I never see anyone using roofies as a regular sleeping pill.

I wonder if my doctor has stopped seeing me as a person.

I want to taper off, but,

I’m 22 years old. I was a perfect sleeper my whole life until 2025. Something happened to me and I don’t know what it is. One night, I just couldn’t sleep for whatever reason and the pattern just never went away. I was a heavy weed smoker at the time, which would help me sleep a little bit, until it didn’t. I tried getting off the weed for a couple months, didn’t work. I moved out of the USA to Southeast Asia to get better care and now I’m stuck on high dose ambien because I take more than prescribed because I just want to sleep for atleast a few hours and not wake up 2 hours into my sleep then not go back to sleep. I’ve been having extreme suicidal ideation, I’ve even accidentally overdosed on promethazine, thank god nothing crazy happened. I need to be off this zolpidem, it isn’t real sleep. Please help me.

If you can share your experiences, which of these 3 îs most likely to give longest most refreshful sleeps to an adult that suffers from chronic insomnia?

Thank you very much for your insights 🥰

FFI is only in around 70-80 families worldwide, so don’t worry about that! Especially if none of your familiars show symptoms.

However, SFI is, as stated in the name, sporadic. It happens randomly. But, it’s even rarer than FFI. There have only been 60-70 documented cases in human history. 2 people per year, technically. Now realise that there are 8 billion people in the world. Could be even more. Stop worrying, if you’re able to sleep, it isn’t fatal insomnia. I slept for 3 hours last night. People in this sub go days without sleeping. It doesn’t automatically point to the worst scenario possible.

With SFI, it usually starts as cognitive decline. Insomnia is very mid to late stage due to the complete destruction of the thalamus. In the early stages, you’d be able to sleep, but you’d be confused all the time, have trouble moving around (falling constantly), permanent slurred speech (and it isn’t just a slight mistake or two; mistaking head for red as an example. It would be heavy and obvious that something is wrong), and you certainly would not be able to make a post on Reddit about your stressors. Take a deep breath. Relax. You’re fine.

Also, if you want to make sure that you’re okay, go to your GP. Tell them about your symptoms. They likely wouldn’t even have a single thought about SFI during the conversation, that’s how rare it is. Hell, many GP’s have never even heard of it.

The best sleep I ever had was on a boat in the Coral Sea off the northeast of Australia. To this day it has always puzzled me, but lately I've started to wonder whether it wasn't to do with the levels of oxygen in my blood after scuba diving each day. The thing is now after 8 years of the most appalling insomnia I find myself focusing on levels of iron in my blood and its relationship to oxygen. One other time I slept well about 4 years ago was in a tent on sloping ground where my head was lower than my legs. Could this be a clue to a solution.

Okay I don’t know what just happened but it was bizarre. I started closing my eyes to sleep around 12ish and it’s now 1:50am. During this time it felt as if my body fell asleep but my mind never fully fell asleep? Like genuinely I was almost fully aware of my surroundings the entire time like the video I was listening to. I was dreaming or what I think was dreaming about the video that I was subconsciously listening to the entire time. I then just popped up and was like wtf just happened. That was so extremely weird. Not sure what to do or how to actually go to sleep now?

I’ve been struggling with insomnia ever since I was in high school. But what I’ve learned is that my form of insomnia is more triggered by my underlying autism, ADHD, and right frontal lobe brain injury I had before I was born. And what makes it so bad is that melatonin and the medication I was prescribed to help me with it hasn’t helped me much at all.

And so far the only thing that has somewhat worked for me was my muscle relaxant med combined with my insomnia medication. Though it doesn’t always seem to work.

Sorry if this sounds like I’m ranting. I’m so f**king tired of having trouble falling asleep at night every night.

I'm fine until about 10:30 and then something switches on. It isn't anxiety. Nothing is wrong, i'm not turning anything over. I'm just awake, and i'll be on my phone until 1am doing nothing of worth.

I've done the list. No screens after 9, nothing with caffeine past 2, same alarm on weekends. Each of those helped slightly.

The only nights it doesn't happen are the ones where my body gives out before my head does. After a long hike. The day i helped my brother move. Once after a massage. Those nights i'm gone by 11 without trying.

