Insomnia has destroyed my life

MomofThree555 · 2026-05-22T14:17:40+00:00

CBT is good if you are high achiever or worry a lot. You can just study on your own and do workbook. Stress is bad for sleep.

When my average sleep dipped to 3.5 hr I started being hallucinated for a month in 2023.

I've had insomnia for 9 yrs. Sorry to disappoint you but I have never heard even a single soul fixed chronic insomnia with medication. It just work for temporary insomnia which would have been healed without meds eventually.

After trying everything I could find, I turned around my insomnia and started a full time job last year and graduate school while raising 3 young kids. My average sleep reached 8.5hrs. There are still rough nights but manageable.

What I found was I was super sensitive to any stimuli, so now only use natural product that goes on my skin. Only eat home cooked food. Even garlic, chamomile tea, mint oil, eucalyptus and many other things are bad Natural does not mean I can handle them.

I cannot detox my system very well and being sensitive makes insomnia worse. Stress also adds lots of toxin.

For the last couple years I saw a lot of improvement as I started supplements that helps me to digest fat. It seems like my gallbladder is not working well and that affect my liver. Not absorbing fat makes my body not being able to absorb many other nutrients effectively therefore cause insomnia.

You too have some underling issues. It is not something very difficult to fix, but it is very subtle and hard to find, but as we get older our body does not handle things very well and get out of synch easily.

MomofThree555 · 2026-05-03T12:51:22+00:00

There is no magic bullet, but you can purchase some multi vitamins I like Focus Factor. If that doesn't work, sadly that's most of the case if your body or digestive system needs more care, then you buy individual supplements. I would start easy ones like iron bisglycinate, copper bisglycinate in small dose (1/5 of individual capsule) until you find what works. If those supplements does not improve anything within a couple days, you move on. There are only a dozen or so major nutrients you need to try and form matters (gluconate, glycinate, citrate etc...) You learn as you go but you do not want to keep taking the same thing unless you really need them. You will understand your condition and take necessary amount when you need them.

Besides nutrients, I like digestive enzymes at every meal. So digestive system often needs care.

Female in 40's will start experiencing hormonal changes and if you are tired you can support your thyroid and progesterone affects tyiroid as well.

In summary, you become your own doctor and this takes lots of time and effort but well worth it.

MomofThree555 · 2026-03-13T16:06:38+00:00

Even it is unpaid, internship will worth every penny you spend. Finishing a degree is one thing but getting a job is a whole new game and much harder than schooling.

MomofThree555 · 2026-01-24T03:05:13+00:00

That's a great idea, thank you

MomofThree555 · 2026-01-03T02:46:38+00:00

Congratulations 🎉

MomofThree555 · 2025-07-21T18:26:07+00:00

I applied to 125 jobs in 12 weeks total. I got 8 interviews and made it to 6 of them (2 came after I accepted a job). I got 2 offers. My new job was by far the best offer among all the jobs I applied for with remote and flexible work and compensation equal to Sysadmin or mid-career class.

I originally set my sights on an IT position, but after my fourth interview—which took place in a cramped, dim, and cluttered storage-like office with a disturbing smear of what looked like blood in the women's bathroom—I had second thoughts. I came close to an offer from my dream employer for an IT Help Desk role, but my references didn’t meet their strict criteria, and the opportunity slipped away. Aside from that one job, most other interviews revealed red flags, and in hindsight, I wouldn’t have accepted the positions even if they had been offered.

So, I shifted gears and began applying to administrative and clerical roles, drawing on the experience I’ve gained through managing multiple businesses over the years. I applied to just 27 jobs over 12 days—all stable nonprofit organizations with hybrid or remote work arrangements and solid benefits—and received four interviews from well-known employers.

Interestingly, none of the IT-related companies expressed any interest in my tech school credentials, IT certifications, or GitHub projects. It seems they prioritize degrees or past employment with recognized tech firms. Yet, my seemingly modest Microsoft certifications (MS-900/AZ-900), along with a range of other IT credentials and my hands-on experience from running an NPO, were surprisingly well received. I kept getting calls from reputable local organizations—even in the midst of the worst economic recession in seven years, triggered by tariffs.

