How many of you suffer insomnia? And...

[K'd-OUT-in-AZ]

before bedtime

Cyamemazine as much as i want (an anti psychotic which is also sedating)
loprazolam 1mg (hypnotic benzo)
Diazepam 30mg (sedating muscle relaxing benzo)
Meprobamae 1.2 grams (Sedating muscle relaxer, the main metabolite of carispodol (Soma))
Aceprometazine 30mg (sedating anti-histamine)
Buprenorphine, i sometimes tke a bit in the evening coz it helps chill (opiate)

I swear, your insomnia must be SEVERE!

 

[paranoid android]

1. I cant sleep at all naturally anymore
2. I take methotrimeprazine or seroquel with my risperdal to help me sleep.

Cannabis also helps alot.

 

[debaser]

1. I cant sleep at all naturally anymore

Ditto.

 

[<pyridinyl_30>]

Right now I'm on zyprexa and temazepam which work ok, but the best combination I have tried at the same time was zyprexa, temazepam, depakote, trazodone, and geodon, which is probably too many rx's at once imo. It was an expensive regimen to say the least.

If I take 60 or more milligrams of adderall per day (I'm only prescribed 30), then that generally overpowers the 20 mg of zyprexa and 30 mg of temazepam, sometimes until the wee hours of the morning.

 

[unsettled]

I've had insomnia my whole life but I think it'd be more accurate to describe it as "extreme night owlism" or something like that. My whole entire life I've always been the last person to go to sleep wherever I am.

I've read up on Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome and I even brought it up to my doctor and he agreed that it fit my situation.

Basically I can fall asleep, but I can't fall asleep before 4am ever, my natural sleep cycle is to sleep from 4 or 5am to noon or 1pm.

Even when I was a kid in elementary school i rarely fell asleep before 2am even though I had to wake up at 6 or 7am.

That being said I still take meds to fall asleep because I still have trouble falling asleep naturally. I was always given Benadryl by my parents when I was a kid, as a teenager it was always weed and benadryl, then eventually it was Ambien and Klonopin, that's what it is now too.

I've been on these meds for so long that I'm just used to taking them and can't fall asleep without them.

I definitely like to just stay up all night anyway, especially with opiates and dexedrine or something like that. But I can sleep regularly as long as it's consistently between 4am and noon, this is my natural sleeping rhythm and it always has been. Luckily I work at night and in the evenings, on days when I have to wake up in the mornings I don't get much sleep if any. If I had to work a normal job I'd be fucked, I've never been able to adjust to waking up early and going to sleep early.

My friends will always give me shit about this but I swear it's the truth, It's nearly impossible for me to fall asleep before 4am even if I haven't slept in days. I don't even bother to tell them about Displaced Sleep Phase Syndrome anymore because they just think I'm making it up.

So in a sense I'm an insomniac but I can sleep naturally when I don't have to wake up before noon. It does fuck with my life a bit though because at least once a week I'll have to get up early for something and I'm running on hardly any sleep for those days.

Also I've never had a problem sleeping during the days, it's natural for me, it's like I see the sun start to come through my window and my body just says "time for sleep". Other people always say they feel like they're missing something if they sleep during the day, not me though, but I work in nightclubs and live a night life so it's natural for me. "the nightlife ain't the good life, but it's my life".

 

[<pyridinyl_30>]

Once you become dependent on a sleep med to fall asleep--even benadryl--you are going to have a hard time falling asleep without one. But I don't guess that's necessarily a major problem as long as you've got more pills.

 

[slowpoke1967]

This is precisely what you need to tell the Psych, straight up.
If he/she neglects to take that into consideration then immediately request to see someone else.

Insomnia to the point when you are having hallucinations can be dangerous and does require help.

