to do. I'm not really anxious or stressed.

I lay my head on the pillow and close my eyes but sleep never takes me, and if I open my eyes I can't really keep them open, but I still never drift. I am consciously keeping my eyes closed all night until the daylight.

Anyone else have experience with this?

 

Yes but then I restarted my sleeping cycle... Once you get up you stop feeling sleepy.

I took some sleeping pills, Zolpidem or something, once or twice...

 

if it makes you feel any better, studies have been done which have shown that even when people feel that they are getting zero sleep, they are actually flitting in and out for a few seconds at a time. It's super unpleasant, but it is actually "the minimum sleep your body needs"

I went through this for weeks last time I came off benzos. My big fear was that I'd start hallucinating and become unable to work. When that didn't happen after a few weeks, I realized it wasn't going to and I was just super uncomfortable, and it sort of plateau'd and eventually I got back to my normal sleep.

"Normal" sleep for me since I have been about 10 involves waking up a few times and very long onset to sleep, though. This doesn't bother me because it's how I've always been, but it's one of the reasons I am so enthusiastic about cannabis -- it obliterates any sleep issues I might have.

 

Please get together with your doctor to explore other options. Sleep is crucial to the level of my tinnitus. The longer I sleep, the more manageable it is.

 

I have been going two nights no sleep third night sleep-by-exhaustion for 9 days. I'm exhausted. The gp gave me three tablets of zopiclone. I'll try one tonight. I am surprised lorazepam does not help you. Might you be having a reaction? Do you feel anxious at night?

 

Out of all the benzos, lorazepam is the one I have found vastly the least useful for anything and I definitely stayed up all night on it once.

My order of preference for sleep would be
diazepam > librium > temazepam > (maybe) diclazepam > clonazepam > phenazepam > and then all the short acting ones last, with Lorazepam in dead last place. I think it's a garbage drug. Fine for very occasional, very acute anxiety. Useless for insomnia. Builds tolerance and causes tolerance withdrawal faster than most benzos.

 

The only reason I have the Lorazepam was because the initial lack of sleep and fear and stress from getting tinnitus gave me a pretty huge meltdown panic attack. My mom brought me to the ER and they gave it to me for the anxiety and for sleep. I slept that night for a couple hours. The second night I used one and it did nothing for me, and I haven't taken any since then. I tried melatonin and that doesn't help either. To be honest Im kind of freaked out by benzos, I don't really want any... I just want to sleep. I have never been this tired. I'm not really anxious or stressed to my knowledge.

 

I went without sleep a few days at the beginning, and I had auditory hallucinations and racing thoughts. I couldn't believe that first night when I couldn't sleep at all, never happened before. I took Trazodone for five months, stopped that, and now take a sleep supplement. I usually sleep around 6-7 hours but I wake up a couple of times. One or twice a week I sleep around 4-5 hours. I still don't think I can sleep without a pill and white noise though.

 

Which supplement? Melatonin?

 

https://www.orthomolecularproducts.com/cerenity-pm/

I went to an acupuncturist awhile ago and he convinced me to get this... however I just went off trazodone two weeks ago and started using this. It's expensive at $50 and it's only sold through healthcare providers... I am sure similar supplements with Gaba and 5-htp will work just as well.

 

Those are pretty expensive.. I might look for cheaper alternatives.. sleep has quickly become my main concern in dealing with tinnitus.

 

See a doctor if your insomnia is this bad.

I have found gabapentin helps me get a full night's sleep. I'll sometimes take 300mg before bed. L-tryptophen is over the counter and it seems to help a little bit too. On really bad nights (usually when I'm really stressed out about work) I'll take an Zolpidem, but I don't like becoming dependent on those and I won't combine it with gabapentin.

I hate depending on sleeping medications, but it's better than not sleeping.

 

@Hammers -- I slept in about 5-minute intervals the first few days after my tinnitus onset, with a total of about 30 minutes/day. I finally took a 1/4 tablet of Tylenol 4 (which I get by prescription), and slept several hours that first night. I'm pretty sure it was the codeine in it that helped me sleep. But it broke up the non-sleep cycle for me, and I was able to gradually improve from there. -- I hope you can find something that works really well for you. I'm happy to hear you quit the Lorazapam.

