Question
QUESTION: I am 19 years old.
for over a month i can't sleep at all, i mean not even a minuet, without sleeping pills. i totally lost my abillity to sleep. it happened all of the sudden and i had no emotional stress which caused it. i feel extreamly tired and my eyes are shutting down but i just won't fall asleep no matter what i do. I've read about sporadic fatal insomnia and I think i have it. i can't sleep for even 1 minuet without the pills for over a month.
my queston is: is there any test that can approve that? should i be having other symptoms in the first few months?
if it's not that, what else can bring total insomnia with no mental pressure?
please answer
ANSWER: First you need to see your md if you are taking prescription sleeping pills, dont stop them all at once, cut the dose by 1/4 every 7 days, until you are off them. I strongly suggest you contact your local hospital to get a referrral to a sleep center, where you will sleep overnight so they can monitor your sleep pattern. You also might want to try tips below.
You must go to bed and awaken the same time each day regardless of little or much
sleep you got the night before. This starts to reset your sleep clock
3 hours before bedtime stay away from
tea, coffee, caffeine, caramel colored soda like, coke,pepsi, ginger ale,
or root beer, chocolate and exercise .All these make for restless sleep.Do the following religiously for 4-6 weeks although some have seen changes in as little as 2 weeks.
Make sure room is quiet and dark. When you go to bed if you start to
twist and turn or if you wake up in the middle of the night and cant
go back to sleep, twist and turn for only 20 minutes, then get up, go
into a different room and read a book or magazine only! No computer!
When you start to doze immediately go back into the bedroom.This retrains
the brain into thinking that the bedroom is for restful sleep only. Do
this as many times as you awaken thru the night, it will lesson.
30 minutes before bedtime take a hot bath and immerse hands under the
water.Latest research states that the palms of the hand when immersed
in hot water send signals to the brain to relax. 15 minutes before bedtime\
drink a glass of warm milk. Milk when heated contains tryptophan, a
natural amino acid sleep inducer. Go to sleepnet.com click on disorders
insomnia for more tips. Feel free to email again , Karel
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: thank you, but that's not the question.
I know try to go to a sleep expert.
my problam is not the pills, my problam started before them: I can't sleep. the pills give me some kind of sleep and that's why I take them. the first problam is that i can't sleep at all by my own.
what kind of test aprroves sporadic fatal insomnia?
Answer
The test is a polysonigram, which you can only get a sleep center. Your local hospital can refer you. Its an eeg overnight, where you stay over at a sleep center they put electrodes on your head, totally painless and they monitor your sleep pattern. A neurologist can refer you as well. But you need to see them. feel free to email again karel.Also you should have basic blood tests especially to check out your thyroid for being overactive.karel