I wish you luck

i am posting here because all my life i sufferd with chronic insomnia.
It wasnt so bad going 5 days without sleep when i was young because well basically your more fit etc.
I always conciderd insomnia to meen no sleep at all for days.
If i did get sleep when i was younger it was only minutes at a time thenshit i gotta get up and go to work.
This went on for years ,not sleeping for up to the ussualy 5 days then id pass out from exaustion.
Till i got older and had a bad break up with my ex and went ten days without sleep and the side effects are terrible.
At 5 days yer body starts to hurt ,every muscle etc and yes the visual effects were always there after say about the third day.
I was saying that when i went ten days with no sleep and no eating ,very depressed couldnt work,so my cousin took me to emerg.
Where i finaly got help and was actually put in a jurnal the doc had since he had never herd of someone going without sleep for that long and had told me how dangerouse i had been living my life with the sleep deprivation.
All i did for those ten days was lie on the couch stairing at the ceiling wishing i would just have a heart attack already and die.
I couldnt take it anymore so even though i didnt want to go to the emerg. my cousin talked me into it.
The hospital shrink which became my regular shrink first gave me seroquel and i actually fell alseep i couldnt believe it.
I woke up and phoned my mother back home and told her about it and also said that since i had slept for about 7 hours that there was no way i was gonna sleep that night but sure enough after takeing the seroquel again i fell alseep once again.
Its now years later and i am perscribed clonazepams temazepams nozinans and seroquels for sleep and am haveing a hard time falling alseep again even at these high doses.
I dose myself provided i dont have an anxiety attack for which the clonazepams are for,so say i dont have an anxiety attack,i take 4 2mg clonazepams 2 30mg temazepams 20 5mg nozinans and ussualy 3 or 4 200mg seroquels.and still find it hard to sleep at times ,thus far i have taken the meds for a couple days now and still have not fallen alseep in 2 days ..
Though i am sure from passed experience i will fall asleep tonight..
so thats my story about insomnia.....
I say feel lucky you get any sleep at all at night,cause even on my pills i will generaly only sleep 3 to 4 hours a night on all these meds wakeing up plenty of time throughout the nite but being able to fall back to sleep ,then bam im up and thats it.
Next thing ya know im making spaggetti at 3 in the morning lol........

 

[K'd-OUT-in-AZ]

i am posting here because all my life i sufferd with chronic insomnia.
It wasnt so bad going 5 days without sleep when i was young because well basically your more fit etc.
I always conciderd insomnia to meen no sleep at all for days.
If i did get sleep when i was younger it was only minutes at a time thenshit i gotta get up and go to work.
This went on for years ,not sleeping for up to the ussualy 5 days then id pass out from exaustion.
Till i got older and had a bad break up with my ex and went ten days without sleep and the side effects are terrible.
At 5 days yer body starts to hurt ,every muscle etc and yes the visual effects were always there after say about the third day.
I was saying that when i went ten days with no sleep and no eating ,very depressed couldnt work,so my cousin took me to emerg.
Where i finaly got help and was actually put in a jurnal the doc had since he had never herd of someone going without sleep for that long and had told me how dangerouse i had been living my life with the sleep deprivation.
All i did for those ten days was lie on the couch stairing at the ceiling wishing i would just have a heart attack already and die.
I couldnt take it anymore so even though i didnt want to go to the emerg. my cousin talked me into it.
The hospital shrink which became my regular shrink first gave me seroquel and i actually fell alseep i couldnt believe it.
I woke up and phoned my mother back home and told her about it and also said that since i had slept for about 7 hours that there was no way i was gonna sleep that night but sure enough after takeing the seroquel again i fell alseep once again.
Its now years later and i am perscribed clonazepams temazepams nozinans and seroquels for sleep and am haveing a hard time falling alseep again even at these high doses.
I dose myself provided i dont have an anxiety attack for which the clonazepams are for,so say i dont have an anxiety attack,i take 4 2mg clonazepams 2 30mg temazepams 20 5mg nozinans and ussualy 3 or 4 200mg seroquels.and still find it hard to sleep at times ,thus far i have taken the meds for a couple days now and still have not fallen alseep in 2 days ..
Though i am sure from passed experience i will fall asleep tonight..
so thats my story about insomnia.....
I say feel lucky you get any sleep at all at night,cause even on my pills i will generaly only sleep 3 to 4 hours a night on all these meds wakeing up plenty of time throughout the nite but being able to fall back to sleep ,then bam im up and thats it.
Next thing ya know im making spaggetti at 3 in the morning lol........

