Hello CantSleepers,

Barnaby here, and unfortunately I must report a temporary relapse back into the symptoms of insomnia. For those of you new to my story, I’ve been posting on here for quite some time about my travails with chronic insomnia. Many of the usual causes of insomnia including clinical depression and sleep apnea have been ruled out in my case, and I tried a wide variety of sleep treatments. Recently, hypnotherapy for insomnia was proving to be quite helpful. I went for a stretch of around two weeks without experiencing symptoms of insomnia, but the past few nights I was not so lucky. I reverted back to my dreaded tossing and turning throughout the night, and I have become quite tired at work during the day.

For those of you who are still unaware, the most common symptoms of insomnia include:

- Frequent waking up in the middle of the night

- Taking more than an hour to fall asleep

- Waking up long before necessary in the morning

- Feelings of anxiety and a short temper during the day

- Tiredness even after thinking you slept through the night

Independently, not every symptom of insomnia indicates that insomnia is actually present. Everyone occasionally has trouble falling asleep, and most people are at least occasionally tired during the day. However, when these symptoms of insomnia occur on a frequent basis, then insomnia might prove to be the correct diagnosis. Unfortunately, diagnosing insomnia is far easier than treating it. In my case, I have been through a plethora of suggested cures — none to any avail. Hypnotherapy for insomnia had begun to help, but the jury is still out on whether my insomnia is gone for good. I’ll update everyone again soon,

Barnaby

Hi Everyone,

It’s Barnaby, and unfortunately I have returned. Not that I didn’t miss all the wonderful feedback from the readers of CantSleep.com — but I had thought I had put my trouble sleeping to bed once and for all (no pun intended). For around two weeks, Valerian was working perfectly — but, to my dismay, last weekend I once again had trouble sleeping. I at first chalked it up to a temporary relapse into insomnia, but after tossing and turning the entirety of last night I realized my trouble sleeping has returned with a vengeance. I’ve previously enumerated here at CantSleep my search for the root cause of my insomnia — to no avail. My sleep apnea test came back negative, I don’t suffer from depression and I’ve severely limited my consumption of caffeine and alcohol since my trouble sleeping began several months ago.

I thought I had found the magic bullet to cure my trouble sleeping with Valerian — but alas, that was too good to be true. Well, I’m going to have to delve back into my insomnia research and unfortunately start again appointments with specialists in my seemingly never-ending quest for a good night’s sleep. I shall keep everyone updated on my sleep (or lack thereof).

Cheers,

Barnaby