How long off and how are you sleeping?

[[Su...]]

A  lot of people have told me they think it's the TRazodone withdrawal too, so now that I've read these 2 posts, I agree. Last night was even more dreadful than usual...my hubby told me at 3:30 this morning to take more Seroquel. I did and it didn't work...but because I wasn't able to sleep it off I'm dreadfully nervous this morning..so NO MORE updosing on the Seroquel.

 

If I have to take something for sleep, I think I would rather reinstate the Trazodone than increase the dose of Seroquel. What do you guys think? I could always reinstate the Trazodone and wait until I'm a year off benzos to taper off of it, and much much slower this time. I think for me Trazodone needs to be tapered like a benzo.

 

ReadyToBeWell- I'm getting 1-3 also, how in the world did you deal with it? Did you try Benadryl or anything like that.

 

I'm not ready to throw in the towel yet, but I am getting super sick and I have a 6 hr trip to make this weekend for a family members wedding...ug! 

[[...]]

Sunny I saw my doctor last week and we decided to put me back on Traz since I really needed sleep due to a high energy/multi-tasking job. I've been Klonopin free for over a year now. It takes a little over a week for the Traz to take effect, but I'm starting to get an OK sleep pattern going. 4-5 hours is a good night. 8 is almost unheard of, maybe once a month. My dreams are better. They are strange but at least they aren't terrifying like they used to be. Traz is a piece of cake and I can function normally, unlike the horrid Klonopin I used to be on. Overall I'm feeling like my old self again.

For so long I was on the "WANT TO BE CLEAN OF ALL MEDS" mantra, but I couldn't stand the insomnia anymore. I'm going to remain on Traz for at least 6 months to a year and see how I feel.

Despite what you hear, Traz needs to be tapered off, even though they say it's "non-addicting".

[[we...]]

I'm 15 weeks off and I started to get some hours back.  I'm now averaging 5 to 6 hours a night, but still fitfull and I still wake up tired.  Sleep is still all over the place, but I have not had a zero night in a couple of weeks, but I have had a two.

 

The sleep is increasing in hours, but it's still not restorative.  For the last three nights, I have not had "adrenaline rushes" in the middle of the night, which is a real bonus. 

 

 

[[Su...]]

Sunny I saw my doctor last week and we decided to put me back on Traz since I really needed sleep due to a high energy/multi-tasking job. I've been Klonopin free for over a year now. It takes a little over a week for the Traz to take effect, but I'm starting to get an OK sleep pattern going. 4-5 hours is a good night. 8 is almost unheard of, maybe once a month. My dreams are better. They are strange but at least they aren't terrifying like they used to be. Traz is a piece of cake and I can function normally, unlike the horrid Klonopin I used to be on. Overall I'm feeling like my old self again.

For so long I was on the "WANT TO BE CLEAN OF ALL MEDS" mantra, but I couldn't stand the insomnia anymore. I'm going to remain on Traz for at least 6 months to a year and see how I feel.

Despite what you hear, Traz needs to be tapered off, even though they say it's "non-addicting".

 

I'm glad you are starting to get some sleep. I too was in that mode of "WANT TO BE CLEAN OF ALL MEDS"...but I can't do this anymore without sleep. I'd take 5-6 hrs a night, it's the 1-3 that is killing me right now.

I hope it keeps working for you. I will do a MUCH slower taper next time, but honestly I'm not even going to worry about it right now..I just have to get through the benzo w/d first.

 

 

[[He...]]

I agree Sunny. Get through the benzos first. I am 14 months out. I am doing MUCH better on the sleep. At 7-9 months out I was averaging 2-3 hours on the good nights!

Now i sleep most nights but still hit insomnia about 2 to 3 nights a week.

It gets better.

[[jo...]]

Hi I am about 3.5 months off, a year of 2mg klonipin and at the end a couple months of 2-8mg of ativan my sleep actually got really bad about 2 months after starting the klonipin and now that iv'e quit them i notice only a very small improvements and they seem to come in waves it's either that sleep I don't realize i'm getting or a little bit of solid sleep with 3 or 4 interruptions

[[De...]]

