Treating My Insomnia

I’ve been suffering from insomnia for years, and I’m just starting to kick the habit.

As a child I used to sleep pretty well. I even remember days when I’d sleep 10 or 12 hours. I had no trouble sleeping back then. It is later that I slowly developed insomnia.

It is really hard to pinpoint when it started. I have to say though that it has been bugging me since probably my late 30s or so. Moreover, I did not suddenly develop insomnia, one day. I had periods in my life of insomnia and periods of regular sleep. One thing for sure, it got progressively worse and worse as time went by.

My insomnia is a bit peculiar. I usually have no trouble falling asleep. However, I do wake up early and, when I wake up, my night is most likely over. I stay awake in bed and I start thinking. Eventually, I just want to get up and start my day.

There’s been times when I went to bed at 10:30pm only to wake up at 12:30am, 1:00am, 2:00am, or 3:00am. If I make it to 4:00am, I consider this a good night but not great. Later than 4:00am is pretty great, actually.

I’ve tried just about everything under the sun for my insomnia. At first, I was taking antihistamines, and it worked for a while, until it didn’t. I also tried melatonin but it never did anything for me. These days when a doctor suggests melatonin that’s a sure sign for me that I’m dealing with a cuckoo bird who does not know much about insomnia.

Then when I was seen by a psychiatrist, and by the hospital for my life-threatening illness, I was put on all kinds of medicines. Lunesta is the only thing that worked for me… for maybe six months, then I developed a resistance to it.

However, I also tried quetiapine, and trazodone, and other drugs, but they did nothing for me. Benzodiazepines helped, but they were only prescribing that when I was in the hospital, generally speaking.

Then I moved to CBD, which again helped for about six months. Then I seem to have developed a resistance to it, but I’m not sure now. I added THC to this regimen and it helped too. So as we speak my drugs of choice are THC and CBD.

I’ve also seen a pair of sleep specialists since February this year. I see one neurologist and one psychologist. We did a sleep study in February that showed some mild apnea. The neurologist did not think I should get treatment for it initially.

She did tell me though that my face is shaped in a way that makes me liable to get apnea. That would be part for the course for me. My ear canals are also smaller than average. And I suspect having had health problems in the past cause by smaller than average arteries but I can’t prove it.

I worked with the psychologist on sleep hygiene, and cognitive behavioral therapy. I think it helped somewhat, but it did not completely fix the problem. I have more nights now when I wake up with my alarm in the morning or maybe a little bit before the alarm. I also manage to go back to sleep.

I’ve seen my neurologist again this week and she now suggests that I get a dental appliance to treat my mild apnea. It could make the difference between sleeping correctly or not. At least that’s not a CPAP machine.

The neurologist and I also talked about trying other drugs, but the problem with drugs is that they can make the apnea worse because they depress the nervous system. That’s actually the first I hear of this. Doctors previously were quite happy to prescribe to me sedatives without considering that perhaps I have apnea. Even the CBD and the THC can be problematic.

I did try a dental appliance that I had already made a while back but it proved useless. I remembered in the middle of the night that this appliance was made for teeth grinding and not apnea specifically. That’s no good. It could actually aggravate my apnea.

I’ve ordered another appliance from Amazon that should arrive soon and I will shape it to my mouth and see.

Additionally, last night I used multiple pillows to raise my head and I had a better night of sleep. I did it on a hunch, but I found this morning sites on the Internet that promote that method for dealing with insomnia.

I know that over the hears my pillows have become flatter. I do prefer a flatter pillow and not to have my neck cranked. However, it is possible that a wedge pillow could improve my sleep.

If my pillow proves to be a key piece of the puzzle, I’m going to be pissed because nobody has ever mentioned to me to get a wedge. No doctors, no one, not even the sleep specialists. I’ve mentioned my insomnia to many many doctors.

I’m scheduled to get an appliance from a doctor in October, but if I can fix this problem by changing pillows or with an appliance from Amazon, I’m going to cancel that appointment.

The dental appliance from Amazon arrived. I shaped it to my mouth. It was a pretty simple process actually. Dunk it into boiling water, bite hard to shape it, and then dunk it into cold water to set it. There are more details but that’s the process, broadly speaking.

My first night with it was pretty bad. I took it out of my mouth at 11:30pm. It did not feel right in there. The second night with it was better. I did go to bed pretty damn early. I was in bed by 8:30pm. However, this time it is not until 2:30am that I took the appliance out. So it stayed in longer.

Between the two nights, one thing I did was to readjust how much of my lower jaw is brought forward by the appliance. The setting was set to bring my jaw forward more the first night than the second night. This adjustment, together with habituation, may make my nights better. From what I read in reviews, it is “par for the course” to start with some discomfort that goes away.

I also fashioned a better ramp for my head during the second night, but I don’t know how much of a difference it made. I’ve ordered a wedge pillow from Amazon. I figured that if it does not help with my insomnia, it should help with my reflux. I know from experience that raising my head if I have reflux helps reduce the reflux.

I plan to edit this article with future findings, or maybe to write another article if my findings are substantial.

A followup article is here:

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