Occasionally seroquel fails for sleep

most times 1/2 seroquel works wonders nightly for stopping the racing thoughts and gives me 8 great hours of sleep; however, there are a few times when i am so stressed that 1/2 seroquel does nothing and even though i keep a regular bedtime, 5 hrs. later i'm still awake. do any of you combine some other rx or over-the counter sleep aid or anti anxiety med to finally knock you out. not sleeping really trashes me for an entire day following and i try to catch up with several naps. i don't get on computer, drink coffee, etc. and have 2 noise machines and a completely dark bedroom, all to no avail at certain times. any suggestions?

Have you tried trazodone?

What about taken the other half? Maybe don't wait 5 hours later but maybe if your not asleep in 2 hours take the other half.

I know what you mean tho not being able to sleep sucks.

i know it's gonna be a stressful/insomnia night if the 1/2 doesn't work within an hour and then i'm taking another 1/2….it's when a 50mg. seroquel doesn't work and i'm really manic that i'm asking what i can add to the mix. occasionally after about 4 hrs. of no sleep i'll add an ambien just to put me to sleep finally but am trashed the following day and that's why i'm wanting to know if adding a benzo or over-the-counter sleep med will knock me out in combination with seroquel which usually works like a charm when most of the time i'm `normal'.

Have you tried lunesta? It is supposed to be in and out of your body faster than ambien. Like all sleeping pills it only worked a few days for me but my metabolism is weird and you don't need it every night which matters too I'm sure. I think that it's pretty much cleared your system in 6 hours if I remember right.

Also you have a lot of good sleep hygiene stuff in place but when you can't sleep do you just lay there or do you get up and go to another room? Sometimes that can help reset things, just go and do something calm and soothing like read a book (the paper kind, no lighting on a reader or computer), drink some herbal tea, warm milk (I like it although I know most people think ewww), whatever you can do and try again in 20-30 minutes when you feel relaxed. Otherwise you train yourself to be anxious when you see your bed.

I'd try adding 25-50mg generic Benadryl or 1-3mg melatonin or a benzo but just ask your doctor to make sure. These would be good for occasional use and would decrease in effectiveness the more you use it.

Then again it depends on your brain cuz there was a time when non of that over the counter stuff would work for me.

It's good also if you can rotate like one night you use Benadryl another melatonin another a benzo another ambian then you don't burn up there effectiveness.

This is exactly what I do, same stuff, and flip back and forth. Ask your pdoc though because too much sedation can cause you to stop breathing. I can be very sensitive to melatonin and take 1.5mg on top of what I'm already taking for "those" nights.

One night I took 100mg of trazodone, four of those over-the-counter sleep aide stuff, 1,000mg of melatonin, and 50mg of seroquel, and I still couldn't fall asleep. It was driving me nuts. Oh, and I took 30mg of propranolol too. Jeez! After all of that, I was afraid to take anything else that night, so I just kind of rolled around in bed for about six hours.

I guess I don't have any advice, but I feel for you.

omg. i would have thought you'd be sleeping for days with that combo…guess it shows how different all of us are and what we need to get some good sleep. am going to vegas this sun. for 3 days..the city i love to hate and know already all the stimulation will trigger insomnia the 1st nite so i will try adding some of your suggestions as well as `upping' my seroquel dosage.

one thing i notice about my bipolar: and i've been diagnosed bp2 with no depression: i never ever feel tired at nite; i go to bed faithfully at the same time with meds yet i go to bed out of habit…not because i am dead tired and want to sleep…if that makes sense. i've lived with this illness for almost 40 years (am female, 69 and retired) and sleep deprivation seems to be the worst symptom that i have.

Try adding melatonin to the mix. It usually helps me when I can't sleep. I take 600mg of the Quel, but sometimes it fails me too.