10 days without sleep??? I couldn't even go that long when I was using methamphetamine. That's crazy.

Anybody else think that those who abuse drugs seem to suffer some sort of sleep problem other than those who don't abuse drugs?

 

[Lolie]

10 days without sleep??? I couldn't even go that long when I was using methamphetamine. That's crazy.

Anybody else think that those who abuse drugs seem to suffer some sort of sleep problem other than those who don't abuse drugs?

A lot of drugs are known to fuck up normal sleep patterns by changing what phases of sleep people experience and/or their duration. Separate to that you get the people whose drug abuse started as a result of insomnia treatment and who are now physically dependent on prescription sleep aids both to sleep and to avoid withdrawals.

And yeah, 10 days without sleeping is a pretty good reason to have a sleep study done. Chances are that there were microsleeps happening (sleep studies usually find that people are getting more sleep than they think but have no awareness of having slept). For many people it isn't the quantity of sleep which is the problem, it's the quality. Not getting enough REM sleep in particular seems to really fuck people up.

 

[K'd-OUT-in-AZ]

A lot of drugs are known to fuck up normal sleep patterns by changing what phases of sleep people experience and/or their duration. Separate to that you get the people whose drug abuse started as a result of insomnia treatment and who are now physically dependent on prescription sleep aids both to sleep and to avoid withdrawals.

Good answer

 

[torsade74]

Also ppl with chronic pain, psychiatric issues (largely depression) and substance abuse are prone to have sleeping problems, all three have an effect on each other. Alot of psychiatric help will focus on addressing these issue, sounds stupid but it is a very important part of our day/night. I just spent 32hrs awake, a pound of codeine, $400 dropped at a casino, a bunch of bad food and now a day of guilt which I will self medicate no doubt.

 

[Lolie]

Also ppl with chronic pain, psychiatric issues (largely depression) and substance abuse are prone to have sleeping problems, all three have an effect on each other. Alot of psychiatric help will focus on addressing these issue, sounds stupid but it is a very important part of our day/night. I just spent 32hrs awake, a pound of codeine, $400 dropped at a casino, a bunch of bad food and now a day of guilt which I will self medicate no doubt.

One of the early warning signs of hypomania for me is increasing sleep disturbance, and good sleep hygiene is one of the holy trifecta considered essential for managing any mental health disorder (good diet and exercise are the other two).

 

[K'd-OUT-in-AZ]

One of the early warning signs of hypomania for me is increasing sleep disturbance, and good sleep hygiene is one of the holy trifecta considered essential for managing any mental health disorder (good diet and exercise are the other two).

Thats what my psychiatrist always says...

 

[mgrady3]

If only 'good sleep hygiene' was simple and easy; k scratch that, I guess it is simple in theory yet in practicality it sometimes is just terribly hard.

things like keeping the same sleep schedule every day: that's just not practical for many people, myself included. I am a graduate student and am supported by my university as a TA currently, thus I abide by the schedule they have set for me for when I am teaching; two of the three class happen to be night classes, 7pm-10pm and 5pm-8pm. The day after the 10pm class I have to catch the 7:30am bus to campus for an 8am class.

So I simply can't keep a steady sleep schedule, not even considering the work I have to do outside of being a TA (I'm also a student)

one thing I've noticed is it seems like I tend to psych-myself out at night sometimes. I think too hard about trying to sleep and in doing so am actually preventing my mind from settling down and sleeping naturally. I'm constantly thinking, maybe I should take another klonopin, or maybe I'll take a small dose of trazadone or maybe just a bit of mirtazipine, or maybe etc... all the while not sleeping.

 

[Lolie]

^^^

The conventional wisdom is that it's extremely important to get up at the same time every morning - which few people want to do when they don't have to - even if your bed-time varies, but in my experience it does make a difference.

And yeah, the worrying about whether you're going to be able to fall asleep and checking the clock when you're having trouble falling asleep definitely doesn't help.

