4 Root Causes of Insomnia to Consider

So I suspected I had sinus infection, I never would have thought I had sinus infection but I have light persistent symptoms. If you would have asked me if I had sinus infection, I would have said "no". Sinus infection can cause insomnia because it releases inflammation cytokine chemicals that basically are like caffeine and sugar combined.

I did psychadelic mushrooms recently, and after a random voice in my head said I had sinus infection and I actually do have one and was in denial about it for many years. I was basically like "wtf, yes I think I have one". For a long time I thought these symptoms were related to mold toxicity, my brain injury, or anemia. I recently went 22 days straight no sleep and cannot get tired. Before this, I went to Spain and slept 40 days straight and so this caused me to hella explore all causes (turns out the dry air there helps sinuses). My history of insomnia is extensive and I am probably unofficial world record holder.

Well the CT scan results came in and its not just sinus infection but I have defects in my nose that cause the sinus infection. One defect is deviated septum which can occur with aging. A second defect is Concha bullosa which is a piece of bone blocking a sinus. Then the 3rd defect is enlarged maxi-auilliarysomething sinus. 4th defect, I'm not sure if I need surgery on the narrowing or if its part of septum near eyes.

So I have a bunch of defects in my nose that trap dust and bacteria and fungus and cannot drain and this inflames my head but doesn't give me any other symptoms other than insomnia really. I have fatigue. Loss my sense of smell. De-personalisation. Inflammation. I can do 1-2 hours of gym workout and cardio and not get 1 minute of sleep.

Right now I am to take antibiotics 2 weeks, do another CT scan, then do surgery in November if it doesn't improve and then I have 6 weeks to recover and then hopefully lifetime improvement from insomnia.

Don't be afraid to go to ENT doctor and you could have sinus infection with barely any symptoms! My symptoms were mild and come and go. If you have any mucuous or snot or phlegm this is indication of issue.

Hopefully that fix your insomnia, please update us if it finally resolves.

I can't turn my brain off

Anxiety and stress, and then the hyperarousal that follows even when I’m not actively thinking about it. Also the obsessive state I get into surrounding the amount of hours I get (OCD).

Bro you did not stay awake for 22 days nor did you sleep for 40 days.

I'd love to hear how this turns out. I recently had a sinus CT scan, and there is something weird I need to explore. I also do not have typical sinus infection symptoms, but definitely have long-term insomnia and more blockage on that side without any mucus. I've already had deviated septum surgery.

In my case I think that is a combination of things: bad sleep patterns, summer heat, some anxiety situations, genetic and early learning factors... but my main root is fear of the insomnia crysis and the high motivation to sleep, one bad night difficults a lot my next night sleep, it's a paradoxical effect.

I've struggled with insomnia all my life and have tried so many things to fix it with little to no results, I have the best sleep hygiene and sleep habits from any of my friends or family but I'm easily the most fatigued and sleepy all the time. My problem isn't the amount of sleep I'm getting, but the sleep quality. I sleep between 6-8 hours every night but feel exhausted no matter what.

Yesterday my habits and sleep hygiene were really poor (had caffeine, ate late, stayed on my phone until close to bedtime, spent lots of time not sleeping in my bed etc. - things that usually make my sleep even worse) but I took 50mg dimenhydrinate last night and slept for 8 hours, and today I feel more refreshed than I have done in years.

This has made me think that my insomnia and bad quality sleep is caused by something histamine related or sinus/allergy issues. If this is true what should my next steps be? Has anyone had a similar experience before?

Thanks in advance🙏

Then again Anti-histamines are commonly sold as sleeping pills so maybe you had a deep sleep because it knocked you out a bit. Maybe try taking a small amount of benadryl/nytol and see if it's the same effect. Another possibility is mould in your bedroom has caused an allergic reaction.

