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Looking for a good hypnotic

Holy_cow

Holy_cow

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Joined
Nov 29, 2007
Messages
171
I'm looking for a good hypnotic which is not a benzo and has low abuse potential, but should be potent to really put a restless soul to sleep.

Writing this at 5:13 am after having taken tons of zaleplon and still can't sleep.
 
Im in the same position. I cant take benzo's but need a good sleeping med. Trazodone seemed to work alright but gave me some bad side effects that you might not get. Im taking ambien now which seems to do the trick but my doc is gonna take me off of it soon.
 
You mean like something novel for future use or something you can find in your cabinet right now?
 
As little as 25mg knocks me out,but the next day is bad for all the sedation lingering into afternoon.I guess its the H1 antagonsim I dislike as same is with Remeron,unbearable.Well it probably depends if you wanna do anything productive the next day.

Some swear to their Seroquel though,its even said to be abused in jails.
 
hydroxyzine
trazodone
gabapentin
doxylamine
melatonin
valerian (tincture works best)
 
Remeron worked really well for me, and after a few days, it got a whole lot easier to deal with the next-day sedation others have mentioned. I mean, the first week sucked, but then it mellowed out, and I was in a really chill mood all day!
 
You could try gabapentin or pregabalin, they will probably have the least-severe next-day hangover effects. Any antihistamine/anticholinergic like doxylamine or hydroxyzine will leave you in a nasty, quasi-sedated stupor the next morning. Quetiapine is an antipsychotic, having the typically broad antidopaminergic, antiserotonergic and antihistaminergic effects--it will knock you the fuck out during the night, but also probably cause severe cognitive sequelae the next day.
 
mitrazapine, knocks you out, but givs me pretty oppressive dreams.
 
quentiapine...I find even 12.5mg makes me VERY sleepy and say, 75mg, I am stone cold out. I find it gives me no ill effects the day after.

hydroxazine is okay.

doxylamine is quite sedating as well.
promethazine also works very good imho.

I find a few smokes chases away the anticholenergic stupor in the morning, but that only works if your a smoker. (not advising anyone start smoking!...perhaps chewing a piece of nicotine gum to counter the anti Ach effects in the morn...?)

the above two, and any
 
Holy_cow said:
Something I can get right now from the Doc.

Meanwhile I did some research and Quetiapine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seroquel) seems interesting. Any experiences with it anyone?
Click to expand...


Every time I see someone considering Seroquel as an Option I feel a need to inform them from my experiences. I was prescribed Seroquel with a few other medications at one point in my life. The Seroquel was to sleep, it would knock me out alright. For at least 12 hours and even after that I had trouble waking up, and when I did wake up I'd still be heavily sedated. And on an even worse note, RLS is a side effect. It doesn't occur every time, but I'd say 20% of the times I took it I got RLS so bad it was torture. Up until the last time I took it, where It was so bad that I actually had to go to the hospital. Be very very careful if you do end up using this medication.
 
Chloralhydrate.

But just for occasional use, as it was proven to cause gastric problems upon prolonged use. Apart from this, there's nothing that comes closer to the "real" sleep like chloralhydrate (speaking about brain wave patterns and sleep phases).
I my country, it's still in use and doctors prescribe it upon request.

Murphy
 
Chloral Hydrate, as mentioned above, is a good option for TEMPORARY use. It is available as a liquid (called "Chloral Hydrate CIV") and also as a liquid-filled capsule with the brand-name "Somnote", which I believe comes in 500mg doses.

The stuff will knock you out silly, but you develop a tolerance INCREDIBLY fast. I have used it, and after a week and a half or two weeks, I stopped because I was afraid that the dose I was having to take was far too high (4+ grams). I started at 500mg/night.
 
Mirtazapine is an effective, non habit-forming sleep aid, however you do have to go through a week or two of day-time sleepiness/dysphoria. It is good for long term use.

What about chlorobutanol, it is very simple to make...
 
^i've been on mirtazapine for over a year and it STILL knocks me out at night.

but if I run out, i CANNOT sleep. regular antihistamines don't do shit because mirtazapine is such a powerful h1-antagonist. i usually have to combine 100mg of diphenhydramine with melatonin and valerian.
 
You are right, its efficacy in inducing sleep does not wane over time. I think this drug is under utilized for the purposes of insomnia, and is a better alternative to benzos/z-drugs. However, because women take sleep medications more often than men, it is not surprising that they would not particularly like a medication that can cause weight gain. My physician confirmed this notion.

Roughly 40 minutes after taking mirtazapine, I become very hungry, and I will generally eat something along the lines of 3 peaches/plums and a protein shake. Afterwards, I fall asleep very quickly.

I am down to 15mg from 60mg, as I would like to stop taking it entirely. I have been taking remeron for a number of years now (perhaps five?), and even at 15mg it still puts me sleep....
 
The Bromides were used to treat insomnia before the Barbiturates were found. I seriously doubt they have abuse potential. Cyproheptadine and Promethazine have been used successfully to treat insomnia. Clemastine is what I use when I can't sleep, it's an OTC anti-histamine that produces sedation, but lacks the flu-like symptoms of Diphenhydramine/Dimenhydrinate.
 
I've found doxylamine succinate doesn't quite work as well as diphenhydramine for me personally but also doesn't have the hangover effect of the latter, so I generally prefer it. But it is definitely classified as a hypnotic and considered a weaker antihistamine and stronger hypnotic/sedative than the latter.

I think it's more popular in europe but is still sold in the US as Unisom-2 (careful, some Unisom branded stuff is just diphenhydramine so read the labels). It's also found in NyQuil I think but you'll be getting a ton of other stuff with it there so probably not ideal if you need higher than average doses to sleep.

Interestingly it can also be used to treat severe morning sickness when combined with vitamin B6.
 
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