Sleep meds. Zopiclone?

[Finnc]

Background

I am really struggling with sleep right now. It's been rough since before cpap but since the middle of November but my life has been a little crazy and my panic attacks keep me awake constantly. Plus I hurt my foot so now I have to sleep in a boot. I am averaging 2-3 hours of sleep a night, I seriously can not figure out how Rotech says I met compliance but I did.

So now I need something to help me sleep, nothing OTC has helped and my sleep doctor will not let me go back on Klonopin so my question is do I need to see her for a sleep med or my pdoc? Since she seems a little picky about what med I take I figure she would be the one but I figured I would ask y'all. And I seriously need to sleep soon or I will lose what's left of my mind.

TIA

[49er]

Background

I am really struggling with sleep right now. It's been rough since before cpap but since the middle of November but my life has been a little crazy and my panic attacks keep me awake constantly. Plus I hurt my foot so now I have to sleep in a boot. I am averaging 2-3 hours of sleep a night, I seriously can not figure out how Rotech says I met compliance but I did.

So now I need something to help me sleep, nothing OTC has helped and my sleep doctor will not let me go back on Klonopin so my question is do I need to see her for a sleep med or my pdoc? Since she seems a little picky about what med I take I figure she would be the one but I figured I would ask y'all. And I seriously need to sleep soon or I will lose what's left of my mind.

TIA

Hi Finnc,

You need to see the doctor who will listen to your concerns and prescribe the best med for your situation. The person also needs to be good about followups and supervising your care. So depending on whom you think meets your needs, I would stress to that office how serious your concerns about sleeping are so you can get in to see someone as soon as possible.

Best of luck.

49er

[Tango]

You would best going to a psychiatrist. They are the ones who prescribe those type of meds.

[jencat824]

Finnc,

I know you said you tried OTC, but have you tried herbals? My hubby had to go off prescription sleeping pills, so has transferred to herbals & is actually sleeping better than with the RX. There are tons of herbals to be tried, so be careful if you mix them.

My hubby takes a mix of 5-HTP, GABA, Valerian Root & Kavinace. He tried Melatonin but that didn't work for him. If you try Melatonin be sure its the small dose, I think 3mg or 3 mcg, because too much is not effective & can actually keep you awake.

You may want to research this & perhaps find one or more that works for you. It definitely beats any prescription drug that he tried, he just had to play with which herbals in what combination helped him. As I said, be careful with how you mix them & consult a good compounding pharmacy if you have one in your area. That is how I came up with this mix for my hubby. We started with the 5-HTP & added the others at the suggestion of the pharmacist at our local compounding pharmacy. That is, all except the Kavinace, I got that tip from a friend. He decided to gamble with that one & found it to be very effective.

I hope you find this helpful & if you can sleep well with the herbals, it keeps you from having to get the RX from a physician. If you find these work for you, a good source to buy them in bulk is Puritan's Price Vitamins online.

Good luck,
Jen

[sleeplessinaz]

I am getting herbals from my Naturpathic doctor. I take Kavinance, GABA, 5-htp and DHEA, you don't need a script to be able to sleep well.

[avi123]

I take half of Zolpidem 10 mg tablet (generic Ambien) before sleep and if I don't fall asleep within 30 minutes I take the other half. It works 85% of the time. Rarely I take another 5 mg but never after 3 a.m. Don't you use Xanax for panic attacks?

[Woody]

You may want to try the F.lux program. Some people believe that the bright lighting we have in our homes at night especially
if it has a blue cast may be really disturbing our natural sleep. And the same can be said about all the led lights on all our appliances.
We have another thread discussing this somewhere here. https://justgetflux.com/

[Guest 2]

Just before I started CPAP had a bad case of sleep anxiety, My general Dr. gave me Lorazepam to help as needed, well I took that along with Benadryl and that would put me to sleep, but I knew I couldn't keep taking those drugs too long or I'd become an addict. Well I found a herbal pill called Somnapure which I could get over the counter and did and excellent job making me sleepy enough to go to bed. All of this started for me in the beginning of August, after the LONG 3 month period before I finally received my CPAP machine, All of those med's got me thought it. Now I've been a CPAPer for 3 weeks now and I'm taking absolutely nothing I sleep like a baby.
Your General Doctor should be able to help you if the over the counter med's won't work for you (Benadryl is over the counter).
I wish you all the luck I know 1st hand how it can be struggle.

Good Luck

[Finnc]

I am on Celexa for anxiety and I was on Klonopin for the panic attacks, but the sleep doc said I couldn't take that anymore. My panic attacks had gotten somewhat better but honestly since November I have lost 2 family members and 2 friends, so the attacks have been hitting hard. I am also one of those people that can lay down and my mind just doesn't shut down for me to fall asleep so it can take me a hour or more to fall asleep normally and under the circumstances now it's just all a joke, but more that anything I want a good nights sleep.

[Pugsy]

I know you probably need the Celexa right now but it probably isn't doing your sleep quality any favors.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citalopram
Despite the "may cause drowsiness" sticker that may come with it....it also is known to promote insomnia.
Insomnia is a common side effect for all the SSRI meds in that category.

[TyroneShoes]

Anyone considering Ambien or Lunesta should really consider the potential side-effects.

We have a reptile brain that all behavior is wired directly to, which operates irrationally, like an infant, with everything wired to basic drives like survival, sex, food, drink. It does not consider consequences at all. We also have a higher-functioning brain that has developed around the reptile brain which is responsible for separating us, behavior-wise, from the animals (or the other animals).

But that brain is not directly wired to behavior at all. It works in a "fly-by-wire" mode by modifying the potential behavior of the reptile brain. All behavior goes through and is initiated by the reptile brain, with guidance from the higher-functioning brain hopefully keeping behavior reasonable. That is how we operate, 24/7. The term "crime of passion" refers to behavior where the higher-functioning brain may have been unable to control the reptile brain's behavior.

