Originally Posted by tekhna
I dunno what to tell you man-I have not had an unaided night of sleep in probably 5 years. I am pretty dependent on medication to sleep. If I run out of my sleeping meds, I will get maybe 5 hours of sleep over 3 or so days until the prescription is refilled. I have had many talks with my doc about this, and he is not that concerned about it, it is just what my body needs. The medication I am not is non-habit forming, as in I don't crave it, and I don't go through withdrawl, I just don't sleep.
Everyone is a little different.
Ok, that was a little bit of a tangent, sorry!
My GP said basically the same thing. Something like "your body will eventually get the amount of sleep it needs somehow. As you get older you need less sleep. Two hours lying in bed awake is equivalent to one hour asleep." The problem is however, that I didn't start sleeping 10 minutes less per night per year for the last ten years. It pretty much started up overnight with me. I believe that it was due to a large amount of stress at work at the time. What leaves me bewildered is that when the stress subsided, the insomnia didn't.
This has been going on for nearly two years now. He finally prescribed me a med that typically is not used for insomnia - Desyrel. It is primarily used to treat depression. The amount he prescribed however is less than what is prescribed for depression - only 50mg once per day at bedtime. What is good, however, is that it doesn't carry all of the warnings that the true insomnia drugs do - don't use for more than 7 days - can cause dependency.
This med can be prescribed for long term use and it has really helped me to get about 7 hours per night which is a lot closer to what is considered normal for someone in my age group.