r/sleepdisorders

Hi everyone,
I’ve been struggling with sleep problems for about 8 months now. It comes and goes in phases, but overall I sleep far less than I used to.
Some nights I barely sleep at all or don’t sleep at all, and even on the better nights I usually have a hard time falling asleep and don’t feel like I’m sleeping well.
I’ve spoken to my GP several times, but the only advice I get is the usual sleep hygiene recommendations (consistent bedtime, no screens, caffeine reduction, etc.). The problem is that I’ve already tried all of those things many times without any significant improvement.
When I ask about sleep medication, my GP refuses and says that sleeping pills can be addictive and that I could end up unable to sleep without them. I understand that concern, but from my perspective it feels frustrating because I’m already struggling to sleep in the first place.
So I’m wondering:
Is it normal for doctors to be this reluctant to prescribe sleep medication?
Have any of you been in a similar situation?
What options are usually available when sleep hygiene isn’t helping?
Should I be asking for a referral to a sleep specialist or another type of doctor?
I’d appreciate hearing about other people’s experiences. Thanks.

Hi,

I’ve been struggling with severe sleep problems for about 8 months. The severity fluctuates, but I still have nights where I barely sleep or don’t sleep at all, and even on better nights it often takes me a very long time to fall asleep.

I also have social anxiety and have experienced periods of depression. Interestingly, both have improved somewhat since I left a very stressful situation a few weeks ago, so my day-to-day anxiety is much lower than it used to be.

However, the sleep problems are still a major issue and often feel like the biggest problem I’m dealing with right now.

My question is: would this be a valid reason to go to a psychiatric hospital or psychiatric emergency service, even if I’m not suicidal or psychotic? Or is this something they would generally consider an outpatient issue?

I’m curious whether anyone has been in a similar situation and what kind of help they received.

Thanks.

For the last 3 weeks, I’ve been dealing with what I think is sleep anxiety.
It all started after one bad night where I couldn’t sleep because I kept thinking about sleep itself. My mind was constantly monitoring whether I was falling asleep or not, and the more I checked, the more awake I became.
After that, I was able to sleep normally for about a week, but then I had another night where the anxiety came back. I started worrying about whether I would be able to sleep, and that night I barely slept. Since then, I’ve been stuck in a cycle.
The biggest problem now is that I’m thinking about sleep all day. I keep asking myself:
Will I be able to sleep tonight?
What if this happens again?
What if this becomes a long-term problem?
Why can other people sleep so easily?
How was I able to sleep normally before without even thinking about it?
Even on nights when I sleep, I wake up the next morning and immediately start worrying about the next night.
Sometimes when I’m trying to fall asleep, I start drifting into random thoughts and feel like I’m about to fall asleep, but then I suddenly become alert again. It’s almost like my brain notices that I’m drifting off and wakes me back up.
Another thing that confuses me is that even after a very poor night of sleep, I often don’t feel as sleepy during the day as I would expect. Instead, I just feel anxious and keep thinking about sleep.
I’ve also noticed that I’ve started putting pressure on myself to “fix” my sleep schedule. The more I try to force sleep or make it happen, the harder it seems to become.
I keep telling myself things like:
It will get better.
Everything happens for a reason.
I’ve slept before, so I can sleep again.
But deep down, the fear keeps coming back:
“What if this never goes away?”
I know that constantly thinking about sleep is probably making the problem worse, but I’m finding it very difficult to stop thinking about it or ignore it.
Has anyone else gone through something similar and managed to get out of this cycle without medication? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I am intrested in the topic of daytime sleepiness that comes hand-in-hand with monotonous tasks for me due to my ADHD and is really a terrible thing to experience. Boring highway drives can become life threatening this way. Boring tasks at work or boring meetings leading to falling asleep right away. (I sleep fast and enough; ~7-8h/d).
Since I got my ADHD diagnosis, I know where it comes from (being understimulated / low dopamine level) and what I can do about it: Movement, coffee to stimulate me, and hopefully medication anytime soon.
Anyone experiencing the same? Any suggestions to work around it?

I have always slept 8 hours on average. I would wake up to pee in the morning and could easily fall back asleep quickly.

Lately I’ve been dealing with some stress and my sleep has been super disrupted. I still fall asleep at the same time but I wake up 4-6 hours later feeling super awake either to pee or just without any reason. Then I try to fall back asleep and I’m not able to do that for my life. I’m sleep deprived and freaking out its affecting my work and health too. I’ve been sleeping 4 hours daily on average since 2 weeks. I go to the gym and no matter how much my body is tired or strained, I can’t seem to sleep more than 6 hours lately.

How do I fix this? Thinking of popping L theanine 100 mg in the morning when I wake up. Any other suggestions or ideas are most welcome🙏🏻

hi everyone. i feel like i’m driving myself crazy over sleep and i wanted to know if anyone can relate. apologies for the lengthy post.

a few days ago, i had one bad night before an important orientation. i had trouble falling asleep, kept getting hypnic jerks whenever i felt like i was drifting off, and became really anxious about sleep. the next day i was exhausted and convinced something was wrong.
the thing is, i’ve actually slept well every night since then.

but now i have a completely new fear.
this morning i woke up around 7:28 am. usually when i wake up around that time, i can still fall asleep again a few times and eventually get out of bed around 10 am. it’s been my routine lately.

today, i wanted to go back to sleep, but i couldn’t.
i tried closing my eyes and imagining scenarios like i normally do when i’m falling asleep, but it felt forced. instead of drifting into that half-awake, half-dreaming state, i felt like i was trying to make it happen. the more i tried, the more awake i felt.

then i started panicking.
now i’m scared that i somehow won’t be able to enter that half-dream state anymore. yesterday i had the same fear, but eventually i fell asleep anyway. today i couldn’t go back to sleep, and now my brain is treating it like proof that something is wrong.

i think part of the problem is that i’m a perfectionist when it comes to sleep.

last week i slept in, went back to sleep after waking up, and even napped during the day. somehow my brain turned that into a rule that i should be able to go back to sleep after waking up, i should be able to nap if i’m tired, or i should be able to enter that half-dream state whenever i want

and when i can’t, i start spiraling.
what scares me the most is not even what happened this morning. it’s the thought of “what if this means i won’t be able to fall asleep tonight?”

i know sleep probably isn’t supposed to look exactly the same every day, but my brain keeps looking for certainty and treats every little difference as a warning sign.

has anyone else gone through this? how did you stop monitoring every little part of the sleep process and trust that sleep would happen naturally?

