insomnia help for a month non functional

I would have bouts of believing everyone in my life despised me, including my closest friends. In my case, it was causing severe anxiety and occasionally outright paranoia. Insomnia is both a cause and a symptom of postpartum depression. I only wish I had done so earlier.Ĭhronic insomnia is serious–it affects your outlook, your mood, your weight, and your ability to think and reason clearly. My sleep returned to normal after having my first two children, once they were sleeping through the night, but not with my third.Īs I slowly came to the realization that my sleep was simply not going to course correct on its own, I applied my research skills to this problem. I know I am not alone in finding that I sleep less deeply after having had kids. (As far as I know, no one has researched whether becoming a mother permanently changes your sleep. Now, after becoming a mother, my son coughs down the hall and I am wide awake. Not my husband waking up in the morning and grinding coffee in the room next to our bedroom. Generally speaking, I slept like a proverbial log. I occasionally had trouble falling asleep, before a big exam or after fight with a boyfriend, but it never lasted. Overall I felt like I was constantly running on empty, pushing myself to get through my day.īefore having children, I never experience like this. The effects on my ability to function were severe: My nerves felt constantly frayed, my patience was thin, and my mind felt like it was encased in cotton. Then, at dawn, I would finally fall into a deep sleep, only to have to awaken an hour or so later. Whether I was exhausted or well rested, every night, I would lay awake from 2 or 3 am until 5:30 am, running over my problems in the most negative possible light, and despising myself for being unable to fall back asleep. Chronic insomnia may affect as many as 1 in 6 adults in the U.S., and, as will surprise no one, it is especially common among new mothers. Sleep researchers define chronic insomnia as difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep that persists for at least 3 months. In retrospect, it is clear that I was suffering from chronic insomnia, and it persisted long after my daughter had started sleeping through the night. For a year and a half after giving birth to my third child, a full night’s sleep eluded me like some kind of impossible dream.

Insomnia help for a month non functional