Misc sleep aid

Going bak to the doc today i have no sleep, tell a lie i got an hour, i got perscribed zolpidem they do nothing for me, what would would my options be now, btw NO ZOPICLONE.

Sedating anti-psychotics, Benzodiazepines (if your doctor trusts you/thinks its best), Sedating anti-histamines.

Anti-psychotics are quite nasty drugs. I used Seroquel for 3 years for sleep and it is the most effective sleep aid I've ever tried. But you will feel like someone's hit you with a brick in the face when taking it, it knocks you out. And the first weeks you will feel so unbelievably tired there are no words for it. You're like a walking zombie, and if you have work or school it will greatly impact your performance. My dose was 100 mg for sleep. For some 25 mg is enough. The good thing about quetiapine though is that you don't get any tolerance or addiction to it. It won't lose it's effect after time. I quit it cold turkey without any symptoms.

Benzos and z-drugs are good for short-term insomnia, but you get addicted to them very fast. And benzo addiction is one the worst addictions you can possibly imagine. You also build up tolerance to benzos and z-drugs fast, and they lose their effect unless you up the dose.

Have you thought about mirtazapine? It's very effective for sleep and is one of the safest sleep aids there is. There are virtually no dangerous interactions with any drug. It doesn't get you hooked (although you may experience some withdrawal symptoms, but just taper it down slowly) and you don't get a tolerance to it either. The only negative side is the first week you will feel sleepy and groggy as hell during daytime too, but it will go over after a week or so.

You can also add melatonin too, even if you use another sleep aid. It's the safest sleep aid there is. For some it doesn't help for falling asleep at all, but for me 3 mg was surprisingly effective. And even if it feels as if it doesn't help you get sleep, your sleep will be deeper and more natural with it. You'll feel more fresh when wakening up, but you have to find the right dose.

Are you suffering from temporary or long-term insomnia? For long term-insomnia forget benzos and z-drugs.

cyanoide is right, anti-psychotics are HELL, i know from experience (was put on risperidone for ocd, have experience using seroquel when i was in a hell of a spot of depression a year ago). all in all it feels like a horse tranquilizer, it will knock you out, but then you wake up and feel blank, depressed, and groggy.

for sleep? i recommend some cannabis if it's available LOL. but if you can't get that scripted then you might as well pick up something like flexeril or another sedating antidepressant.

As far as benzos go temazepam and lorazepam are good, so is triazolam, but more for induction rather than maintainence with the triazolam. I'd recommend one of those three.

I have had suffered insomnia for years and years. Trazodone worked well for me for a long time. Major addiction to benzos with severe withdrawal. I have taken seroquel for 4 years now and usually take 50 to 100 MG. It puts me to sleep every time and I for some reason don't feel groggy when I wake up and transition to wakeful state quickly. I even take 25 MG when I need a short nap! I don't know if a doc will RX seroquel as a first line treatment without trying some less powerful meds before going straight to the anti-psychotic. Good luck, sleep deprivation is the worst.

neutrophilis said:

Going bak to the doc today i have no sleep, tell a lie i got an hour, i got perscribed zolpidem they do nothing for me, what would would my options be now, btw NO ZOPICLONE.

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There are a few options.

Mirtazapine, as an anti-depressant, is often prescribed as a sleeping aid. Personally, it didn't really work very well - after the 2 weeks or so that I was told to wait for full effects to manifest, it still didn't guarantee me sleep, helping maybe half of the time.
Antipsychotics like quetiapine (eg. Seroquel) may be prescribed, but I would advise against those. Heavy-duty zombie pills which will dull your whole emotional sphere and numb your conscious being all day.

We all (should) know how dangerous and addictive benzos are, as well as being merely a short-term plaster for an underlying problem, but they're the ones I've found most success with as sleeping aids.

Temazepam was offered to me as soon as zolpidem and zopiclone were found uneffective, and it worked quite well for a while. Eventually I'd need to take about 60mg to fall asleep though (started at 20mg), so I had it switched to nitrazepam, where 5mg (supposedly equivalent to 10mg temazepam) would put me to sleep and leave me a small residual hangover the next day.

Benzos are highly addictive, but if you can identify and eliminate the underlying problems causing the insomnia within a month or two, they are a viable option. Temazepam was the best for me in terms of having a swift onset of action, good hypnotic properties, and a short enough duration to leave no residual hangover in the morning. Tolerance to its effects accumulated fairly rapidly though. Nitrazepam was a heavy-duty sedative which put me to sleep during the worst of my psychological issues, but it leaves you feeling a little heavy in the morning.

EDIT:

I might have missed out something fairly important - it's important to consider whether the insomnia involves a failure to fall asleep, or to remain asleep. Zopiclone and zolpidem are both, in my experience, only useful for falling asleep - after about an hour the hypnotic effects are no longer felt, and even if you have fallen asleep, it is possible to wake up within an hour or two. This also goes for triazolam and midazolam, which are very potent hypnotics, but very short in their duration, and will thus only help you fall asleep, not stay asleep.

