My friend uses this for her sleep problem. Her’s is related to pain that gets all riled up when it’s bedtime. She used to use vicoden, but she says this works pretty well for her.
I’ve had sleep terrors (to the point I had to be talked down to go to bed a couple of times), and it’s been treated with a half-dose of Lexapro a day, an anti-depressant similar to Celexa. So far, it’s worked…I haven’t found myself on my feet screaming profanities at the top of my lungs recently.
Talk to your doctor about that…especially with panic attacks; it could really help.
I had insomnia when my thyroid was out of whack. It’s better now. The only thing that worked for me was Nyquil.
I have had insomnia all my life. I’ve only once used drugs for it, and it wasn’t a positive experience. As I have said many a time on the SDMB, I listen to quiet talk radio (being a Brit I recommend the BBC World Service as it’s got very consistent programming, but NPR would be OK, though it’s a trifle scrappy depending on what part of the country you’re in). I find it prevents intrusive thoughts and diminishes the tinnitus I seem to get quite a bit. It’s a non-visual medium so you can lie down in a sleep position in the dark to listen - unlike TV. If I still can’t sleep, it’s comforting and/or interesting, but these days it usually it lulls me off. Highly recommended.
I’ve had insomnia on and off ever since I was a kid. I had a really bad bout of it around five years ago. I don’t have trouble falling asleep but I wake up about an hour later, unrefreshed and WIDE AWAKE. It is usually accompanied by a feeling that I am about to jump out of my skin. Impossible to lay still. Getting out of bed and doing something helps sometimes but makes it worse others. Also laying down on the couch or somewhere besides the bed also works sometimes. When I do finally fall asleep again I usually have trouble waking up and staying awake when the alarm goes off.
Don’t give up on it just yet. Keep using it, and keep trying to go to bed at about the same time. Also, I personally recommend the sublingual melatonin, if you can get it.
I’ve always had problems with insomnia. I rarely fall asleep before lying awake in bed for at least an hour.
My insomnia used to really disturb me. While lying there, I would always worry about whether I would be able to sleep at all that night - and sometimes I wouldnt - and how tired I would be as a result the next day. The more I worried, the harder it became to fall asleep.
Over the years Ive developed some helpful strategies. If Ive been lying there for a while, and feel the “cycle of worry” starting, I reverse my orientation on the bed, putting my head on the side my feet used to be on, and vice versa. This helps break up that harmful thought process. Also, you should never be afraid to turn the lights back on and read a book, listen to some music, or watch TV until youre tired enough to sleep. Maintaining a consistent sleeping schedule is also very important. Ive never tried using drugs; I think that it is better to solve the problem by yourself than to become dependent on a pill for sleep.
Ive grown to tolerate, and even almost appreciate, my insomnia. That “lost hour” between when my head hits the pillow and when I fall asleep has become a time of deep thought and reflection for me. Sometimes I think about the previous day; sometimes I plan for the next. Sometimes I contemplate the nature of the universe. More often, however, an uncontrollable stream of crazy thoughts flows through my brain.
Giraffe, the second time I tried it I was awake until 7:30, and had to work. I’m not sure if I can put up with that for several nights. I am going in for a sleep lab consultation on Friday, and I might ask if it’s okay to take it with my sleep meds, but I really, really don’t want to have to endure another day at work with no sleep if I can possibly avoid it.
Go away. I’m trying to sleep.
All the people who watch TV to fall asleep–do you have TV’s in your bedroom, or do you just sleep on the couch?
You may find that you’re getting more sleep than you think. Too lazy to look up a cite, but I read a recent study that showed that insomniacs got a lot more sleep than they thought… they tended to spend a lot of time in bed reading, trying to sleep, etc., and ended up building up nap-time.
I’ve had insomnia when I had stressors in my life, but I seem to make it up in a subsequent cycle. The best advice that works for me: don’t try and fight insomnia, but don’t try and fight sleepiness either (within reason). Obviously taking a 3 hour nap at 3:00 will be bad for sleep cycles, but there’s nothing wrong with going to bed at 7PM.
Jesus. Is that typical insomnia for you, or do you think the melatonin made it worse? In any case, while my experience is that it can take a few days for melatonin to be effective, if there’s a chance it’s making things worse or interacting with other medications, I’d definitely defer to the experts.
It’s something that happens a couple of times a month. When I’m being insomniac (which really seems to be increasing, as I got only four hours’ sleep today) I will fall asleep between 4 and 8 in the morning. I do have an afternoon and evening job, but I really start to fall apart after only a few hours of sleep a night, and I also don’t like sleeping in really late because it further mucks up my sleeping schedule…
Sigh.
I don’t know if it’s the melatonin. It did work the first night.
Other than the anxiety attacks, we could be twins. Some people are “owls” and some are larks IMHO. I’m an owl. I too can fall asleep practically at the drop of a hat during the day, but not at night.
And it’s not that I sleep sometimes during the day, because there have been times where I’ve gone weeks with only 4 or 5 hours of sleep at night and NO naps and still can’t sleep at night.