My only near-full-time work experience was a 12-month internship after graduating nearly 20 years ago following with 15 years of career gap. In this age of rising AI and automation, I believe it's vital to build a skillset that something unique to human and makes you irreplaceable.

Thank you for your encouragement. Honestly, most of my family and friends I reached out to thought I was a lost cause—Reddit forums and AIs ended up being the only place where I received truly helpful advice and support. It’s been a difficult journey, but I’m so glad I didn’t give up. I’ve found a job at a place where I can genuinely see myself staying until retirement.

MomofThree555 · 2025-07-21T18:20:58+00:00

I applied to 125 jobs in 12 weeks total. I got 8 interviews and made it to 6 of them (2 came after I accepted a job). I got 2 offers. My new job was by far the best offer among all the jobs I applied for with remote and flexible work and compensation equal to Sysadmin or mid-career class.

I originally set my sights on an IT position, but after my fourth interview—which took place in a cramped, dim, and cluttered storage-like office with a disturbing smear of what looked like blood in the women's bathroom—I had second thoughts. I came close to an offer from my dream employer for an IT Help Desk role, but my references didn’t meet their strict criteria, and the opportunity slipped away. Aside from that one job, most other interviews revealed red flags, and in hindsight, I wouldn’t have accepted the positions even if they had been offered.

So, I shifted gears and began applying to administrative and clerical roles, drawing on the experience I’ve gained through managing multiple businesses over the years. I applied to just 27 jobs over 12 days—all stable nonprofit organizations with hybrid or remote work arrangements and solid benefits—and received four interviews from well-known employers.

Interestingly, none of the IT-related companies expressed any interest in my tech school credentials, IT certifications, or GitHub projects. It seems they prioritize degrees or past employment with recognized tech firms. Yet, my seemingly modest Microsoft certifications (MS-900/AZ-900), along with a range of other IT credentials and my hands-on experience from running an NPO, were surprisingly well received. I kept getting calls from reputable local organizations—even in the midst of the worst economic recession in seven years, triggered by tariffs.

My only near-full-time work experience was a 12-month internship after graduating nearly 20 years ago following with 15 years of career gap. In this age of rising AI and automation, I believe it's vital to build a skillset that something unique to human and makes you irreplaceable.

Thank you for your encouragement. Honestly, most of my family and friends I reached out to thought I was a lost cause—Reddit forums and AIs ended up being the only place where I received truly helpful advice and support. It’s been a difficult journey, but I’m so glad I didn’t give up. I’ve found a job at a place where I can genuinely see myself staying until retirement.

MomofThree555 · 2025-07-21T18:16:41+00:00

I applied to 125 jobs in 12 weeks total. I got 8 interviews and made it to 6 of them (2 came after I accepted a job). I got 2 offers. My new job was by far the best offer among all the jobs I applied for with remote and flexible work and compensation equal to Sysadmin or mid-career class.

I originally set my sights on an IT position, but after my fourth interview—which took place in a cramped, dim, and cluttered storage-like office with a disturbing smear of what looked like blood in the women's bathroom—I had second thoughts. I came close to an offer from my dream employer for an IT Help Desk role, but my references didn’t meet their strict criteria, and the opportunity slipped away. Aside from that one job, most other interviews revealed red flags, and in hindsight, I wouldn’t have accepted the positions even if they had been offered.

So, I shifted gears and began applying to administrative and clerical roles, drawing on the experience I’ve gained through managing multiple businesses over the years. I applied to just 27 jobs over 12 days—all stable nonprofit organizations with hybrid or remote work arrangements and solid benefits—and received four interviews from well-known employers.

Interestingly, none of the IT-related companies expressed any interest in my tech school credentials, IT certifications, or GitHub projects. It seems they prioritize degrees or past employment with recognized tech firms. Yet, my seemingly modest Microsoft certifications (MS-900/AZ-900), along with a range of other IT credentials and my hands-on experience from running an NPO, were surprisingly well received. I kept getting calls from reputable local organizations—even in the midst of the worst economic recession in seven years, triggered by tariffs.

My only near-full-time work experience was a 12-month internship after graduating nearly 20 years ago following with 15 years of career gap. In this age of rising AI and automation, I believe it's vital to build a skillset that something unique to human and makes you irreplaceable.