BTW, I took a very small dose of Lorazapam in the beginning of my tinnitus, dozed off into a nap, and awoke with a minor seizure. Never took it again. Did a search on it, and I wasn't the first one to have that happen. Though they said it's a "rare" side effect, I never believe it when they say rare. More than likely a lot of incidences are never reported. But perhaps more likely, never believed.

 

Be careful with gabapentin. It should not be addictive but it often turns out to be. I'm tapering its sister and more powerful drug, pregabalin, and it has been hell.

 

Last night I slept, probably by exhaustion. Today it's tough again, the high frequency hiss is screaming, hard to concentrate or work. I hope I'll sleep again tonight. This is a bloody condition. I haven't taken the zopiclone. The GP mentioned as an alternative low dose Amitriptyline (starting at 10mg, building up to 20 if necessary) for sleep and pain, does anyone have experience with this at such a low dosage? To affect tinnitus one has to go to 50mg apparently, but that opens the door to bad side effects.

 

Zopiclone is hardcore. Again, every person reacts differently to molecules, but I tried a few times and this is absolute crap. I have severe intrusive tinnitus and I wouldn't use it again. Sleeping pills, generally, are a pretty bad idea IMO.
Clonazepam works OK for sleep and tinnitus and I never noticed any side effect, but depending on where you live, you need an appointment with a neurologist to get it prescribed.

 

I have severe intrusive tinnitus too, plus several other afflictions. I am sticking around for my kids, but it's not easy. Re: sleeping, I have three tablets of Zopiclone I have been given for emergency, but I have not taken any of them. I do have a few tablets of clonazepam (actually prescribed by a ENT way back), but haven't tried them. I am tapering pregabalin and adding benzos to the mix could be dangerous. Zopiclone on the other hand, even if technically not a benzo, wouldn't be much better in terms of mixing. I'll keep trying melatonin and perhaps valerian root. Tough luck.

 

I only take once a day if that. No addiction, although I may not sleep all through the night when I don't take it. It actually seems to be a better sleeping pill for me than zolpidem with less dependence and less effect on my memory. Zolpidem will knock me out for 4 hours and only 4 hours, gabapentin isn't as strong, but I will usually get a full night's sleep with it.

Zolpidem seems to have a weird effect on me in the days following. My short term memory won't be as good and I seem to get more anxiety. It's very subtle, but I've noticed it when I was taking it because of extreme work stress, and it just seemed to compound the problem.

 

Sleeping medications aside, have you tried either masking the sound, or earplugs at night? Sometimes the brain also needs to distraction, and less "Mind racing," to facilitate some sleep.

 

I had extreme insomnia with my first anxiety ever a few months ago for a non-tinnitus related problem. I had to force myself to sleep without meds after 48h without sleep. Everytime I was losing conscious, I had sleeping apnea. Fortunately I fell asleep despite my anxiety.
Never had trouble with sleeping with my tinnitus however!

I hope you're actually sleeping mate!
Take care.

 

I use the Bose sleepbuds every night. I couldn't sleep without them.

 

Hi everyone. I'm about a month in and haven't slept more than a couple hours a night since. I'm taking Xanax and melatonin but the problem is that the tinnitus is so loud it wakes me a couple hours later and I can't get back to sleep. Further, I can't find anything to mask it. In fact, the masking seems to exacerbate the tinnitus. I've tried tons of different sounds. They all make the tinnitus louder and more jarring. I don't know what to do. I'm barely functioning.

I've had a couple of days of relative quiet throughout this whole ordeal and have some hope that this will go away on it's own, but I really feel that's unlikely. I don't know how I'll be able to live with no sleep.

If a mg of Xanax won't do it, what the hell will? Not to mention I need to get off this med asap. I'm trying to hold on to hope for my family but I'm losing.

People say you can habituate and it will take a year or two - but with my tinnitus and hyperacusis as unstable as it is, I don't know how I'll be able to do that. If I could just sleep I'd find a way to power through the days... I just need to sleep. I need hope.