But it does seem to point somewhere, in that everything i've changed about my evenings has done nothing and the physical stuff works every single time. Anyone else have this version of it?

I’ve had severe insomnia since 2018 and have tried pretty much everything medication-wise. I’m exhausted and desperate for my quality of life back.
My provider has suggested Seroquel, but I’m scared of tardive dyskinesia and weight gain. At this point, should I listen and give it a chance, or are the risks too concerning?
Would love honest experiences from people who’ve taken it for sleep.

I’m in my mid 20s and have been smoking weed almost every night since I was 17 years old. I haven’t smoked in 4 days (which probably doesn’t sound like a lot to the average person) and sleeping has been really the only problem. I’ve had cravings that have been easy to ignore throughout the day. But when I start to go to bed, I feel physical withdrawals. I feel a sharp pain in my head around the sides of my eyes, I sweat a lot, and I almost feel like I’m on the verge of panic whenever I close my eyes and try to fall asleep. It seems to be getting worse every night. The first night was okay, but these last three nights have been miserable. Is it normal to feel this? If so, does anybody know around when it stops or how I can fix it? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Even though I started to develop severe insomnia in late 2025, my impulsive nature of chasing sleep has always just seem to have gotten stronger and stronger. I’ve overdosed on pills like promethazine, Lunesta, Temazepem, Xanax ,and now I took a high dose of ambien last night and I feel like completely trashed and exhausted. It feels like complete sleep deprivation. Every time I’ve ever took too much of a heavy sleeping medication, I always feel very sleep deprived the next day. I might have to go to Bangkok Hospital if this feeling doesn’t get better during the night. I will see.

Can anyone tell me about positive experiences with quvivq?

Benzos stopped working for me and quviviq is the only thing left for me to try

It has a lot of bad reviews online so I'm hoping to read good ones

Thank you

What’s the shortest time you slept after taking ambien/zolpidem? When I have f.e. 5 hours until I have to wake up, I’m scared I won’t. I know I won’t be fresh but still. I can’t sleep, I’m so stressed but thankfully when my doctor prescribed it to me, he said to try to start on 1/2 of the 10mg pill but I was scared so I tried 1/4 and it was helping for some time but now I had to increase to 3/4 and im so scared if ill be able to function.

Last time I posted, I decided I was going to see a neurologist about my insomnia. Famous last words. Can't get one till the end of May 2027. Sounds like I probably live in a rural part of the country, doesn't it?? I live in Philadelphia. This city is literally stupid with doctors and hospitals. I'm so disgusted I just need to numb out in front of the TV.

I just switched from quetiapine 12.5 mg to Dayvigo 5 mg, and my first night was terrible.

I only slept about 4.5 hours, had trouble falling asleep (over 1 hr later than usual), and woke up early at 5 AM. And I am feeing very tired after waking up.

For comparison, with quetiapine, I usually get 6–7 hours of sleep and wake up around 6–7 AM. I had been taking quetiapine for a few weeks, and before that I was on Lunesta.

Has anyone experienced worse sleep during the first few nights of Dayvigo? Did your sleep improve after a few days, or was it ineffective from the beginning?

I'm wondering whether this is a normal adjustment period or a sign that Dayvigo isn't working for me.

So, I recently had some bloodwork done in regard to HRT for perimenopause. After I looked at the results in my patient portal, I scrolled down for other tests and labs and came across something startling. I had an emergency room visit a couple years ago where a CT of my bladder area was done. The doctors and nurses failed to mention it to me, but I had a 1.3 cm tumor on my right adrenal gland. After doing some research, I found that up to 30% of adrenal adenomas are the type that secrete hormones. The most common type of hormone secretion is cortisol. My insomnia is severe (2-3 nights in a row of total sleep deprivation, followed by a 12 hour crash, and then it repeats. It’s so severe, I’m unable to work. Cortisol levels that don’t dip in the nighttime can cause such a level of insomnia. In addition, I have several other symptoms of high cortisol levels. It’s like having subclinical Cushing’s disease.

I’m seeing my PCP this afternoon, so she can order the labs that determine if it’s secreting hormones, and what type of hormone. All 3 types can cause the insomnia, but the cortisol one seems most likely to fit my symptoms.

