Insomniac

I honestly don’t want to be insulting, but text doesn’t convey tone well, so you do know that sleep “hygiene” is a matter of practices and habits, not cleanliness or something? Regardless, a spouse with a night job isn’t going to only last a week or two, so medicating to get to sleep for that reason is kind of crazy. If you want a drastic solution sleep in two diff bedrooms most nights. You don’t take sleeping pills so you can be passed out next to them when they finaly get to bed. Hmmm maybe that sounds judgemental but I am honestly just thinking how much real damage youd be doing to yourself with a drug approach to that sleep problem.

That is insulting. Of course I know what he meant by “hygiene”. Duh. I don’t live with a spouse, and we’re in separate rooms on opposite ends of the house, but they walk around at night and make noises, as already stated. And I’m not doing damage to myself, because as already stated, the necessity arises SOMETIMES. You need to read posts more carefully.

Put on a white noise generator of some sort in your room. Maybe relax a little too. I was serious when I said no insult intended.

(Pssst…insomnia causes irritability and difficulty thinking straight and interpreting other people’s words, even in a better communication medium than message boards. Seriously. “Maybe relax a little,” is insulting and not helpful. If anything, it makes people more tense.)

That being said, some people have good results from taking up yoga or meditation - although you have to play with the timing and form. Some forms of yoga and meditation make some people more energetic immediately after. That’s not the kind you want to be doing before bed, but it might help in the morning.

He/she doesn’t have insomnia. OCCASIONALLY the other person in the house keeps them up. But yeah could still be irritable dt lack of sleep.

My Dr gave me a script for 5 mg of Lorazipam. It works well, is a very low dose, not expensive, and has been safely used for decades. No hang over and you’re not so zonked that you won’t wake up should the smoke detector sound etc.

But I always try this trick before I use that, and it works about half the time. When you get into bed do NOT lie in your preferred sleep position, choose another. So I usually sleep on my side, so when I’m doing this I force myself to lie on my back! The second thing is to throw off all the covers except the sheet.

Then you lie in your less comfortable position, with just the sheet on until you are quite chill. When it’s too chill, and you can’t stand it another minute, you roll into your favoured sleep position, AND pull up the covers. The combination of getting warmed and being in your chosen sleep posture is often enough to send me to sleep. Give it a try, no meds required!

Good Luck !

I’ve had good luck with Sonata (Zaleplon) which wears off after 4-5 hours, so no morning hangover as long as you don’t take it too late at night. (At least, that’s what it’s advertised as doing, and it’s true in my case.) It’s a prescription drug.

I took ambien for ages. It didn’t put me to sleep but if I fell asleep it kept me there and made it hard to wake up. So I’m auditioning other pills atm, which sucks, but what can you do. I’m taking amiltryptaline right now. That puts me to sleep and I feel more alert during the day but it’s also been murder on my blood pressure. Next I’m going to try trazadone. I might just end up going back to the ambien. I haven’t slept a full night in a month.

Trazedone works great for me - no hangover.

I’ve used variations on the technique mentioned by elbows and it often can help, seems to trigger that “Aaaahh, nice’n’comfy, time for sleepy!” mode in your brain.

Sometimes.

Caffeine. Avoid it after 3 pm.

Before you start with drugs, take a look at your caffeine habits. You may not think that Coke with your dinner or cup of tea afterwards is affecting you because you don’t feel particularly wakeful, but it may be affecting you enough to keep you from falling asleep.

What? :confused: Why? I can’t imagine why that would be humiliating. Isn’t that exactly the sort of thing that doctors are FOR?

I’ll let you know exactly what MD’s are for after my (scheduled at 13:30) appt at 16:00.

I get serious pain meds every month (they can’t be written for more than one month (or at least that is my understanding). These must be picked up in person and delivered to the pharmacy in person.
This is the MD who cut me from 45mg to 15mg (because of DEA, so I was told).

I last saw her on 8/25. She won’t extend the massive 15mg 'script unless I see her in person. Today.
I have been on serious pain meds for over 9 years - every damned month. Now with “say pretty please!”

A lot of people are left with the feeling that doctors are not listening, are not taking them seriously or are punishing them when their doctors don’t prescribe them: something effective for their sleeplessness, that isn’t addictive and that works to both help them fall asleep and stay asleep, but wake quickly and feeling completely refreshed whenever they happen to set their alarm for (even if that’s a different time every morning.)

It seems really hard for people to accept that something like that doesn’t exist. And it’s really hard to *tell *people that something like that doesn’t exist. There’s always that “think positive” placebo effect - that is about as strong as the most effective non-benzo sleep aid - that could potentially help them sleep if you just tell them to take something. There’s also a “nocebo” effect which is a real issue with sleep meds, where the anxiety that they won’t work may cause them not to work. So, confidence is key. Your doctor tells you to take a Benadryl before bed, and you leave thinking that’s awesome advice.

Then that it doesn’t work, and the dance begins again. A zolpidem might work, but it probably won’t, but does your doctor tell you that and ruin the slim chance that it will?

The fact is, there is no such medication. There is no widely effective immediate acting long acting fast stopping alertness promoting non-addictive sleeping medication. If there was, every med student in the world would know about it (and use it).

There are medications that help some people, some of the time, with some parts of their sleep disturbance. But the vast majority of insomnia cases just have to try thing after thing and find the combination of interventions that work for them long term…or maybe they never actually do.

Maybe their insomnia is part of a seasonal or circadian rhythm disorder, a subtle hormonal milieu shift, or even an undiscovered viral infection. Maybe these things just spontaneously resolve, and nothing you did ever made a difference at all, the disease process just ran its course and then you could sleep again. Stranger things have happened.

So, be kind to your doctor. He’s not refusing to give you the magic sleeping pill because he’s a dick and he hates you. He can’t give you what doesn’t exist.

Nothing in my “tone” inferred otherwise. I’m not daft.

You assume much about people you know nothing about, including frequency of use.

I don’t need your layman’s advice about OTC drug use, which does come across as judgmental. The OP’s question asked for a drug approach, by the way, so at least I was on topic.

Today, we had “sign your life away”. Well, to be absolutely factual:
I signed away my body and the right to decide what/where/how of treatment AND possession. If they develop the universal cure for all cancers AND Ebola using my pancreas, I and my heirs are entitled to the bill, not the profit.
Oh yes, we’re a teaching hospital, so we can have you cut open by a kid with training wheels.
Another was a contract - I will take every med, as prescribed, no other meds, will not try to get meds from another doc (this is UC system - I will see other docs - mine just suggested I see one for the pain).

As long as I fit their “no more than 100 units of opiates/person/month”, they are happy.
Oh, yes, I know you have a record of high tolerance to all CNS depressants - it doesn’t matter - no matter what you take, you won’t be any happier than with this crap…

Stay with OTC as long as you can.

With all due respect, this is the second time you are responding to my post over the course of two days. That plus how annkyed you act leads meto believe you have honest to god mental problems. So if you want to take sleeping pills because grandpa meanders at night occasionally then go right ahead. You have my blessings.

With all due respect, this is the secondvtime you are responding to my post over the course of two days. That plus how annkyed you act leads meto believe you have hoest to god mental problems. So if you want to take sleeping pills because grandpa meanders at night occasionally then go right ahead. You have my blessing.