 

[rincewindrocks]

well, i have insomnia naturally, (both the "having a hard time getting to sleep" and the "hard time staying asleep", both made worse by chronic indigestion) but as for drugs?

well, there are some obvious ones. psychs/coke/amps/MDMA will all make my insomnia worse.

weed definitely made it better, but i dont smoke any more due to legal issues

alcohol helps, but it has to be the right amount. too little, and it gives me really fucked up dreams that actually make my insomnia worse cause i keep waking up to get out of them. too much liquid and ill have to get up and piss. too much too much and i wont be able to sleep cause i feel like puking...i pretty much have to be passing out drunk or just get so tired from drinking that it doesnt matter.

 

[mgrady3]

yeah alcohol has never really helped me; it makes me drowsy in the right dose/setting but I feel like the sleep that follows isn't good sleep at all and I still wake up feeling bad. I'm not talking about being drunk and waking up hungover, just alcohol seems to interfere with good natural sleep.

that said I still drink.

wish I weren't out of weed;
I'll see how this 'K2' stuff compares to weed in sedation terms tonight; anyone else tried this?

 

[Lolie]

yeah alcohol has never really helped me; it makes me drowsy in the right dose/setting but I feel like the sleep that follows isn't good sleep at all and I still wake up feeling bad. I'm not talking about being drunk and waking up hungover, just alcohol seems to interfere with good natural sleep.

that said I still drink.

wish I weren't out of weed;
I'll see how this 'K2' stuff compares to weed in sedation terms tonight; anyone else tried this?

Alcohol fucks with your REM sleep - you basically skip some of the sleep phases necessary for sleep to be refreshing.

 

[puckboy]

1. My insomnia is related to being able to fall asleep, once I'm asleep I'm ok. I'm pretty sure it's related to my anxiety and my brain not "shutting the fuck up" for lack of a better description.

2. I've had trouble getting to sleep since I was a little kid, so I don't think any recreational drug use has caused it, though most likely has exacerbated it. Pharmacuiticals have done the same, I'm scripted dexamphetamine and clonazepam (ADD, anxiety, depression).

3. There was a ~1.5 year period where I was scripted anti-psychotics to help me sleep. Zyprexa (olanzapine) initially but the side effects were too much for me. Then I tried Invega (paliperidone) and again the side effects outweighed any benefit. Finally I was scripted Seroquel (quetiapine) 300mg XR and Seroquel 200mg IR to use as needed for sleeping. I used the Seroquel every night for the last ~8 months of that ~1.5 year period (in high doses often, 400 - 600mg) and eventually I started feeling a bunch of weird/unpleasant side effects and decided I wanted to find another way to sleep than take anti-psychs when I never had a psychotic condition in the first place. So I stopped taking them daily, and only use them very rarely now and in doses of 50mg IR, no higher. Seroquel had some strange/shitty w/ds too, something the doctor never tells you, just like with SSRIs. "Don't worry they're not habit forming"

4. Other drugs I've used to help me sleep include drinking alcohol to the point of oblivion, various benzos, z-drugs (zolpidem and zopiclone), sedating antihistamines like promethazine and diphenhydramine etc etc.

But the best sleep aid for me personally is cannabis, especially when vaporized or consumed orally. Though smoking does the trick too, I just don't find it as sedating as the two other methods regardless of the strain.

edit: I find exercising (aerobic and anaerobic) with the idea to literally punish your body to the point of exhaustion can help too. And I mean really fucking punish your body, until you can't even stand up. A good balanced/varied diet is also important imo/e.

 

[mgrady3]

Sounds like we've all had similar experiences and some of us have reached the same conclusion:

There isn't one pharmaceutical drug marketed right now that helps enough with also having no ill side effects - so its take what you can get sort of situation;

Cannabis has helped many of us, yet its still illegal;

sleep hygiene - dieting, exercising, staying healthy, etc is the only natural way to help yourself.

Living in such close proximity to the border of Maine, its a serious consideration of mine to look into medical marijuana. But since I don't currently have a car it would add around 8 miles round trip onto my commute each day via bike. maybe that's a small price to pay.