Clonidine help

anyone had experience taking clonidine for sleep issues?  i have high blood pressure (and clonidine is a blood pressure med), but my doctor is mainly prescribing it for me as a SLEEP AID to try to keep me off of the benzos for sleep purposes (which have always worked so well for me!)....i'm curious about two things though.....one, how much has anyone taken strictly for sleep purposes?  and two, have you had ANY problems stopping it if you want/need to?  i know it's not habit forming, which is a HUGE plus obviously, but i'd love to hear about anyone's personal experience with this specific medication....

[jessejames31]

i take clonidine, more than i'm supposed to though. when i wake up, i take one .1mg, then throughout the day i take a half .1mg/ twice. at bedtime, i take two .1mg and pass out within 20 minutes, but i usually wake a few hours later sweating like a pig.  also, stopping is tricky, once i ran out and my bp shot up very high, shaking like a leaf and real sick. you need to taper when you stop taking clonidine..  hope this helps..  -jesse

[kimmieb]

thanks so much for all the info!  i keep reading about how non-habit forming it is.....do you find that to be true at all?  also, i did read on the pharmacists' leaflet thing that it's important not to run out of the medication (i.e., make sure you always have your next dose ready)....sounds like that's true based upon what you're saying about being careful to taper when you're ready to stop taking it.....are you still on it now?  do you take it strictly for sleep purposes or for high blood pressure or other things?  it seems the .1 mg didn't really do much for me, so i upped to .2 mg before bed and it knocked me out prett well.....but i woke up only 4 hours later....which is not the outcome we were hoping for....when i take the 2mg of ativan, i get 7 hours of straight sleep!  bummer, cuz i was really hoping the clonidine would be the answer, since it seems to be "safer" than the ativan/benzos in terms of addiction and building up tolerance....and, although supposedly this stuff isn't habit forming, it sure sounds like you went through some nasty withdrawals after running out of it that time....sorry to hear that!  anyway, are you still on it and do you just take it for sleep purposes?  i guess those are my remaining main questions?  also, have you tried other sleep meds and is this one of the "last resorts" for you?  thank you so much for taking the time to respond and help....really appreciate it greatly!!  thank  you and God bless....kim

[Redbluffer]

I take clonidine to help with my hypertension and also withdrawl (withdrawal) symptoms. Now I also take 2mg xanax xr per day, and melatonin 5mg, to help me sleep. My clonidine are actually the .2 and I take them 3 times daily. Ive been on clonidine for almost a year and they do relax you a bit and but not sure about using just to sleep. You would have to just take them at night, because I know with atleast me when I take them as presicribed about every 5-6 hrs I dont get drowsy hardly at all. Another sleep aid I used and I dont know how common this is, but I was prescribed Remeron(Mirtazipine) took 30mg along with the melatonin and it worked well. I eventually missed a few nights of taking and still slept and felt fine so I stopped the remeron but it did work, it's an anti-depressant though so I dont know if that would be an option for you. Last one I could think of would try over the counter Unisom or generic, or my dad uses ambien cr, and hes not one to take any pills he doesnt have to, they seem to work well for him, ive never taken them though. One more suggestion that helped me was having a light workout with dumbells before bed, I suppose any exercise would do, but it seems to give me enery for awhile then I'm really tired after about an hour. Good luck...and I wish you a good night!!!

[kimmieb]

thanks for all your thoughts!  i think i've tried just about all of that over the past 5-10 years....lol...not really funny though!  anyway, yes, i only take the clonidine at night right before bed, not through the day, and i'm only starting at an extremely small baby dose (.1 mg)....upped it to .2 mg last night and got only 4 hours.....back to my normal :-(

the ativan (2 mg) still works the best right now, got 7 full hours the other night....hallelujah!!!!!  hadn't happened in over a year....but it's a benzo and i hate to go back down that road again....i guess i'd have to be extremely cautious if i decided to give that a go again....otherwise, yeah, i've tried the other stuff, both OTC and prescription, including ambien and ambien cr....all to no avail....i'm a very difficult case, lol.....great, huh?

i don't know...maybe i just need to up the clonidine a bit right before bed.....i definitely felt knocked out before bed with the .2 mg,but unfortunately, it just didn't last me through the night.....ah well....i guess we need to keep experimenting, as my doctor says....

thank you SO much for sharing your experiences and thoughts and advice....i appreciate it greatly!!

love,
kim