I need a sleeping med that works.

I cant sleep. If i do get 3 or 4 hours every now and then im happy. If i doze im up and down every hour or 2. I cant take seroquel anymore due to diabetes. Ambien does nothing. Right now pdoc has me on trazadone and it doesnt help either. Any suggestions? Thanks

Hi I hear you on the sleeping problem. My doc put me on trazadone also, it took a while put has helped some, he had to raise it some, then I was put on Lamictal also, and it helped some. I would let your doc know.

First I have some questions ::
What is your sleeping schedule like? Do you have any regular sleeping routines?
How active are you during the day?

What are you taking for your depression and bipolar? How long have you been on them? Are they working well?

Seroquel, though not necessarily prescribed for sleep really puts me out. I sleep a good 8 hours per night. Without taking it I may only get a few hours in fragments.

If you're already active and have a regular sleeping schedule - try Melatonin. It's an OTC suppliment, and it has no side effects (save for drowziness, but that's why you're taking it so meh). Take it half an hour before bedtime.

Trazodone initially worked great, then worse and worse and finally stopped working altogether. Now I am on Temazepam, which works reasonably well, but I am afraid of the repeat experience, in other words that it would stop working.

Still haven't answered my questions...so I'll presume you never sleep at the same time each night and you have no routine...

First, get more active during the day. Even if it's simply going outside and walking for a while. Exerting yourself allows the body to produce more sleep chemicals on its own.

Second, get a sleeping routine down. Even if you don't sleep the same time each night, do the same things before you go to bed (shower, brush teeth, etc). Doing so will create a mental trigger to start your brain into shifting down for sleep.

If after a couple weeks this doesn't help, try adding Melatonin to the mix, half an hour before bed. It's natural (the body produces it to regulate when you feel the need to sleep), not habit forming, and it has no side effects save for drowziness and the chance of your body compensating for the spike in chemical levels (I'll get to that in a minute). When you add Melatonin to your sleep routine, it can teach the body to produce more Melatonin when the sleep triggers start (a la your nighttime routine).

After a couple weeks you may notice that the Melatonin is working less. Now is the time to raise your dosage, and start staggering when and how much you take. Doing so will keep your body from being able to predict when the spikes occur, thus preventing your body from either building a resistance to Melatonin, or simply producing less.

If the Melatonin doesn't work on its own, then you'll want to add a sleep aid. (( Avoid Ambien if you have any issues with hallucinations, as it will make them worse. )) This is something you'll need to discuss with your dr.

Wow. Just... how rude. If they didn't find time to reply, you really think you have the right to assume things about people???

It's mpt rude, it's covering everything from the ground up. Everthing I said in the past post can be used for anyone. Just start whereever on the list you don't already do that applies to.

Also, it's not that uncommon to not have a regular sleeping schedule. I presumed as such simply to show if you don't have anything set up in your routine all the different things you can do to help are.

What if a person has a bad schedule not as a cause but as a result from sleep issues? You don't help people stop having issues by telling them to quit having those issues.

Not that I have any clue what the OP is suffering from.

And no, not everyone finds what you said helpful. I for one, do not.

I take Trazadone, which doesn't help much. I also use Meletonin, but It doesn't help either. I wake up about every two hours. I wish I could get one good solid night of sleep. Sorry I'm not much help for you.

I don't have much trouble falling asleep, just staying asleep. There are a couple things I do. I imagine a white screen in front of me, and try to stay focused on that. If my mind starts to wander, I shift focus back to the white screen. I also avoid caffeine. I don't have caffeine after 4:00pm. I hope this helps.

Piraeus

Jimrat, I'm not saying "Don't have the schedule problem". I have the problem of no set schedule. What I'm saying is plan your nighttime routine around the schedule you have. Take your evening shower the same amount of time before you go to bed, and take the melatonin 30 min before bed, regardless of when bedtime happens to be.

Then what do you do when you don't fall asleep within the preferred frame of sleep? Do you just get up without sleeping after forcing yourself to like awake in bed for eight hours, hoping you can go safely through the next day with no sleep? And what if you still don't fall asleep when you should the next night?

