That is not the best or even a very bright habit to get into. Alcohol certainly caused dependence, and over time… Can lead to worse.
Well, if it is chronic, you should consult your MD. Yes, I know you already talked to him and got a 'script for Ambien, but this should be a major sit-down discussion. The question should be why you have chronic insomnia.
Now for occassional sleeplessness, yes, generic benadry is OK, and some dudes have luck with chamomile tea (I like Celestial Seasons “Tension Tamer”) and/or Melatonin.
Now, this is one thing that worked for one dude I know- his problem was that he couldn’t get to sleep as he always started worrying about shit as soon as the lights were off. His Doc gave him a very small dose (0.5MG) of Lorazepam, which is an anti-anxiety drug. Worked fine-* for him.*
Cut back on caffiene at least 4 hours befre bedtime. Read before bed. A glass of wine once in a while is OK, but not every nite.
This one may sound completely out of left field, but I was a chronic insomniac from childhood until about two years ago. (I still go through bouts, but nothing like before.) I tried everything everything from warm milk (occasionally effective) to OTK drugs (useless) to prescriptions (usually effective, but I hated relying on them).
In most cases, insomnia is a psychological disorder, and like any psychological disorder the way to attack it is at its root. In my case, I was able to track it all down to an irrational fear I had as a child: a fear of not being able to sleep. Brilliant, no? My fear of not sleeping was keeping me from sleeping! Once I realized this, I was able to deal with it using a few simple treatments for overcoming irrational fears, mostly involving acupuncture. What had been a serious PITA for 20+ years was all but gone in under a month, no drugs or repeat visits required.
I found melatonin at night, herbal relaxants during the day and a coolish, pitch black you-can’t-see-your-hand-in-front-of-your-face bedroom means I sleep for more than 2-4 hours. If I can’t fall asleep I’ll get up after about an hour and stay up watching boring tv or reading a heavyweight newspaper until I’m exhausted. The next day I’ll be tired but the emotional stress of trying to fall asleep is gone…
A couple I know switched to single beds (pushed together) with separate covers and this helped the woman’s sleeping enormously.
One thing I’ve heard you should avoid is alcohol, especially too soon before going to bed. One glass of wine might be OK, but if you have several within an hour or two before going to bed, it could cause problems for you.
I’ve taken melatonin, too, but I’m not at all sure it helps. For one thing, I’ve been told by a medical person that it can lead to the dreaded medical condition formally known as “man boobs”, at least at higher doses.
But a bigger issue for me is that I watched a science program years ago about it and therein learned that the timing of the dosage is critical, and that (the physician being interviewed said), the proper time for the dose varies hugely between different people. She asserted that each individual needed to customize their dosage schedule (but I don’t recall just how we’re expected to do that).
The first symptom of depression that I had in college was that I woke up every morning at 3:00. Any change in sleeping habits can be a symptom: insomnia, waking up in the middle of the night, sleeping all day, sleeping off and on all day. That doesn’t mean that if you have trouble sleeping that you are necessarily depressed.
Symptoms of Depression (Scroll down just a bit.)
I’ve taken trazadone for many years along with xanax. I have to be really ready to sleep when I take it. I can’t continue to eat or work on something important. My husband has found me sitting up with the lights still on and my hands stuck in a bag of cookies one too many times.
Surely if the insomniacs (and former insomniacs) in this thread are talking of taking prescription medication for years, that is also dependence? And maybe kept to moderation the side-effects of alcohol would be pretty minimal?
I have chronic insomnia but mine is a dropping-off problem. Once asleep I sleep through anything, including the alarm clock.
Here is my strategy, which works two ways. I go through the evening routine and go to bed. I tell myself that if I am not asleep in 30 minutes I will get up and do something useful, like cleaning the cats’ box or mopping the kitchen floor. (There is always something to do!) I make this something non-fun but necessary. Load of laundry, paying bills, reorganizing the bookcase. Has to be something quiet because other people are sleeping in my house. (No vacuuming!)
This usually works. How do I know? Because I’m not awake to check if it’s been 30 minutes. If it doesn’t, then–this is the important thing–I get up and do whatever I’ve promised myself to do. So that’s one thing off the list.
I don’t know if this strategy would help if it’s a waking-up-often thing, but it does seem to work.
(For about two years I read Remembrance of Things Past in bed. A page and a half at a time. That worked well, too, except finally I decided I’d better just read the damn book in my usual way, which is in one sitting, so I did.)
Possibly. But I never take Lunesta proactively, and I don’t always take the second, later dose I usually need either.
I do know that when I accidentally left my Lunesta home when I went on a business trip for three days, I didn’t sleep one minute of the entire trip.
I don’t find that a glass of milk (warm or not) helps me to fall asleep initially, but I do find it helps me get back to sleep if I wake up too early. This is especially true on days when my legs are a bit crampy.
This is also one area where alcohol is definitely not helpful, so if he drinks in the evenings, that might also be a factor.
No. Having sa single glass of wine isn’t a bad idea at all, but more than that causes sleep problems. Although you may fall asleep, the sleep you do get is restless and not effective.
I can second this although I have never taken Ambien regularly. I totally black out while taking it and can’t remember a thing. The affects have always worn off by the next morning so I never did anything out of the house I didn’t recall.
Insomnia is terrible. I go through it every once in a while for a couple of weeks and then my sleep patterns return to “normal”. It is usually caused by my RLS which wakes me up after a couple of hours sleep and won’t allow me to fall back into dreamland.
I wish I had advice. Ambien DOES work as long as you are safe and not alone. Lunesta and Sonata never had any effect. I tried Valum but all that did was make me feel nice while I was watching TV at 3am.
Someone mentioned sleeping on a floor mat and although I have never done that, I sometimes can fall asleep if I go on one of the sofas or switch beds. I have no idea why.
I’ve had insomina since I was in my early 20’s (i’m in my mid 30’s now). I normally have 2 kinds of insomina, not so bad and real bad. When I have it real bad nothing works. I take ambien and don’t even blink. I can go 3 or 4 days with zero sleep. So I don’t think any advice here is going to help people like me. But… When I have it not so bad an an ambien will work to put me off, one of the things I found works great is to just rub one off real quick. I know it’s a bit TMI but it normally helps me fall off when I just need that little push.
YMMV
(if there was ever a need for a pukey smile it’s now ;))
I’ll second that (the remedy,not the smile ref.)