Experience with Atarax for sleep

[dixon99]

Has anyone had any success taking Atarax for sleep short term? I've just stopped risperdal (low dose...I was on 0.125mg for the last few weeks). Most nights I take melatonin and valerian root to sleep. That works good for me. But last night I was up a lot (last night was the first night I stopped the risperdal). I have atarax and restoril also. I want to save the restoril for if I really need it. Last night I took Benadryl in the middle of the night and that worked mostly. I was thinking about taking melatonin and atarax tonight.

What dose of Atarax? I'm prescribed to take 25-50mg every 6 hours. I've only taken the stuff a couple times and never more than 25mg. It helps mildly with anxiety and makes me tired so I was thinking about taking 50mg tonight instead of the valerian root.

thanks!

 

[Mental Man]

For me I was prescribed Atarax 10mg, it did almost nothing for me at that dose and I had raised it to 30mg with some success. It helped me fall asleep, but it wasn't much of an improvement from before being prescribed it. In my opinion Atarax is not the best for sleep but at doses of around 50mg I imagine it may work in the short term.

 

[dixon99]

Would 50mg of Atarax be better for sleep than 50mg Benadryl? Is Atarax longer lasting than Benadryl?

 

[Mental Man]

In my experience Atarax was better for me than Benadryl at the same dose.

Based off some research, it seems as if the effects of Atarax peak sooner than Benadryl, but Benadryls total effect lasts longer than Atarax.

 

[dixon99]

by that research, it would seem benadryl would be better if you have trouble staying asleep. hmmm. thanks!

 

[Keif' Richards]

Hey Dixon! So, both Diphenhydramine (Benadryl) and Hyroxyzine (Atarax, Vistaril) are sedating antihistamines and function in near-identical ways. Why is Hyroxyzine a prescription medication and Diphenhydramine isn't, I'm not sure, but 99% certain that it is to capitalize on the whole "prescription strength" marketing tool. "This is a real-deal sleeping pill, look, you even have to have it prescribed". At least Hydroxyzine produces less incidence of Restless Legs Syndrome than Diphenhydramine does, so there is that.

If your insomnia is severe, there's no reason why you can't take all of these medications simultaneously. None are really addictive in a traditional sense (you might have some trouble getting to sleep without them later, but nothing severe). There shouldn't be much of a reason to intermix the antihistamines. I would recommend seeing which you prefer and going from there. You should be in no danger regardless.

I'm a former Heroin addict and I'm obviously familiar with potent drugs. I use Melatonin with Valerian in a single product at night and find it works great. I too will take an antihistamine if I have a lot of trouble, but being that I'm "semi-reformed", I try not to use anything stronger. Good luck and come back to us if you have questions!

 

[dixon99]

thanks man - i appreciate the information! Glad to hear none of these are dangerous. I figured only the restoril is a med I shouldnt use often - and I havent - Ive only taken it 4 or 5 times in the last 3 months. Ive mainly been using these products to help sleep while tapering off risperdal. So for about the last 4 or 5 months. I just stopped it on friday, i'm in the last hurdle. I tapered really slow so I havent had too much trouble with any withdrawal. Right now, I'm pretty much in night by night survival in a sense until my sleep gets back to normal coming off the medication.

 

[Keif' Richards]

thanks man - i appreciate the information! Glad to hear none of these are dangerous. I figured only the restoril is a med I shouldnt use often - and I havent - Ive only taken it 4 or 5 times in the last 3 months. Ive mainly been using these products to help sleep while tapering off risperdal. So for about the last 4 or 5 months. I just stopped it on friday, i'm in the last hurdle. I tapered really slow so I havent had too much trouble with any withdrawal. Right now, I'm pretty much in night by night survival in a sense until my sleep gets back to normal coming off the medication.

Shit man. I really need to apologize for the misinformation here. I'd just edit my post, but I wanna do the mea culpa thing this time I admittedly went over your post too quickly and missed the fact that you had Temazepam (Restoril) at your disposal. This is indeed addictive, as you know. Just for reference, Schiff makes this supplement that has among other stuff:

Melatonin
Valerian
Chamomille

I find it really works great. If you want to combine your Melatonin w/ herbs and an antihistamine, I think this is a good plan of attack. On nights that you are overly stressed or are just having issues, then you can use the Benzodiazepine. This is more or less how they were intended to be used.

Again, I really want to apologize for my post that in essence claimed Benzodiazepines to be non-addictive and safe to take every night. Sorry Guys!!! Don't do me like they did Robespierre.

 

[dixon99]

no apology necessary man! I understand you. I know benzos are addictive and restoril is a benzos, that's why I rarely take it. the majority of nights I take melatonin and valerian root only. on occasion, and for the last few nights I've taken benadryl as well...usually that's only twice a month or so. I take restoril once or twice a month at most.

no worries at all. I took a lot from yo7r response and reassurance that what I'm doing is safe and working most of the time. I'm just glad to he off rispersal...i never had sleep issues in my life before I was put on that.

 

[Rafayte]

You can take a dose of 100mg hydroxyzine. Here the brand name is Atarax and is in 10mg and 25mg tablets and too as syrup. I bought today a box of 50 tablets each with 25mg hydroxyzine OTC. The instructions let until 300mg daily which is three times of 100mg, so four tablets at once. I take doses of 100mg to 250mg and it is no very strong effects, is soft. I use hydroxyzine to reduce the use of benzodiacepines

 

[Deemgd]

200 mgs of ataraxs helps me go to sleep during amphetimine binges, so 50-100 mgs should put most normal people to sleep just fine. I get a kind of groggy hangover with it, but not everyone does, and I notice it a lot more in higher doses.