Maybe combining Abilify with a lower dose of Seroquel than whatever you were on previously would help.
I have terrible insomnia, although I take some medication for it, and it’s pretty well-controlled right now. One thing that always screwed me up was lying in bed waiting to fall asleep and wondering if I would fall asleep, and getting myself all worked up with worry over not sleeping. Sometimes when my brain is rushing, I turn on the TV, but turn off the picture, which you can do with our TV, and just listen. I also set it to turn off in like, 90 minutes. It doesn’t bother my husband, because he can sleep through anything. If you can’t turn off the picture on your TV, you could try listening to the radio, with it on a timer, or putting Netflix on your laptop, and closing it, but letting it play (it probably has a setting to stay on when it’s closed).
Anyway, the sound distracts me from thinking about anything that would keep me awake.
no caffeine after noon, no booze after 4 pm, eat a light, early evening meal
start rigorously adhering to a sleep routine that starts at least an hour before targeted bedtime
sleep routine should be something like, no reading, writing, watching movies, arguing cogently on the SD, or even much talking, take a hot bath in dim light, write down everything you might be worried about/need to remember/are planning and put it aside, breathing practice/meditation/prayer in a dimly lit room, go to bed in a cool, dark room protected from any disturbance (snoring spouses, barking dogs, blinking lights), and don’t do anything in that space except sleep.
if you wake up too early, do not read or use a computer or write, rather go back to the meditation, dim light, hot bath thing.
It works pretty well for me, although I still need to take a small dose of Trazadone (serotonin uptake inhibitor) to keep me asleep, as my sleep tends to be very shallow otherwise.
I use valerian to get my brain to shut down and my thoughts to stop racing - only when not on antidepressants though. When I really can’t sleep its meletonian, valerian and a benedryl.
Valerian comes as tea or in a capsule. And a sleep/stretch yoga routine. It doesn’t ALWAYS work, but it usually does.
This is not a quick solution, but sleep restriction helped me for a while. Essentially, you limit the time that you allow yourself to sleep until your body adapts and makes those hours filled with quality sleep. Then, you increase the window gradually. My sleep doctor recommended increasing 15 minutes a night, but I had to do 15 minutes every three nights or I messed up.
My night would go like this:
9:00 off computer, no books (I get excited reading). Could do light cores like putting dishes in the dishwasher
10:00 get ready for sleep - pajamas, etc. Get on couch, start watching tv. The show was very important. It had to be what I called “just boring enough”. It had to be something that passed time, but didn’t engage me so much that I couldn’t turn it off. I used True Blood and Law and Order on Netflix. No sleeping on couch!!!
12:00 go to bed, but only if sleepy.
5:30 wake up.
If I couldn’t sleep, I just had to get out of bed and start to relax again. I could take melatonin twice a week and Benadryl twice a week, if I was having serious problems. Also, one cup of coffee in the morning, but no more.
I did the above for about six weeks, then started increasing my sleep window by going to bed fifteen minutes earlier. It really helped a lot for a while. It was ruined when I dogsat for a dog that barked all night long for a few weeks.
Before reading all the replies, I wanted to note the exercise before bed: My understanding is that exercise is great, but within a couple hours of bedtime it just revs you up and makes it harder to sleep.
As far as middle of the night wakeups: one thing I use is my iPod, with a podcast playing. It has to be interesting (to keep my mind from wandering and ramping itself up) but not fascinating (to keep from being made more alert). How Stuff Works and its related podcasts are favorites, as well as some fiction podcasts (have to be careful with those), or audiobooks (ditto).
Do what you can to reduce the “static” that drags you out of deep sleep, and you might not wake up enough for it to be an issue. For example if you tend to be awakened to go to the bathroom, drink a bit less in the evenings, and you won’t have the same pee-urgency waking you up. I find that when I’m using my CPAP, and have taken my Restless Legs medication, I am deeply enough asleep that I’m much less likely to get the “gotta go” signals unless I really DO need to go. Nights where I don’t have the CPAP, or have skipped my RLS meds, potty breaks are a lot more common.
Bingo!! That’s exactly what I’m talking about with the iPod - and we also have the TV on for a bit at bedtime, with similar parameters. Family Guy that we’ve seen 30 times works, as well as a lot of what they show on Discover / History / Animal Planet etc.
Sorry it took me a while to come back. I wasn’t sleeping all that time…working a lot, but not sleeping a lot.
But sleeping more. My wife came to visit, and I was able to sleep while she was here. That kind of broke the vicious cycle for a while and I was then able to start sleeping again. I also did a few other things–cut down on my Abilify from 5 to 2.5 mg daily, flipped my mattress, started using f.lux on all my electronic devices. I am still exercising and that has helped. I’m at least getting 6 hours a day and usually 7 now, which is amazing.
The downside is that the Abilify was helping my depression, and now I am pretty much crushed by that. So it’s back to the doctor and the counselor and to employee assistance, the latter because working 60-hour weeks and still feeling like I’m sliding behind and about to be fired any minute is not good for my mental health, especially when I have nothing else going for me. I am healthy enough for the fight though, and it will be one.
Hmm…drink, you say. And by this you do mean a nice tall glass of warm milk, yes?
To the OP, I too have sleeping problems, but they are not as severe, yet. Melatonin works for me. 5mg actually really knocks me out. I do agree with the poster who said not to exercise just before bed. Other than that, not sure what to tell you. Good luck!
Sorry to armchair analyze, if you feel like I’m doing that. I’m not a doctor and don’t even pretend to know anything about it. But it doesn’t seem like your issue is with sleep.
It seems to me to be about your belief that you have nothing else going for you except this job that makes you so depressed that you have to find a cure for that. The rest are side effects from that.
I don’t know your situation (and haven’t read any of your other threads), but you seem to have a lot going for you – the ability to ask for help and the love of your wife that’s evident in just this short thread. I’m glad that you were able to find solutions for your sleep situation. I hope that you find more solutions dealing with your employment situation that brings you more joy.
No, you are right with this. Yesterday was another day from hell at work, and I’ll have to go in tomorrow to just keep my head above water. I just wonder what I’m doing wrong, why I can’t get my work done in less than 60 hours a week. I know this is affecting my sleep and my life. I will be seeing employee assistance soon on some specific issues, because I can’t go on like this much longer.
And yes, I don’t have anything other than work to do. I’m going to go get a library card today, so I at least have something to read, which does help before bed.
