Going from substance-fueled sleep to natural sleep

[VanillaShakes]

I've had trouble getting to sleep my whole life. Well, it would come and go in phases, but some periods would be better than others. I've struggled from anxiety my whole life as well, and the two are generally related.

When I turned about 20 or so, I got a prescription for clonazepam. I started using that to sleep. Although eventually I stopped, I replaced the benzos with marijuana and alcohol. Ambien sometimes too. Sometimes all three. Eventually I started on clonazepam again, and I would make myself horrible cocktails of alcohol, clonazepam, and benzos. Usually I didn't mix the benzos and ambien together, as that was never necessary.

Anyway, I've only recently finally taken the effort to kick drinking down to moderate levels. No more than two drinks a night, I keep journals, and take breaks. I went a full week without a drink recently, and the only thing left is to kick any sleep aid whatsoever. Right now I depend on diphenydramine at the very least (I also use valerian, although I don't know how much it helps -- fun dreams though). I just can't sleep without anything at all. I work an 8-5 job, five days a week, so sleep is important for me. I can't afford to suffer serious insomnia. How do I get back to regular, unmedicated sleep?

[Cuchculan]

Well you are right to kick all the junk you had been taken. That does nobody any good at all. Mixing medication with alcohol. No good for anybody at all. You could try some sort of music. Relaxing music. Guided stuff. You would have someone on a CD talking to you. Telling you to relax. I doubt it would straight off for you. Judging by your background. As you are so used to taken your deadly mixtures. More a case of promising yourself never to take such a mixture again. And sticking to it. Then trying out the new methods. Find one that best suits you. If you can't sleep to begin, don't get back up out of bed. Just stay in bed. Try and remain relaxed. It will take some working. But it can be done over a period of time.

[Bettie]

Totally agree with the above post....I had similar problems sleeping (I was just having alcohol at the time though, nothing else) and it can horribly mess up sleep patterns. When I stopped it took a while to fall back in a normal sleep pattern but it does happen.

The first two weeks are hardest (not taking anything) but stick to it as you will get there. And don't get out of bed as that is very disruptive.

[Ohioman1972]

I've always had anxieties and insomnia as well. I started taking OTC sleep aids, they didn't work too well. I tried Benadryl, it took forever to kick in, and gave me a hangover feeling the next day. I would take 4 per night. Then I asked my doctor about Ambien. It was wonderful for about a week. Then, I couldn't sleep without it, no matter how tired I was. That was 5 years ago... I am hoping to be able to cut down as I am taking Ambien plus two benadryl just to get 5 hours sleep a night...
I've been too sleep specialists but their interest seemed to be only in selling me CPAP equipment. They were disappointed that I didn't have apnia...

[XINICKIX]

How long were on benzos for? If you we're on them for a while and cold turkeied it could be a bad thing. I've taken klonopin two weeks ago 6 times to fall asleep then stopped because I heard of all the bad side effects for them. I'd advise you to look into them more because you could come down with rebound insomnia worse anxiety then what you had before you started them and a lot more things. I'm not trying to scare you or anything like that or make situations worse. I'm just trying to look out for your well being