 

Alprazolam may not work well for you, don't lose hope. There are tons of different molecules your doctor can prescribe you to help you through with these difficult times.
I understand what it is to not be able to mask T. I'm in the same situation. From the moment I wake up till I fall asleep, the sound is unmaskable. I know how bad it can get, trust me, but what you are saying is right : people say you will habituate, because at some point, you will.

It's no magic though, it takes time. It takes your brain to consider this sound as part of your normal body activity. It is easier for maskable T, because you can give your nervous system some rest while masking it, but even for unmaskable T, your subconscious will help you at some point and will put the sounds in the background.

Don't get me wrong though, I'm not saying this is an easy task, I've been to dark places many times myself, and currently, I'm barely fuctionning. I've had to stop working cause my abilities to focus are close to none. But we have to have faith in our body. You say you have had relatively quiet days, consider yourself "lucky"

It means your body can do its job at some point. It will. Plus your T is really recent

 

Hi @MagicMike,

Sorry to hear you're having a tough time with T. Rest assured, you're not alone mate and we've all been/going through the same troubles.

Sleep is a serious factor - lack of sleep seems to exacerbate Tinnitus and at the same time the Tinnitus seems to stop you from sleeping. Vicious circle!

Something I was taught on here is your goal shouldn't be to mask the ringing at night but to have a subtle background noise that can help to take your attention away from it. Something like a fan, sound therapy machine or television. I have a fan and a sound therapy machine, neither of which are cranked up to a point that it drowns out my ringing but just enough so that I can focus on another noise.

It takes some adjustment and doesn't happen overnight (please excuse the unintended pun) but it will get easier. You just need to remember to focus on other things, easier said than done, I know!

I also had issues with sounds amplifying the ringing and my fan still aggravates it to a degree but with the fan noise there, I can take focus away from the T. You have to play around with different sounds, which is why the sound therapy machines are great or an app on your phone. Unfortunately only you can find out what sounds work as T is unique to every person.

As for the medication, if you need it - keep taking it. Coming off medication like that isn't easy and you need to give yourself a fighting chance. Get yourself into a calmer mindset and more relaxed about T as you begin to adjust and then tackle the medication.

You can do this

 

Absolutely. That's what i'm trying. The whole enrichment thing. But everything seems to make the T louder. I fell asleep to soft rain sounds and woke up to seriously jarring T two hours later. I'm just a raw nerve. If I took 1.5 xanax before bed maybe that'd do it. I don't know. I'm just hoping there's something that will be able to get me to sleep.

 

I am two months in and already much better with tinnitus that has been very slowly fading in (it started as severe 8/10 tinnitus that covered everything 60 dB and below at 14 kHz, it's now at a mild, barely audible 1/10, 3 days ago it was still at a 4/10 moderate level), the severe onset (as in, I want to kill myself, I can't think, I can't read, I can't sleep... tinnitus) lasted for 23 days before it reached moderate levels, 20 of which I was utterly depressed and suicidal, the good news is, it does get better, albeit slowly, the ears take a long time to heal and provided you protect those, your tinnitus is likely to fade within 2 years.

Habituation itself is another process that takes in between 6 to 18 months and makes the noise less noticeable and less intrusive (it's still there but you don't care as much, if at all), this is a physiological process, and while it happens for most, it does not happen to everyone, because every brain is different, it is also blocked as long as you perceive the noise as a threat, (the noise is then processed by the amygdala which never fades in perception and keeps feeding a negative, stress induced feedback loop), once the noise is no longer perceived as a threat, it becomes an annoyance and is then processed through the nucleus accumbens, which does decrease (as in, physically decreases over time as it's receptors get over stimulated) and is what allows for habituation itself. I am not there yet, but considering my tinnitus is finally fading, it is likely to be gone or unnoticeable earlier than it would take for the effects of habituation to show up.

So, the good news is, it does get better, as long as you keep protecting your ears and you may be entirely tinnitus free in a few months.

The bad news is, this means you will probably have to deal with your tinnitus for the months to come as it gradually fades in, and you will need to remain over protective of your ears for at least 6 months (this means wearing ear protection anywhere where noise is louder than 70 dB), or risk a (potentially permanent) relapse, should you expose yourself to loud noises during that period, it also means you will need to keep being mindful of your ears for the rest of your life, even if your tinnitus is gone, your ears have been damaged and are more prone to further damages than someone else's with a healthy pair of ears, this means avoiding headphones (especially the first months), avoiding earbuds (for life), avoiding very loud activities (even with ear protections), for life.

