Insomnia or something more serious?

[MatthewJohn]

First off, thank you for your time in reading this.

I'm not sure if I posted this in the right spot, but I kept getting messages that other places were full, so I kept looking for one it would let me post it.

For starters, I'm a 25 year old male, and have been having insomnia for years.  It has become something I've grown used to and doesn't really bother me that much.  I've always been a light sleeper, and can usually tell what's going on around me when I sleep.  More recently I've just been passing out while laying in bed without even going through the motions of being sleepy.  When I wake up I don't remember anything that happened, like people trying to wake me, etc.

There have been times where my vision is incredibly blurry (I have 20/20 vision) to the point where I can't see anything for up to 30 minutes or so.  And there have even been a few occassions where I'll wake up with a numbness my left side of my tongue, and my left hand and forearm.  The first time this happened both the numbness and blurred vision lasted about an hour before I managed to go back to sleep and it was better later when I awoke.  

And more recently, I've been waking up and unable to go back to sleep, feeling like I have a lot on my mind, and I can't stop thinking, but I'm not stressed out and have nothing on my mind.  I tried to close my eyes and focus on what I was thinking, but just got what was like thousands of images and words, and what "sounded" like thousands of faint whispers, but I didn't actually hear anything. And there has been some pain on the left side of my head above my ear and to the right a few inches.

I haven't been to a doctor since 2002 due to finances and lack of insurance, so I'm wondering if something is wrong with me, or if these are just side effects of insomnia.  If there is, I'm wondering if it's serious, or if it's something I can just ignore since I don't have the funds to really do anything about it.

Thank you in advance for any feedback you may have.

  -Matthew

[John_jb1]

Hello,

Although lack of sleep can cause many many health problems, and can really damange your overall performance. I really would reccomend getting this looked at, I've never heard of it causing effects like these, which are simular to brain damage, or brain tumors.

As serious as that may sound, often they're nothing, you haven't said anything about siezures etc, so I'm sure it's nothing to worry about. But you will defnantly need to go to a sleep lab.
Sorry for that inconvenience, but I can only see it getting worse, and if (touch wood) it is something bad, you want to catch it in the earliest phases possible.

What are your sleeping patterns like? Are they regular? Often people with Insomnia give in, and attempt to go to bed at irregular and bad times, thinking "well I'll only lay awake for hours and hours". This will only worsen the Insomnia and make it more difficult.

Cheers,

- John -

[mm27]

have you ever been tested for narcolepsy.  Do you get very week after emotions such as laughter, crying.  How about (well the term I use for my cataplexy) a form of narcolespy "passing out"  only to wake up and not remember what happened.  These are some of the few symptoms of my narcolepsy.  It frequently affects people who have narcolepsy, a disorder whose principal signs are EDS (Excessive Daytime Sleepiness), sleep attacks, sleep paralysis, hypnagogic hallucinations and disturbed night-time sleep. Cataplexy is sometimes confused with epilepsy, where a series of flashes or other stimuli cause superficially similar seizures. The term narcolepsy gets people confused because they only recognize the cataplexy and not the EDS.  It's not like every one who has narcolepsy passes out in the middle of a sentence like they prortray on tv.  If at all possible try and get into a sleep clinic and see if they will take payment plans or something.  Good Luck.