My Sleep While Traveling

How well do insomnia and globe trotting go together?

Bedroom in our second AirBNB in Rome

I alluded to this in a previous post as we were prepping to leave on our travels, but my sleep is a major issue. It has been for years. I have chronic insomnia that appeared after I birthed Shelby. As a result, I’ve consistently taken a prescription med to get enough sleep to function. (Yes, I tried many other things along the way, but the medicine was the only thing that consistently worked.)

When we decided to head out to travel the world, I knew I had to get off the prescription Rx because I wasn’t going to be able to continue to get it filled; it’s a controlled substance that’s hard enough to get in the US. Plus the particular drug I’ve been on for years, Belsomra, is only approved for distribution in 4 or 5 countries around the world.

I started working with a psychiatrist and psychologist in June to taper my use and wish I would’ve started sooner. They say sleep drugs aren’t habit forming, but I’m here to tell you that they are. And the longer you’ve been on a med, the longer it takes to get off it (no surprise). Anyway, five months to taper off the drug was going to be tough, but doable.

I won’t lie; the first 2-4 weeks were really hard. My sleep was atrocious, and I wasn’t nice to be around. Around 2-3pm every afternoon my work productivity would tank because I was exhausted. Some days I was operating on 4 hours of sleep. I kept a journal for myself throughout the process; if you want to see it, ask and I’ll share.

Along the way I realized I wouldn’t be able to be completely off the medicine by the time we left, but I worked out a way to leave the US with a 60-day supply of the reduced dose I was on at that point. The plan at that point was to start taking a dose every other day once I had maybe 20 nights of medicine left. However, I never started doing that because changing accommodations every 7-10 days has been disruptive enough.

Oh, how I wish I could be the type of person who can sleep anywhere. Alas, I’m not. On top of my insomnia, I’m a light sleeper (if you breathe near me I know it, even with my earplugs in—and let’s not even talk about foreign sounds; we already changed AirBNBs once in Rome because the first one let in lots of noise from the tram, police/ambulance sirens, etc.). This means adjusting to new sleeping arrangements is hard, and for the best success to sleep decently while traveling, I’ve needed my own space. That means we’ve rented AirBNBs with 3-4 bedrooms. Yes, I’m a high maintenance sleeper; there’s no way around it.

Fast forward to our last night in Italy. I had been mentally preparing to be off the Belsomra come the new year, which meant we’d be in Malaysia and hopefully staying in the same AirBNB for at least two weeks, giving me some consistency. Well, we were in bed at the hotel (the first hotel room we’d stayed in on our travels), nearly ready to get some sleep before our long flight to Singapore, and Chris says: Be sure not to take your medicine with you to Singapore; you could risk being apprehended.

Say WHAT?

I had done a bunch of research about whether or not I could bring Belsomra to Japan and South Korea and, out of an abundance of caution, we decided not to start our trip there since it looked like I may not have been able to take it without jumping through hoops. But once we pivoted to Europe as our starting point, I forgot all about checking since we initially planned to be in Europe long enough for me to exhaust my supply.

Of course, our plans changed along the way and we’ve spent about two weeks fewer in Europe than we thought we would. It never dawned on me to research the regulations in Singapore once it became clear that this was the most direct route to SE Asia from Europe for us.

Am I glad Chris said something? Yes, but at 10:XX the night before our flight?! Frick frack. This sent me into a spin researching the rules for bringing medication into Singapore. The active ingredient for Belsomra is suvorexant, and it wasn’t listed in the lookup tool (I’m not surprised; it hasn’t been listed in any country, as it’s too new and not common.) However, I know that doesn’t let me off the hook. It’s a classified as psychotropic drug, and it turns out psychotropics aren’t allowed into Singapore without prior approval, which I didn’t have. Damn. That meant that to be safe I indeed had to leave the rest of my supply behind. I wanted to cry; I wasn’t mentally prepared for that at all.

And then in a 1-2 punch, I realized that the accommodation I had booked in Singapore wasn’t going to work; I wouldn’t have my own space. I could’ve made it work with my medicine, but without it? Let’s just say that if I had to try to sleep with NO MEDS for the fist time in ever (ahem, in 13.5 years), I needed to set myself up for better potential success — or at least set the family up to not have to deal with my wrath. So we needed different bed configurations, which meant searching for new hotels since there weren’t other options at the hotel I had booked.

I found one (several, actually) with rooms available; naturally, they cost more, as if Singapore isn’t expensive enough as it is. Good times. Then I had to cancel the other reservation; yes, I had to pay a penalty, but better that than go into a situation where I’m not going to sleep.

So, I have no idea what will happen once we actually check in in Singapore. I got maybe four hours of sleep our last night in Rome. Between going to bed late and then Chris’ phone waking me up at 3am (someone texted him and he didn’t have it on silent — gah!) and then being awake for quite a while trying to go back to sleep and then up before 7am, it was rough. Our 12-hour flight arrives just after 5am local time and I want to stay awake until “normal” bedtime to try to combat the jet lag… I should theoretically be exhausted and able to fall asleep, but we’ll see. I’m a sleep enigma; logic doesn’t hold where my sleep is concerned.

Anyway, wish me luck. Wish the family luck. I may drink the most coffee I’ve had so far on our trip in Singapore alone just to function. My fear is that my sleep will be as bad as it was when I first started tapering the medication in early June. If that’s the case, I could be in for a couple of weeks of terrible sleep, which means my initial experience in SE Asia may be negative. I hope this isn’t the case; at least I know what I’m potentially up against versus back in June when it was all a surprise and that much harder to deal with.

If you’re someone who can sleep (almost) anywhere, please be thankful. Not all of us are that lucky; we jump through many hoops to function daily. Here’s hoping I’ll make this final adjustment without too much discomfort and family discord. I’ll take all the good wishes you can send my way. (So will the family!)