What food/supplement/therapy/etc. has helped you with sleep?

[[mu...]]

Many of us here are struggling with sleep, I'm one of you. I c/t Lorazepam (Ativan) 3 weeks ago after 4 weeks of fast taper and Zolpidem ER 6.5mg (Ambien) 1 week ago. ) Had 0 sleep every other day since Aug. 19. About 16 hrs of total sleep in 6 days. I used to be able to get back to sleep while on Ambien but I'm struggling to fall asleep now. I feel sleepy and yawn and very tired though and try to sleep but still I won't even go to stage 1. Please do share whatever has helped with your sleep, food suggestions, supplements, or whatever has helped you! I'm sure there would be something that would ease our suffering, thanks in advance!

[[me...]]

Good for you for getting off that stuff! Hang tight, things will get better, you are in the thick of it right now.

 

From what I have seen and been through, I can't recommend any certain supplement or OTC med. Pretty much everything has back fired for me and most have caused insomnia to worsen. I would say try to eat as healthily as possible. Cut out sugar if you can. I would also cut out caffeine and alcohol completely for now.

 

Things that helped me were--using blue blocker glasses and a blue blocker bulb on my lamp. Having a huge pile of reading material available at all times. I can't tell you how many times I laid in bed with the light on, reading, and just set the book down "for a minute" and then fell asleep. Even if you can't sleep, just closing your eyes and resting as quietly as you can is still very restful for the brain.

 

Keep a very strict schedule of going to bed and getting up. Get out every morning into daylight to help your circadian rhythm reset and get the right hormones going. Get a bit of exercise, just a bit a walking will do, even if you don't feel up to it.

 

The most important thing is to let go of worry about not sleeping and trust your body to take care of you. Try not to obsess about how much sleep you are missing, and be happy for every bit you do get. 

[[Qu...]]

Everything meowie just said. I'm still going to bed and getting up at the same time each day, it has worked wonders.

 

All I can add is that I found some of Michael Sealey's YouTube videos helpful to calm me down and sometimes induce daytime naps in the early months.

 

Also, for me, any tummy problems aggravate insomnia, so I eat my main meal in the middle of the day with my last snack around 6:30pm. And eat lots of dried fruit.

 

It's tough for a while, but it gets better.

[[ni...]]

I was put on clonazepam in the late 1990s for chronic insomnia.  I started out going to a counselor for marital problems, she sent me to a psychiatrist for meds. I walked out with Clonazepam, Ambien and Wellbutrin, none of which I asked for.  I was happy to be sleeping again and trusted the shrink. ha

FF to 2017. Still married to the same man. He was incredibly verbally abusive, but somehow I survived his tirades.  He now has Alzheimer's and I'm his primary caretaker. We do have nursing home insurance, so there will perhaps come a day. Anyway,

I started coming off of clonazepam in February, 2017, after reaching tolerance 10-15 years ago and several failed attempts at getting off of this drug. I was able to get off of Ambien in 2015, with no trouble at all. It was by accidentally tricking the brain. I got some new HRT pills, which looked very similar to Ambien. I mixed to two together in the pill bottle, one night and was taking one or the other to sleep. When I realized it one night, I just stopped taking Ambien and never looked back.

As for what to do about insomnia, it does get better now and then. I won't die from not sleeping and sometimes feel more alert when I don't sleep as when I do. I've tried herbals, antihistamines, sleepy time tea. (the tea does work, at least for me. I heat a maybe an ounce of water and sip it right before I go to bed.)

I also drink an ounce of fat free milk and eat a dab of peanut butter. Then I go to bed and read for a while. That brings on a lot of yawning. It is best to put the book down before the yawning goes away. Then I do deep breathing, tense and relax from my toes, working up to my head/face.  Use pressure points on my hands, and neck. I usually go right to sleep, but typically wake up after an hour or more and then lie awake for a few hours.

Once in a blue moon, I sleep for 7 hours or so. Typically, I sleep for 4 or less. I figure when my body/brain really needs the sleep, it will come. My taper is slow and will stay that way until I jump. Good luck to you!

