I have always since childhood found sleeping soundly a problem. I take an hour and a half at least to fall asleep.As a young child until adolescence I sleep walked. As an adolescent I had so many chores before and after school as well as my homework to complete so I was often awake late finishing my homework all the time feeling exhausted.
During my late twenties I experienced depression after a terrible year with moving states, changing jobs ;going back to university part-time whilst working full-time, my father had a heart attack,my grandmother died , one of my collegues suicided and my new boss bullied me. I was unsuccesfully treated for 8yrs for Major depression/bipolar disorder/schizophrenia (it was actually just depression and PTSD the others were misdiagnoses) with every conceivable antidepressant & antipsychotic produced before 2006 and when that didn't work then ECT. The ECT left me with huge chunks of long term memory loss and absolutely no positive effects. I only recovered when I weaned myself slowly off all drugs and sought psychotherapy which had never been offered to me before. (In Australia it is frowned upon by most shrinks)
After finally getting my mind back without the drugs onboard the initial withdrawl from the antidepressant caused insomnia. It never seemed to settle. I was glad to not have to drag my body out of bed everyday anymore after 12 -14hrs sleep (from the meds) but I still become fatigued due to lack of sleep. I am a shift worker and cannot just work days so the usual advice of 'go to bed at the same time each night' cannot apply here. I am mindful of caffeine intake during and in the late part of the day. I don't eat before I go to bed. I wake at least four times a night and get about four hours sleep on average. I will never take antidepressants again (they almost killed me) and I do not believe in sleeping tablets. I am a RN and know how dangerous they are. I don't know what to do next. I don't suffer from depression anymore and have never suffered from anxiety at all.I have tried Valerian with no effect.
