Q.N. Jones, thank you so much for the advice. I’ll look into the meds you listed and discuss them at my followup appointment. It’s not supposed to be until early September, but I’m going to call the clinic today and ask to see someone ASAP, as I share your concerns about the Klonopin and don’t want to be on it any longer than necessary.
BTW, to address the OP, I tried Lunesta three years ago and not only did it have quickly diminishing returns for me, it left an awful chemical taste in my mouth that lasted for half the day. Besides that and the Klonopin, I have tried no other prescription sleep aid.
I think that’s a really good plan. At least hear their opinion on using atypical antipsychotics instead. And if you’re not satisfied with the answer, get a second opinion!
I should have stated that I also tried Abilify (another atypical antipsychotic) for sleep as well. In addition to drowsiness, I had some very unpleasant side effects. It’s hard to describe, but I felt like a zombie all day. I stopped taking that one after only a couple of days, it was so dramatic–even at a low dose.
Risperdal was the best one I took for sleep plus anxiety and still feeling like myself.
I take 60mg of Temazepam every night and have for years. It doesn’t work very well for me anymore, so for the last 6 months or so we have been trying different things. Nothing has really worked well. The one thing that did work–Zyprexa–caused me to gain 25lbs in just over a month, so we stopped that one!
In the past I’ve tried a lot of things as well, and never found the magic pill. Ambien makes me do weird things I don’t remember. Melatonin does nothing at all. Ditto Benadryl (I’ve taken up to 5 in desperation. Nada.)
I have a diagnosis from a sleep study of “insomnia due to mental disorder” which stems from, IMO, my bipolar diagnosis and an anxiety disorder.
Oh man, I tried Abilify (when I was switching off of Wellbutrin for my bipolar disorder and trying to find a new drug) and it turned me into a raging psycho bitch! It was awful! You know that feeling you have when you’re completely at the end of your rope and feel like one more tiny thing is going to make you totally snap? That is how I felt ALL THE TIME on Abilify :eek:
That shit be evil. Which is why I came back to specifically mention that it sucks. It is one of those “Meds of the Moment” that doctors love to push for every ailment under the sun. It is also one of those medications that patients hate, hate, hate.
My doc prescribed Flexeril (Cyclobenzaprine (I think?)) for back issues I’ve been having and I noticed I got sleepy as heck a couple of hours after taking it. So whenever I do have to take it I try and time it for use as a sleep aid. Definaterly lights out. I have read our good QtM here though expressing some concern about the regular use of any muscle relaxant so I limit its use to only the most uncomfortable of muscle pull episodes.
Years back I had an identical experience with Tavist when taken for allergy episodes. Knocked you right out.
I’ve tried Simply Sleep but it made me too groggy the next day and Ambien made me do crazy stuff that I barely remembered, and that only in some foggy, 3rd person sense.
Temazepam is a benzo so I’d be leery of using it more than occasionally. There are other threads here on benzo issues.
That said: I’ve used Halcion (triazolam, also a benzo) for dental work; for inexplicable reasons, the dentist’s initial instructions were to take one the night before as well as one the morning of; after the first time I skipped the night-before dose. For dental work (and once for an MRI), it makes me pretty loopy but I can force myself awake if I absolutely have to, like at the end of the dental procedure. When I had the MRI, I took it 20ish minutes before my MRI was scheduled. Naturally they were running a bit late so I was listing a few degrees off vertical by the time they called my name :).
I’ve taken Ambien (zolpidem) a few times. Never had any of the nighttime hijinks people have reported (for example, google the stuff on this board; I also know someone who made peanut brittle while under the influence). For me, it left me a bit zoned the next day, and also I had pretty prompt rebound sometimes even after a single dose. I did use it recently (3 doses) when testing for and getting used to my new CPAP machine, and had no problems with it. I’ve heard stories of “take it in bed, if you take it in the bathroom you won’t remember the trip to bed” but it does NOT hit me that hard. Perhaps an hour after I take it, if I’m trying to watch TV or whatever, I’ll start to get a bit cross-eyed and unable to focus.
I’ve used Sonata (zaleplon) quite a bit more than Ambien. Not so much these days since my Restless Legs Syndrome is managed by a different class of drugs, but back when I didn’t have anything better, I used it perhaps once or twice a week when my legs were bugging me too much. It didn’t leave me as zoned, and I generally had less rebound than with the Ambien.
