Chronic Poor Sleep and Anxiety

[Razzyhaxor]

The underlying BFS theme of pre-existing, severe stress superimposed on a background history of some anxiety is well established. One also doesn't have to spend too long on these forums to realize that many of also have chronic poor sleep patterns as well. It seems that regularly getting less than five hours a night is almost standard, and even then it's almost never a deep, refreshing sleep.This isn't good. Obviously. But I have noticed in myself an interesting, somewhat ironic paradox. On those rare occasions when I DO get a long, therapeutic sleep, the extra "energy" (for want of a better word) doesn't get dispatched towards making my body feel better. Instead, the opposite happens. I feel MORE wired. Twitches are more powerful and more frequent. I have to work even harder at keeping anxiety in check. Waking up after a good sleep - when it rarely happens - is almost a stress inducing event in itself.Can anyone concur? - or am I out on a limb here??Smile.

 

[jerryTwo]

I usually sleep bad, many times as you say short (5 hours) and many times I have at 5 and sleep back at 7 AM to 9 AM and I sllep enough hours but I am MORE exhausted then if I sleep 5 hours. Like the sleep would drain power from me.For example today: I woke up after 4 hours with tingling left hand and I had to wait for it to come back and couldn't sleep back. When I did I was awake few hours later by this wierd right hand shaking/tremor I get every morning. In between I have 2 very vivid dreams and 1 nightmare (not night terror). You can imagine how I woke up, my arms are hurting me, so are my feet. I almost prefer to sleep less than more, less symptoms, no hand tremor in the morning and for one, I know why I am sleepy that day

 

[edadoStar]

I was a very good sleeper until 1 year circa into the twitching business. In fact, it is a couple of years now that my sleep has been deteriorating. I recently posted that overall my twitching got worse, and I have no doubts on that. However, strenght, bulk, performances, remaned all the same. Obviously lack of sleep is not good, but strangely enough I do not feel to sleep during the day.

 

[antThatGuyWithNoName]

I've had terrible sleep patterns my entire adult life. I have ups and downs with what I can best describe as the general activity level of my nervous system but I tend to blame those days for my bad sleep as opposed to days when I sleep well. It's kind of a chicken or the egg thing I guess. Some days I'll feel extra jumpy, I'll twitch more, I'll have much more trouble sleeping and other days it's much less pronounced and I feel relaxed enough to sleep easily.

 

[wiftSwiftquill]

I've had bad sleeping patterns ever since I got hit by a bad anxiety episode 4 years back. And this twitching extravaganza the last months wasn't exactly helpful, either.Up to today, I totally believed that good sleep was instrumental to controlling the twitches, just like so many report.I just started to get on a sleeping regime to get my sleep rhythm back to a bearable and somewhat healthier level. Yesterday, it had some effect as I had the best night's sleep in weeks.Yet: the twitching today is at my personal worst, so far.Before, I had calves 24/7 and the occasional twitch everywhere, this morning my entire body is constantly twitching...well, not the face though.So, as a scientist I would say that's not enough data and not a controlled study to establish a causal connection...but weird, nontheless.Oh...a quick thought on the paradoxon:Being a psychologist (yeah funny, I know, a psychologist with anxiety and somatization issues...), I know sleep deprivation is a therapeutic intervention in depression, being effective in even bad cases. I don't know much about the theoretical background, but as anxiety - our BFS-friend - and depression are really two siblings along the line of affective disorders so maybe there might be a connection.Not very scientific and definitely nothing to suggest intenionally cutting back on sleep, but so-called "paradoxic interventions" are being applied to many conditions, at least to some success.Going to carry on with the sleep regime, anyhow.Better a relaxed, well-rested twitcher than a non-twitching nervous wreck...

 

[herty18]

Perhaps your body is so used to being sleep deprived that when you finally get a good night sleep it throws your body out of rhythm and you twitch more. I would be interested to see what happens if you get into better sleep habits for a full month. Would your twitching die down? Then if there is a night where you did not get enough sleep would you get more twitches? I say this because lack of a good night sleep is a major trigger for me and I have prioritized getting at least 7 hours (preferably 8 when possible) of sleep a night.