waking after 2hrs can't get back to sleep, so only getting 2hrs sleep a night...

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I feel like I'm dying, someone help me...

 

If this goes on much longer I'm going to cut my wrists

 

I've had 4hrs sleep in 6 days

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I stopped sleeping kept myself awake whilst my parents were away, now they're back I've got 2hrs a night for the last few nights

[[Tr...]]

I went through that after cutting my xanax .25 mg from 2 mg at the time. I only got 6 hrs of sleep total for two weeks straight! I thought I was gonna jump off a bridge so I feel for you (  all I can say is that it got better after that. I did start using melatonin gummy' s and I also tried 100 mgs trazadone which helped me sleep but I got really bad dry mouth and nose. I don't know about the drug your currently on but if you can try using one of those options to see if that helps. Trazadone is by prescription so you'd have to ask your Dr for that. Good luck and wishing you a good night's rest.

 

Trishy

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Hi Zuko,

 

So sorry to hear that.  I went through the same thing with Ambien/Zolpidem.  I would get only a couple of hours of sleep, and then I would wake up and be unable to go back to sleep for the rest of the night.  I had reached tolerance and the rebound insomnia was just awful, among other things.  Some suggest that increasing the dose helps to manage tolerance, but it's not practical in my opinion because one would have to increase the dose indefinitely to keep tolerance at bay.  What's connected to tolerance is 'tolerance withdrawal', which is also referred to as 'interdose withdrawal' which means you feel lousy anyway because the body needs more drug to keep functioning 'normally' as the current dose is no longer enough, and the body goes into withdrawal mode until the next dose.  This is particularly true with z-drugs because they have short half-lives, and once a person has developed tolerance, the withdrawal symptoms kick in between doses.  I was there with Ambien/Zolpidem, tolerance and interdose withdrawals were just awful.  Insufficient sleep is hard enough on its own, and then factor in the tolerance and interdose withdrawals, and you're really in a tough predicament.  I got off z-drug exactly because of that: tolerance and daily interdose withdrawals, I couldn't take it anymore.

 

Now, how you deal with tolerance on a z-drug is another issue altogether.  Like I said before, the dose increase is not practical because one can't keep increasing the dose indefinitely once tolerance has set in.  Stabilizing at the current dose and then doing gradual taper from there is probably best, because it gives the body a chance to adjust as the drug diminishes and leaves the system.  But there's a qualifier to that.  Some suggest that once tolerance is reached on a z-drug with a short-half life, taper is not necessarily practical because of the interdose withdrawals, which are way harder on the body than getting off altogether and going through a subsequent withdrawal only once.  Another option, as you know, would be to switch to a long-acting benzo and doing a gradual taper from there.  So you do have options, maybe you could discuss them with your doctor, I definitely would.

 

Hope you feel better soon.  What you feel right now is not at all uncommon with z-drugs, the fear, the despair, and the unbearable interdose withdrawals.  These z-drugs can be vicious, especially if used long-term.  I was there, and I do feel for you.  Wishing you the best, and keep updating us.