I wrote a post a few weeks ago how I cured my insomnia. It was related to my hormones. In December, I started to take vitex to regulate my hormones and that’s when my insomnia was completely gone. Then in March, I thought for some reason that vitex was causing weight gain and stopped taking it. My sleep was still ok but I would wake up so many times and the anxiety came back full swing with aura migraines. Because I knew how sleep works, I didn’t make a big deal and shrugged off choppy sleep. After those aura migraines, I started taking vitex again and sleep is great again. I am literally falling asleep on the arm chair or during the car ride, exactly how I was pre insomnia. So it’s literally about the root cause of insomnia. Mine is 100% hormonal. If you can fix that root cause, sleep stops being an issue. I mentioned Martin Reed and sleep school coach, but it’s not enough to cure insomnia. I think only you can cure your insomnia by figuring out what triggers you negatively. And those gummies I was taking and was thinking that they were helping, were pacifying my nervous system temporarily, while what I needed was treat my hormones in the first place.

During luteal, as soon as the sun goes down, I panic about…. Everything. That really doesn’t help with my sleep. Been trying to walk every day and that has helped just tire me out. Trying to stop taking sleep aids too.

For me it was trauma and also anxiety. I was on a variety of different meds for 10years and realized that I didn’t actually know how to let myself fall asleep. So I had to learn. After lots of practice, some herbal support, completely minimizing screen time and going to bed and waking up at the same time I now generally sleep really well.

Crippling anxiety and hormones :(

How is it that anxiety, insomnia, depression, etc. just destroy you to a point where you don't even wanna go on. This insomnia has been insanely horrific more so than previous times. I became suddenly impotent but I had a morning wood so I believe it's not really physical but i still can't get any reaction from it. I barely sleep or have half-awake naps 30-50min each until I have a weird rem sleep for an hour wake up then nothing. I couldn't even sleep last night and every time i get tired my adrenaline kicks in making me fatigued but not sleepy. I practiced meditation, sleep hygiene, exercises all that. Never has any of it actually worked. Only thing that made me sleep was an eventual crash and I would try to do the others things to help with it . But this recent insomnia with how it has affected me like never before I give up. If It's not SFI and just my body/mind being a wreck than I'm really gonna seek professional help with the root causes of my insomnia etc. Which Is anxiety/depression I don't think coping with anxiety especially using self taught cbt guidelines are cutting it and might need actual medical intervention. Has anybody really attacked the root causes of their insomnias?

For the life of me, I can't figure out why I can't sleep. To some degree, I've had anxiety all of my life, and at times of crippling severity. I'm 26 now, and have been suffering from insomnia since the age of 21. I never had any significant problems sleeping before that point, but I wasn't any less anxious from the ages of 13 to 20. Even when I was anxious about something, I still slept normally when I was a teen. I've always suspected that there were other hindering factors at play, but I've never been able to find a root cause.

I have insomnia since a specific trauma which was before years, so for me the topic is personal.

I didn't do deep trauma or EMDR-therapy yet.

Did anyone heal their insomnia with trauma-therapy?

Yes there are many causes for insomnia, but when we speak about every night without sleep, then i would say the causes are either untreated PTSD or a medical, physical problem.

Hi. I take sleep meds obviously to manage the bad nights I can’t sleep, it’s meds I eventually have to get off of. But I’m curious to know what everyone’s “cause” of the insomnia was and what helped to alleviate it. I’m on microgestin combo birth control right now and my insomnia and anxiety is still horrible during luteal and period. For example: Was it high histamine? Was it low progesterone? This never happened to me until after I had kids. I’m working with a functional doctor and we are trying different supplements. But the insomnia is just so bad.

