Fussbucket
Greenlighter
Hello!
I'm a long-time lurker who just registered for an account yesterday. A couple of months ago I started dealing with pretty bad insomnia. I'm a late-30s male who's NEVER been a good sleeper, but this summer I started dealing with the worst insomnia ever. I normally go to bed at 10 PM and get up at 6 PM, but I started to wake up around 11:30 PM and then would be up off an on for the rest of the night. My mom was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year, and that's almost certainly contributing to all of this.
For years I had been taking melatonin (3 mg, then more recently 5 mg), and that wasn't really helping anymore. Benadryl, Unisom, etc., all helped a bit with getting me to sleep (which isn't really a problem for me), but did nothing to help me stay asleep. And, they left me feeling like crap in the morning. Useless for me, basically.
In late July I talked to my primary doc about the problem, and over the past two months he has tried:
- Temazepam (15 mg, but usually taking 2 per night)
- Ambien (10 mg)
- Lunesta (3 mg)
The temazepam, in hindsight, actually worked pretty well. But, I judged it pretty harshly at the time since I was expecting a miracle cure, and it was far from that. It was more like the difference between sleeping 3-4 hours and sleeping 6-7 hours per night. And, I have read all about benzos and how quickly one can build up a huge tolerance. Ambien, as many said would happen, only helped me sleep for 3-4 hours, and then I'd be wide awake. Lunesta is billed as the "helps you sleep all night" drug, but I was still waking up after 5 or so hours. And, Lunesta (even the generic I was taking, with insurance) is VERY expensive. If it worked, I'd probably pay the price, but it doesn't work any better than temaz for me.
I also, for the first time in my life, started going to a psychiatrist. Since August he has tried:
- Trazodone (50 mg)
- Doxepin (50 mg)
- Mirtazapine (15 mg)
I hated -- HATED -- the trazodone. Within 20 minutes it made me feel really drugged out, but I was not falling asleep! I also could feel my heart beating and was very unhappy. I literally tossed them in the trash. More recently, doxepin and mirtazapine (not taken on the same day) have sort of worked... Again, not miracle cures, but when I take them along with melatonin, I seem to do better than average. But, I feel like I'm still slightly affected the next day, plus I'm wondering about their effects on my blood pressure, which is already a bit higher than it should be.
I also have tried some klonopin that a friend gave to me. Again, sort of worked, but not a miracle cure. And, I know it's a benzo... tolerance... be careful.... etc.
So, I'm still searching. As I started to do my own research on medicines online, I kept ending up at bluelight.org, and learned a ton from reading the discussion threads on here, so I finally decided to create an account. I look forward to learning more on here!
I'm a long-time lurker who just registered for an account yesterday. A couple of months ago I started dealing with pretty bad insomnia. I'm a late-30s male who's NEVER been a good sleeper, but this summer I started dealing with the worst insomnia ever. I normally go to bed at 10 PM and get up at 6 PM, but I started to wake up around 11:30 PM and then would be up off an on for the rest of the night. My mom was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year, and that's almost certainly contributing to all of this.
For years I had been taking melatonin (3 mg, then more recently 5 mg), and that wasn't really helping anymore. Benadryl, Unisom, etc., all helped a bit with getting me to sleep (which isn't really a problem for me), but did nothing to help me stay asleep. And, they left me feeling like crap in the morning. Useless for me, basically.
In late July I talked to my primary doc about the problem, and over the past two months he has tried:
- Temazepam (15 mg, but usually taking 2 per night)
- Ambien (10 mg)
- Lunesta (3 mg)
The temazepam, in hindsight, actually worked pretty well. But, I judged it pretty harshly at the time since I was expecting a miracle cure, and it was far from that. It was more like the difference between sleeping 3-4 hours and sleeping 6-7 hours per night. And, I have read all about benzos and how quickly one can build up a huge tolerance. Ambien, as many said would happen, only helped me sleep for 3-4 hours, and then I'd be wide awake. Lunesta is billed as the "helps you sleep all night" drug, but I was still waking up after 5 or so hours. And, Lunesta (even the generic I was taking, with insurance) is VERY expensive. If it worked, I'd probably pay the price, but it doesn't work any better than temaz for me.
I also, for the first time in my life, started going to a psychiatrist. Since August he has tried:
- Trazodone (50 mg)
- Doxepin (50 mg)
- Mirtazapine (15 mg)
I hated -- HATED -- the trazodone. Within 20 minutes it made me feel really drugged out, but I was not falling asleep! I also could feel my heart beating and was very unhappy. I literally tossed them in the trash. More recently, doxepin and mirtazapine (not taken on the same day) have sort of worked... Again, not miracle cures, but when I take them along with melatonin, I seem to do better than average. But, I feel like I'm still slightly affected the next day, plus I'm wondering about their effects on my blood pressure, which is already a bit higher than it should be.
I also have tried some klonopin that a friend gave to me. Again, sort of worked, but not a miracle cure. And, I know it's a benzo... tolerance... be careful.... etc.
So, I'm still searching. As I started to do my own research on medicines online, I kept ending up at bluelight.org, and learned a ton from reading the discussion threads on here, so I finally decided to create an account. I look forward to learning more on here!
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