And mind you, melatonin like everything else has risks. I'm totally forbidden taking it since it can actually kill me by putting my immune system in overdrive. So it's really important running things like these with a real doctor and not just treat yourself.

I'm sorry your immune system is a health factor. I figured since my children's pediatrician told me there are no side effects with it aside from drowziness, that the suppliment was fine.

If a person has an irregular sleeping pattern to start with, keeping an active diet, and a nightly routine that encourages calm restfulness will only encourage a healthy sleeping pattern. Also, a healthy diet will help with sleep too (limiting sugary and high in caffein items).

The root of the sleep irregularity should still be checked out, and if you're not sleeping for more than two days, insomnia should be looked into. Sometimes it's comorbid with a mental disorder (ie - Bipolar disorder or OCD).. In those cases getting the disorder under control can limit irregular sleep patterns. In more unidentifiable cases it may be necessary to go to a sleep research center to get to the cause of the sleep issues.

Sorry it has taken me so long to reply. Besides no sleeping pattern other i sleep when i can day or night. I going to run the melatonin by my doc. I do need to be more active during the day. I have been a lump since my divorce. I also think i am having menopausal issues. Thanks for all the replies!

Depression and inactivity can definitely mess up sleep patterns. Do what you can to get active, even if it's taking a walk at some point during the day. It helps the moods as well as the body

I used to have really insane insomnia to the point where I literally had to exaughst myself in order to sleep. I would pretty much skip and entire night of sleep, go to work for 10 to 12 hours (very physical job), come home thinking I would pass out since I slept 0 the night before but end up being awake again and only getting like 4 hours of sleep if that in a two day time period.

Seroquel pretty much forced sleep on me but I had to make sure I took it early enough that I didn't wake up to the alarm feeling groggy and out of it. I recently stopped taking Seroquel because the weight gain was really pissing me off and when I switched from day shift to the graveyard shift and cut down on caffiene I found myself doing nothing but sleeping and feeling tired all of the time. I also stopped taking my Lexapro.

So instead of not being able to sleep I have gone to other extreme of sleeping too much.... can't win, can we?

i take restoril. 30mg on nights i cant sleep at all (not every night so as not to build up a tolerance)

have you tried just regular old benadryl?

I take a very low dosage of xanax and a very low dosage of halcion. those are both seen as addictive, but at that dosage i dont think it causes a huge issue. i have been through several non addictive sleep meds, one popular here is propiomazine and many people like it. it just makes me woozy and horrible though. overall, antihistamines really knock me out, and you might think that is good, but waking up, all shaky and rotten, no fun...

for me, i accept the risk of addiction, since for me, benzos are mild and usually work. but were all different.

Benadryl will develop negative side effects, and eventually your body will require more to do the same thing. I'd recommend starting with the melatonin, and if you find that one dosage isn't quite enough, add a little benadryl to the mix to enhance the melatonin's effects.

Maybe I have a much milder issue with insomnia than others, but here are my experiences...

I've taken Ambien before, but wasn't a fan of it as it left me with a foggy head the next day.

Now I take Kalms which is an herbal sleep tablet. I have a friend who swears by valerian, but I've never taken just valerian.

For 'bad' nights, I have taken diphenhydramine (benadryl) before for sleep. I never needed the full 50mg dose tho, I only took 25mg.


I wonder how much the effectiveness of different sleep remedies is affected by the type of insomnia we have? e.g. I often can't sleep b/c I just don't feel sleepy and get restless. My husband has troubles sleeping when he is ruminating over something. (incidentally he is on nortryptalene for this)

@medkev13 - what kind of side effects develop after taking benadryl?

When you regulary use beadryl for a large period of time, you're putting yourself at risk statistically for suffering the more severe side effects (see http://www.drugs.com/pro/diphenhydramine.html for side effects). Prolonged use also simply creates a growing tolerance to the drug over time. You'll require more benadryl to get the same reaction you've been getting. Note that prolonged use is beyond simply using it on the bad nights. It's more like taking it regularly more than twice a week.

Tolerance doesn't happen with everyone. I don't even have that with benzo meds.

tolerance is a natural occurence. it just takes longer for some people. only you can know your own body, so just be aware of if it takes more to get the same effect

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