Haven't slept in 48 hours

[tomsmith302]

I'm a 30 year old male and I've been having issues with insomnia lately.  The past 48 hours, I have not been able to get any sort of sleep, and before that my sleep was very limited.  I have taken Unisom gel caps and melatonin pills, to no effect.  I have no history of drug or alcohol abuse.  I am feeling incredibly stressed and don't know how to calm myself down.  Anyone out there have a similar problem and gotten better?

[Paderla Anitha, DNB]

Hello and hope you are doing well.

Understand how you feel. The first step to promote sleep is to stop thinking about sleeplessness, as this in turn promotes insomnia and it becomes a vicious cycle. You should stop becoming anxious and try to relax. Condition yourself that you can relax and that you can sleep well. Take a walk to destress yourself. Have a glass of milk or read a book before trying to sleep. Don’t watch TV or do exercise before sleeping. If these measures don't help, consult your doctor, he may prescribe medications to tide over this condition temporarily. This is combined with non medical measures like sleep hygiene, relaxation therapy, stimulus control, and sleep restriction which are referred to as cognitive behavioral therapies. As the non medical measures help to restore your sleep rhythm, the sedatives are withdrawn.

Hope this helped and do keep us posted.

[CrazyBirdLady67]

Yes. It is usually because your mind won't stop turning. There are 3 things that will help, talking to somebody about what your always thinking about, relaxation techniques when you go to bed, (one is concentrating on the muscles in your body. Start at the head and intentionally relax each individual muscle working towards the feet then start over. This will relax your body and distract your mind at the same time) the 3rd is a prescription sleeping pill. You will need something that works specifically on your issue (relaxing the body or stopping your mind from spinning) you may also have a tolerance to medication so the first dose prescribed may not work and your doctor will have to increase it.