Trazodone for sleep

Has anyone used trazodone? I'm using Ambien right now, my doctor is recommending to switch low does of trazodone for insomnia, as Ambien is not designed for long-term use. He told me it would make me drowsy during day, but it's usually the all side effect patients suffer. I understand it's old type of antidepressant, so I'm not sure how it would help my insomnia.

Hello ABC1357: Yes I used Trazadone for sleep quite a few years ago now. The antidepressants I was taking at the time kept me awake. I don't know as I was on it for very long at any one time. (I had a tendency to go on & off med's pretty quickly.) But as I recall, it worked pretty well for me while I was using it.

Worked well at first then gave me terrible leg cramps

Didn't do anything in me. The last time I took it, I was awake a full 12hrs after taking it, having not slept at all the night before.

It did put me to sleep, but the sleep did not refresh me at all, if that makes sense. Maybe its more like, I didn't sleep, I just wasn't awake.

I actually like Trazadone. The only thing about this drug for me and the reason I stopped it is because I had to keep raising the dose in order to get the same effect (Put me to sleep). However, I did notice a significant improvement in my moods. But, for me it wasn't worth continuing the medication because it did give me a weird frog in my throat that I was willing to put up with when it knocked me out for sleep...but I'm not willing to take it and just have the froggy throat feeling and not the benefit of sleep.

I was prescribed it as well for sleep when a Dr. was trying to remove 2 of my Lorazepam that I used for sleep. They want to remove the Ambien because it is a controlled substance it is bullsh*t that it is because it is not intended for long term use (which it probably isn't) but many people I know have been using it since it came out.

And as someone who worked in the Pharmaceutical industry (approving product for release, validation and research of clinical studies)....and studied Nursing...the reason they say no long term use is because a person could become tolerant...take too much and sedate themselves to the point of having a dangerous reaction...respiratory failure...

But, if you have been taking a steady dose and not increasing it and your still able to sleep...the only reason the Dr is taking you OFF it is because these Drs are under very strict guidelines for issuing controlled substances and are afraid of losing their careers..due to 1 person overdosing.

So the mindset now..get all the patients we can off any controlled substance and feed them some bullsh*t line of why they should be trying another drug - My opinion.

My Dr. is recommending to change, as 1) Ambien does not help me stay asleep, 2) he directed I shouldn't take it everyday, I'm following the direction, but that means I can only sleep 4-5 nights/week. So the Dr. thinks I need something I can take everyday.

Reading what you all says, I would try it.

Yes, so because it isn't helping you stay asleep anymore...than you are becoming tolerant to it I would assume.

Good luck with Trazadone...I am also going to talk to my new Dr. about it again...cause like I said...I liked it...and I typically can't fall asleep without benzos....I just don't know why I developed a tolerance so fast to it...like in a week I raised it 2x...weird.

I tried Trazadone and it didn't work for me. I'm now on Lunesta.

I take trazadone and it works well for me.
Knocks me out pretty fast, with out it I hardly sleep.

does Lunesta work for you?
It never worked for me.

does Lunesta work for you? It never worked for me

Trazadone helps me fall asleep but not stay asleep.

I've been taking Trazodone for years. It radically improved my life since my sleep had been severely impaired for years. I do need a fairly large dose--300mg--but it gets me to sleep and keeps me asleep on all but my very worst nights.

I've been taking trazodone off and on for the last 10 years. It helps for a while then I become immune to it no matter the dose.

My current med cocktail is 200 mg seroquel, 200mg trazodone and 10mg ambien. Should knock me on my butt, it doesn't though 3 months after I started them

My H takes Traz and thinks it helps. He has not had to increase the dose

Yep. I don't know what else to add to this. I'm lucky enough to have a doc who is liberal with benzos. I had a client come in about a year ago and she'd been taking the same small dose of klonopin for 25 years and her provider through our facility yanked her off of it with nothing. Gave her trazodone instead. She was livid, and when I found out, I was, too. I approached the doctor myself (since pt already had, obviously) and reminded her that 25 years without upping the dose is low risk, that klonopin is lower risk than ativan (for abuse, temporary ativan was her suggestion), and that she could've had a SEIZURE or worse being pulled off that drug that way. I told her if my doc ever did that, I'd sue for malpractice. I was respectful, of course, as this is someone I still work with. She asked me why I knew so much about psychopharmacology and medicine in general. I told her I was pre-med for four years, pre-nursing for two, had been a CNA for five, and a patient forever, and I've always done my research. She encouraged me to go back to pre-med or go for an ARNP program. PT immediately got her klonopin back, and that doctor has been super nice to me ever since. I was talking to someone at work about it recently because I wondered why she's always been so nice to me, because usually doctors aren't when you question their judgement. They said, "she appreciates people who save her ***, and that's exactly what you did".

I personally used Trazadone and couldn't stomach it for more than 2 days. I woke up with horrible morning sickness. As a girl that's scary. Also, I felt hungover and dead tired all day. But it was the medicine.

I'm on doxepin right now. Old antidepressant as well. It actually doubles up as my allergy medicine. It blocks histamine receptors on the skin, and I frequently breakout in hives. I only take it when I have bad allergies or when I start to go days without sleeping well. I try not to take it all the time because personally I don't want to become dependent.

Anyways if it works for you hooray! I wasn't a fan.

Ugh... that's terrible! I'm sorry you went through that. Trazodone works wonders for some, others not so much...
I'm glad you found something that works. I have some hydroxizine that I occasionally throw in with the benzos if I really can't sleep... it's intended to knock people out before surgery, but had no effect on me without the benzos... except allergy relief, like you were saying.

Didn't help me.

My husband who does not have a MI uses it just for sleep.

I agree with the doctor with the idea that Ambien isn't for long-term use. Yes- correct. Very true indeed.
BUT
Where I don't agree (it may be my opinion) is with the idea that one should just deal with a side effect like drowsiness which, all in all, makes one feel like crap. Nobody wants to drag themselves around like a zombie. I was on Zyprexa (a different class of medication, but the principle still applies) and was expected to just deal with it. I said that I wouldn't take it, so we changed.

If it works for you without causing you to be crazy drowsy in the day, keep going with it.
yes, it is an old-ish antidepressant which is known to have a sedating effect.

A warning about Trazadone: is affected my memory significantly (lapse, forgetting and blackouts).