Posted 9/1/2012 9:22 PM (GMT 0)
From last month, I started to lose some sleep on every other day. I slept well on odd days. I had progressively worsening sleep on the even days. Now it progressed to the odd days as well. As this rate I am going to lose my job due to fatigue in daytime.
I am able to initiate a sleep, but I am unable to maintain the sleep. it first started with multiple intermediate awakenings. Then the awakening became longer and longer, I would then spend 15mins
on meditation, before I could fall back to sleep. Eventually meditation failed, I would feel hungry (i have acid reflux, but not serious), and need to get a quick bite. The blood sugar rise made me sleepy and I could fall asleep. Eventually this trick failed too. I couldn't fall sleep at all, after I woke up in midnight. If I did fall asleep, I would only be able to sleep another 1hr. Forcing myself to stay on the bed caused anxiety and nausea. I got only 3~4 hours of real sleep every night this way.
This acute insomnia problem happened to me before. The first time, I used a sleep scheduling, and my sleep was back to normal after 2 very tiring weeks of adjustment without losing my job. The second time, it got so bad that I lost my job, I went to a doctor, he gave me two very expensive medicine, lexapro and valdoxan. The meds worked like magic. However I had a relapse after 1 month. This 3rd time I travelled far to be seen by a traditional chinese physician, after taking his herbs, I was back to normal sleep after 5 days.
Now it's the 4th time. I don't have the money to spend on anti-depressants. Is there a good way to manage it? Should I attempt a sleep restriction again?