Ever since quarantine, i have been getting around 6, sometimes even 7 hours of sleep every night which is crazy to me! Ever since i was 11 i have sleeping issues, however when i started secondary it progressively got worse and when i entered year 11 last year i was getting around 4 hours of broken sleep every night. This year, year 12 (i am 17) i have been getting 3 ish hours. So back to the story, ever since quarantine i have been SLEEPING, it feels like a miracle, however i have started having to wake up for driving lessons, lessons etc and have been having to set alarms.... and on those days i am not sleeping. Does anyone know what this is called?? I generally get anxious at night, but especially on these types of nights i get even more anxious and cant sleep. If you know what this is, do you also have some suggestions so i can sleep better when college starts up again?? 💗💗

There are physical causes like sleep apnea and restless leg syndrome that they can diagnose with a sleep study. If you have anxiety, maybe even though your overall anxiety hasn’t increased, but you’ve become more anxious about sleep? You can try sleep hygiene and sleep restriction therapy. It helped me break the cycle of worrying about how many hours I was getting when a doc told me to start sleeping less.

Apologies in advance for the long post:

Add the title suggests, I have been dealing with severe insomnia, yet I can't pin point what might be causing it. Most nights I get 1-3 hours of sleep. It has now come to a point where I don't sleep at all for a whole night. My brain won't shut off and is filled with endless, useless thoughts. My body feels tired, but as soon as I try to sleep, my brain becomes wired as if I've had 12 coffees. I'm getting frustrated and I don't know what to do.

For the record, I've always had issues with sleep ever since I was a baby. I'm a very light sleeper and sensitive to light. Have always struggled with sleeping in unfamiliar environments as well. I try to use sleep ear plugs and an eye mask which used to be effective, but now they don't really help anymore. I've aso tried listening to white noise but that doesn't seem to help.

I have seen multiple doctors regarding my sleep issues, all of which have failed to determine what thing or things may be contributing to my sleepless nights. I have seen a gynecologist who suspects I may have endometriosis (and ruled out PCOS). Ultrasound scans and hormone tests revealed nothing, so a lapscop surgery is my last resort to confirm whether I have it or not. The wait time for the surgery 12 months. I'm moving overseas within the next six, so surgery isn't on the cards atm. I have also had multiple blood and thyroid function tests, all of which have come back normal.

I've tried a few of the classic meds (e.g., magnesium, melatonin) and antipsychotics (Quetiapine). The meds either didn't improve my sleep or I just built up a tolerance to them instead. Quetiapine in particular was pretty rough. It complicated my already dodgy menstrual cycles and it felt like I had been hit with a tranquilizer shot the next morning after a quarter pill dose. My already horrendous brain fog was just amplified by it as well.

I have also gone down the diet route as I have digestion issues. I'm on a FODMAP diet which does help minimise the excessive bloating I used to experience. I am intolerant to both gluten and dairy, so I limit those too. Alcohol and caffeine trends to increase my heartrate dramatically, even after one weak drink. On the rare occasion I do go out, when I get home I end up lying in bed while it feels like my heart is working overtime causing my body to feel like it's pulsing. I don't really drink at all anymore because of this.

I'm starting to wonder if I have undiagnosed ADHD - it runs in my family. I also wonder if I have some form of autonomic issue. I have an ectopic heart beat and experience heart palpitations at rest. I have caught my heartrate at 140 bpm while sitting completely still before. I'm an active person, and used to gym frequently prior to my insomnia becoming worse. I've tried to exercise to tire myself out, but that doesn't seem to work anymore.

And to top it all off, I'm in the final months of my master's degree. I work in a lab and I find I'm making the smallest of mistakes which jeopardises whole experiments. It's not ideal (or safe for that matter) to be in that environment while sleep deprived. On days where I hardly sleep, I just stay at home. Not ideal for a struggling student 😅

So, I've come to Users as a last resort. What could be going on with me? Has anyone had any shared experiences? I'm sick of just hearing that it's all in my head. Any sleeping tricks would be greatly appreciated too (aside from the classics like "try breathing techniques", "counting sheep" etc - they don't work for me).

TYIA :)

Insomnia is ironically one of the key symptoms of narcolepsy!

You never mentioned your schedule. Probably the number 1 reason for insomnia other than anxiety is a shifted circadian rhythm. If you spend too much time in bed, or sleep in late / get up at different times, you'll get sleep troubles.

Hi, would you please share how many pills of vitex do you take ? I believe mine is also hormonal