Insomnia Is Kickin'!

[TALON II FE]

Over the last 3, almost 4 days, the longest continuous sleep I have had was barely 3 hours. Every time my body tries to go into REM sleep, as soon as I start to dream, I get hit in the chest with a panic attack and adrenaline and pop up feeling threatened. I can't shake it. I have Hydroxyzine Pam, which was all they would give me for sleep, but when I tried taking it (right before this stretch of sleeplessness) for a few days it seemed to be feeding my nightmares, so I stopped taking it for now, and I am scared to take it in case I can't wake up from my dreams. I am thinking about drinking a little alcohol and see if that will relax me enough to sleep, dreamlessly. Do any of you have issues with insomnia? Have you found anything that helps? I took melatonin yesterday which got me the 3 hours of sleep but that was it. I have slept an hour or two here and there other than that and that's it. I am dealing with a sinus infection and chest cold on top of everything else and my body needs the rest so I can start getting better. I am at my wit's end!

Edited June 22, 2015 by TALON II FE

[Buck52]

I stop drinking years ago and turn to ''peach cobbler'' Buttter- milk biscuits' and white cream gravy

just kidding, eh!

but since I can't work I have put on a lot of weight just in my stomach no where else, I am looking forward to getting back to the gym and working out if my knees will let me & eating right...now if I can convince my spouse to stop cooking all the darn things that I love which is carb city I might lose.

one good thing is in this family no one smokes my spouse and my two sons and me.

but there married and live off , its just me and my spouse and some times our little beautiful healthy 5 year old grand monster daughter stays a week with each month which is the joy of our lives.

...........Buck

[TALON II FE]

WOOOO Doggy, did you say you were DX'd with OSA while on active duty and you need a new Cpap mask? I must really be missing something here. I don't see that your currently SC'd for anything, right. Forget about your claim for PTSD for a hot second. Do you currently have an SC rating of 50% for OSA on CPAP?

That's a significant $$ claim, what's going on, that should be an easy FDC. Just scan your MSR and attach to the claim, should get a pay day in about 6 months or sooner.

If your not using your CPAP nightly, all this other discussion about sleep help is moot.

Semper Fi

Gastone

I retired. I received terrible advice from a terrible (but very well-intentioned) VSO Rep. I have a laundry list of claims in, all at once. I use my machine, except when I am dealing with colds or sinus infections due to other issues that add up to about every other week sometimes every third week. I wish I could use it all the time. I do not use it then because I have found that I just recycle the germs and can't kick the infections. My MSR's are over 1600 pages, and actually with my records from joint services, probably around 2000 total. I sent the primaries in paper copy with my claim so there was no way they could say they didn't have them, cost my $178 to get them copied in black and white at office depot. I was planning on submitting my "easy kill", soft target claims, OSA, PTSD (diagnosed on AD as well, all my claim items were since I retired in September), spinal surgery and sinuses with multiple surgeries and THEN claim the more complicated items, nerve damage all over the place, all sorts of vascular and random "other stuff". My VSO said to "fill the claim sheet" from my chronic issues in my MSR because, "I had the thickest file of legitimate, diagnosed claims she had ever seen and I should be 100% easily". I was conditioning my expectation for about 70%. I may still end up 100% and believe, by the regs, I am a 100% scheduler.

BUT, the reality rarely matches the ideal. Moving forward, with more research under my belt, my VSO has proven to be very uninformed in her primary function and most likely caused a delay in my Hardship claim. I swore last week that if I didn't get any movement from communications I sent out last Tuesday, I would start hitting up some of these emails that float around for higher ranking officials as well as contacting my Congressman (I know, probably worthless) as well as some of the higher echelon Texas Veterans Commission members. I have yet to do this. I don't want to be the whiner, but hard is progressing to intenable. We left ridiculous far, far behind.

Edited June 24, 2015 by TALON II FE

[TALON II FE]

I swear by the local Coast Guard base gym to manage a lot of these symptoms. The fitness stuff helps me big time. I self medicated with alcohol and benzodiazepines for too long. I was on the Ambien for a while too with sleep apnea. When I got sober and off all the pills and bullshit I was finally able to get some half way decent rest and could breathe again but when things get funky, the sleep gets funky. I relate to all you guys, the spike up of symptoms at certain times....in the end everything always turns out good to go but getting there is the bitch. This is a good support group on here...

As long as we are always here for each other, no one gets left behind. My best days are when I can help someone else, that's not a catch phrase or bs, it is the truth. We can all help each other and that makes all of this more bearable.

[rpowell01]

Ambien is some funky stuff. I am also on that now, on my first prescription of it. Let me tell you that stuff has me doing some weird stuff right before and during my sleep. You want a laugh? The first night I took it I turned on my music that I always listen to as I was going to sleep. I put my head on the pillow and that is all I could remember. My wife was in the front room and she said I was singing with the music!!!! I don't remember a thing whatsoever. My wife told me today that I was making a grunting sound like I was making some great love. I don't remember a thing whatsoever.

The second night I took it I was hallucinating. My wife said I told her I was seeing things in the room.

I don't know about this stuff. I don't drink, I quit drinking in 1996. I wasn't a heavy drinker whatosever, well except when we were deployed to other countries. Anyway, I've been thinking of just stop taking the Ambien and start drinking one wine cooler a night to help me sleep. I have insomnia now because of pain in my legs but I'm afraid the alcohol will make the pain worse since the pain is nerve related. But I'm thinking one winer cooler a night isn't a enough to affect my legs but will help my heart even though I don't have heart problems.

[TALON II FE]

As long as I'm not taking anything else that interacts, I like a glass of Scotch (maybe 4 oz) with a giant ice cube. I will sip it for about an hour watching tv and then go to bed. It helps. Until I get a new mask, I don't want to risk much more than that, I prefer to wake up in the morning. I have had to move to the couch most days now, because my wife says I spend the first half of the night on my back going back and forth between snoring and not breathing; so, neither of us gets good sleep. She is on 'watch' rolling me over all night. On the couch, I don't end up on my back but, it does make my back pain worse.

Ambien worked good for me, but it sounds like you are right to discontinue it. It has strange effects on some people, I saw it when we were in the desert earlier on when we used to get it like candy. There are some antihistamines they can try for you. Just ask them, let them know the issues and I am sure they will move you to something else.

[rpowell01]

Talon,

I've tried just about everything else and they are causing more serious issues than helping such has nightmares, dreams and dehydration. I think I will just drink one wine cooler just on nights I cannot sleep. I usually know about 10pm if I can fall asleep or not.

Thanks for the info...

I see others are taking Trazadone but after my MH MD telling the side effects of that I don't want to end up in the ER because I've had an 8 hour erection. Yes that is one of the side effects and my MH MD told me one of his patients had to go to the ER because of this. I don't need any "stiffness" I have enough in my legs as it is...