General discussion of sleeping aids

[Jellopanda]

I felt this section of the forum needed a thread for people to discuss various sleeping aids, share their experiences and receive advice from people who have tried different solutions. This is my attempt at such a thread

I'd like to give a brief (turned out to be not quite as brief as i intended) account of my own experiences as i have been suffering from sleeping problems for over a decade now. Most benzos have a sleep-inducing effect such as d1@z, Lowrasep@m and M1dasolam, but in my experience these only make you a little bit drowsy, and while helpful, doesn't necessarily make you sleep, though other people may have different experiences and i'd love to hear about those

My experiences with hypnotics is better, tho zolp has only partially worked for me, sometimes it makes me sleep, but many times i lay awake for hours and when i've finally can't stand lying in bed anymore and get up, the zolp only makes me feel worse than what i would normally. For those who like zolp, but have trouble with waking up in the middle of the night i've tried one drug called Ambeen CR or generic name zolp tartrate which has two components, one fast-dissolving one that helps you fall asleep, and one slow-dissolving one that helps you stay asleep. The stay asleep part worked for me. 

My go to med is Z0pi. 15 mg knocks me out after i've waited about 45 min for it to take effect (and those 45 min feels awesome btw, relaxed and euphoric), though i sometimes take 22.5 mg when i have to be absolutely sure i need to sleep and be alert in the morning because of some engagement, appointment or other. 30 mg though gives me a hangover and i feel shitty the rest of the day. My only problem with z0pi is that i sometimes wake up after 3 or 4 hours and can't sleep again. taking three pills usually doesn't make that happen.

I've been thinking about trying Est@solame as it's apparently helpful in reducing awakenings in the middle of the night.

I've shared my experiences and hope that they may be helpful to someone else. My hope is that this thread could be place for others to share theirs, make suggestions, educate and learn about different ways to deal with their problem


 

 

[InsomniYAK]

i feel for you man, i have suffered from insomnia for over 15 years, it has ruined my life completely, lost my family, my job, no education, no nothing. X@nies 2mg worked for me for a while, they didnt help me fall asleep but i stayed asleep for about 6 hours, which is an all time record for me. lately tho they seem to not work as well, and i only get around 4 hours, and it takes forever to fall asleep. the only drug i think will help me is Xyrem, but is virtually impossible to get a prescription for, unless you have documented narcolepsy, which i probably dont have. 

 

[Jellopanda]

i feel for you man, i have suffered from insomnia for over 15 years, it has ruined my life completely, lost my family, my job, no education, no nothing. X@nies 2mg worked for me for a while, they didnt help me fall asleep but i stayed asleep for about 6 hours, which is an all time record for me. lately tho they seem to not work as well, and i only get around 4 hours, and it takes forever to fall asleep. the only drug i think will help me is Xyrem, but is virtually impossible to get a prescription for, unless you have documented narcolepsy, which i probably dont have. 

Having suffered from insomnia for that long i suppose you've tried a lot of things. I'd love to hear about what you've tried, when it comes both meds and other things that are supposed to help. Both so that people can give advice if wanted and also so that others and myself can benefit from your experience. There's a great many things one can try for this problem, with varying degrees of effectiveness depending on individual. I noticed when i reread my original post just now that i only talked about meds, but there are lots of other things that may be helpful.

X@n@x and other older classes of benz0s like val1um are, as far as i know, being less prescribed as sleep aids now than they were before, particularly when it comes to falling asleep, which you seem to have a problem with, where hypnotics seem more effective. Have you tried Z0p1cl0ne or Z0lp1dem?

I'll hold back on the advice until you say you'd like some tho

You seem even harder afflicted than i do judging from your post and your choice of nick. I sometimes get a good nights sleep fortunately. Just one night can help sustain me for several days. It frustrates me sometimes when trying to communicate to people without sleep problems how horrible and debilitating it can be. They'll say things like: I sometimes have a bad nights sleep. Doesn't really bother me much. Try years of bad sleep and get back to me, is what i would like to say to them, but i'm too polite for that.

 

[InsomniYAK]

yea "normal" people having a bad nights sleep now and then really can't relate at all, and therefore doctors,psychiatrists,sleep proffesors can not relate as well, since with severe insomnia they would never have been able to get a degree at all, hence they get an adequate amount of sleep.

"sleeping meds" i have tried include: zolp, zopi, xan, seroq, mirt, phenerg, vallerg, zyprex, melatonin, passion flower, vallerian, chamomille and all that herbal crap, marijuana. 