What Ambien can do is put the higher-functioning brain to sleep. But what can happen is that suppression of the higher-functioning brain can continue while the reptile brain can wake up independently. This means that the reptile brain is now in control with no guidance from the higher-functioning brain. There are numerous stories on the internet of wild behavior under Ambien due to this exact phenomenon, stories suppressed by the drug manufacturers, and they include road rage, sex behavior never dreamed of, drinking everything in the wet bar, eating everything in the fridge, fatal auto accidents and falls from rooftops, etc. Careers have been destroyed. Families torn apart. Lives have been lost.

If you do not want to be shipped off to jail for peeing in the middle of a major intersection at 3 AM in your underwear (which would be at least not nearly as dangerous as what could also happen), stay completely away from Ambien and Lunesta, because every single time you take it is a game of Russian Roulette just waiting to go horribly wrong.

That beautiful flying gossamer butterfly in the commercial? That is not just an image implying the relaxed state from Lunesta, that is something you might actually think you can see. And it might invite you to fly out the window along with it.

[49er]

TyroneShoes,

As one who went through side effect hell while on psych meds for multiple years, I definitely understand your concerns. But at the same time, not sleeping is also hell for people and the risks have to be balanced against the benefits. And not everyone ends up with those side effects as an FYI even though it may seem like they do.

49er

Anyone considering Ambien or Lunesta should really consider the potential side-effects.

We have a reptile brain that all behavior is wired directly to, which operates irrationally, like an infant, with everything wired to basic drives like survival, sex, food, drink. It does not consider consequences at all. We also have a higher-functioning brain that has developed around the reptile brain which is responsible for separating us, behavior-wise, from the animals (or the other animals).

But that brain is not directly wired to behavior at all. It works in a "fly-by-wire" mode by modifying the potential behavior of the reptile brain. All behavior goes through and is initiated by the reptile brain, with guidance from the higher-functioning brain hopefully keeping behavior reasonable. That is how we operate, 24/7. The term "crime of passion" refers to behavior where the higher-functioning brain may have been unable to control the reptile brain's behavior.

What Ambien can do is put the higher-functioning brain to sleep. But what can happen is that suppression of the higher-functioning brain can continue while the reptile brain can wake up independently. This means that the reptile brain is now in control with no guidance from the higher-functioning brain. There are numerous stories on the internet of wild behavior under Ambien due to this exact phenomenon, stories suppressed by the drug manufacturers, and they include road rage, sex behavior never dreamed of, drinking everything in the wet bar, eating everything in the fridge, fatal auto accidents and falls from rooftops, etc. Careers have been destroyed. Families torn apart. Lives have been lost.

If you do not want to be shipped off to jail for peeing in the middle of a major intersection at 3 AM in your underwear (which would be at least not nearly as dangerous as what could also happen), stay completely away from Ambien and Lunesta, because every single time you take it is a game of Russian Roulette just waiting to go horribly wrong.

That beautiful flying gossamer butterfly in the commercial? That is not just an image implying the relaxed state from Lunesta, that is something you might actually think you can see. And it might invite you to fly out the window along with it.

[Pugsy]

not everyone ends up with those side effects

So true.
You know that I have been taking Ambien off and on for over 5 years now. Never had one negative side effect though I am still hoping to have the wild sex side effect.

I guess I need to start telling everyone "don't take melatonin at all because you can have negative side effects".

Sleep aids...or any meds/drugs/"natural" stuff of any kind...all have potential side effects and it's always a risk vs rewards situation with any drugs and thus education and discussion with a person's doctor is the best way to determine if a particular drug is something a person wants to take or to avoid.

[Finnc]

The sleep doctor prescribed zopiclone. Has anyone been on that?


Of course if I thought ambien would make me have some crazy sex I would be getting on that in a heart beat. Lol

[Pugsy]

The wild sex thing may not be such a great thing...I think it means we might do things we would not normally do and not remember them and thus probably not remember to good (or bad) of it. Wouldn't it just frost you to have the best sex of your life and not remember it?

I have no experience with Zopiclone...only have with the Ambien but I don't take Ambien on a regular basis...it's mainly a drug of last resort and even then I cut them in half.
I educated myself on the pros and cons of it and sometimes the pros simply outweigh the cons.

My sleep maintenance insomnia (I go to sleep easily but wake often during the night) stem from arthritis pain waking me up.
So we have gone through various trials and combination of things to help reduce the pain as best we can.
The Ambien helps me stay asleep with less awakenings with the pain...sort of helps me sleep through the pain or just deep enough that I don't wake as often. I have other meds that I normally take to help and the Ambien is used when I either have forgotten to take the other meds early enough to help or some unusual situation has come up where I need extra help. I am very aware of all it's potential side effects and for that reason I am cautious with my doses and frequency.

You are in the middle of a particularly rough patch right now. If you and your doctor feel that this sort of medication is worth a try to help you through the rough patch...that's between you and your doctor. Like 49er says...sometimes we gotta do what we gotta do because we simply have to get some sleep. I feel like it's a double whammy to be hit with a rough spot AND not be able to get enough restorative sleep simply because we need that restorative sleep to be able to mentally and physically deal with the rough spot. If we don't get the sleep we need it only compounds the rough spot. How are we ever going to dig ourselves out of the hole if we simply don't have the energy to do any digging?

So like I have always said...there's a time and place for just about anything and it's between you and your doctor if you think this is the time and place.

I do have some thoughts on maybe a different med that isn't quite so scary in terms of potential side effects that might help.
If you want to hear those thoughts just send me a private message and I will explain further. I don't want to do it here right now for my own reasons that I wish to keep private.