Mother Takes Action After Battling Insomnia For 4 Years: ‘I Just Want To Sleep’ | Megyn Kelly TODAY

Michelle Foley, 46, is a single mother and Microsoft employee who spent four years of her life battling insomnia. She sought help from different doctors and tried various remedies after learning from her FitBit that she was sleeping only two hours per night. Foley joins Megyn Kelly TODAY to describe her journey toward finally getting some sleep.

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‘I Just Want To Sleep’: Mother Takes Action After Battling Insomnia For 4 Years | Megyn Kelly TODAY

[oscarmeza]

I have severe insomnia and it peaked at 2023. It’s cause mental health issues, it’s aged me in the past year, it’s given me bad brain fog, Sever issues with focus, constant fatigue. It’s the absolute worst.

[thepulseshowwithchelleerae]

I can relate. I max at 0-3 hrs of sleep a night. There are times when I stay up for 3 to 5 days straight. I gave up. I would just wait until my body crashed.

[reefalkaud]

I remember that I had trouble sleeping as early as the age of 5 now that I am 40 there are times when I get better and times when I go back to the same condition that I was in. Yet I feel like nobody can understand what insomnia is like except for a person who had gone through it.

[annlanders]

Chronic sleep deprivation is very serious. If you need medication to help you sleep then take it. It is more important to sleep.

[strangerrrrrrr]

i've learned to never count the hours i get to sleep a night... it makes it easier and less pressure on my brain i feel like

[justmadeit]

Does anyone else find it makes depression worse when you cant sleep ?

[lisagaeta]

I have insomnia as well, went to sleep specialist and they pretty much just want to prescribe sleeping pills and not get to the root cause of the problem. I will stay awake mostly all night and won’t start to fall asleep until 5-6 am, which is when I need to get up with kids in the morning. It really controls your life on many levels. Mainly being irritable, and having no energy to do anything. I exercise, and don’t do any of the things that this lady is saying helped her. For me I cannot shut my mind off and no matter how sleepy I feel, I still can’t fall asleep. I’m probably only getting 2-3 hours a day . It’s frustrating!

[cindyweir]

Well here it is 3 AM and as usual tried sleep meds and soft music but it’s not working. This has been going on for months and I’m so tired of being tired.

[markvescera]

I have this exact thing. It's horrible and really is a form of torture and it will damage your head. I'll think people are there who I know then you turn around and no one was there to begin with. Struggled since I was a preteen and am 28 and still have it. So sorry to hear...

[traczebabe]

This is infuriating. No sleeping every night is what people with fibromyalgia go through. We degrade in every way too. And people say well exercise, eat better. What they don’t realize is you physically cannot do anything because your body is in negative sleep. Your brain decays, your hair falls out, your body is in constant fight or flight. Your adrenal glands give out. You can no longer absorb nutrients from food or supplements. Your heart rate slows and since your circulation isn’t working as it should because your heart rate slows. Your whole body shuts down. And you die because your heart just gets slower and slower. It took me over ten years in a constant sleep deprivation state to figure out tiny little things that could help. After almost fifteen years existing like this I’m better. But I can’t work a job, tax myself or I get very sick. Bedridden for days. I take hundreds of dollars of supplements each month not to mention the hundreds of dollars in medication. I work non-stop to keep balance in my life so I can have a life and not just exist. And not all doctors even believe fibromyalgia exists. Mine doesn’t. I have to do research get him to do the lab tests that will show those things that are wrong in a way he can’t deny. I wished I had only had four years to deal with insomnia and the pain you live with hasn’t even been factored in. People all over the world are suffering with fibromyalgia and other chronic illness that ruin their sleep and their lives but this lady is amazing for figuring out you have to be in a relaxed state that includes your brain relaxing to sleep and it’s a miracle?! Don’t get me wrong I know she suffered and it’s not something I would wish on anyone. But why aren’t people with chronic illness being spotlighted. Because everyone is sick of hearing it maybe? Well no one is more sick of it then those who have it and are grateful for whatever they can find out that will improve their sleep and their lives.

[sherrijones]

May we please have the final, and important, part of this segment? It is of no use without the remainder. I was watching it at the time it aired but it was interrupted. Please post the valuable part.

[lazarusblackwell]

My mother has insomnia for at least 10 years but she doesnt want help.I think she wants to die because she has nothing to live for, like so many people today.

[pappyreeves]

I watched this in the hope for an answer..there wasn't one..I'll save potential viewers 7 minutes of their lives...this woman wasn't practising sleep

[mrs.elentz]

Extreme insomnia is something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy!! I survived cardiac arrest at 16yrs old, I'm 30 now. I got a defibrillator implanted back at 16. A few years later, it happened again but in my sleep and I had my defibrillator then. I got thrown across my bed, I thought I was shot. It subconsciously traumatized me I think. I'd doze off, feel a "phantom jolt, " wake up. It's diff than the startle response. I had to accept i could die in my sleep (and really a good way to go, as morbid as that sounds! My cousin died at 25 in his sleep from same heart condition) and I feel I have. However, I still had insomnia!! Id go up to 72hrs no sleep, crash for 12hrs. I literally had to get to the point that things look like they're moving when they are not. The intense anxiety and paranoia insomnia causes is awful, and it's driven me to want to attempt suicide. Countless times I've broken down BAWLING, praying and begging for God to just take me or thinking about suicide just so my body could finally rest. My advice to anyone who wants to take it is do what this woman says. Do not take prescription sleep pills long term, they don't work long term, theyre addictive (coming off is AWFUL), and side effects are terrible. I've done crazy things on ambien and similar hypnotics (once including an overdose that was intentional although I wasn't even suicidal, don't remember it at all). Switch to ear buds, self hypnosis videos on YouTube, guided meditation, or binaural beats... THEY WORK. Michael Sealey here on YT is great. I still have bouts of insomnia but much better!!

[middlemarie]

Fit Bit doesn't measure accurately. I believe completely she wasn't sleeping well- I've been there. But she was probably sleeping more than she thought she was. Poor woman though.

[zapkvr]

Oh snoring is a killer. If you have this problem you need it fixed. Snoring is DEADLY.

I feel her pain have had insomnia on and off for years. Mine was caused by health problems and generalised anxiety disorder.

[khole]

4 years? I have had this torture for over 20 years now

[mooneyes]

meditation saved my sleep as well
INSOMNIA CAN BE A MENTAL HEALTH ISSUE! AND CURED WITHOUT MEDICATIONS!

[zapkvr]

This was great. Thanks to Megan and the Today team. Well done everyone