So Sleep Deprived, Are Drugs the Answer for Now?

Hey Everyone,
It's been a hard month since the T hit me, the worst has been the inability to sleep. I get like 3 or 4 hours a night now. I'm at the point where I'm tired all the time and have fits of crying. Not to mention the anxiety. I find that the sounds of a fan, white noise, brown noise, etc bother me a lot. I can't sleep with it on. However I can't sleep with the T sound either. I've also dropped 9 pounds due to the stress of all this.

I'm at my whits end and just wanted to see what you guys think I should do. I need to get some sleep. Should I go get medicated?

I can't keep going like this or I'm going to lose my job and fail out of school.

Gobi

 

I say if you've exhausted all other options, get temporarily medicated. Sleep is extremely important, there's no point in suffering if meds can help.

 

Yes, particularly because you are a new onset. Occasional use of a sleep med may be one of the tools you use to manage in the short term. Also keep in mind that by some estimates somewhere around 75% of those who develop T see it resolve within a few months. Stress and lack of sleep are undoubtedly aggravating your limbic system and raising the level at which you perceive tinnitus. Lastly there are some excellent OTC sleep aids that help many. Have you tried any of those? How is your sleep hygiene? Hope this helps. Best of luck.

 

Hi Gobi,
I agree with @AntonR and Mike A, sometimes you got to give in, no one has endless coping skills, you really need the sleep or you will get worse. I am on sleep meds and I just started a few strategies and hope that a combination of them all will help me manage better. I have always hated meds, but I know I have to have them. Always a personal choice, but I would encourage them. Your doctor should be on top of things.

 

My sleep hygiene has gotten better. I have given up drinking caffeine past that first cup in the morning, I head up to bed at the same time each night now, no TV in bed. I have tried Tylenol pm, works but makes me groggy. I just grabbed a valerian root supplement tonight that has a lot of helpful ingredients like hops, skullcap.

I wish I could just stay asleep until my alarm goes off.

 

@Gobi Briefly. My 20 yo T spiked in Feb. I reacted badly. Used zolpidem (Ambien) 4-5 nights a week for a couple months. Then tapered gradually to fewer days and half, then quarter tablets. Along the way I began taking magnesium, valerian, melatonin, focused on sleep habits. No electric light after 8PM, light masking sounds in bedroom,..... At the 5 month mark I cut the supplements and masking sounds. I also experienced a period when I'd wake after 4 hours of sleep. No more. Over the past 6+ months T has dropped from around a 4 to 3 or so on 1-10 scale. I assume part physical improvement and partly habituation. You must lower stress and allow your body to perceive the sound as no longer a threat.

 

Simply Rain app + Imovane drug helped me the most in the beginning. Check them out. Another key thing is to relax your body and the limbic systems from the fight or flight response T typically causes in the beginning. I once wrote about that.

http://rain.simplynoise.com
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/new-and-stressed-with-tinnitus-read-this-first.3978/

 

@Gobi - im in the same exact place as you. i have no problem falling asleep but i'm up 4 hrs later and cant go back to sleep which really sucks. i tried sleepy time and chamomile tea and still have the same issues. i want to try melatonin and see if that helps as i dont really want to go the prescription medication route.
can anyone recommend which dose of melatonin i can start with 3mg? would extended release work best?
thanks
Rube

 

Rube, sorry to hear you are in the same state im in. Its lonely as hell to wake up like that and stare at the ceiling the rest of the night.

I took some valerian root and a pill of 5-htp last night. Slept from 12 to 2, woke up and popped a Xanax. Slept on and off for 6 more hours. At this point I just need the sleep, so meds it is. How long do you think it will take to get my limbic system to get use to T and the noise of the world now that I have to put those ear plugs away at night?

Gobi

 

@Gobi - do u feel better having gotten more sleep or is it too early to tell?

 

Physically you definitely feel better, mentally it helps you not be so irritable and have mood swings all day. Still in the back of my head I'm pissed I have to take meds to sleep. Bugs me, never had to before in my life and wham here I am popping Xanax's.

At a certain point though you can't fight your body on your own. I definitely hit that wall on Friday night so I started taking my Xanax again.

 

@Gobi you are right it is lonely as hell waking up at 3 or 4am and not being able to sleep again . it makes for a long day. im going to try the melatonin first - did you try that at all?

 

I did melatonin and it makes it easier to go to sleep. However I didn't find that it kept me asleep. Still woke up in the middle of the night. Maybe try the slow release ones.

