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Middle of the night insomnia help! Which med is best bet!


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I've never had worst middle of the night insomnia before, it's been a disaster.  i've been taking restoril but it stopped working!  Ambien stopped working.  Lunesta stopped working.  I'm falling asleep easy but can't stay asleep and wake in middle of the night with mind racing, can't get back to sleep.  Yes, i'm well aware restoril is benzo, ambien and lunesta close.  That's no issue, please is ambien or lunesta better for me as restoril wont keep me asleep.  thanks everyone!
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You probably can’t sleep because you have developed a tolerance to restoril. I recommend tapering off of it and not taking pills to sleep. It’ll really suck for a while, but your body will figure out how to sleep on its own.
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  • 2 weeks later...

I've never had worst middle of the night insomnia before, it's been a disaster.  i've been taking restoril but it stopped working!  Ambien stopped working.  Lunesta stopped working.  I'm falling asleep easy but can't stay asleep and wake in middle of the night with mind racing, can't get back to sleep.  Yes, i'm well aware restoril is benzo, ambien and lunesta close.  That's no issue, please is ambien or lunesta better for me as restoril wont keep me asleep.  thanks everyone!

 

Funny, cause the half-life of temazepam (Restoril) is 8-22 hours. It means that you have developed complete tolerance to it. Zolpidem (Ambien) has a half-life of 2 hrs, while Lunesta - 6 hrs. Neither makes sense. You could try a crossover to diazepam with the help of some non-benzodiazepine sleep agent. If your doctor decides you need it. If you take all three, then you're in serious trouble.

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I've never had worst middle of the night insomnia before, it's been a disaster.  i've been taking restoril but it stopped working!  Ambien stopped working.  Lunesta stopped working.  I'm falling asleep easy but can't stay asleep and wake in middle of the night with mind racing, can't get back to sleep.  Yes, i'm well aware restoril is benzo, ambien and lunesta close.  That's no issue, please is ambien or lunesta better for me as restoril wont keep me asleep.  thanks everyone!

 

Ambien and Lunesta MIGHT even be worse for you than Restoril, but they certainly are going to make things very much more unpleasant for you if you continue to use them while in your current state. Picture your current insomnia dragging out for one, two or maybe even more years. I have been there and done that.

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I try to only take something for sleep if I havnt slept for a night or two. When I make the smallest cut it destroys my sleep but if I can go one night with zero sleep then I might take something to help with sleep the next night.

 

I would also taper off all the sleep medication and tough thru the insomnia for a while and then only take something if you really really need to sleep.

 

good luck

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I am experiencing insomnia. Ugh! I hate it. I am on the 4th day of weaning off of Alprazolem. So excited. Have been working on this since last November. Any ideas out there to get back some sleep? Thank you,
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  • 1 month later...

I have good news:  I'm almost a year off Xanax, and sleep has been the last thing to get back to normal.  Last week I was sleeping for maybe an hour at a time, one to 4 times a night.  I had foggy symptoms all day, and a heavy head, head pressure, slow adjustment to fast head movements.  But, the insomnia was making me anxious because sleep is so important.

 

Finally, I determined to find out what my root issues are?  Talked to a psychiatrist.  She seemed to think my lack of sleep needed to be addressed immediately and prescribed me 50mg trazadone.  I resisted taking it and researched it.  I finally decided sleep was worth the risk and took 25mg.  That was 5 nights ago, and I've done it for the last 5 nights.  No side effects.  I'm more calm, and I actually sleep for 6+ hours/night.  I still wake up 2 or 3 times for water and to pee, but, I'm right back to sleep as soon as I lay down.

 

Also helpful was listening to YouTube guided sleep meditations when I'm ready to sleep.  I also tried wearing blue blocker classes when I watch TV before bedtime.

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I have good news:  I'm almost a year off Xanax, and sleep has been the last thing to get back to normal.  Last week I was sleeping for maybe an hour at a time, one to 4 times a night.  I had foggy symptoms all day, and a heavy head, head pressure, slow adjustment to fast head movements.  But, the insomnia was making me anxious because sleep is so important.

 

Finally, I determined to find out what my root issues are?  Talked to a psychiatrist.  She seemed to think my lack of sleep needed to be addressed immediately and prescribed me 50mg trazadone.  I resisted taking it and researched it.  I finally decided sleep was worth the risk and took 25mg.  That was 5 nights ago, and I've done it for the last 5 nights.  No side effects.  I'm more calm, and I actually sleep for 6+ hours/night.  I still wake up 2 or 3 times for water and to pee, but, I'm right back to sleep as soon as I lay down.

 

Also helpful was listening to YouTube guided sleep meditations when I'm ready to sleep.  I also tried wearing blue blocker classes when I watch TV before bedtime.

 

I jumped right after you did  but off of massive amounts of klonopin I took for years and just suddenly having devastating insomnia .  I had been making fairly good progress .

 

I went to a new dr so I am not sure if the fear from that did it or what , she was very nice and DOES believe all of us but still I have very severe PTSD from this whole thing and the medical providers bizarre attitudes .

 

I am so afraid of any med but I have slept 4 hours in 48 . This is worse than acute was . Just out of the blue like this .  I have my favorite asmr vids on you tube I watch .

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I jumped right after you did  but off of massive amounts of klonopin I took for years and just suddenly having devastating insomnia .  I had been making fairly good progress .

 

I went to a new dr so I am not sure if the fear from that did it or what , she was very nice and DOES believe all of us but still I have very severe PTSD from this whole thing and the medical providers bizarre attitudes .

 

I am so afraid of any med but I have slept 4 hours in 48 . This is worse than acute was . Just out of the blue like this .  I have my favorite asmr vids on you tube I watch .

Hey Blue, Sleep is pretty important.  Some days I feel pretty normal.  One of the things that seems to have changed is how I feel when tired.  Instead of just feeling sleepy, I feel mild benzo symptoms instead.  It's weird. But, if I sleep well, I feel pretty good during the day.  Sometimes if I sit in front of the TV in the evening, I just doze off, which feels great.

 

So, you tapered for almost four years?  That's a very reasonable pace.  I wasn't on it for too long or too high of a dose.  But, I think we all eventually get over it, eventually.  It's hard to be patient with this.  I met a guy on here that tapered off of decades of use and massive quantities.  He's doing well, and says he's over it and has moved on.  Don't let it beat you up.  You got this!

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