What a horrible thing to have to deal with. I'm surprised the insomnia hasn't improved since the acupuncture has helped with the anxiety. When my side effects were at their worst, I definitely had some sleepless nights. But, I felt like the insomnia was directly related to the anxiety. It was never bad enough to seek out sleep aids for me, so I can't help you there. Do you consume much caffeine? I know since I've been going through all this I'm more sensitive to caffeine, probably because of the hormonal imbalance. If you haven't already, maybe try cutting it out completely? I suppose in our state, the smallest amount could wreak some major havoc.

By the way, I just made my first consultation appt. with an acupuncturist. I'm interested to see what they say. I'm not real sure how I'm going to justify the cost to my husband yet. I think he thinks I've lost it. Whenever I bring up the acupuncture thing it's complete silence.

oh im so sorry. i wake up every two hours because i must pee, i think.
no no i wake up every two hours then when i sit up all of a sudden i have to pee, the doctor really damaged my bladder, i didnt do it myself.

what do you do when you wake up?
are you tired when you go to bed?
do you eat normal?

i cant do to much liquid but something warm might settle you down for the night.
i am up now because it feels like im drowning in my sleep and i wake up gagging. tonight its like my stomach contents came up while i was sleeping.

if i dont eat i cant stay awake for days and have lots of energy. my body changes at first i could eat and fall over sleep in 20 minutes, thats what i call the pm crash. i dont know whats better insomnia or crashing.

Yes, insomnia was my worst side effect as well, and when there is no sleep other things start to fall apart of course (immune system and emotions). I have spent over a year and thousands and thousands of dollars to try to figure out what was causing my problem (which started exactly 2 weeks after mirena was inserted and 3 months post partum and 2 months after a traumatic experience)...It was not until last september (almost 5 months ago that I found this web site that has SAVED my life). However even in these 5 months post partum I am still not back to normal although I definitely am wayyyyy better than before...I was like you, could not sleep more than 2 hours without waking (and then unable to fall back asleep), everything disturbed me, my nervous system must have been on high alert...I have been seeing a naturopath (taking supplements and homeopathis remedies) for almost a year which has helped...except I think the main thing everybody thought my problem was was a weak adrenal gland...but I should have been getting better faster if it was just that...so we have also found that the problem was in blood-sugar regulation, basically I was hypoglycemic, so I would be hungry in the night and unable to fully process sugars, so we fixed that with acupuncture and the NAET method which started to make a huge difference. The acupuncturist also used an alpha stim machine to help realign sleep waves in my brain which really helped with the quality of my sleep (like I finally got a deep sleep)...but I still get thrown off and am not normal...So just recently the acupuncturist noted that my gall bladder was weak. I have started Liver Cleansing supplements and acupuncture to treat this as well as balance my hormones. It makes sooo much sense that the mirena not only messed up our progesterone cycle but our bodies most likely treated it like a toxin which was not able to get processed in the liver/gall bladder. Problems with the gall bladder can lead to pain in the shoulders and legs, hyper sensitivity to unresolved emotional issues (hense the anxiety and heart palpatations) as well as inability to make decisions and move forward. Other factors that can have issues in the gall bladder are caffeine, chocolate, fatty/fried foods, eggs, and dairy. I have always been sensitive to caffeine and chocolate and recently developed intolerance to eggs. In chinese medicine, weak gall bladder can definitely lead to insomnia. And this can be tied to weak kidney, heart, and liver which explains the need to pee, heart palpatations and adrenal gland issues (which in chinese medicine is tied to low kidney).

I have definitely found that I am getting the best results from acupunture. I also think it can depend on the acupuncturist. I still notice that it gets worse during the part of my cycle when my estrogen peaks (i.e. days 11-15) which is probably the low progesterone...Basically that fricken mirena messes us up on so many different levels that of course everyone just blames it on post partum anxiety- Depression also because most women get it put in right after having a baby...those f*ckers!

Anyway, talk to your acupuncturist about the gall bladder, heart, kidney...I wish you the best of luck...I still want to expose this disgusting product to the media...I think we should bombard YouTube with video clips of our awful stories...or just somehow get it written up in a newspaper, which I imagine would then get flooded with response letters...I'm working on putting something together that I hope the san francisco chronicle might consider printing...cause there is actual data in a report for the canadian FDA which lists most of these side effects that the US does not on the mirena...

Best of luck!

Benzadryl (sp?) Try taking Unisom (2) four hours before bedtime and 2 more an hour before sleepy time and also add L-tryptophan and melatonin...

I make sure I don't drink anything caffeinated after 2 or 3 p.m.

If THAT doesn't work, get a prescription from your Dr. because the body NEEDS to sleep to repair itself more than you may be worried about the *correctness* of health and all.

You can work that out later but you need sleep for your health on every level and if it takes a prescription *drug* then for pity's sake get it, that's where they can sometime's help.

Nitey nite...turn out the lite! ;)