Here I am again, been wide awake all night long for 3 days.

Hi all,

Here I am again, i have been wide awake all night long the past 3 days and it looks like this will the 4th! What do you guys do when this happens (besides reading a book a night)?

I do all the right things, no caffeine, take amytriptriptoline ( can't spell), no naps, use my CPAP machine etc. But it's like my body/brain has absolutely no requirement for sleep. Pain has increased along with exhaustion and fog. At least I catch up with this forum which is a positive.

Any suggestions? Kind regards, Neenaa.

Post Edited (Neenaa) : 3/19/2016 7:51:41 PM (GMT-6)

I had a nasty bout of sleeplessness last summer.

Usually if that happens, I take either melatonin or Puritan's "Calm Tabs," which contain valerian. I often drink chamomile tea in the evening, which seems to relax me (though beware of any allergies for anything herbal).

Recently, I read that some people report diarrhea from taking melatonin, though probably because I took the lowest dosage and alternated it with "Calm Tabs," I didn't have that issue.

Swanson vitamins has sleep aids which are similar. I would check with my doctor before trying anything new.

When all else fails, I just get out of bed and walk around in the house. I get bored and tired pretty fast, doing that!

Best of luck, Neenaa!

I'm so sorry you are going through this, Neenaa!

I went through the same thing last year. I tried a bunch of different herbal remedies and every suggestion I read about unplugging a few hours before bed, etc. Nothing worked. Finally, my husband said to call my doctor (I was keeping him awake, too!).

My doctor tried a lot of different things. They would work for a day or two and then stop. I would contact him again and he would try something new. Finally, I found out what works. I'm one of those weird people whose body gets used to prescriptions and then they don't work. So, I take Gabapentin at bedtime AND I take either a 1/2 a muscle relaxer (I switch back and forth between Flexeril and Baclofen) one night and the next night I take 1/2 a pill of Melatonin. I was taking Benadryl instead of Melatonin but it was making me so forgetful that I stopped and now I am doing better. I keep trying to cut back (that is why I am taking 1/2 pill). Last summer I was able to cut back to 1 Gabapentin.

I don't like taking prescriptions but I read recently that not sleeping can cause a lot of health problems. So, that helped me not be as concerned. I hope you find something that will work for you. Key for me was to keep emailing my doctor until we found something that worked.

Be careful of melentonin if you have an autoimmune disease. It will trigger flares.

Hi Joy

Thanks for the heads-up about autoimmune diseases and Melatonin. I have Rheumatoid Arthritis which is an autoimmune disease. I had an appointment with my Rheumatologist yesterday. I asked her about it. She said she did not think there would be a problem with RA. She said she could understand how there could be a problem with Lupus because of photosensitive issues. so I guess I will keep using Melatonin as it is working for me.

Hi Heart

I am experiencing a lot of pain at the moment but the sleeplessness doesn't seem to be directly connected to the pain this time. The Melatonin has been working well with my sleep problem over the past 5 days but the pain is still there. Hopefully that will ease too as I know they are both closely related.

Thanks for al your help. I really appreciate it. Kind regards, Neenaa