Blah... I decided to stop taking zopiclone (Imovane) for sleeping two weeks ago, which my dose was up to 15mg a night (2 blue pills) and lorazepam 2mg a day (don't even know why I asked the doc for this months ago), this has led to two weeks of poor sleep and little/no running.
The first week was tough, moderate withdrawal, very little - read no - real sleep. 2nd week is going ok, but my heart rate is weird. My normal resting heart rate is 40bpm, now even at night it's 70bpmn or so. This must be withdrawal symptoms, and it pisses me off that I've lost two weeks of training because of it. I have clonidine to help ease blood pressure but I still feel like I would be risking my health by running what my schedule calls for - 32km!
I think I'll give myself another 5 days or so to even out before I push myself running again. Anybody know the dangers of running while in mild withdrawal? It certainly would seem that I would be running at higher heart rates than normal.
I just can't see taking such medications and being a marathon runner as being compatible in the long run. I've used zopiclone for wow, close to 2.5 years, with great effective sleep. It is amazing when I compare the injuries I had before I started zopiclone, which were many - and then compare it to after I starting getting good sleep with zopiclone - zero injuries. Even now - 2 weeks after a 28km run - my legs still have not healed as fast as they would have when taking sleep medication.