Anyone here suffer from this ? You sleep a full 8 hours but still feel like you didn't really sleep if you begin sleep at 12am or later ? If i sleep from 10 pm to 5 am i feel so good and motivated after the second or 3rd day . However if i sleep after even 11:30 pm the following days don't feel good at all. It doesn't even matter if i sleep 9 hours , Who else notices this and PlEASE explain to me how it affects your mood . Thanks Yall

Hey everyone, looking for insights, similar experiences, or ideas on what to investigate next. I’ve been dealing with a distinct chronic digestive issue since 2021. Skip to the bottom for a very brief summary.

*yes I put this into AI to summarize everything for me

📌 The Core Problem: Post-Meal "Stagnation"

The Sensation: Every time I eat, food feels like it sits completely still in my mid/left abdomen and refuses to move.

The Triggers: Occurs after almost all meals. It's triggered by solid foods, but also by liquid/blended calories (smoothies, kefir). Plain water is tolerated completely normally.
Upper GI Symptoms: fair amount of regurgitation (even 3–8 hours after eating) No pain, severe nausea, or vomiting.

Bowel Patterns: sometimes small pebbles other times it completely disperses when I flush like a very loose stool

😴 The Sleep Connection
My sleep is 100% dependent on my stomach. If my digestion feels "stagnant," my brain will not let me fall asleep. If it feels "cleared" (sometimes requiring a bowel movement or waiting 7+ hours after eating), I sleep deeply and normally. Insomnia is secondary to the gut issues.

🌍 The "Ghana Twist" (My Biggest Clue)
In 2024, I traveled to Ghana. Before I went I did a 4 day fast taking raw garlic, ginger, and oil of oregano. I broke the fast with some fruit at the airport and I ate normal food when I arrived in Ghana that night (no restrictions). Within 2–3 days, my symptoms completely vanished.
Digestion became 100% normal. No stagnation.
I could eat massive meals right before bed and sleep perfectly.
I ate local rice, stews, plantains, fruit, and coconut with zero issues. Everything. Only things I didn't eat there were bread and dairy and that was just because I was scared of it starting an issue. When I say I was 100% okay I mean it. Not 98 or 99.
The Catch: Within 1–2 weeks of returning to the U.S., the stagnation and sleep issues came right back.
🧪 Testing & Trials
Tests: H. pylori is negative. No structural diagnoses yet. Appetite and body weight are completely stable. Blood work was slightly high bilirubin and high cholesterol. I don't eats. High cholesterol diet AT ALL so me and my doctor were confused at this.
What Helped (Temporarily/Partially): Antibiotics, fasting (initially), sauerkraut, and various probiotics all gave short-lived, temporary relief before losing effectiveness.
What Didn't Help: Ultra-clean dieting, long fasts, antimicrobial protocols, or heavy supplementation.
❓ My Core Questions

1. What could cause this specific "stagnation" and regurgitation without pain or weight loss? (Looking into gastric accommodation, functional dyspepsia, or upper GI motility issues).
2. Why would this completely resolve in Ghana and return in the U.S.?

If you've overcome something similar or have a theory on the geographic remission, I'd love to hear it. Thanks!

Long story short my sleep is being massively hindered by my digestion and everything I try doesn't work. It's preventing me from living how I should.

I also don't want to get any injections or take any medicine as not only do I know my body can fix itself but I don't need a side effect in the future.

Our childhood house had leaky roof in rainy season and room temperature reaches 36 to 38 degree Celsius at nights in summer we didn’t have air conditioning and winter don’t exist in my place.
Now I have comfortable space but too many things to think and brain is under constant stimulation.

When will I sleep peacefully , god knows…..

first of all, if this isn’t sleep paralysis, you guys can tell me. i’m not the most educated on the subject, that’s why i’m here. second of all, i just want to know if this happens to any one else. for context, im 17F and this has been happening for years now.

so i usually take a nap on saturdays/sundays, around midday, but the time when i start to fall asleep can vary from 1-4 PM. when i lay down and start to drift to sleep, my whole body gets a tingling sensation, and i cant move at all. if i think about moving hard enough, i can wake up, but other than that i can’t even open my eyelids. but i can hear everything going on around me (for reference, i sleep with my tv on.) i also can even grunt a little bit. (for context one time my dad was trying to wake me up while it was happening, i couldn’t my body up so that is all i could do.) i know i just described sleep paralysis, and i know the answer sounds obvious, but ive never heard of anyone having it ONLY when they are falling asleep only while taking naps. ive only heard of it when people wake up and cant move at night. im just here to see if anyone else knows what im talking about, or has a similar situation. i’m also here to become educated on this. can someone help me out figuring out what this is?

Does anyone here struggle with stress-induced insomnia?

I'm talking about those nights when you're your mind just won't switch off, and you find yourself still awake at 1 or 2 AM or later.

What do you think is the biggest reason behind your sleepless nights?