Benzodiazepines with a more intermediate or long duration are more suitable for keeping a person asleep; among these are temazepam, nitrazepam, flunitrazepam, lorazepam, diazepam, oxazepam, and a whole lot of others depending on what country you live in - the repertoire of available benzodiazepines and their medical indications differ from country to country (for instance, lorazepam is prescribed as a hypnotic in many countries, but exclusively as an anxiolytic in Finland).

Have you tried Flexeril? Thats what I have to take to get any sleep. I dont know about other people though, but after 2 months if that, 1 pill no longer works as well. But it is worth the try if you just need it certain nights, like if you have to work or something. I wake up just fine in the morning.

One word. Phenibut!

Look it up.

Look up etizolam. You can get it fairly easily through the mail if you know where to look.

I was originally prescribed flexiril as a sleep aid, but didn't find it all that useful, except to give me dry mouth. Now I've been given Sonata. It works well enough to get me to sleep. According to my doctor, it is short acting enough so that I won't feel groggy in the morning. And thus far I haven't felt anything in the morning. I have also been able to take it only once and a while, on nights I can't sleep, and I'm still able to sleep normally on nights I don't take it.

This thread is full of great ideas! I would say to stay clear of any benzo or antipsyhotics until absolutely necessary. Zyprexa is something you want to stay clear of at all costs. Your safest bet would be sedating antihitamines such as promethazine or even good old diphendyramine. Trazadone might be helpful, although it tends to produce night terrors in my case.
Flexeril(cyclobenzaprine) is a great option. Very low abuse potential and pronounced sedative muscle relaxant effects. If you absolutely need a benzo Temazepam or Triazolam should do the trick.

Try avoiding medications for sleep as most will reduce the quality of sleep and have far reaching side effects. Try excercising vigorously regularly, that will help a lot. Hell, you can even go the spicy food route. The capsaicin will help release endorophins and cause a little euphoria and sedation. Plus there is nothing better than a good meal to help you relax. Keeping a healthy diet will also do wonders. Check out ZMA supps, they work pretty well in most cases.

I use Nitrazepam 5mg daily with no sedation effects at all its used for my anxiety and works very well i can funtion nicely, i guess thats the underlying issue to my insomia, falling alseep isnt the problem, staying asleep is, i know diazepam will help got appointment today at 3 ill see what geezer goes for but im requesting 10mg diazepam coz i know it works. Tried zolpidem and nytol so far with no luk, tried zopilone years ago (unperscribed) - never again!

Got perscribed 28 1mg Loprazolam, whos got the specs on these badboys, are they really good for sleep, do they take long to work, any educated advice appreciatted!

So like wut the fuk im on 5mg nitraz and 1mg lopraz a month now, is this normal ?

zyprexa

Clonazepam (addictive), trazadone (I've taken it a few times and liked it for sleep), benadryl, I currently use clonodine for anxiety and also for sleep. I like it and it is not addictive. It's a beta blocker (for high blood pressure). It basically slows you down, your heart rate, etc. I'd go through a doctor for whatever prescription sleep med your going to take, if any. Benadryl is over the counter. I've also used melatonin for sleep, another over the counter substance.

My thoughts exactly, speaking to a m8 yesterday he told alot of the over the ounter sleep aids are very good and work well, might go this route instead, i ate to many of them loprazolam last night, there not going to last me and its not sensible to get these every month. Had a good nights sleep though i must admit.

neutrophilis said:

Got perscribed 28 1mg Loprazolam, whos got the specs on these badboys, are they really good for sleep, do they take long to work, any educated advice appreciatted!

So like wut the fuk im on 5mg nitraz and 1mg lopraz a month now, is this normal ?

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Sure, being prescribed two benzos isn't unheard of. I take Xanax IR (up to 4mg) daily, and at night (up to 2mg) of Klonopin. Xanax I use primarily for panic attacks (I get them 5x day sometimes), the Klonopin is for sleep and general anxiety (bc of its long half-life). I vary the dosages, to try to prevent huge tolerance/dependence issues. Some days I don't take either. I've gone 3 days without any benzos. But I do need Xanax to stave off panic attacks, and Klonopin helps reduce the number of them.

For sleep, I use a rotating schedule, since I have tolerance issues with antihistamines (or any drug that works on histamine receptors, which includes Trazadone, Flexeril, Seroquel, Amitriptylene, Doxepin, etc.), and of course benzos lose effectiveness over time, in general, when taken daily.

Chloral Hydrate, 500mg for 7 days.
Hydroxyzine 25mg for 7 days
Klonopin 2mg for 7 days
Chloral Hydrate for 7 days
Repeat.

You've got some good advice here and it seems all the bases have been more or less covered. My own view would be that you should first see whether your dose of zolpidem is too low, and secondly consider sedating anti-psychotics or AD's.

There's a lot of talk around here about how seroquel (quetiapine) and zyprexa (olanzapine) are 'nasty' and 'extreme' (etc.) but I think this is really mostly bullshit. They are not in the usual sense addictive (like benzos) and they are generally way way way more effective for sleep than benzos. And this makes sense, given that benzos are 'minor' tranquilisers whereas anti-psychotics are 'major' tranquilisers.

You should add Doxylamine Succinate, an OTC, sedating anti-histamine, at 25-50mg, to your cocktail. It's the sedating ingredient in Nyquil, one dose of Nyquil has 12.5mg doxylamine in it.