I would also start to get a positive onset, negativity has never helped anyone, the least of all, yourself, sadly it took me 20 days to figure out that much for myself, though I'd like to think that's less than most. If I could change my state of mind from being suicidal to positive while undergoing 20 days of severe debilitating tinnitus, so can you. I won't lie, it's the hardest thing I've ever done and I did not know I had it in me, it takes a strong will, but little by little I started having more positive thoughts and getting my life back, the noise was still there, but I did everything to get my mind out of it, and not letting it control my life, 3 days later it started fading to moderate levels. Could I have kept going on like this had it stayed severe? I don't know and I certainly hope I never find out.

In my demise, I was somewhat lucky, I have experienced hell and got back from it, now that I know how bad it can get, I am never risking a relapse ever again, no matter how well my ears feel, I will never take that chance, because I've had a taste of hell and I know how it is.

Another advise is to lay off the meds, they won't bring you any good and only give you short term relief, especially the Xanax, but even melatonin can be dangerous if taken chronically, try to find sleep another way, such as meditation, bimodal neuro stimulation sounds, having a shower or a bath before sleep... The hard part for me wasn't falling asleep, I was so tired that eventually the noise didn't matter and I just passed out, the hard part was staying asleep as my tinnitus would spike and wake me up in between sleep phases.

Unfortunately I have no advise/remedy for that, other than attempting to get back to sleep the best you can, though that's something I couldn't achieve myself, so I usually just found something else to do to keep my mind off the noise, you also want to get to bed earlier so that you may experience slightly longer sleep before being awakened by the noise.

Eventually, a couple of weeks after my tinnitus got to moderate levels, I got to experience full nights again, which greatly improved my quality of life.

My advice is that time is on your side, so long as you take care of your ears and not take your earing for granted, something, I am sure you are well aware of now. Tinnitus can be a traumatizing experience, but that's something you can get through and learn lessons from.

Should it get better, and there is no reason to believe it won't, don't make the mistake of believing that once tinnitus fades you can get back to your old, care free life, a lot of people on this forum did and ended up regretting it, once it fades you can get to live your life again and in silence, as long as you keep being mindful that your ears are prone to damages and need care and protecting, this means you will need to do everything to avoid exposure to loud noises so long as you live, or risk relapse, that's the harsh reality of our condition and until an actual effective cure for hearing loss turns up, that's how it'll have to be.

 

I've really tried, man. But the Xanax was the only thing that got me to sleep and now it's not keeping me there. I tried no Xanax the other night when the T wasn't that bad and I couldn't even sleep then. Really in a bad way with this.

 

All you can do is fall asleep, nothing will keep you asleep until either your brain gets used to the sound, or the noise fades off to a low enough level that it won't wake you up at night, either of which can only happen with time, meanwhile what you want to do is achieve ways to fall asleep and maximize your possible sleeping time (going to bed early, meditating, having a video in the background to cover the noise...) there aren't one size fits all solutions to this, so you will have to find what works best for you.

Medication isn't the answer though and should always be a last resort, if you have to go that route, try other, much less intrusive products, such as magnesium citrate, which will get you in a relaxing mood and make it easier to fall asleep. Give it a few weeks and your sleep patterns should improve, hopefully along with your tinnitus.

 

I agree with you -- when i started the xanax i hadn't slept at all for 10 days. at this point i just feel that if i can sleep i can better deal... and unfortunately i haven't been able to do that on my own.

 

The single most important fact is sleep. I understand very well laying there as the anxiety grows and grows.

There is nothing wrong under the guidance of your doctor to take xanax for sleep even if it is short term. It worked for me and saved my life back then.

I know all the "cons" and never usually comment because of those responses.

Once you get sleep you can start trying different therapies for anxiety. But without that aspect - nothing worked for me.

I am so concerned when I read elsewhere that a person drinks to get drunk. I mean really drunk. And that was advice???? No. But, that person says they are living with severe tinnitus. Huh? Why promote drunk?