I have done several polysomnigraphy tests that show that i get no level 4 sleep, almost no level 3, and only REM and level 1 sleep.

the only outcome of doing the tests was that they told me i do not have sleep apnea, but have really bad sleep, no meds offered or anything.

zolp and zopi help me fall asleep for maybe 2 weeks, then stop working, and i still wake up after 3-4 hours unable to fall back asleep.

i am sure i suffer from (and probably 90% of severe insomniacs) GABA deficiency, but this "Illness" is not taken seriously by any physician as of now, my doc even told me that i should go on disability rather than give me medication.

i'm pretty sure Xyrem would do the trick as it raises GABA levels and increase deep sleep, and could also help millions of insomniacs out there, it is a relatively harmless drug (when used correctly) which active component exists in every cell in the human body naturally

Narcoleptics get this medication because they fall asleep in the day time, which i am unable to, which imho makes it even worse, but insomniacs are just told to drink some chamomille take a warm bath. it really pisses me the fuck off.

 

[Jellopanda]

@InsomniYAK Yeah. You confirmed my suspicion that you have it worse than i do, and that you've tried a lot of different things.

I guess you've tried keeping a sleep-schedule? (directly translated that from norwegian, not sure if that's what you would call it in english). What i mean, anyway, is going to bed at the same time every night no matter how much you wanna lie down and getting up at the same time every morning no matter how shitty you feel or how much you've slept. A sleep specialist recommended that to me, and while i felt like hell for a couple of weeks, after a time i adjusted and it's helped me somewhat. Didn't solve the problem, but it has helped me sleep a little more and even when it doesn't, spending less time in bed trying to sleep makes me feel better during the day.

Haven't heard about Xyrem before you mentioned it, but i'll read about it.

 

[InsomniYAK]

yeah, i have tried the sleep-schedule type stuff, and also i have 3 kids, so i go to bed at the same time every day and get up really early every day. btw Xyrem is basicly "medical GHB" 

 

[cassandra]

A combination of medication can help. For example mirtazipin in combination with zopiclon. The first helps you sleep through the night and the second helps you fall asleep.  Tolvon is also an option in Norway as a combination with zopiclon. I am Norwegian also, but I live in Sweden. 

 

[franmars]

Hi.

I'm on the insomniac club to.

Something that work for me is  Pregabalin, the comercial name of Pfizer is Lyrica. It's not a real hipnotic but a very similar GABA molecule.

It take hours to make efect, but it's not a problem, because you can take it maybe 3-4 hours before go to sleep, and in the meanwhile you don't feel nothing, no drowsines, etc, Then at some moment you begin to fell "something" , then go to bed.

Don't know prices in north Europe, but in Spain you can get a box of 56 pills of 150mg for about 30€. 150 mg are usually enought to do the trick. (and even maybe you could need less)

BUT, like other meds, like benzos, Z-drugs, ... etc. you develope tolerance, but using it for a long, long time. (months, about 6-8 in my case)

Insomnia are very influenced by anxiety disorders, as you sure know, and Pregabalin also work with that.

By know I take 75 mg on the morning to control anxiety and 150mg about 21-22:00.

Well, maybe it could help you, it works on me, I left benzos and just take Zolpidem instead Pregabalin some day I need to fall sleep fast for some reason, or for long travels to adapt to another hour use, and so on...

PS: by the way you should takes it on an empty stomach, food decreases  its absorption a lot

 

[benzofiend7]

hey - i have the same kinda problem. ambs worked like a charm for me, zolp is okay but is there anything 'stronger'? 

plus something that doesn't make you feel like a zombie when you wake up would be nice... can't win! either can't sleep and feel awful or do sleep and then miss my alarm 

 

[Rec]

I awake again I just can't seem to sleep through i go to bed about 11ish and keep waking up at 3am it's so annoying as i have to leave for work at 6.30 by the end of a 12hour day you great people know what I am saying huuuuuu over it,nice to have somewhere to vent.

 

[blissopifree 2]

I've found instead of zopiclone making me sleepy they actually give me more of a buzz and motivate me,so more like an social anxiety type of feeling??.

Perhaps im just too used to them as when the good old NHS began to stop the prescribing of bnz the docs were almost falling over themselves to prescribe "this non-habbit" form of sleep aids.After a cpl of year's of handing them out they realised they are also habit forming and these days your lucky to get a weeks worth a cpl of times a year!.

I prefer zop to zolp but I've never tried the 12.5 CR type of zolp so i can't really relate the difference between these particular strength of zolp.

Bliss....