I've been recently discharged from inpatient, after a worsening of my chronic depression. The only change in my medication was to add Restoril for sleep. They tried me on Lamictal, but I broke out in a rash and they discontinued it fast.

Since then, this is my third night in a row (It's almost 3:30 AM here) with no sleep, Restoril not helping. Even more alarming, although auditory hallucinations have never been a problem for me before, I have begun hearing things. Today I heard my husband's voice at the front door, and his key turning in the lock. Later I heard him on the computer playing games. I even heard that little Pogo "jackpot spin" melody, clear as a bell. Nobody was on the computer. This was about two hours before he came home. I was alone in the house. As far as I know, our cats haven't learned to play Pogo games.

After he was home, I heard the phone ringing when it wasn't. The reason I wondered about it was, we have one of those four-handsets-one-base setups, and we keep the ringer turned off in the bedroom so it doesn't wake my husband up early in the morning. But that's the one I heard ringing, not any of the other handsets. Just to be sure, I asked my husband if the phone was ringing, and he hadn't heard anything. And yes, the ringer was still turned off.

I'm not asking if I should be worried. I'm asking, HOW worried? Is this an emergency?

Could just sleep deprivation be doing this?

Hi, LoveBirdsFlying - Please call your prescribing MD as soon as possible. Sounds like you need another change of meds because the Restoril is not helping you sleep and it may be giving you unwanted side-effects. All the best to you.

[missbelle]

Definately going without sleep can do that but get on the phone right now and call the pdoc.......let them know you are not sleeping..could be a side effect of the drug....You need to stay rested to stay well!!

Thinking of you!

Almost 6:00 PM here, too late to call the doctor. (I fell asleep, so I guess that's a good thing.) Auditory hallucination still going on. My ears were telling me there is a TV on in a neighboring room. The "volume" was very low, couldn't hear it distinctly, but enough to make out Dragnet and the original Batman series. I had been sleeping not very soundly for about four hours, but woke up when hubby got out of bed and was getting ready to go to work, which for him is afternoon to evening hours. At this time I was wide awake. Pertinent facts:

1. We have two TV's, in the bedroom where I was, and in the living room. Hubby's presence in the bedroom with me meant he wasn't currently watching TV in the living room, and he assured me he hadn't left the living room TV on. I could plainly see that the bedroom TV was off.

2. Even if he had left the living room TV on, none of the stations we get were showing Dragnet or Batman at that time, nor do they come up in the On Demand selections.

3. Nobody was on the computer watching either of those shows on YouTube or anything.

4. Free-standing house, not an apartment building, so no adjacent neighbors who could have been watching them.

When I did fall asleep, I didn't go very deeply. I seemed to go right into dream stage, and my dreams were vivid but didn't make any sense. It was like watching a 3D movie through a kaleidoscope.

The reason I am picking apart the hallucinations so carefully is, once when I was inpatient, I thought I was having olfactory hallucinations because I could plainly smell baby powder when I didn't have any with me. It later turned out the lady in the next room had some incontinence problems, and the nurses were assisting her at that time. Sometimes it works out that way, so I'm examining these things thoroughly to see if they are in fact hallucinations.

E-mailing my pdoc with the facts. Then going back to bed.

[unaluna]

they just started a new antenna tv station that shows batman and all those other old tv shows. how far are your old deaf neighbors who can't afford cable (like me! )? also, sorry to hear you're doing poorly; miss you on here.

[gma45]

Hugs to you (((((((LovebirdsFlying))))))))) I hope you get to feeling better!

Been sleeping a little better, and the hallucinations have stopped.

I'm still kind of spooked though. Yesterday when my husband came home from work, when I heard him at the door I felt I had to go and look, and make sure I really was hearing it.

[lizardlady]

Lovebirdsflying, lack of REM sleep can all kinds of hallucinations. You say they stopped when you started getting some sleep. Maybe it was lack of sleep. It still merits letting your pdoc know.