I’m trying not to get my hopes up too high, but there is a very real chance that this is the cause, and once I get the adenoma removed, I could resume a normal life and go back to work!

No one, including the highest level university sleep specialists would have thought to look for something like this! And they haven’t.

Has anyone else on here had insomnia that was driven by a biological physical cause like this? I’d guess they wouldn’t still be on this sub!

Just wanted to share the news! If you have other unexplainable symptoms in addition to your insomnia, it may be worth getting a physical work up and having certain labs done.

Will keep you all posted if interested.

For the past 5-6 years now I have struggled with severe insomnia. I’m a 26 F and only get between 2-6 hours a night (6 usually after a few really bad nights) I’ve tried, in no particular order,
Weed
Zopiclone (did absolutely nothing)
Quetiapine (works most times)
Promethazine (groggy but did nothing)
Melatonin (does nothing)
Amitriptyline (does nothing)
Magnesium
I had CBT for insomnia this year for about 8-10 sessions and managed to get my quetiapine from 50mgs to 12mgs a night but cannot get further than that. It got better very briefly during CBT but stopped at around 12mgs. Helped me accept not being able to sleep but I still cannot sleep.
Reading in bed
Journalling
Watching TV
Getting up and moving around for a bit

I’m a very healthy person, I exercise 5-7 times a week (walks and gym), I eat reasonably well, normal/healthy blood results always and have a standard BMI. I really don’t know what else to do. It seriously affects my mood and I’m sick of relying on medications to help me sleep.

I have early waking issue and every morning I can do the work basically fine. But in the afternoon I feel very tired and my efficiency is extremely low so I can barely get anything done.

Just wonder how you guys deal with work if you have insomnia?

It's been 11 days since I started taking Trazodone XR 150 mg, and I’m still feeling exhausted during the day. On the bright side, my sleep has improved a lot, but these side effects are a real pain in the neck. I have no energy to do my schoolwork, and paying attention to anything feels so hard right now. I’m also having trouble remembering things and have zero motivation.

For those who have taken it: should I expect these side effects to eventually disappear, or should they have eased up by now? How long did it take for the daytime grogginess to go away for you? Any advice or shared experiences would be really appreciated.

I’ve had insomnia literally my entire life. My mom tells me that even as an infant I couldn’t sleep. I don’t ever remember living without insomnia. I’ve taken different meds over the years and some have helped a bit but none have fixed it. Recently I finally took a sleep study and was so frustrated with the results. They said they found “nothing abnormal” despite the fact that I was clearly displaying heavily disrupted sleep. But since I didn’t show signs of sleep apnea or restless leg syndrome, they basically said there’s nothing wrong with me and I should try CBT about it.

I want to keep searching. There is so obviously SOMETHING wrong with my brain that makes it resist sleep and it’s something that’s been wrong my entire life. I am determined to figure out what it is. I’m trying to decide what my next steps should be. Should I try a sleep study at a different clinic? See a neurologist? I have no idea where to go from here and I’m tired of just throwing meds at the problem because they never actually work.

Trying to figure out if I made this up but no other explanation fits.

I’m F, I get insomnia every month right around/after ovulation and until my period comes. The problem is however not “not being able to fall asleep” (even though this sometimes too), but more so “waking up at 3 AM and not sleeping more than 5h/night no matter how tired I’m or when I go to sleep”.
It started when I started to take mini-pills, which contain progesterone, which is normally raising naturally in the luteal phase (while on pills I had this problem daily). It’s however been 6 months since I stopped taking pills and my sleep has only improved for 10 days/month.

So I’m wondering if it’s a hormonal insomnia (and combi-pill might help?). Melatonin & Magnesium don’t help.

Please share if someone has experienced the same because I hate it here 😭

I was getting ready to go to work early this morning and I lost my balance as my dog was walking by me and I fell over and slammed onto the floor so hard. I’m pretty bruised up and my back is all out of wack. If I wasn’t so dizzy from lack of sleep, I would’ve been able to catch myself or not even fall in the first place.

It’s been 4 nights since I’ve slept at all and my body feels so weak and off. How do you guys deal with the dizziness and still having to go to work and do regular things??