Ambien/Trazadone Side Effects?

[BeeKeeper]

Besides the medications I take for depression and BP (Cymbalta, lamictal, lithium), I've also been tking 50mg of Trazadone and 10mg of Ambien nightly for about 6 months.  Sometimes it works...sometimes not.  If I miss a certain window of time to take the night drugs...I'm wired instead of sleepy.  I will stay up until 3-4a wandering around..eventually get a couple hours sleep, and still have high energy the next day...or couple days...until I crash.

Just curious if anyone else has had same issues?

[Shippe13]

I am on trazadone 200 mg/night. I was recently bumped up to 200 from 100 mg because I built up my tolerance a bit. Perhaps you can talk to your doctor about increasing your dose of that. My pdoc also told me that trazadone has about an hour window... if you do not lay down and try to sleep within the first hour of taking it, it will not work. I hope this helps  a little. Good luck!

[BubbeofC]

Be careful of taking ambien for any length of time.  No one told me that I couldn't take it indefinitely, so I took it for ~ 3 yrs.  Al;l of a sudden, I began shking uncontrollably -- primarily at night.  Not only were my hands affected, but my head started convulsing as well.  I was then informed by another doctor that I shouldn't have taken ambien for that long a period.

[morticia310]

I take opana and percocet for pain then At night I take 2mg xanax + 4mg zanaflex + 20mg ER opana + ambien cr + lyrica . sometimes I sleep for a straight 5 or 6t hourss but if i don't catch that 'window' I'm up all hours of the night a lot!

[ILADVOCATE]

Ambien is generally meant for short term use. Lunesta can be used long term. Rozerem is another good sleep aide and specifically better than either of those two because it being derived from melatonin adjusts the sleep cycle. Anti-depressents can sometimes set off mania in a person with bipolar so I'd be concerned that's what might be going on but they are sometimes needed. Seroquel has a mood stabilization effect in addition to being an antipsychotic so that would stabilize things in that area. I would be concerned you might be building up a tolerance to Ambien as that can happen if its taken every day so you might call this to the attention of your psychiatrist and ask about other options.

[Bear13]

I've had the same problem... there's a certain window of opportunity for the Ambien to take effect... and if you don't snatch it, then you can feel wired, but tired at the same time.  you might want to have your doc prescribe the Ambien CR instead, it's a controlled release and I find that it works pretty well... Also, may want to try Lunesta, if the Ambien is  no longer working for you... but those drugs are supposed to be for temporary use only... you will eventually build up a resistance to them....  I'm surprised the Trazadone isn't working.....  I find that Seroquel (mood stabilizer, used to treat bi-polar) is very effective as a sedative... I take 200mg/nightly and rarely have to use an additional sleep aid......