Serious sleep problems

Can anyone recommend a good sleeping med aside from benzos/tranqs which are addictive? I'm on trazodone now as well as clonazepam. I'm also on prozac. I've been on prozac for almost 10 mos now. I was on 20 mg for ~ eight mos, but felt increasingly depressed, so a dr increased it to 40 mgs & added 25 mgs of trazodone. The trazodone doesn't really help me sleep (neither does the clonazepam). Unless I take 100 mgs of trazodone (which I can't do b/c I cannot tolerate the brutal side effects such as a morning zombie-like hangover effect, significantly blurred vision [especially @ night, which is not safe] major water retention, constipation & breaking out in hives), I do not sleep.

Lately, I cannot fall asleep until ~ 3 or 4 a.m. I try to get up @ 8 a.m. & stay up, but I feel so extremely tired that, even w/ coffee, I cannot stay up -- end up falling asleep until 1, 2 or even 3 p.m. I can't live like this anymore. I'm the most miserable person to be around.

Please, please, please respond w/ your suggestions -- I am going totally crazy.

Thank you.

P.S. : I do try to do physical exercise daily to help my sleep, but that doesn't seem to help either. !@#$%^&*(*

Hey Des. Nice to see you.

I was taking trazodone too. Quit taking it cause it made my nightmares worse. I'm on a odd sleep schedule too. During the night hours i get no sleep whatsoever. i fall out around somewhere between 6-8 in the morning and sleep for abut 2 hours. Then later in the day i doze off for about an hour or two. I cant find anything to help me sleep. Pdoc thinks im takin the traz at 200mgs. but dont do what he says its suppose to do.. And it makes me zombiefied.

I hope you do find a way to get to sleep on a normal schedule. when you do pass it on.

Take care chick,
chalmette

Hey chalm. Nice to see you too.

Sorry to hear you're having the same probs sleeping. It really sucks, eh?

I have no idea.....I'm just trying my best to get up in the morning earlier & try to go to sleep earlier. It's brutally hard though. I feel like total **** & I'm extremely cranky b/c of the lack of sleep.

Hugs,
Des

I would rearrange when I took my meds and/or coffee/caffeine?

I hate that when the midday thing hits and messes with later sleep. My husband naps and I don't know how he does it (still gets to bed/sleep around midnight/1:00 and gets up 8:30ish). I don't get sleepy midday as much since I started thyroid medicine.

I found this? http://www.askdrsears.com/html/4/T042400.asp

Thanks Perna. Yes, I've tried rearranging meds & avoiding caffeine in aft & eve -- doesn't help.

I don't know how your husband naps & then falls alseep no prob. I have a gd friend like that -- she can literally fall asleep anywhere, anytime. I'm so jealous. :P

Taking calcium supplements... yes I know.. sounds funny.. but when I am able to do that... it aids sleep... taking the last supplement of the day about an hour before sleep... it does have a profound impact on me... falling and retaining sleep.. taking magnesium.. and Vit D... with the calcium... is what does it... you would have to goggle and see what the right mix is...

And I now take an ambien/trazadone mix.. so that I don't have to take as much trazadone.. the ambien quickly puts me to sleep.. the trazadone keeps me there..

Bendral... I take that also,, for sleep purposes...

Don't know how any of that would impact your other meds..

Have you ever tried light therapy? It's commonly used in more northern areas to compensate for the seasonal affective disorder. But it almost sounds like your bio-rhythms are all confused.

I got an LED light box from Costco... I think it is from the Apollo health company. I sit in front of it every morning at 9 a.m. I sleep better at night. I wake every morning between 7:30 and 8 a.m.... like clockwork.

I do have to add that I take Temazepam for insomnia (I take it to keep me asleep for at least 4 hours, because otherwise I never go through an entire sleep cycle). But the light therapy really does work for me, and it seems to help me feel sleepy at the right time.

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I was on a narctoic for sleep for a long time, it stopped working. Now I take nothing for sleep. I just sleep when I am tired no matter what time and i am up when i'm not tired no matter what time.

We have no kids, my wife works long hours etc. I've been disabled for going on 11 years from Lupus. So I just gave up on trying to sleep like a normal life. I even tried to use the alarm to get up in the AM. That worked for less than a week.

I don't drive or anything, so it's not like I can go any place. I have to find friends to take me to the doctors. So I just do my own schedule. I know that doesn't fit into everyones life and isn't a real good anwer for anyone, it's just what I do.

Vance

(for for any typos, I can't get the spell check to work for some reason on this post)

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