[TRNRMOM]

I am a 67 bp2 female and this past yr. has been bad as far as insomnia. Ambien does little, and klonopin or Xanax sometimes work. So I now take 1/2 .25 seroquel which usually works great. We made a 6 hr. drive to visit a friend and the afternoon and evening were pleasant. Went to bed at 9 pm..room was dark and quiet and took seroquel. 30 min. Later mind is racing..took another 1/2 of .25 seroquel and just laid in bed quietly..no sleep. Took 1/2 klonopin waiting for sleep..nothing..so then took 1/2 ambien which finally knocked me out..have terrible drug hangover and hubby and friend are giving me hell telling me I could overdose...but I need sleep..and they say I should wait longer to see if med. will kick in before adding more.

Question..I know all of us are different, but do some of you need to add more meds. To get to sleep and how long do you wait to begin adding more of the same med. for sleep before adding another med. to the mix.

Am desperate for answers. I know I need to return to p/doc for answer but want your personal input.

[~Christina]

Hey TRN

So sorry your going through all this. I suffer with Insomnia also. You do need to be careful when you taking a variety of medications, you can over medicate yourself and not know it... If you have been on Ambien for a while you can build up a tolerance same for Xanax and Klonopin..

My advice is that you need a complete overhaul on your Sleep meds, I am doing this right now, It sucks so much.

To be safe can you have your husband hold your medications? ... just because many people OD on sleeping meds and don't even realize how many pills they actually take.

Please be safe and have your Pdoc review your meds and see what can be done to help you rest.

[wildflowerchild25]

I agree with Christina. Talk with your pdoc about sleep meds because you could easily take too much if you start mixing pills on your own. My husband got snippy with me last night when I told him I took 2 klonopin instead of one for the same reason. I have to talk to my pdoc soon about taking something else for sleep.

[wotchermuggle]

I take Seroquel too. You shouldn't take it when you want to sleep, but rather before, so it has time to start working before you are actually ready for bed. For me, even at my 500mg dose, I need to take it at least an hour before I want to sleep.

[Skittles56]

If you're taking Seroquel XR, you have to take it a couple of hours before you go to bed. I was taking it right before I went to bed and I was having terrible problems with insomnia. It's probably the same for regular Seroquel. Take it an hour or so before you go to bed. They only make XR under the brand name, so if you are on a generic, it's regular Seroquel.

[wotchermuggle]

Originally Posted by Skittles56

If you're taking Seroquel XR, you have to take it a couple of hours before you go to bed. I was taking it right before I went to bed and I was having terrible problems with insomnia. It's probably the same for regular Seroquel. Take it an hour or so before you go to bed. They only make XR under the brand name, so if you are on a generic, it's regular Seroquel.

I should have mentioned that too.

For the regular Seroquel, it should be pretty fast acting (within an hour). The XR version, you may need longer. I take a mixture of XR and IR but I used to be on just IR.