[Indie'sOK]

Hi,
For awhile I've been having trouble getting to sleep at night. During the school year it takes me about 45 minutes to an hour to fall asleep, and right now I can't fall asleep until at least 1:30am. I'm lucky if I get 6 hours a night during the year, and I definitely need to get more sleep this school year. Do you think a doctor would prescribe me a low dose sleep medication like Lunesta? I'm taking paxil so I don't know if they're supposed to combine or not. I'm going to do more research on it. Thanks for any imput.

[Eliza Jane]

Originally Posted by Indie'sOK

Hi,
For awhile I've been having trouble getting to sleep at night. During the school year it takes me about 45 minutes to an hour to fall asleep, and right now I can't fall asleep until at least 1:30am. I'm lucky if I get 6 hours a night during the year, and I definitely need to get more sleep this school year. Do you think a doctor would prescribe me a low dose sleep medication like Lunesta? I'm taking paxil so I don't know if they're supposed to combine or not. I'm going to do more research on it. Thanks for any imput.

As far as I know, it is okay to take both together. I think doc's really vary about their willingness to give sleep meds, especially to younger patients. In my experience, pdoc's are a lot more likely to rx sleeping meds than GP's (although it may just be my experience).

However, perhaps it is premature to jump to a sleep med. Maybe some tweaking could be done with your other med so that you don't need a sleep med. For example, a different dose, taking it at a different time of day, switching to a different SSRI. Often if depression is well-controlled that takes care of sleep issues.

Your doc is also going to also want to know about how your sleep hygiene is (e.g. do you go to bed at a consistent time, is the room quiet and dark, etc.) Perhaps some improvements could me made there. I suggest googling "sleep hygiene" to see what tips you can get. Some may be common sense, but others you might not have thought of.

I wish you luck. It is not a fun problem to have. I've been there.

EJ

[Indie'sOK]

Thanks EJ. I take paxil for anxiety but it probably doesn't make a difference. If I were to get the recommended number of hours per night, I'd need to go to bed by 9:00pm. I want to get a job through the school year and my shift could end at that time. I'll find a way to make it work out though. Thanks again for your input!

[Ygrec23]

You might want to talk to your GP about a low dose of Amitriptyline, a very old, tried and true anti-depressant that dates from the sixties. One of its side effects for some people (like me) is a good night's sleep. It helps me sleep every night (50mg), and doesn't seem to lose its effect. Because it's been around so long, they know all about its side-effects and the rest of the downside. It's quite safe and doesn't have the short term effects that benzodiazepines like Lunesta do. (I.e., it doesn't fade out after a couple of months and you don't get addicted to it.) Take care.

[awakeanddreaming]

I have zopiclone (Canadian lunesta?) as an as needed medication. The thing about it is, I can only take it if I know I'm going to have enough time to sleep cause otherwise i will still be under it's effects when I wake up.

[Indie'sOK]

Thanks for the info. I'm sort of leary about taking a new anti-depressant, though, because I've been on paxil for a year and I'm having a lot of success with it. I'll ask pdoc about drug interactions when I go see him next month, but I don't know if he'll prescribe them. Everyone says to just exercise more during the day, but my mind and body get plenty of exercise during school hours and I still have a hard time falling asleep.

[netsavy006]

When I had sleep problems years ago, I use to take Lunesta 3mg. I was very lucky as I didn't have any side effects from the medication. Tried Ambien but I had hallucinations from the medicine.

I wish you luck with your sleep problems and with whatever med option you decide.

[Maxime]

None of the sleeps meds help me either. I use old anti-psychotics like Nozinan and Thorazine. You might look at trying one of them. They are not addictive the way some sleep meds are. Good luck. Sleep problems are not funny.

[Miss Laura]

Hey awakeanddreaming,

I too am on Zopliclone... as required too. I too can't take it unless I am off for 2 days in a row as I cant function at work with it. So I haven't took mines in ages and I need sleep.

[lorna]

Im on Zopliclone nightly. I find overtime doesn't work as many hours and I wake in the middle of night. It worked good for a long while and except for the bad taste I was fully awake in morning.

[Amazonmom]

Lunesta is terrific for me. I can take it the night before I work and I have no problems getting up. Ambien stunk for me, I had to take lots of ambien cr to get the right effect and then my mood was all weird.