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Insomnia from Fibromyalgia

I have fibromyalgia and my worst symptom is insomnia, what can I do? I have tried Lunesta and it worked for a year and I am now on Xanax which I seem to have to take more and more of to sleep. What can I do?  
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681148 tn?1437661591
I had no idea that melatonin might hurt more than help.  I'll definitely keep that in mind for the future.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Hi Laura -

The way it was explained to me when I asked my doctor about it was that anything that boosts the immune system is not good for people with autoimmune disorders because our immune systems are already basically in overdrive. Melatonin does boost the immune system.  That's why many of the medications used for autoimmune disorders are immunosuppressents - to try to get our bodies to not overreact to things - even our own bodies!
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Avatar universal
Do you know why melatonin is contraindicated in autoimmune disorders?

Thanks,
Laura
fellow insomniac :)
Helpful - 0
1467506 tn?1286413017
Hi!  I am sorry to hear your suffering from insomnia so much.  I can so sympathize with you.  I have had insomnia issues for twenty years or more and have tried just about everything on the market.  Currently I am having the best success with progesterone treatment and relaxation techniques for sleep. Depending on your age hormone imblance may be an angle to look into.  The progesterone has really helped with getting rid of migraines for me too.
  I am always desperate to try anything so I started playing an on-line game with my daughter while she was in college.  It was a way for us to visit and have some fun together plus it had an added benefit in that it made me sleepy!  My daughter and her friends are super nice about it all and I'll hear a very nice "hey mom.. you've fallen off a cliff" or something like that through my headphones, only to find that I have dozed off while playing.  Reading a complex book series can have the same affect - if I have to really focus on what I am doing - the strategy of the game or the story line of the book, it makes me forget all of the mish-mash from the day and I let go of the background noise in my head which in turn allows me to fall asleep.  Unfortunately the most I get is 5 hours at a time, usually 4 hours - but it is the best, deepest sleep I have had ever and I actually feel more refreshed than with any of the sleeping pills I used to take.  Also, Gemini is so right about the vicious cycle of pain that comes with Fibro - you hurt so you can't sleep, but if you don't sleep you hurt worse.  Getting your pain under control before you even try to sleep is a huge help in finding better sleep.
Everyone is different and I think even times are different - for years I would read to no avail - taking Valium,or whatever the current popular sleep aid of the day was, as the only way I could sleep.    So I guess my advice is hang in there and keep trying to find something that works for you - talk to your doctor about medicine options but know that sometimes adding relaxation techniques, book reading... or game playing.. may be helpful too.  And what helps you today might not be the same as what helps you in 5 years.  Be flexible and open to possibilities.  Good luck!  I hope you find something, or a combination of things that help you get some much needed sleep.
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681148 tn?1437661591
While I still have some insomnia, I do have less with the melatonin that the neurologist recommended I use.
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1403958 tn?1300023491
Try Valerian Root tea.  It's a natural herb that has & is successful for helping insomnia/sleep issues.  
Your other option is Ambien.  I took this for a little while and felt like a zombie in the morning.  Didn't really like it.

Hope i was helpful.  

Helpful - 0
1436598 tn?1332896533
Hi,

As another 'nocturnal' person I can relate.  I also use Ambien and Xanax (not together!).  The Ambien will give me exactly 3 hours of sleep (sometimes it doesn't work) but it seems to be a fairly good quality of sleep.  The xanax makes it easier for me to fall back asleep after I wake up but the sleep quality does not seem to be as good.  Also, I am drowsy and groggy in the morning.

I tend to alternate between the two, with at least one or two 'clean' nights of sleep a week so as not to build up a tolerance to either.  If I use the xanax too many nights in a row I definitely notice my tolerance going up rapidly, and I refuse to have to take more than my current prescription.  Unfortunately, this still adds up to a LOT of time awake!

The few times I tried Ambien CR it seemed to give me 4-5 hours but my insurance wouldn't cover it (like geminigirl's) so I'm still looking for something that might work better.  Lunesta gave me the same 3 hours as Ambien for a lot more money!

Hope you can get some rest soon, its SO frustrating to be constantly exhausted!
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Avatar universal
I"m sorry to hear you're having so much trouble with sleep.  I can definitely relate - I, too, have severe fibro and the insomnia can be absolutely horrible.  I also have severe pain with my fibro, so for me it's a vicious cycle quite often - I have more trouble sleeping because I am hurting and I hurt more becuase I'm not getting enough sleep.

I currently take Ambien 10mg nightly for my sleep aid.  There are some nights that it helps and others that it doesn't.  I was on the Ambien CR for a while and that actually seemed to help more, but unfortunately, my prescription insurance coverage stopped covering the CR, I'm guessing because that is the only Ambien formula that does not currently have a generic form.

I have tried both Sonata and Lunesta also for sleep.  The Sonata did absolutely nothing for me and the Lunesta gave me wicked hallucinations.  My doctor also tried me on trazodone, but it had the opposite effect on me and made me super hyper.

There are some "natural/herbal" things that can help promote sleep, such as Melatonin and some people have good results with them.  Unfortunately, I also have lupus and Melatonin is contraindicated with any type of auto immune disorder, so I can't even try it to see if it would help.

If you're finding that you need to take more of the Xanax in order to sleep, it's definitely time to talk to your doctor about giving somethign else a try.  Sometimes if your currents meds stop working as they used to, it can help to switch to somethign else for a while and then go back to what you were taking, so it might be if you tried the Lunesta again, you'd find that it helps once again.  But there are other options to try - so please try not to get frustrated (I know that's very hard to do when you're not sleeping and totally exhausted!)

Best of luck and let me know how you make out.
Helpful - 0
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