Day 6. Insomnia - 6; melatonin, diphenhydramine, Ambien - 0.
My sleep has been touchy all my life, and my doctor started me back on Topomax for my migraines a couple weeks ago, slowly titrating the dosage up. By the second day I could tell I wasn’t sleep as well, even teking my usual melatonin. When I moved up yo 25 mg am and pm I stopped sleeping. By the third day of that I called the doctor and she called in a script for Ambien. I’ve taken that for two nights and I’m still not sleeping. I guess I must be dozing at some point, becasue I don’t think you can go 6 days without sleep, but I haven’t had a moment when I can say, " I fell asleep", or “I woke up”. I’m barely functioning now , and i have to go back to work tomorrow.
Anyway, telll me your insomnia stories. Long, boring insomnia stories.
I’ve decided to stop the Topomax. I can’t handle this anymore.
StG
How do you feel when you experience insomnia normally (i.e. without any medication)?
I ask because I have always had difficulty sleeping and can remember as a young child trying to fathom out how people just switched off at night. Apparently even as a baby I didn’t go to sleep easily although once I was asleep I would sleep the same length of time as other brats. In the end I’ve decided that this is just the way I am programmed to sleep and I can’t be bothered going to doctors about it. It’s just normal for me to take an hour or two to get to sleep. I’ll probably lose a little sleep through the week this way but my body seems ok to just catch up on the defecit at weekends. FWIW I’d say if your body is happy and healthy being insomniac then go with it, it’s just your way of sleeping.
Z - Normally I will upset my sleep if I take a nap or sleep too long, so I just try to maintain pretty regular sleep habit, not varying much on the weekends, (maybe sleeping and extra hour or so). THis is totally different. I’m not thinking clearly. My limbs just fell heavy, EVERYTHNIG is just dragging. I’m pulling myself along because I have to, but I’m even avoiding doing some driving because my mental acuity just isn’t there. I wanted to watch some movies but didn’t have the concentration t o tdo it. I don’t know how i"m going to go into work tomorrow, do month-end close on my accoutns, that sort of stuff. But it’ll have to e done.
StG
Z - Normally I will upset my sleep if I take a nap or sleep too long, so I just try to maintain pretty regular sleep habit, not varying much on the weekends, (maybe sleeping and extra hour or so). THis is totally different. I’m not thinking clearly. My limbs just fell heavy, EVERYTHNIG is just dragging. I’m pulling myself along because I have to, but I’m even avoiding doing some driving because my mental acuity just isn’t there. I wanted to watch some movies but didn’t have the concentration t o tdo it. I don’t know how i"m going to go into work tomorrow, do month-end close on my accoutns, that sort of stuff. But it’ll have to e done.
StG
I had some pretty serious insomnia when I was younger. It was bad enough that I ended up dropping out of college and had to see a specialist for it. The medication (I forget what) helped fairly well. When I got a manual labor job doing constuction for 12 hours a day, 7 days a week it completely disappeared overnight. I actually became just the opposite. I could fall asleep on cue. I don’t have that same type of job anymore, but it never really came back.
It doesn’t sound like you are on the correct medication/dosage for you. I guess you need to return to your doctor but bear in mind that if you have only recently started taking new medication then it can take a while to bed in.
Ambien has been great for me. It kind of breaks the sleeplessness cycle so that I get one good night’s sleep and quit stressing about sleeping.
That being said, I am right now in the first period of prolonged sleeplessness since I started taking Ambien. Haven’t been able to stay asleep more than two hours in about a week other than the night I took Ambien. I don’t allow myself to take Ambien more than once a week, so I’m just waiting it out right now.
Day Seven. Still no sleep. I stopped the Topomax yesterday, so I’m hoping by tonight or tomorrow I can finally sleep. I’m now just trying to bluff my way through work. I’m having to check even the simplest things for errors.
To sleep, perchance to dream…
StG
Damn, I read about your insomnia and then I get a bout of my own! I’m blaming you! 
Spent the night tossing and turning. Was up around 1:30 and read until 3:00. Hope tonight is better than last night was…