Crash after years

Symptoms
#1

Hello everyone,

Some of you might remember me. I’ve been dealing with PFS since 2014.

Back in early 2014, I experienced a very severe crash and went through almost every possible PFS symptom at their worst. Over the years, many of those symptoms gradually improved and things became more manageable.

But now something has happened that I really can’t explain. After 12 years, I seem to have crashed again for no clear reason.

It started with hypnic jerks and muscle spasms. For the past two days, I’ve completely lost the feeling of sleepiness. Yesterday I managed to sleep for about one hour, but today I honestly feel like I won’t be able to sleep at all.

I’m really scared. Has anyone experienced something like this? Is it possible for the body to suddenly lose the ability to feel sleepy like this? If I can’t sleep, could this become life-threatening?

I’m currently taking magnesium and melatonin, but they don’t seem to help at all.

I truly don’t understand why I crashed again after so many years or what triggered it. If anyone has experienced something similar or has any advice, I would really appreciate hearing from you.

Thank you.

#2

Really sorry to hear that man. Im sure something had to stir the pot in order for you to crash. It seems like the most innocuous things can do this. We are left in a highly sensitized state after PFS. Ive had two crashes since my initial crash that were bad enough to cause insomnia and hypnic jerks to return. Usually after a month or two things start to slowly settle in that department.

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#3

brutal man, it could be anything, stress, food, products or godknows what. we are never in the clear with this shit

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#4

The reason is not a supplement you took or certain habit. I also developed insomnia and sleep Problems 8 years after the initial crash. The insomnia took 5 months, then vanished away. Sleep Hours were from no sleep to 5 Hours.
I wish you good luck, be strong and keep fighting

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#5

Unfortunatelly I’m in similar situation. My crash happened after 7 years and started 2,5 months ago. Started few days after viral infection. First 6 days I slept for only 2 hours each night. Now I sleep more but my sleep is still super fragmented + shallow in early morning hours. I’m getting pretty anhedonic now :frowning:

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#6

Tonight i experienced at least 50 times hypnic jerks and didnt allow me to sleep. I dont know what to do.

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#7

Try sleeping on your stomach. That helped mitigate them for me.

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#8

Is there anyone from my 2014 crash period that I know currently active on the forum?

#9

Have struggled with insomnia ever since I developed PFS. Also take magnesium which helps occasionally. Other things that help (always occasionally) are marijuana sleep edibles, tryptophan (helps pretty consistently), and theanine.

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#10

Thank you all for your support, but it still hasn’t gone away. Some days it gets better and I can sleep close to 6 hours, but on other days it still happens 15–20 times and I can only manage 2–3 hours of sleep. And even in that condition, I still have to go to work. The only thing I’ve noticed is that if I eat a heavy meal late at night, these hypnic jerks become much more frequent.

#11

I crashed a while back after years of being able to withstand most things without crashing. Lithium did it, and I’ve been trying to return to prior PFS state for months now.

I also started to get the hypnic jerks, and they often coincide with other autonomic nervous system changes like change in breathing. I thought it was the heart at first, but no, thankfully it is not.

Edit:
I should add that I’m a lot better than I was after that crash. Right now I get pain, brainfog those autonomic issues including the jerks, and PFSomnia which is very alert tired but wired feeling all night, BUT in waves. One day I can feel almost how I was before the lithium crash; and other times I’m in the bad state.

My current focus is lowering stress as much as possible, getting sunlight in the morning, going for walks etc

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#12

Sufferer since 2019 here with sleep being one of the worst symptoms.
I had a similar experience last year (2025) were sleep dropped off again for about 1 - 2 months, 0-2 hours most nights, couldn’t explain it, felt exactly how it was back in 2019 and this was now 6 years after my last dose.
I honestly think sometimes there’s little triggers in things we don’t realise, sometimes the way our system has been altered by Finasteride has left us more susceptible and sensitive to things like insomnia.
If you think about it, it’s similar for many menopause sufferers - they go from sleeping 8 hours as normal, their body goes through a rapid hormone shift, affecting everything and suddenly they can’t sleep how they used to.
It’s a similar situation for us….
Best tips are to:

  • carry on as normal as much as you can, go to work, see friends, do fun things, because stopping any of these things gives power to the fear and PFS, making the situation and the hole deeper.
  • exercise walk, cycle , row whatever to get the body to produce adenosine by the evening
  • follow usual sleep hygiene stuff, no lEDS, blue light, get up at the same time every morning even if it’s 1 hour sleep the whole night
  • know that you aren’t alone, sometimes my sleep has been so bad I wondered how a human can survive with so little sleep… there’s lots of us like this and not just PFS sufferers.
  • try and do things to get the body to raise GABA naturally
    Hope this helps mate, hang in there!
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#13

Have you recovered from that crash and did you also have some other symptoms???

#14

I crashed again roughly eleven years after my initial crash. I am not sure whether it was food- or lifestyle-related, or simply driven by time (e.g. hormonal changes come with ageing). I got better, but by baseline was still permanently worse than before. The fact that this could happen again bothers me, to say the least.

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#15

How are you now then as a percentage would you say?

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#16

I’m amazed to find so many others who have re-crashed

I re crashed after total recovery 14 months ago but I’m worse than ever and have the specific myriad of symptoms that imply severe permanent pfs

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#17

Yes I’m interested to hear where you are at percentage wise as well. Did you get close to old baseline or no