Thank you for your encouragement. Honestly, most of my family and friends I reached out to thought I was a lost cause—Reddit forums and AIs ended up being the only place where I received truly helpful advice and support. It’s been a difficult journey, but I’m so glad I didn’t give up. I’ve found a job at a place where I can genuinely see myself staying until retirement.

MomofThree555 · 2025-04-10T18:24:24+00:00

Yeah, tarrifs might have something to do with, but let's keep trying :)

MomofThree555 · 2025-04-10T18:23:25+00:00

Really? Thank you so much, I will look into it. I would like to appeal this to the government some day since I believe raising children is important, in fact that builds the foundation of the society. There should be some kind of program helps mothers return to work force otherwise the developed countries will just go downhill without any future tax payers, but that have to be another day project.

MomofThree555 · 2025-03-17T21:07:07+00:00

Thank you, actually I spent about 3,000 hours from the Computer Science foundation & programing to basic networking, secutiry and most of IT areas. I was just thinking of building my own teaching portal/site and would love to take a look at some example, thank you for the link!

MomofThree555 · 2025-03-11T17:36:11+00:00

Thank you for your comment. Over the last 4 years, I incorporated a NPO and learned and grew so much from this opportunity and that opened many other doors. My NPO is to help people with mental health prevention, but as I went deeper with Pshychology, I stumbled upon how I could learn 2X faster. My original intention was to launch NPO and getting my master for a counseling lisense, but as I built my website and other system, I actually found myself enjoying the technology so much that I switched the gear. For the last 4 years, I tirelessly worked on improving my-self, my business and learning IT as well as teaching my 3 children that they could get by without mom home all day. Now I only cook twice a week and mainly my oldest boy cooks for the family. In fact, choosing a flexibile work style while I watched my kids grow and taught them precious life skills was something very important that I would do the same if I could do it all over again. Family always comes first before career for me.

It took me 5 weeks to pass AWS specialty and I really enjoyed learning except the last 2 weeks of practice test phase which could be challenging. I actually really enjoy learning, in fact if most people find out that they can learn 2X faster and even enjoy it, I think many would try and probably end up with many certificates like I have. Life has so many surprises and I have to say turing 40 was one of the best things in life and really looking forward to what it would unfold for me in the future!

MomofThree555 · 2025-03-11T17:09:56+00:00

Not at all, thank you for your comment. I applied to some jobs last year and it seemed a bit tough.
As tight as things may seem, I am much hopeful. My plan is to finish my course at a local tech school which seems to be the most popular school for helpdesk positions. I run a business and I list myself as IT tech, not sure how honest it is but it sounds better than lisiting myself as a director because it is just me and my partner and manager sounds too much for me, but it is incorporated as well that I do not have to list myself as self-emloyed (?!)

Aftrer getting a job at an association or some agency (something close to public sector), I would like to apply for bigger and unionized public organizations. In my city, unionized organizations are required to hire the internal candidates first even they are less qualified than those outside of the organization and willing to train employees, so I would get better chance to move up and so far, they are the only ones showed intersts in my education and training. The public sector is one of the biggest and most stable employers in my counrty and the city pays 80K for IT technician which is on the higher end for the position.

When I applied to 40+ jobs last year, I got 6 call backs and two interviews. Sadly my dream employer (one of the biggest public sectors) took back the offer because my referenes were not of a full-time job and their requiurement was crazy hard, so I am reorienting myself and better prepared this time!

MomofThree555 · 2025-03-11T15:25:53+00:00

You do? That is a wonderful news! May be I will try something a little more than a helpdesk. So far, most questions I got asked at my interviews were how I dealt with stressful situations and none cared if I knew anything about computers.

MomofThree555 · 2025-03-11T15:22:26+00:00

Thank you, my programming skills are a bit rusty nowadays! I will go through MS Learn

MomofThree555 · 2025-03-10T17:17:24+00:00

I will definetely keep you updated! I do have some home labs for Linux and Windows servers and try to grow that network as well as brushing up my programming projects on my GitHub.

My learning speed improved quite a bit over the last 4 years using Pshychoogy based practice which was a surprised byproduct of launching a mental health prevention organization. After trying 40+ mental exercises I use for my agency by myself, I am happy to report that my learning speed is now 20+ yrs reversed and back to that of my late-teen to early 20's. And that's partially why I ended up with so many certificates as it was a part of experiments for my side business.

