Insomnia related to anxiety
Long story short. I suffered panic attacks. Got put on Paxil and a benzo. After 6 months, I was off the meds and 'cured'. Could sleep properly, so I was put a sleeping pill. It didn't help much. My problem was with innitiating sleep. Once asleep I was fine I could sleep like a baby.
Went to a specialist who had me on almost 12 pills of 4 different kinds of medication. After STILL not being able to sleep well, I asked "How long before I can stop taking these meds?" His answer "When you start sleeping properly you can stop taking the meds." Well, how was I suppose to know if I was sleeping well when I was taking all those meds.
Anyways, I slowly tapered myself down to half a pill. Getting by that half a pill was impossible. Because I usually start work at 3pm or so, I can stay up until 4am and get up at 12pm or later and still be on time for work.
Unfortunately, my panic attacks came back. My anxiety is worse than it was before, and I have more meds.
I guess my question is, what do most people do in order to innitiate sleep? It seems that I need noise when I sleep, like music. I need absolute darkness at night. I have odd nights where I will wake up at 8am (after 4 hours of sleep) and then sleep on and off for another 4 or 5 hours. I wake up feeling like crap. Then there are days I wake up on time and I feel fine.