 

@Gobi which strength melatonin did u try? good call on the slow release i will try that.

 

3mg, by a spray right into the mouth. One hour before bed.

 

@Gobi thanks for the info! did u get the vivid dreams that some people report with melatonin?

 

Sure did, my dreams were pretty interesting. I don't know how long a person should be on melatonin since it does alter your sleep a bit. At least it does with me.

 

Might I suggest Valdoxan (or agomelatine), seems to work very well for sleep.
It helps your body react better to your own melatonin (no need to supplement additional melatonin).

Either that or Remeron. I have also found that 5-10mgs of Remeron do really help.

Do note that both these drugs are ADs but:
Remeron at anything below 10mgs is basically an antihistamine and not an antidepressant.
Valdoxan is a very new AD that does not come with the usual SSRI/SNRI side effects. It quite expensive though.

However, if one is really stressed, even these will only give 4-5 hours of sleep max.
Hell, even zolpidem won't last more than that at high stress levels.

Also, I am not a big fan of xanax as a sleep aid. It's mostly an anxiolytic, not a hypnotic. As a sleep aid, it should be used alongside some other sleeping drug.
And if you're going to pop a benzo before sleep, get a longer lasting one.

 

Melatonin can work, but it wears off quite fast (3-4 hours) and I have noticed it can wake me up around 3-4 am and it's hard to fall asleep after that. L-Tryptofan is something one can try instead, because it is a precursor to melatonin. Worked for me quite well.

 

thanks for the info. id like to try a natural remedy first if possible, do you have any thoughts?

 

How long do you guys think I'll get use to noise in my room or aroun my house. Should I force myself to get use to te noise of a fan or rainfall, etc? All noise annoys me right now so I'm wondering if I should go ahead and just make myself get use to a sound.

Don't find anything within right now. Perhaps it's because I'm so use to ear plugs an quiet at night.

 

i wish i could say but you definitely want to have some type of a background noise so you don't focus or concentrate on your T. i go to youtube on my ipad and play a shower sound on low volume next to my head and I also have a fan on low.

 

Hi Gobi,

I'm still learning with this too, but from what I can find thru research, part of our problem is forcing things, and that drives the anxiety when we have the conflict of trying to adapt to something new. I guess you have to find sound that is neutral like background, (brainless), something that you would probably either ignore, and eventually build our level of tolerance. I have read there are three types of sound we need to surround ourselves with, soothing that makes us feel better, interesting sound that is active, say like if you like talk radio that distracts, but keeps your attention and of course background sound.

Blair

 

Sounds like the sleeping issues are ore of a symptom caused by anxiety. I advise you to find a good psychiatrist who can help you. Sleeping pills might see like a good idea but already after around a month your brain will become "hooked", eg. tolerance will occur. Therefore a professional might help you find more efficient ways, such as therapy or antidepressants. There are alwayss eergency rooms - you can go visit one, then you do not have to wait.
I also advise you to drink herbal teas instead of drinks containing caffeine (coffee, and yes, black and green tea). Also having a regular sleeping schedule helps a lot - go to bed at the same time every night and wake up exactly at the same tine. Dont do heavy exercise after 6 pm, but do sports during the day.

 

I think that natural supplements like passiflora and valerian can help with sleep but they do very little for anxiety (they can help ease typical, everyday stress but they do jack for your typical tinnitus related anxiety problems).

Sleep is not the problem. If you had a full day and you're tired, you'll sleep. It's the anxiety that could wake you up, not the tinnitus. That's why the use of an anxiolytic along with a sleep aid is the best solution.

The only thing I would recommend as a natural remedy is chamomile tea (I get some natural mountain chamomile herbs from a local shop and a nice chamomile tea with honey mellows me out like nothing )

 

i tried chamomile and sleepy time tea. falling asleep is not the issue, its staying asleep thats the issue. i wake up without fail like 3-4 hours after i fall asleep.

 

If you use earplugs while sleeping - stop using them.

 

Last night I combined 25mg diphenhydramine with 3mg of melatonin (is this even a good idea?)and slept for 6 hours straight. I'm not even comfortable using that, i've never had sleeping problems before.

Hoping with time i'll be able to sleep with just simply rain running on my laptop next to my bed.

 

Just wondered where those figures of resolution come from?

 

Well I just tried my fan again as well as a sound pillow and whenever I put it in its not a constant noise. I thought whitenoise was a consistent noise. When I listen to it I hear a variable whirl every 5 seconds, with other sounds as well.
What the hell is going on with me?