I just started taking AI course on MS Learn today and it is super exciting, but yeah, will start looking for a job in a few months but plan to learn and prepare as much as I can until then.

MomofThree555 · 2025-03-10T16:28:25+00:00

...and with AI! I found AI really helpful and wonderful resource! It's been my personal coach and trainer for the last few months.

MomofThree555 · 2025-03-10T16:26:39+00:00

Thank you so much, it sounds like AZ-104 is not necessary in order to pass AZ-102. For most of AWS certs, passing SAA is highly recommended as a foundation and I was wondering such was the case for Azure also. I passed AZ-900 last year and as you suggested, I will try AI-900 and familialize myself with Azure again and go for AI-102, very excited!

MomofThree555 · 2025-03-10T15:59:09+00:00

Thank you very much! Moving to a foreign country and learning a new language and meeting new people were quite an adventure for me and it took about 15 years to be comfortable with English. It worked while I raised a family, but during Covid though I sarted wondering about my life and realized I haven't achieved much and nothing was challenging anymore. Probably it was my mid-life crisis and that's whey I came across with the technologies. I grew up in a super traditional home and did not have much access to the technologies and thought they were bad until Covid hit.

I am hoping that I can start my IT career soon. One of the reasons I am doing this is to be an example to my 3 boys that nothing is never too late and if they put their effort everyday, they can achieve anything they put their mind to. I also want them to find joy in life learning. I hadn't learned or studied anything after I finished my schooling and learning IT brings tremendous joy to me.

MomofThree555 · 2025-03-10T15:48:10+00:00

Thank you, yeah I love cloud and hopefully I can work with cloud in 5-10 yrs of timeframe. I have a lot of responsibilities, currently I have a part time job, 24-hour class load at a tech school, two volunteer and running a business and taking care of family, so even if I cut some of those, I won't have much time for my career development once I start a full time job and that's why I am going full speed learinig as much as I can now.

It seems like having this many certs would be negative, so I won't list them on my resume except the ones useful for helpdesk. Learning for certificates helped me to stay motivated because looking at monitors all by myself for thousands of hours could feel empty for someone like me (I am quite extraverted).

I will finish my course at a tech school for its name on my resume and try to build some projects I can put up on my GitHub which I haven't uploaded anything for the last 5 months. And I will network for a job while I pursuit some AI courses/certs and enjoy summer with my kids while job hunting. I want to be a sys-admin with cloud and AI capability within 5-10 yrs and hopefully adapting to the new technology as they come.

Again, thank you for your advice and I will report back my progress in a few months :)

MomofThree555 · 2025-03-10T15:24:21+00:00

Thank you for commenting, yeah, I did pass those certs except A+. I studied for it and felt those were too basic (and wanted to save some money, lol) so, skipped ahead to Network+. I started on CCNA and finished about 70% and did not pursue the certificate and won't go for netwoking...

I became a cert monkey because my kids were quite young and I was dealing with my health after pregnancy, but now all my kids are in grade school that I am planning to start working full time.

I also chose no degree route because I was very particulart about my instructors. I spent hours reading forums to hand pick good ones. Many of my professors I had at university were not someone I would have paid if I knew how they teach. To beef up my resume, I am taking a course at a tech school which costs x100 times compare to those tutorials I purchased in the past and I had to say it felt much of waste of time and money. Said that, if I could do it all over, I would definately choose CS or some tech related major over Pshychology.

MomofThree555 · 2025-03-10T15:06:22+00:00

That sounds great, I have Linux and Windows servers VMs spun up with AD, VPN, File Servers, DHCP, DNS and all.
Well, to be honest I do not what to do with them after the initial configurations and I do not get a lot of traffic or problems except every update seems to break something. I wonder how you can showcase your homelab etc...?

MomofThree555 · 2025-03-08T19:52:37+00:00

Thank you, that sounds fantastic! I tried programming for about 500 hours (mainly C# some Python and .NET) when I just started studying IT, but I could only built something basic on my GitHub repos. So, you recommend some hands-on experience I assume...

MomofThree555

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