Question: Hi,

This was the best specialty I could find regarding sleep. I am looking for some answers and reassurance.

Let me talk about myself a bit before I describe what’s going on. I’m 26 years old and a lifelong hypochondriac, which i’m guessing is important in this. I’ve always been a night owl, basically staying up past 4 am even during weekends and summers as a kid. Once I got to college, that became more like 5 am. And once I graduated college, that became more like 8 am. Luckily, my job does fine with sleeping from 8 am to 4 pm. I’ve always had issues sleeping when I had to get up early the next day, but it was never something that extended until last March. I went around a month with very bad and anxious sleep. I saw a sleep doctor and they helped just a bit but mostly prescribed medication I never took. I mostly tried CBD oil and melatonin. Eventually by late April it got better and I mostly slept well until this week. No long stretches of insomnia and mostly getting 7-8 hours a night.

So now on Sunday night my hypochondria struck. I had what’s called a “mind pop” for the 2nd or 3rd time recently and I went to Dr. Google. Which told me schizophrenia is common for that. So mental illnesses and losing control are my worst fear. Seeing schizophrenia as a cause freaked me out and I was anxious all night. But I still slept around 5 hours or so both Sunday and Monday morning despite it being broken up and not great. For some reason all I could think of is my insomnia going full throttle again and being reminded of how terrible last year was. Fast forward to this morning after I slept only 4 hours or so both Tuesday and Wednesday night... I was more confident I’d sleep. But I kid you not, from 6 am to 2 pm, I laid there and every 10 minutes I would start to doze off and then my brain would snap awake. Hypnic jerks have also been common. It’s like every time I’m starting to doze I start thinking and almost dreaming of very bizarre things and my mind senses that and makes me wake up startled. What would be the cause of this? It was truly 8 hours straight of this nightmare. I oddly don’t feel overly tired, mostly scared and anxious now. I couldn’t even lay there and just rest because no matter what I would have this doze off then push Into an alert realization I was dozing off. I’m also have TERRIBLE ear worms. Whenever my sleep is bad I get one little line of a song stuck in my head and it drives me crazy.

I was just curious if you had any experiences with these complains and any recommendations. This is very frustrating as I restarted work this week and was very excited about how my life is going. Instead I am now stressed and depressed about my sleep and how it makes me feel.

My sleep doctor didn’t do much helping over message, probably because I no longer have insurance, but he mostly said I’d be fine and prescribed restoril once again even though I didn’t take it last time. Should I consider trying this to get back on track? Medication makes me uneasy. I’d greatly appreciate any feedback and sorry for the long message.

Hi,

This was the best specialty I could find regarding sleep. I am looking for some answers and reassurance.

Let me talk about myself a bit before I describe what’s going on. I’m 26 years old and a lifelong hypochondriac, which i’m guessing is important in this. I’ve always been a night owl, basically staying up past 4 am even during weekends and summers as a kid. Once I got to college, that became more like 5 am. And once I graduated college, that became more like 8 am. Luckily, my job does fine with sleeping from 8 am to 4 pm. I’ve always had issues sleeping when I had to get up early the next day, but it was never something that extended until last March. I went around a month with very bad and anxious sleep. I saw a sleep doctor and they helped just a bit but mostly prescribed medication I never took. I mostly tried CBD oil and melatonin. Eventually by late April it got better and I mostly slept well until this week. No long stretches of insomnia and mostly getting 7-8 hours a night.

So now on Sunday night my hypochondria struck. I had what’s called a “mind pop” for the 2nd or 3rd time recently and I went to Dr. Google. Which told me schizophrenia is common for that. So mental illnesses and losing control are my worst fear. Seeing schizophrenia as a cause freaked me out and I was anxious all night. But I still slept around 5 hours or so both Sunday and Monday morning despite it being broken up and not great. For some reason all I could think of is my insomnia going full throttle again and being reminded of how terrible last year was. Fast forward to this morning after I slept only 4 hours or so both Tuesday and Wednesday night... I was more confident I’d sleep. But I kid you not, from 6 am to 2 pm, I laid there and every 10 minutes I would start to doze off and then my brain would snap awake. Hypnic jerks have also been common. It’s like every time I’m starting to doze I start thinking and almost dreaming of very bizarre things and my mind senses that and makes me wake up startled. What would be the cause of this? It was truly 8 hours straight of this nightmare. I oddly don’t feel overly tired, mostly scared and anxious now. I couldn’t even lay there and just rest because no matter what I would have this doze off then push Into an alert realization I was dozing off. I’m also have TERRIBLE ear worms. Whenever my sleep is bad I get one little line of a song stuck in my head and it drives me crazy.

I was just curious if you had any experiences with these complains and any recommendations. This is very frustrating as I restarted work this week and was very excited about how my life is going. Instead I am now stressed and depressed about my sleep and how it makes me feel.

My sleep doctor didn’t do much helping over message, probably because I no longer have insurance, but he mostly said I’d be fine and prescribed restoril once again even though I didn’t take it last time. Should I consider trying this to get back on track? Medication makes me uneasy. I’d greatly appreciate any feedback and sorry for the long message.

Thank you.

I'm a bit anxious to try the benzo medication just from reading issues about it. I took a Unisom (doxylamine) this morning after laying restless for 3 or 4 hours and managed to get a broken up 5 hours. Unfortunately I've been unable to sleep for more than a couple hours uninterrupted for a week now. This is weird because when I'm sleeping well like I have for the last year, I can sleep 7 straight hours without waking up. What has changed?

Also, my mind seems to be very hyper aware when I'm trying to sleep. If I just read on a subject, my mind is constantly creating dreamlike scenarios about that topic as I'm drifting off. Maybe I'm asleep but feel awake? For example last night I read about Tiger Woods in a book. As I was falling asleep, it was like I was having these weird dreams or ideas and words about Tiger Woods while I was somewhat still awake. I would catch myself thinking of this and anxiously wake up. This is also the case with music (earworms). Is this all anxiety related or something more serious? Just two weeks ago I could lay down and sleep 7 hours straight within 20 minutes of laying down. I was doing this for a year straight around 8 am. What changed. It's now a nightmare worrying about sleep and when I should try to sleep all day.

Thank you.

I'm a bit anxious to try the benzo medication just from reading issues about it. I took a Unisom (doxylamine) this morning after laying restless for 3 or 4 hours and managed to get a broken up 5 hours. Unfortunately I've been unable to sleep for more than a couple hours uninterrupted for a week now. This is weird because when I'm sleeping well like I have for the last year, I can sleep 7 straight hours without waking up. What has changed?

Also, my mind seems to be very hyper aware when I'm trying to sleep. If I just read on a subject, my mind is constantly creating dreamlike scenarios about that topic as I'm drifting off. Maybe I'm asleep but feel awake? For example last night I read about Tiger Woods in a book. As I was falling asleep, it was like I was having these weird dreams or ideas and words about Tiger Woods while I was somewhat still awake. I would catch myself thinking of this and anxiously wake up. This is also the case with music (earworms). Is this all anxiety related or something more serious? Just two weeks ago I could lay down and sleep 7 hours straight within 20 minutes of laying down. I was doing this for a year straight around 8 am. What changed. It's now a nightmare worrying about sleep and when I should try to sleep all day.