Belsomra (suvorexant) trial---UPDATE at end of Page 1

I got the free 10-day trial prescription from my sleep Dr. recently and have tried it twice so far, not on consecutive nights.

The first time I tried it, I took it within hours of returning to Washington DC from Europe so I couldn't fairly assess its effectiveness due to the jet lag. I did however, experience an upset stomach stomach for awhile.

The second time I tried it, last night, the results were "meh." I fell asleep within an hour of taking it, but I woke up approximately 2 hours later. Fell back asleep, woke up 2 hours after that and tossed and turned for the rest of the night, perhaps dozed a little bit an hour before getting up at 6. This is a typical night for me, not that different than if I hadn't taken anything at all. Didn't have any heartburn this time around.

Currently my only prescription sleep aid is 30 mg. of Temazepam, which knocks me out for about an average of 6 hours. It's the only thing that works effectively for me after giving up Ambien about 5 years ago. I attribute its effectiveness to the dosage. My hunch is that 30 mg of Belsomra could do the same thing but I don't see any need to use it at this point, especially since reading about the vivid dreams and nightmares that people seem to have when taking this drug. Just doesn't seem worth it.

I have not checked on how it affected my CPAP use. I had the mask on for much of the night, though. I took the mask off probably about an hour after waking up the second time. My situation is probably fairly unique however- After nearly 10 months of CPAP use, I have concluded that SA is not responsible for my insomnia, so I doubt that I would glean anything useful from the data.