I’m sorry I don’t have an answer for you, most of the time I deal with it. Sometimes I’ll take OTC sleeping aids, and sometimes I’ll nap in the afternoons. After several weeks running on empty my opinion is that I have to sleep SOMETIME! I’m useless as hell anyway after weeks of insomnia and coming home from work there is NO way I’ll have energy to do anything anyway.
I do have one small crumb of hope. I recently started going back to the gym six days a week. Hard workouts weights three times a week and cardio three times a week. I have had a lot less trouble sleeping (and in my past when I was a true gym-rat I noticed this as well).
I empathize, but sorry I have no real answers.
I was going to recommend melatonin until I noticed the warning label. Depressive disorders is on the list.
Like any other medical problem it’s always best to cover the basics. Diet, exercise and nutrition should be maximized to rule out deficiencies. I notice a HUGE difference in my quality of sleep when I eat right and get a little exercise. When I let things slide I can sleep all day and not feel rested. Usually takes me a week or two to get things back on track.
I’ve had periodic battles with insomnia for years. I don’t know why it flares up periodically. There seems to be some stress involved, but it’s not always more than normal stress and I sleep like a log during other very stressful times.
Lunesta worked for me as did Ambien, but they weren’t perfect. Both gave me a metal taste in my mouth (which was only mildly annoying and a night of sleep was definitely worth it), and I’d see really pretty, vibrant colors when I closed my eyes (which wasn’t annoying at all–quite pleasant actually–but it bothered me because I worried what my brain was doing). Also, sometimes even the meds don’t put me out.
I did find some non medication things that helped. Basically, I tried to make my sleeping environment as comfortable and sleep-encouraging as possible. I bought a new, extremely comfortable mattress, some high end pillows, and very high thread count sheets. Yeah, it was expensive, but I really needed sleep! I also got one of those lavendar scent fans. I also made sure all my bed sheets (the super expensive, high thread count ones) were freshly laundered and clean smelling. Then I would make the room just cold enough to encourage snuggling under the covers but not cold enough I’d be freezing. I also got an eye mask and ear plugs. I didn’t like the ear plugs (when I put them in, I could really hear my breathing and that freaked me out), but everything else worked great. Honestly, all that worked better than the meds.
Another thing that worked was just to write down all those nagging thoughts I had whenever I’d go to bed rather than try to put them out of my mind. The thoughts would stop bothering me once I wrote them down.
We do have a TV in the bedroom. I know a lot of people say you shouldn’t, and that your bedroom should only be used for sleeping and sex, but I have to have my TV. Most people I’ve known who watch TV to help them sleep just set the timer for half an hour or an hour or whatever. I don’t know why I don’t set the timer. I think for me it may have something to do with counting down the minutes until it shuts off. It’s better if I shut it off myself when I’m ready. Sometimes that’s 10:30, other times it’s 2:30.
How odd, I just spent hours tracking down my doctor to get my Ambien RX refilled.
I have never, even as a small child, been a “good sleeper.” Even when my sleeper works, it takes at least an hour to fall asleep and I wake up often throughout the night. As an adult I go through cycles of bad insomnia where I either fall asleep at 11pm and awake fully at 2am for the rest of the night, or fall off about 4am and wake up unrefreshed at 7am.
I don’t drink caffeine and I do all the things that sleep experts recommend, but most of the time they just don’t work.
Tylenol PM: Somewhat effective when it’s not a bad patch; leaves me with a fuzzy head and grouchies. Same with OTC sleep aids.
Melatonin: Works once or twice in a row, then isn’t effective. Gives me weird, semi-lucid dreams.
Benadryl-related products: Heart palpitations and a strange wired feeling.
Ambien: Works 80% of the time and gives me eight hours of refreshing sleep.
I haven’t tried Lunesta or other RX sleep aids. I don’t think Ambien is the greatest thing to take on a long-term basis (and it’s expensive – most health plans don’t cover it), but not sleeping makes me depressed, anxious, and physically ill.
I know that the few times in my 40 years that I haven’t had to perform a school schedule or work for a living, my natural sleep pattern is from 2am-8am, with an hour-long nap from 3-4pm. I think I have a circadian rhythm that doesn’t match that of the workaday world and trying to force my body to go to bed and wake up at a proscribed time is going against what my body is designed to do.
I shoulda been a guitarist in a punk band or a heroin addict!
Prednisone is the devil. I will never take it again, no matter what the hell is wrong with me ( hell, they were only shooting from the hip when they prescribed that stuff to me in the first place.)
I was on it in August 2004 and I clearly remember wimpering to myself hoping I would fall into some kind of sleep. It was like my brain would never shut off. Hearing your thoughts 24/7 is no fun, people. If I could have plugged in muzak or something to my brain then I might have been okay, but for two farkin’ weeks with barely and hour sleep in a row.
Non-addictive OTC things, that won’t wreck your liver ( like Tylenol PM, which is just lovely except for the liver stuff.) is Valerian Root which is a mild sedative. You can find it in pill form as well as tea. I’ve used both ( and on my dog too.) to great success. It is a pistol to find it.