Sleep Aids WILL NOT WORK

[wschoops]

Sleeping pills, i.e. Ambien, Lunesta, Seroquel, don't work on me.  I don't know if this is physiological or what, but I am sick of my insomnia.  Has anyone else been so immune to sleep aids?  Any comments are welcome.

[KatEyes]

What kind of doctor are you seeing that is prescribing all these meds? I am assuming you have had a sleep study to make sure your insomnia isn't secondary to another sleep disorder. If there's something besides insomnia going on, that could limit the sleep aids' effectiveness. There is a sleep specialty called Sleep Behavioral Therapy. These specialists  are listed by location on the AASM web site. Maybe you could benefit from the care of a neurologist or one of these specialists.

[wschoops]

Yeah, a sleep study is the next step if we can't find anything that works for me.  I'm waiting on one more med to try before that happens though.  In the meantime, I'm detoxing off another drug that did make me sleep, but only in dangerously high doses (klonopin) so that could be affecting the way I'm reacting to other drugs, too.  Thanks for the advice!

[turbo236]

I don't think it is uncommon to have a doctor run through a list of meds until they find one that works for you.  Especially when it comes to sleeping meds, they react very differently to each person.  I too have experienced problems similar to yours.  The first step was the behavioral therapy and it was all I could do to keep myself from laughing at the therapist during the session let alone take him seriously.  Maybe it does work for some people, though.  I definitely think you should try the sleep study before you try any more medications.  You can tell this to your doctor too.  Don't let them force meds on you.  Sleep Apnea can cause you to develop anxiety and actually create nervousness in your brain before you go to bed.  Your body is afraid that you are going to stop breathing during sleep.  This anxiety may be so minimal that you do not notice it, but it can still cause you to lay awake even after taking a cocktail of sedating meds.

I am actually taking Klonopin now myself, in addition to Ambien CR, and it works great.  .5mg in the morning and the same at bedtime, followed by the 12.5mg Ambien CR.  Do you take any antidepressants?  I also take Effexor XR and Cymbalta which regulate my anxiety very well and has nearly fully restored my ability to sleep which I had all but lost just a few months ago.  I started out taking 10mg of the immediate release Ambien, which worked well at first, and then lost it's effectiveness after a couple of months.  I actually started taking the Effexor to treat depression and found that after a few days of treatment, I was sleeping like a rock.  I made the switch to Ambien CR because the IR version is not cited for long term use.  The Cymbalta I take is also for depression, and the Klonopin was later added to control anxiety throughout the day, but it does help me fall asleep at night when I take it WITH the Ambien CR.

Also, from reading your posts, it sounds like you and your doctor may only be trying the highly sedating Ambien type meds.  Have you tried Trazodone?  It is actually a low strength antidepressant that is mostly used as a sleep aid now days.  It has a highly sedating effect and works well for insomnia caused by anxiety.  The antidepressant meds work on a different area of the brain than the CNS Depressant sleep meds, such as Ambien, and sometimes the meds such as trazodone work better for some people than the actual sleep meds.  On the other hand, I had an unpleasant reaction to trazodone, so in my case concomitant use of antidepressants, Klonopin, and Ambien CR works best for me.  In other words, you may have to use more than just a sleeping pill to treat your insomnia, as you are probably finding out with your use of Klonopin.  Just be cautious as that drug has highly addictive properties.  Make sure you wean down off of it if you have been taking it for any amount of time.  But first and foremost, get that sleep study!!  They are VERY expensive, but it may give you an answer the meds haven't been able to.  Sorry my post is so long, hope you can make at least some sense of it!  Please keep us updated of your condition or send me a PM, whichever works.  Good Luck!

Turbo

[wschoops]

i am on Lamictal (for anxious depression), klonopin (weaning off an addiction, completely different thread in the addiction forum, originally prescribed for anxiety) and vistaril (supposed to help my anxiety from coming off the klonopin, does nothing).  trazodone is the next one i'm going to try.  antidepressants do not work on me, sleeping pills either, and my tolerance for klonopin is WAY to high to risk taking it at the levels that are effective to me.  for now, i just keep on truckin, waiting to find that magic combination.  i will continue to post as things progress.

[dochiru]

hi...u should take remelteon for ur insomia..it has no withdrawl symptoms n is not addictive..or take zolpidem or zoliplon but withdraw is slow..it is also effective..but remelteon is the better option..regards........

[talentedcup]

I think anxiety is the cause of insomnia in my case.  Taking medications seem to make it worse in the long run.  I get plenty of exercise but it doesn't seem to help.  I also have air hunger because of the lack of sleep.

[PiedPiper22]

Question--did the doctor ever ask how much caffeine/etc. type of diet you have during the day?  I've known a couple of caffeine sensitive people and the effects can last a lot longer than for usual people.

Also (please excuse me if this seems rude)--how much activity do you get during the day--I'm a teacher and when I was a kid (and now), during the summer, even with a lot of activity, I sleep much more poorly, b/c I don't have work/school in addition to exercise, cleaning, etc., to wear me out.  Just wondering if they ever asked you about those things?

[Katz723]

I also had this problem. I tried remeron, it worked a few years and stopped. I tried temazepam. Woke me up for two hours and had to use melatonin with it to knock me out. I tried just the melatonin because I didn't like being drugged of a morning. But my first week of classes this semester couldn't even knock me out. I was passing out in class but I couldn't sleep at night. I called my psych and she gave me ambien. I tried a full one and I slept 12 hours, missed classes. Went to a half and it worked good for a week and a half. Already adding melatonin again. I take lorazepam but if I take it at night it wakes me up. Maybe that would help the sleeping now. I will try. And BTW not even 15mg of Melatonin would knock me out. Most people only take 1-3mg and get knocked out. I have severe insomnia, and im thinking I may have a circadium rhythm disorder, specifically Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder, where your bodies clock sees 3am as bedtime and noon wake up time. I can sleep at those times but not a normal schedule. I think I will try the lorazepam again at night. But I hope I don't have to increase the ambien. Half is all I can take without oversleeping

[IreneBriggs]

I have take so many things and still have a hard time getting more then 3 hrs