May have solved my own sleep issue

As you may recall the last few posts I originated had to do with not sleeping well even with CPAP and waking continuously through the night. This had continued with me trying every substance I could get my hands on. Melatonin, Lavendar, Ambien, Alcohol. Trazadone, Soma, and finally Mirapex.
My hubby and I one day had a discussion on medications I take on an every day basis and how they might be interacting with the things I was trying to help with night time meds, and I decided to go cold turkey at night and try nothing. I am finally beginning to learn that doing nothing is many times the correct thing to do.
When I first started CPAP it was uncomfortable and new and of course irritating. This caused me to use other aids both minor and major to try to sleep. Each med I take usually causes its own problems, thereby starting a vicious cycle.
Since I stopped all night time sleep enhancing medication I am sleeping better than I have in 2 years. Now that I am use to the machine I don't appear to really NEED sleep aids and by thinking I had to have them and adding them to the mix it appears I was causing more problems than I was curing.
I still wake up off and on during the night but less so and I am getting better and deeper sleep.
Has anyone else had this epiphany???

Glad to hear that DG.

Best wishes for continued good sleep.

Den

I have never used sleeping aids so can't really comment from experience. My feeling is that sleep aid drugs cause their own problems with sleep. Some people feel they help when beginning cpap but should not be used long term. Others seem to need them continuously.

I do very well without them and, it appears, you now do too! I think that's a very good thing.

Glad to hear you're sleeping well without sleep aids!

Congratulations!

I have similar exerance but I don,t consider a problem I will wake up in the night and as I don,t have a clock within my vision I have no clue as to the time I will feel as thought as I've slept through the night and ready to get up. I realize it's still night relax enjoy my pur-sleep aroma and the next thing I'm asleep again I will do this sometines 3 times during the night. I do listen to my cpap and it is in the very quite mode so I know I'm in the lower range of my apap setting. I also note the exhaust is not at full power . I don't have access to print out but my daily and weekly averages are within a tight good range. When I win the lottery I'll get data equiped. I stay awake all day and have lots of energy so something is working right.

Hmmm, wonder how all the pills I take are interacting....

I have one of those 4x7 pill reminders. Though (until recently) I only take pills before bedtime.

So, I would fill each of the boxes with what I needed, and that would cover me for 4 weeks....and then I go refill my prescriptions.

I was up filling 3 boxes per night, so I had to get a second one...so I could have 2 weeks worth of pills laid out for myself.

Now I'm antibiotics, so I'm taking doses morning and night....

At first I didn't have that doled out into the pill reminder...but after a couple of mornings where I couldn't remember if I had remembered or not....

Part of the pill growth is the statin that I was prescribed for my high cholesterol...and a couple of big pills of fish oil, because it concerns me that my good cholesterol is so low now. The last few times, the doctor has only tested my bad cholesterol ... in monitoring my progress on that front. Plus in the winter I take a bigger pill in the hopes to avoid catching colds (than the pill I take for seasonal allergies.)

The Dreamer.

I was getting a better night's sleep for a while after CPAP, but not in many months due to injuries, muscle cramps, 'Jimmy legs' (RLS), enlarged prostate and my wife's snoring, coughing, and talking in her sleep . (what a drag it is getting old)

Went to my doc last wednesday and discussed it with him. Because of apnea, he didn't want to prescribe Ambien, which I had taken before. Instead he prescribed something else. Don't know the name because the pharmacy was out of it, but they gave me 6 50mg doses in a clear vial to tide me over. I understand that it's a 150mg triangular pill that's scored 3 ways so you can break off the proper dose for you. Doc told me to start at 50mg for a week. He said it's non-addictive. I'll post the name when I get to the pharmacy and pick it up.

The last two nights I've slept soundly, where before I would wake up (but go right back to sleep) about 4 - 12 times a night. It may take a while for me to get to sleep, but once I'm out, I'M OUT! Works for me.

SLEEP WELL

Dieselgal, I also have in the past taken medication to get to sleep (commenced pre CPAP).

Since being on CPAP, my sleep patterns have graduated from awake on and off all night (pre CPAP and up to 3 months or so ago), to recently sleeping through 'til about 3.30-4am, then maybe dropping off again, maybe not! Doesn't matter whether I go to sleep at 8pm, 10pm or midnight, still wake the same time. This change - definitely for the better, at least I sleep through for some hours - seemed to occur when I dropped the sleeping tablets, simply because the (lack of) sleep couldn't get any worse really.

what a drag it is getting old

Nanuke, I agree - I don't always wake due to a need to go to the bathroom, but if I'm going to drop off, won't do so 'til I have. Used to be, you'd not shake me out of bed for any reason!

nanuke wrote:I understand that it's a 150mg triangular pill that's scored 3 ways so you can break off the proper dose for you.

Boy, what a great puzzle!! But for the life of me, I can't see how you can score a triangle such that it would reliably break into 3 equal parts.

I mean, I guess you could do this



but again, because there would be 2 angles on each score, I would question whether the break would occur "reliably".

Could it be a trapezoid (which could easily be made into 3 triangles) cause then it could be trazodone.

SAG

Hi dieselgal: I read your post, so thought I'd try it. I went to bed at 10pm last night, and couldn't get to sleep. After 1 1/2 hrs. of that, I got up and took the Ambien CR. Maybe I'll try without it again in a few nights..

nanuke wrote:...that's scored 3 ways...

Whoops!! Trapezoidal trazodone won't work, cause that's only scored 2 ways.

SAG

NO WAIT!! I think I got it now.

Bisect all sides, which would give mechanically reliable scores:



Then sort the 18 pieces into 9 piles by size.

No, that's not gonna work either...

THAT DOES IT!!

Just get a



and grind 'em up into



and then just

DG, you've done a good job of working out your problem. That's impressive. Thanks for inspiring us all to keep looking for sleep solutions.
Jane