[[mu...]]

Good for you for getting off that stuff! Hang tight, things will get better, you are in the thick of it right now.

 

From what I have seen and been through, I can't recommend any certain supplement or OTC med. Pretty much everything has back fired for me and most have caused insomnia to worsen. I would say try to eat as healthily as possible. Cut out sugar if you can. I would also cut out caffeine and alcohol completely for now.

 

Things that helped me were--using blue blocker glasses and a blue blocker bulb on my lamp. Having a huge pile of reading material available at all times. I can't tell you how many times I laid in bed with the light on, reading, and just set the book down "for a minute" and then fell asleep. Even if you can't sleep, just closing your eyes and resting as quietly as you can is still very restful for the brain.

 

Keep a very strict schedule of going to bed and getting up. Get out every morning into daylight to help your circadian rhythm reset and get the right hormones going. Get a bit of exercise, just a bit a walking will do, even if you don't feel up to it.

 

The most important thing is to let go of worry about not sleeping and trust your body to take care of you. Try not to obsess about how much sleep you are missing, and be happy for every bit you do get.

 

Thanks for the suggestions Meowie!

I too am hesitant to try other supplements and just wanted to know which food to eat to help with insomnia. I try to eat healthy, oatmeal, eggs, fruits, non-fat yogurt, grass fed beef & chicken, spinach, walnuts, papaya, okra. And I only use honey as sweetener. I don't drink alcohol or drinks with caffeine. I drink non-fat milk and sometimes mixed with unflavored cocoa.

 

Sleep has been the #1 issue for me and the reason why I was given Ambien. I didn't know that the Ambien should only be taken for not more than a month. I was not told or was too busy to even check online. Same goes with the Lorazepam (Ativan). I developed a trauma of not being able to sleep and I still have that but I so want to get my natural sleep back and not be on pills the rest of my life that' why I decided to quit taking the pills. They don't work anymore so might as well stop.

 

I just don't know how long this sleeplessness would last after the cold turkey.

[[mu...]]

Everything meowie just said. I'm still going to bed and getting up at the same time each day, it has worked wonders.

 

All I can add is that I found some of Michael Sealey's YouTube videos helpful to calm me down and sometimes induce daytime naps in the early months.

 

Also, for me, any tummy problems aggravate insomnia, so I eat my main meal in the middle of the day with my last snack around 6:30pm. And eat lots of dried fruit.

 

It's tough for a while, but it gets better.

 

Thanks! I had set up a regular schedule while I was taking the Ambien & Ativan. It was easy then because I sleep within 30 minutes of taking the pills.  I tried following the same routine after the cold turkey but it has been very difficult. Before, it was good to have an empty stomach by 9:00 so that the pills would work better. Now, if I eat at 6:30 pm, I'd be hungry by the time I get to bed at 9pm and that hunger & thirst keeps me awake all night. I'm also experiencing this burning sensation in my head when I go to bed hungry, not sure if I was getting dehydrated during the night so I tend to drink water to ease the burning. Then after an hour or so of still being awake, I'd had to go to the bathroom...it's so frustrating. Seems my whole system just won't shut off even if I'm tired and sleepy. If only I'd be able to sleep on time, I won't be hungry or thirsty.

 

Have you experienced any of these burning head, thirst & hunger at night?

[[Qu...]]

Hi Mudra,

Reading your sig, you are still very early in acute withdrawal. I'm not surprised that you are experiencing the symptoms you describe - the weird head sensations, insomnia, frequent trips to the loo are very common.

 

I had too much nausea at that stage to be bothered by hunger, so can't comment on that. I'm coeliac, so don't eat gluten anyway - otherwise my diet has not changed. Personally, I found that what i ate made no difference to the withdrawal symptoms, I just had to avoid constipation as that made the insomnia worse, and acid reflux, which does the same. The only reason I changed my main meal time was to reduce the chance of reflux. This has worked for me. I'm nearly sixty, you might not have this problem!

