Posted by juanantoniod on July 24, 2003, at 0:58:43
In reply to Chronic Insomnia, posted by Guy on July 23, 2003, at 13:14:51
Hi Guy,
I too suffered from insomnia, although not quite as dramatic as yours.
There are 2 excellent medications that may be of help to you. One is Ambien, the other is Sonata. Sonata is designed for early awakenings because it has a short half life, and can be out of the system by morning.
Halcion is another medication that worked wonders for me until I became benzo tolerant. It was a hard sell getting my pdoc to prescribe it, but he eventually did.
I did not have good luck with Seroquel. Initially, it caused me to be lethargic for 12 hours, more than I desired. Also, my body quickly became accustomed to it and I had to keep increasing the dose to get any benefit. Eventually, on doctor's advice, I tried increasing it to 2500mg. That was horrendous. It caused me to have severe such low blood pressure that I almost fainted when I got out of bed. So I spent almost the entire night awake in bed but unable to move because of the low blood pressure. You, however, might have better results.
As for Trazodone, it is my understanding that it works for sleep by lowering the blood pressure. (Perhaps another reader can enlighten us on that.) For me, it did not make me sleepy at all, but I did feel a little bit wobbly when I got up at night to use the restroom.
I'm curious -- is your anxiety disorder being adequately treated with medication for the daytime anxiety? If so, perhaps a nighttime dose of the same medication or an overall increase might help some with the nighttime anxiety, which would help a medication like Ambien do it's work better.
My story is that I took Ambien for about 6 years and it recently stopped working. However, according to a sleep doctor I consulted, it stopped doing it's magic after about 3 months. I wish someone would have told me! So the last 6 years were all for psychological (placebo) effect. FWIW, he also said that Melatonin is good for resetting the body's natural clock and advised me to take it for 3 months while I get used to sleeping on my own. However, he said that it does not put you to sleep. If I can give you any advice, I would try and deal as much as possible with the insomnia without medications, and save the effectiveness for when you absolutely need it. I would also have different medications that you can rotate through so that none becomes ineffective too early.
I hope this is helpful. Please submit a follow up posting if I can answer any questions.
> I've been suffering from chronic insomnia for about 7 years and this has greatly exacerbated my anxiety disorder. I always awaken in the middle of the night and start to worry about not going back to sleep. This has unfortunately developed into a phobia. Sometimes I panic, and that really sets me up for a terrible day...like I'm having a nervous breakdown, complete with horrible pain and suicidal thoughts. I have been on many meds, but most do not make me feel better--just make me fat, lazy and impotent. Currently, I take 15 mg of Remeron before bed and then 1 mg of clonazepam when I wake up at around 2 am. Usually, the clonazepam is enough to get me back to sleep. I never feel really good though, even when I get enough sleep...the anxiety is never totally eliminated. I do lots of exercise, but still have adull headache all day and a "buzzing" nervous system. I'm 49 now Is this what it's going to be like for the rest of my life? Pdoc wants me to go on 100 mg of Seroquel but I'm afraid of serious side effects, such as cataracts, especially since I am already blind in one eye. Sorry for long, sad story. Just wanted to share.
poster:juanantoniod
thread:244545
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030723/msgs/244751.html