Remeron or Trazadone for insomnia?

[allecw]

I have been dealing with waking up constantly through the night for a while now.

I have been dealing with depression and anxiety for a while also. I wake up with anxiety.

The only meds I currently take are Subutex and 1mg klonopin twice a day. I would rather save the klonopin for day time anxiety.

I would prefer another .5mg klonopin for sleep but the doc first gave me trazadone and then remeron. I haven't even filled either script.

I just want a good nights sleep and no hangover or lasting effects from the med I take.

I have tried every non medicine method I can think of. Years before I ever started taking medicine I would always sleep perfect. It seems now I need a pill for everything! I hate it! I wish I would of never taken one pill my whole damn life!

Well anyways will either of these meds work? Or maybe an otc drug that could work I haven't tried?

Both of these drugs seem to be antidepressants and I am about to start taking Citalopram soon(I hope). Is Citalopram ever prescribed for insomnia?

 

[NeighborhoodThreat]

I don't have any experience with Remeron, but trazodone does work for some people. I've heard it's got some nasty side effects, however.

I can't take it because one of its metabolites, mCPP, causes migraine headaches...

I would see which one works best for you, like most sleeping medication, its hard to really tell.

I've never heard of citalopram being prescribed for insomnia.

 

[Escapedysphoria]

I was just recently prescribed remeron for insomnia in place of temazepam (bummer). I'm gonna give it a try tonight to get to sleep and I'll see how it works out. After reading up about it I'm not too stoked on it. Anything with 'anti-depressant' qualities I tend to hate because of my exprience with SSRI's and SNRI's. I also have a feeling it's going to leave me drowsy in the mornings before work.

 

[Psychedelic Jay]

If you wake up with anxiety, then you don't want to be on trazadone.

You morning anxiety could be worse than it actually is by the mCPP in your bloodstream from the trazadone. I think you might see a difference if you switch to a trycylic anti depressant or some other sedating antihistamine. (Not anti-psychotics)

 

[mgrady3]

I have used both Remeron and Trazadone for insomnia:

I found the both worked mediocre. They were often unpredictable. Definitely start with low dosages 50mg trazadone, 7.5mg remeron.

Remeron is funny in that at a point higher dosages start to counteract the sedation. so generally dosages for insomnia are 7.5mg - 30 or maybe 45mg. anything higher than that i overkill and you actually start to get stimulation rather than anti-histamine induced sedation.

Both Trazadone and Remeron can leave you feeling like a truck hit you in the morning. Its something you sort of get used to and it doesn't always happen. I recommend (as with any sedatives, but maybe its just me) trying to make sure you are nice and hydrated at the end of the night when you take the meds. I feel like if you wake up the next morning and you are still feeling the sedation on top of being dehydrated then you will likely feel like crap in the morning and find it hard to wake up and start your day to day.

You may wake up and feel a strong urge to simply glide back to sleep, so set an Alarm! put your alarm/phone/etc next to a lamp so you can turn on a bright light asap and try to resist the urge to just go back to sleep.

These drugs can both give you a good night's sleep, as you are asking for, but any type of sedative comes with the possibility for morning hangover effects... so just be prepared to deal with it.

As mentioned above, Trazadone has m-CPP as one of its major metabolites. There's some contradictory research on whether this is actually a problem or not. I think its really dosage dependent. If you are taking higher dosages to get to sleep, 150mg + of Trazadone, then the levels of m-cpp may become a problem. They cause headaches and have been associated with the morning after effects from Trazadone.

Remeron can cause some pretty wacky dreams. Do your best to make sure you are really prepared for sleep before taking it. Don't fight the sedation just try and sleep (I know this isn't always the easiest thing, but I'm speaking from experience)

Both meds have anti-depressant qualities but in lower dosages they act mainly as sedatives which is why they are often Rx'd for sleep issues.

Its hard for me to say which one is better; I tried both and had mixed results; both have bad qualities and helped the sleep issues about the same amount...
I'd probably suggest the Remeron, but trazadone would probably work if you keep the dosage low ~ 50mg then I think the mcpp is not a major problem but eventually you'd have to increase the dosage to try the remeron first. Start with the lowest dosage (15mg bar broken in half) so 7.5mg. The one's I got were scored specifically for this purpose so they could be split into 7.5mg dosages.

hope this helps some