Which sleeping drug can I try now?

[Impossibility]

I'm just wondering what else there is to try for my insomnia.

My pill of choice is the antihistamine phenergan (promethazine). 50mg knocks me out cold but within three nights I've build a tolerance. I read that the antihistamine doxylamine is stronger so I tried that and it side absolutely nothing. Maybe because I already built up an antihistamine tolerance. There was one other antihistamine I read about...Can't remember the name. The one they use in Nytol I think. I haven't tried it because apparently it's very weak compared to the other two.

I have diazepam on prescription but find it useless for sleep. I use it sometimes during the day for anxiety. I also have zopiclone on prescription but it's quite mild. It's okay but not great. Doctor won't give me anymore anyway.

Are there any obvious drugs to try for sleep that I'm missing?

Obviously I want to get to the bottom of my insomnia but it's mainly due to my mental health issues and I'm on SSRI number 3...just waiting to find one that will work! In the meantime I need sleep!!

 

[dus_aster]

Have you considered asking for zolpidem? Complaining about next-day lethargy from zopiclone would likely prompt your doctor to suggest zolpidem; it sounds like your doc is willing to work with you and would be open to you requesting it, though, so you might not have to bother.
Antihistamine tolerance builds fairly rapidly, ime- hydroxyzine might be worth looking into, regardless.
You likely won't find it particularly efficacious (considering you found zopiclone to be lacking in potency), but you could try powdered valerian root? A certain bulk supplement vendor (rhymes with Chowder Spitty) has a 5:1 powder that I found surprisingly useful (...and cheap).

Good luck with the SSRI! Coming up on the one year anniversary of starting citalopram, myself, and if you can find one that works for you it's a godsend.


ED if you're desperate and don't mind a plethora of potentially nasty side effects/overt next-day sedation, quetiapine/Seroquel @~50mg/night is another option. Not a particularly viable one, at that, if you're looking to take it every night, but not bad for use on catchup nights.
Tolerance can be marginally slowed by switching between classes of sleep aids, as well (H1 antagonist one night, GABA(a) agonist the next, et cetera)

ED2 +1 @ mirtazapine

 

[keeping]

there's also a low dose of hydroxyzine or mirtazipine if you don't want to touch the z-drugs yet, and i would recommend you don't.
less is more with those two by the way.

 

[Nicholai]

Have you tried chlorpheniramine? I know a few people who think it's good stuff for sleep. To me it feels disgusting and I won't take it but not everyone has the same experience with it.

 

[Ksa]

I like the dreams that I get on Nicotine. Amphetamine alone is not enough, I find it gives me a videocard so I can see things more clearly, but the weird and interesting aspect of exploration through the dream is actually given by nicotine. What I do is when I go take a leak at 2 am, I swallow 2mg and go back to sleep and I get stuff coming my way, like, I was on a spaceship approaching a brown planet, I fly through a desert town with huge broken sky scrapers, then I see some people on the ground waving at me, they looked armed, they were signaling me to land and come meet them. I figured, these guys just want my spaceship, that's why they want me to come out, so I turn around do a fly-by and when I come back I hit the fire button and some pink laser hits them and body parts splash on the cockpit, I see this skinned jaw with some teeth on it tongue cut in half coming out, sliding down and BAM I wake up. That shit was high definition, I don't know how the fuck the brain could come up with that. I'm not gona find anything more gore than that no matter how much I google it. Fuck.

 

[Felonious Monk]

I like diphenhydramine for sleep. Benadryl. Been through pretty much everything out there and when it comes down to it DPH balances out pros and cons the best for me. And cannabis of course.

 

[SS373dOH]

od >> bdd

 

[d1nach]

Wait you take amphetamine for sleeping???? When I fall asleep woth a bunch of tip I sleep well but it some weird dreams

 

[Solipsis]

I'd like to add that some people with ADD / ADHD indeed fall asleep better with certain stimulant meds, my psychiatrist described the phenomenon as "needing the focus or attention to fall asleep", more than the stimulation I guess. I take dexamphetamine but it definitely doesn't work like that for me afaik: I'm too sensitive to the stimulation.

 

[Impossibility]

I forgot to mention that my doctor suggested amitriptyline for long term use for insomnia. I held off to read a bit about it and I'm still unsure. Does anyone know much about it or has anyone had any experience with it?

Have you considered asking for zolpidem? Complaining about next-day lethargy from zopiclone would likely prompt your doctor to suggest zolpidem; it sounds like your doc is willing to work with you and would be open to you requesting it, though, so you might not have to bother.
Antihistamine tolerance builds fairly rapidly, ime- hydroxyzine might be worth looking into, regardless.
You likely won't find it particularly efficacious (considering you found zopiclone to be lacking in potency), but you could try powdered valerian root? A certain bulk supplement vendor (rhymes with Chowder Spitty) has a 5:1 powder that I found surprisingly useful (...and cheap).

