I'm sorry you’re going through this, I recognize it.. actually it's the first time I see someone else explaining the sinking and lack of 'click'. I’ve struggled for 2 years, but am slowly doing better now. I can tell you more if you'd like but I don't want to flood this thread.
[shortened backstory]
- Always had normal sleep, even in stressfull times
- 2 years ago, over the span of a few days my sleep went away: from 5 to 3 to 0 hrs. I then was awake for 2 days. And after that only slept max 3 hours for ages (nearly a year).
- I couldn’t take naps
- I lost all my energy (could hardly walk for 15), thinking etc
- had to chase after specialists to check things, and correct them on their assumptions... which was emotionally exhaustive.
- It led to them seeing symptoms of an endless list of possible causes, but they never found a culprit.
- One hypothesis was that I was struggling with the results of a virus, and basically was left with all kinds of damage.
- I was constantly asked about / advised on bed / food / daily routines, even though mine were identical to their advice (perfect) going into this, and I had been stress free.
[ on improvement ]
+ It’s hard to say if it helped me improve my sleep, since I continued to struggle, but a very strict (though fairly standard) bed routine did make me feel more in control:
* same time to bed every day, pre-bed routine of stretching the body, cooling my hands and feet, while in bed stretching the face muscles and ‘yawning’
* no exciting media or social meeting / discussions in the evening (or close to bed time)
* using an app to play the same comforting / funny podcast every night, and having it fade out after a set time (the Ricky Gervais show / pilkboys yt channel)
* For a while I developed my own meditation routine in bed
+ asked people to not ask about my sleep, just how I’m doing
+ be very open, forward, non apologetic about your condition
+ there might have been an influence of some gut problems I had, which were eventually treated by antibiotics
+ I’ve been prescribed temazepam and diazepam to at least calm my body down, and it made me feel closer to sinking into sleep – but never really went all the way. I got semi addicted to them, and hated the desperation I had to at least have some control over my body. After I got off them, and my twitches had declined, I only used temazepam if im on my way to a second sleepless night in a row. So I don’t reach for them on th occasional setback, but I’m glad they are there if it escalates.
+ I focus on daily activities, and excused myself from existential worries
+ I’m now up to 5 / 6 hours on a night, not necessarily of quality, but I don’t feel terrible every day
I use an Android app for this called "Simple sleep timer";
I set it to Fade out and close the youtube app after 30 minutes.
I've listened to the episodes of the same production for almost 3 years now; The Ricky Gervais show / podcast.
Hilarious and lighthearted, always takes my mind off of anything else.
I wished there was a list that maps these classes to it's equivalent on Coursera / edx (if they exist).
I've noticed that interesting classes like SICP cs61a from Berkeley still take place online (their material is available), but are no longer available on the MOOC platforms. The same goes with some interesting MIT classes (Introduction to Computational Thinking)
(Although a certificate from such platform doesn't mean that much to me, it does help somewhat with motivation and looks better on a beginners resume than nothing. )
[shortened backstory]
- Always had normal sleep, even in stressfull times - 2 years ago, over the span of a few days my sleep went away: from 5 to 3 to 0 hrs. I then was awake for 2 days. And after that only slept max 3 hours for ages (nearly a year). - I couldn’t take naps - I lost all my energy (could hardly walk for 15), thinking etc - had to chase after specialists to check things, and correct them on their assumptions... which was emotionally exhaustive. - It led to them seeing symptoms of an endless list of possible causes, but they never found a culprit. - One hypothesis was that I was struggling with the results of a virus, and basically was left with all kinds of damage. - I was constantly asked about / advised on bed / food / daily routines, even though mine were identical to their advice (perfect) going into this, and I had been stress free.
[ on improvement ]
+ It’s hard to say if it helped me improve my sleep, since I continued to struggle, but a very strict (though fairly standard) bed routine did make me feel more in control: * same time to bed every day, pre-bed routine of stretching the body, cooling my hands and feet, while in bed stretching the face muscles and ‘yawning’ * no exciting media or social meeting / discussions in the evening (or close to bed time) * using an app to play the same comforting / funny podcast every night, and having it fade out after a set time (the Ricky Gervais show / pilkboys yt channel) * For a while I developed my own meditation routine in bed
+ asked people to not ask about my sleep, just how I’m doing + be very open, forward, non apologetic about your condition + there might have been an influence of some gut problems I had, which were eventually treated by antibiotics + I’ve been prescribed temazepam and diazepam to at least calm my body down, and it made me feel closer to sinking into sleep – but never really went all the way. I got semi addicted to them, and hated the desperation I had to at least have some control over my body. After I got off them, and my twitches had declined, I only used temazepam if im on my way to a second sleepless night in a row. So I don’t reach for them on th occasional setback, but I’m glad they are there if it escalates.
+ I focus on daily activities, and excused myself from existential worries + I’m now up to 5 / 6 hours on a night, not necessarily of quality, but I don’t feel terrible every day