Sonata doesn’t hit me as hard as the Ambien did (occasionally I had trouble even after the Sonata had had time to kick in). Though there was that time when I had not slept for something like 36 hours due to illness, and I took one, and posted an email that still makes me blush and giggle… I believe I’ve quoted it elsewhere on the boards!
One thing that worried me before trying the Ambien: I tend to get up to go to the bathroom a couple of times a night. I was seriously concerned that the stuff would make me sleep so soundly that I’d wet the bed. And as it turns out, it doesn’t. I don’t go to the bathroom as often when I’m using a sleeping pill, but I think that’s because I’m more soundly asleep and so the bladder’s little grumblings about being 25% full don’t get through. When the bladder starts to shout, I wake up enough to stumble to the bathroom.
Did a search for “Ambien” (hoping to reread more funny stories) and hit this almost-identical thread from a few months back. I haven’t read it yet but there might be some good discussion there.
My F-I-L was given Ambien by the dentist just before a procedure. They left the room for a sec and when they came back he was gone. Found him wandering around in the parking lot looking for the gate so he could let the cows out.
I have an unspecified sleep disorder, I assume unspecified because my doctors suck. So far they’ve tried amatriptyline, benzos, Klonopin, and a combo of melatonin, L tryptophan and 5 HTP. Nothing works very well for very long and the benzos and Klonopin gave me headaches. I go in for another sleep study in a couple of months and hopefully they’ll give me a CPAP this time.
I’m leery of Ambien because with my luck I’d go sleep driving.
I’ve taken 30 mg of Restoril every night for the last 2 years. I have sleep anxiety–I worry that I won’t go to sleep. Restoril doesn’t put me to sleep, but it shuts my mind off so I can fall asleep. This is a total case of YMMV though.
Yeah, forgot to mention, I took Ambien a few times and while I didn’t sleepwalk, I did do some odd things the next morning. I’d call it “very sleepy with impaired judgment.”
I’ve had insomnia for most of my life, but I’ve tried few sleep aids. I generally just get through it and sooner or later I end up managing to fall asleep long enough to cope with the days after that…!
The only OTC sleep aid that I’ve tried is diphenhydramine HCl. It makes my muscles weak, but does nothing to stop my active brain. My FIL is a psychiatrist and has offered to write me a prescription for 1 or 2 of petty much any prescription sleep aid, but in 10 years I’ve always said no.
Due to injury, I recently obtained a script for 30x5mg supeudol (oxycodone), and I admit to “abusing” them a little - I chose to take them at night to help me ignore the pain and get some sleep and they were awesome.
Due to the same injury and sleeping during the day at one point, I used a sleep mask for the first time. It’s amazing how much it helped me, since part of my insomnia is a tendency to keep my eyes open and look around the room. The sleep mask makes it a little annoying to open my eyes, and there’s nothing to see anyways.
During the worst of my bouts of insomnia I had difficulty falling asleep *and *staying asleep. My dr gave me Ambian, time-released Ambian, Restoril and a couple others I can’t remember the names of (samples). I could take the same kind only two nights in a row. After that, they didn’t work. Even with the time released Ambian I would still wake up and stay up at 4 a.m. Nyquil worked the best for the longest time. I could take it every night for a long period, but I eventually developed a tolerance for that, too. Plus I really didn’t want to be dependent on medication to be able to sleep.
My favorite sleep aid was the white noise machine. It had several types of noises (my favorite was rain) and I could set the volume and how long it would last (usually all night). Better than any pill.
****the title of the thread said tell me about your experience with sleep aids. ****
after MY experience with sleep aids, i strongly suggest almost no person should take them. it’s hard to go without sleep, but no person ever died from insomnia. a person’s body and mind will tell them when to sleep, even if it’s been 72 plus hours since they last slept.
it there is a real physical reason for not sleeping, tell it to a doctor. take whatever he/she scrips as directed.
I had pretty much the opposite experience.
I tried Ambien only once.
I discovered Lunesta later and use it on occasion.
I also sometimes use melatonin and benadryl.
Really, my favorite sleep ‘drug’ is a very cool room (60°’s) and fresh air coming from an open window, but my husband can’t stand it being too cool, and an opened window is improbable during a Florida summer.
I agree that care should be taken.
But sleep deprivation can have very serious, even fatal daytime consequences because of impaired physical or cognitive function. I would prefer to get behind the steering wheel of my car after a good night’s sleep than hours of tossing and turning.