Good luck with the SSRI! Coming up on the one year anniversary of starting citalopram, myself, and if you can find one that works for you it's a godsend.


ED if you're desperate and don't mind a plethora of potentially nasty side effects/overt next-day sedation, quetiapine/Seroquel @~50mg/night is another option. Not a particularly viable one, at that, if you're looking to take it every night, but not bad for use on catchup nights.
Tolerance can be marginally slowed by switching between classes of sleep aids, as well (H1 antagonist one night, GABA(a) agonist the next, et cetera)

ED2 +1 @ mirtazapine

Thanks for the suggestions. I've looked up hydroxyzine and it sounds good - I particularly like the sound of its anxiolytic properties. I'll have to see about trying it. Hopefully I won't be too tolerant seeing as it's how a first gen antihistamine.

Regarding seroquel, I have heard it is unbeatable for insomnia but I know it's also a mood stabiliser. Is it something you could take now and again?

Glad that you've had such a positive experience with citalopram. Hearing that SSRIs really work for some people gives me hope because it can be really hard trying them and nothing working. Currently on fluoxetine 40mg but it's doing nothing -_-

there's also a low dose of hydroxyzine or mirtazipine if you don't want to touch the z-drugs yet, and i would recommend you don't.
less is more with those two by the way.

Mirtazipine - noted. Why do you recommend to stay away from z-drugs?

Have you tried chlorpheniramine? I know a few people who think it's good stuff for sleep. To me it feels disgusting and I won't take it but not everyone has the same experience with it.

I've not tried that, no. Out of curiosity why did it feel disgusting to you?

I like diphenhydramine for sleep. Benadryl. Been through pretty much everything out there and when it comes down to it DPH balances out pros and cons the best for me. And cannabis of course.

Ah yeah that's the name of the one I couldn't remember in my original post. The one I'd heard was the weakest. If you've tried everything and it works for you it might be worth me trying. It's so easy to get too.

I'd like to add that some people with ADD / ADHD indeed fall asleep better with certain stimulant meds, my psychiatrist described the phenomenon as "needing the focus or attention to fall asleep", more than the stimulation I guess. I take dexamphetamine but it definitely doesn't work like that for me afaik: I'm too sensitive to the stimulation.

I don't have ADD/ADHD tendencies. My problems are with anxiety and depression. But that makes sense yeah.

 

[Keif' Richards]

Clonidine is a possibility. It's my sleeping drug of choice, as it balances efficacy with the absence of potential for addiction and dependence pretty nicely. This means you can really use it for however long you want without any serious ill consequences. You will deal with some rebound hypertension if you just stop abruptly, but seeing as how it's not a controlled substance, there's really no good reason for anyone to just cut you off from it.

Mirtazapine (Remeron) is another pretty effective sleep-aid. It's an antidepressant actually, like some other sleep aids. It's not habit forming and can be quit with similar ease to SSRI's. Generally, only a low dose is required for hypnosis. I can say from experience that this is true. The reason I stopped using Mirtazapine was that it gave me a voracious appetite. I'm talking eating a full dinner (800cal), followed by a couple 100 cal granola bars, an hour later, a giant bowl of frosted flakes with maple syrup on top with sliced bananas and cinnamon in the mix (~600cal). That was just a "typical" night. I'm a thin guy, I'm 5'10 and weigh 155ish, but Mirtazapine brought me up to 180 in about 1.5 months. This side-effect isn't universal though. Your experience may vary.

I would maybe investigate these two. If they don't work, you're more than welcome to investigate some of the more potentially habit-forming options. A lot of the Z-Drugs like Zolpidem (Ambien) and Zopiclone (Immovane) are very similar. Just don't expect a drastically different experience from one to another.

 

[d1nach]

Hmmm interesting I take 5 benadyrl in the morning to wakeup (3 then 2 at +4 hours). It makes me hyper. But, I have adhd so that may be why because I take it and it makes me hyper and do all my cleaning and running around organizing. Then by 8 hours the amphetamine nicotine and caffeine kicked in and I do stuff where I sit still and need to focus.

But then again I also took xanax ambien and lunesta in the daytime without sedation so maybe im just weird. When I tried taking them for sleep id just get really hyper and stupid.

Anyway be careful at one point I told myself I was only going to takd 0.5 mg once a day. Addictions can happen slowly so slowly I couldnt even tell till years lated I was worried about having a seizure trying to detox wondering how the f I got here from 0.125 as needed

 

[d1nach]

Do doctors prescribe clonidine for sleep though? also, if it works like guanfacine by the alpha adrenic receptors wont low doses bind to th err presynaptic autoreceptors and increase noradrenaline in the prefrontal cortex increasing alertness?