 

Hold tight, you're off all meds so every day is one less to suffer. Try to practice acceptance, and mindful meditation, they are great tools for the future too, when you are well again. Don't expect too much too soon, you need to play the long game with benzo withdrawal. But for most people the suffering decreases significantly over time, it's not this bad the whole time.

 

[[Se...]]

Sleep can feel impossible in acute withdrawal, making every other side effect just that much worse.  I've only found one thing strong enough to knock me out that wasn't a narcotic, and I credit this sleep with making it possible to get free.  Seroquel (Qiatepine I think) is an antipsychotic prescribed off label for insomnia.  It's a sledgehammer approach, but it works.  Stronger than trazodone, stronger than Nyquil, and immensely more effective than any supplement.  Naturally, there are many Gabanergics that will do the trick, but they kind of defeat the purpose and delay the inevitable.

 

 

[[mu...]]

Sleep can feel impossible in acute withdrawal, making every other side effect just that much worse.  I've only found one thing strong enough to knock me out that wasn't a narcotic, and I credit this sleep with making it possible to get free.  Seroquel (Qiatepine I think) is an antipsychotic prescribed off label for insomnia.  It's a sledgehammer approach, but it works.  Stronger than trazodone, stronger than Nyquil, and immensely more effective than any supplement.  Naturally, there are many Gabanergics that will do the trick, but they kind of defeat the purpose and delay the inevitable.

 

Good for you for finding something that works! How much dosage of Seroquel were you taking? And how far were you from discontinuing benzo when you took Seroquel? I was offered this med too to replace Ambien/Ativan but I hesitated because I wanted to be drug free. But now I'm struggling badly with sleep. Just had 4 hrs of unrestful sleep in 5 days. Very weak now...and I would consider anything now that would help me sleep. I just got a script for 100mg Gabapentin and would try it tonight.

[[mo...]]

Taurine is helping my sleep for the past almost month.  I don't know if it would have helped early on or not.  I'm getting longer sleep that is more reliable.  I had some stress/excitability recently and sleep worsened for a few nights, then last night back to 6- 7 hours.  Still fragile, broken sleep. I usually wake up at least twice a night but able to fall back asleep. So it is not a cure by any means but I'm so much more hopeful.

[[mu...]]

Taurine is helping my sleep for the past almost month.  I don't know if it would have helped early on or not.  I'm getting longer sleep that is more reliable.  I had some stress/excitability recently and sleep worsened for a few nights, then last night back to 6- 7 hours.  Still fragile, broken sleep. I usually wake up at least twice a night but able to fall back asleep. So it is not a cure by any means but I'm so much more hopeful.

 

I'm in the same boat with you regarding being stressed out. I actually have a phobia of not being able to sleep and other stresses after I was rushed to the ER for not sleeping for 3 consecutive nights and had extreme physical anxiety (twitiching and shaking). And I'm also scared of being dependent on drugs that's why I C/T my meds. But now that I'm only getting less than 5 hrs of sleep in a week, I'm considering reinstating at least the Ambien. I didn't have insomnia before and I can manage to get back to sleep early on while I was taking Ambien. But because of my fear of another sleepless night, I continued on the Ambien until it didn't work anymore. Eventually, my body somehow got dependent on the drugs that's why withdrawal has been very very difficult. I really wish I tapered the Ambien sooner while my body still knows how to fall asleep and wish I never took the Ativan.

[[Se...]]

I absolutely understand wanting to be completely unmedicatrd.  It took multiple failures at cessation before I finally accepted that I needed something to help me get off klonopin.

 

I went to a detox facility where they tapered me in a week with a lot of medications to try to help.  3 days in I had a grand mal seizure and they adjusted my meds to a point where I could actually sleep.

 

Seroquel: 100mg

Doxepin: 100mg

Melatonin: 50mg

 

That's the stack that knocked me out when nothing else could.  I also took Gabapentin, 400mg 3x a day

 

If you can do this without meds, more power to you, but if there's ever a time they can actually help, it's now.  I wouldn't try to tough it out through this.  It's gonna be borderline impossible regardless.