Sleepless

[Estella]

Just wondering who else has sleepless nights or never feels like they get enough sleep? I guess it's a common side effect of ptsd, especially during a period of flashbacks/facing challenges directly. I'm not sure if in my case it is chemical (and influenced by medication) or stress influenced.

I usually have about 4-5 hours a night and know it's not enough and contributes to my mood and ability to cope with stress on a day to day basis. How do you all cope?

[Blueberry]

Welcome to the forum btw!

I have sleepless nights, lots of them. Atm I'm a terrible night owl so often doing useful things at night. Then sometimes I sleep half the day. Fortunately (??) I can arrange my life that way. When I need to be awake and doing something in the daytime, I usually can stay awake. Though today I was woken from my slumbers by a student who had an appointment with me 

[Deep Blue]

I wouldn't know what a good nights sleep feels like.  I toss and turn while falling asleep, feel achy, and snap awake during nightmares every night.  I wear a watch that tracks my sleep and it basically says I'm super restless and often spend over 2 hours as "restless" sleep. 
Sometimes I take melatonin to help me fall asleep but yes, I feel ya, it's a constant struggle. 

[Dee]

Sleep has always been a huge issue for me.  It also is a common topic around here.  For me, I take medication.  It took a long time to find the combination that works, but once we did it was great.  The bad news is, last night I was still having trouble so I took an "as needed" on top of my others and I can't wake up this morning.  I have somewhere to be soon and I feel like a zombie.  That was my doing, I knew when I added last night this would be the case.  At the time it seemed way worth it.

[Cookido]

I sleep bad in periods. I found a way to fall asleep easier by imagining stories and get fully in my mind, which relaxes my body. It avoids me thinking of every little tension, itch or other uncomfortable things.

It doesn't always work though. Tonight I struggled falling asleep and woke up middle of the night and literally jumped out of bed because I dreamt a huge spider was in the bed. At night I can't sometimes tell dream from reality and it freaks me out. Me dreaming of spiders is usually a sign of stress and yesterday was very stressful.

I think finding signals of stress might be good, maybe keep a dream journal to know your sleep patterns better? Try different things, maybe you find something surprising that works well for you.

[Rainagain]

I think the sleep disturbance is the worst thing with my cptsd.

I could cope better with everything else if I was rested.

Maybe.

[DecimalRocket]

I related to this before, and I had a lot of trouble sleeping then. Now it's less that I'm anxious enough to stay up, and more that I'm emotionally exhausted enough to fall asleep. I guess sadness is a better emotion to be felt to sleep than anxiety. 

Usually meditation for sleep helped me before, so maybe that could help. There's binaural beats for sleep too, and some of the extended music tracks in Youtube are the most relaxing sounds I've ever heard in my entire life.

[woodsgnome]

The worst part of my frequent sleeplessness is when it coincides with knowing I'm is so tired there'll be no problem nodding off. Unfortunately, that is too often not the case for me...it's frustrating being so exhausted and unable to sleep it off.

Music helps, and sometimes not. Meditation helps, and sometimes not. Quiet environment helps, and not always either. Meds too--no luck sometimes. I hear voices--taunts and scolding from times of abuse, like they've been waiting for me to try sleeping, etc. On and on, I'm sure many here can relate to this as well.

It's been excruciating in this regard lately.  So bad that I've come to regard this as the icon of peace:    If only...

[ah]

I remember once going to bed when I was about 13 and then waking up in the morning. It was such a stunning experience that it stuck with me, the one and only time I slept well! Not sure what that was about. Freak accident.

I sleep very badly, always have since I was a baby. It was especially bad during periods of extreme stress in childhood, too. It goes in cycles. I guess sometimes I get one night's partial sleep because my body can't take it anymore but then it's back to no sleep. I think it's stress related though other things probably factor in too.
Though the worst thing about no sleep is the nightmares that manage to sneak in when I accidentally nod off for 5 minutes.

It probably doesn't make things easier for us. Sleep deprivation is a form of torture used to break people after all

Sorry I have no answers but I know what it must feel like for you. Well, and all of us I guess. I wish we could all sleep better.

I'm with Woodsgnome

[Rainagain]

Ah, a good nights sleep as a freak accident? Made me laugh, you often do.

I find daytime naps have fewer nightmares, as I'm unemployed it works for me but not everyone has the option.

I find having dogs helps me feel more secure as they would react if anything was going on, so I often walk the dogs then daytime on the sofa with dogs around feels pretty secure so we all nap.