You've responded to an old/outdated thread. MedHelp keeps an archive of old discussions because they can help people find information that has been discussed in the past; however, this one in particular is illustrative of why we encourage people to start their own thread by clicking the "post a question" button at the top of the page, rather than posting a comment at the end when they have something to say even if it relates to something they saw in an old thread like this one.
I'm one of the participants in this conversation from four years ago, and the other grew to be a friend of mine. A LOT changes in four years. My sleep problems were diagnosed as an autoimmune sleep disorder, one which—except for the comorbidity of autoimmune modalities and dysautonomia in general—has no connection to dysautonomia whatsoever. Back then I had no idea I had *two* rare diseases coincidentally! Halbashes, on the other hand, does not share this diagnosis with me. I could speculate today on the causes for her sleep issues given the benefit of hindsight, but it's not place of course.
Another thing that has changed is that I no longer recommend benadryl or phenergan for people with dysautonomia without expressly warning that these medications can be particularly troublesome in dysautonomia and only some of us can tolerate them. As you might imagine, I know more about autonomic dysfunction today than I did four years ago, and can share much more detailed knowledge with you!
This is not to lambast you, janalee13, but because many many members of our community do this same thing and wonder why we ask them to start a new question and this just happens to be a really good illustration of why. So I appreciate your patience in letting me explain this example for the sake of everyone.
In exchange for that patience, I'll play nice and go ahead and reply to you here instead of waiting for you to repost your question in a new thread as I ordinarily would. :-D
First, I would talk to your doctor about the benadryl and whether it is right for you, taking your whole clinical picture into account. My post is the fourth one down in the following thread, and goes into some more detail about the different types of antihistamines and why benadryl can be problematic for some dysautonomia patients:
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Dysautonomia-Autonomic-Dysfunction/What-to-ask-an-allergist/show/1369750
Secondly, I would ask your doctor about whether 10 mg of melatonin is the ideal dosage for you. Clinical studies have shown that too high a dosage of melatonin can be as problematic as too low a dosage.
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2001/melatonin-1017.html
Looking at the dosage tab here, I'm only seeing 10 mg or higher doses for cancer-related therapies and cluster headache, not insomnia:
http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-940-MELATONIN.aspx?activeIngredientId=940&activeIngredientName=MELATONIN
At any rate, I am not a doctor so like I said, this is stuff I'm just brainstorming that could possibly be factors; you definitely want to discuss these things with your doctor. The only other suggestion I have off the top of my head is that there are other sleep meds that you could try that have worked for people with dysautonomia; I definitely wouldn't think it'd be advisable to throw them into the mix you already have going, though, especially with the temazepam! But if you want to try changing for something else, ambien, lunesta, trazodone, and clonazepam come to mind. Ambien sometimes will work for people again once they take a "vacation" from it, so that might be an option depending how long you've been off it. One advantage of clonazepam is that it's similar to the temazepam you're taking but it's commonly used as an adjunct medication in treating dysautonomia such as POTS because of its effects on the nervous system. Many POTS patients finds it helps with some of their symptoms of overactive sympathetic nervous system. Yet another thing to bring up with your doc.
I hope you find something that works for you soon. I know how batty it can make you not to be able to sleep well, not to mention how it can negatively impact other symptoms.
Best,
Heiferly.