I am now a little over 3 months and sleep has improved. I no longer have zero night of sleep, but around my period, I normally have rough nights.  I slept good last night with only one wake up to use the restroom, but the nights before I was in and out of sleep and very restless.  I can't wait for my hormones to figure itself out!! 

[[we...]]

I'm 4 months off and sleeping 6 or so hours, sometimes less, often broken.  It sound good, but I'm never rested and often wake up exhausted.  "when will this end".

[[re...]]

3.5 months foo and i'm getting better sleep but not what i want.

[[ma...]]

I am 4mos out and sleeping awful still. When I take Benadryl I can get almost 6 hrs, but I don't want to keep taking benadryl. The other nites I use tryptophan from 500-1500mg and some nites melatonin. Those nites its 1-4hrs. I was told tryptophan targets the same receptor sites as the benzos so now I am concerned about taking that. I can't imagine trying to go to bed without something. I know I would have 0 sleep. I had hoped to be better by now but I had terrible sleep problems before benzos and I am at that time of life where women just can't sleep...even those who were good sleepers in earlier years.

Can anyone tell me if it is bad to use trptophan and will it delay my healing?

Thanks, Kathi

12+ yrs temazapam and ambien  off 4 mos

[[we...]]

4 months and zero last night.  I had been  sleeping better, but now, maybe 20 minutes here and there.

[[De...]]

Kathi,

I tried Tryptophan (amongst every OTC pill out there -ug).  At the time, Clonazepam stopped working and I started using Tryptophan - took the max dosage on the bottle, but I only slept like 4 hours at a time.  I remember one time taking the pills at 10pm, waking up at 2 or 3am and taking more, and they didn't work the second time (very broken sleep- was not restful) and I still had to go to work and I was super groggy and drugged up it felt.  I took way more than the bottle directed and it just left me in a dark hole with no rest.  :'(  I think Tryptophan does work on the same GABA receptors, but in moderation it's a good amino acid that we all need in our body- but not not the max dosage on the bottle every day in my opinion. It didn't fair well with my body.    In my experience, I would not take Tryptophan pills or any pills for that matter as I feel anything can delay the healing.  The hard part is coping and I remember that at the time I couldn't fathom not taking anything before bed. I know that feeling.  :'(

 

I feel my brain is starting to heal finally and getting it's natural made hormones back.  Instead of taking Tryptophan pills, I googled foods that were high in Trypt and added them more into my diet. (I eat more turkey sandwhiches at work rather than eating pizza, ham sandwhiches or whatever)  My sleep is still all over the charts, but I am seeing much more good days than bad.  I also took Ambien and Temazepam back when I was taking pills...I feel your pain.  I'm still working through mine.  Take care Kathi.

[[ma...]]

Thank you for your response. I think you can really relate since you were on the same drugs as me, for the same reason. I guess I could try sleeping with no supplement of any kind, but I guess I will need to plan on that being a night of zero sleep. I have tried every supplement out there and melatonin and tryptophan are the only ones that helped at all. Nighty Night Tea helps a bit as do epsom salts baths for relaxation. The problem is getting that sleepy feeling. I may be relaxed and calm but just don't have that sleepy feeling. Since I am also weaning myself off daily wine, I know that is contributing to my sleep problems. I may be in another withdrawal from the wine, making my sleep worse. I haven't quit totally, but limiting to weekends.

I love hearing about some people finally being able to sleep. Most helpful are those that had awful sleep problems to begin with and now are actually sleeping naturally. Anyone who is sleeping well after 3or 4 mos off is not someone I can even relate to.

[[Cr...]]

Hey Wellness----I'm 5 months and 1 day and may have had 5 days since off k that were semi-ok sleep.. I was on 1 mg of K for 3 monghs and also on remeron for 5 months and got off also. I'm 52 and still struggling with heart palpatations, rapid heart beat, irregular breathing, leg jerks and body twitches. The most important thing for us right now is to eat right (no sugar, caffeneine, alcohol etc) and no aleopathic docs complaining about symptoms.. If I have one more idiot doc telling me it is anxiety or panic attack and wanting to give me meds I'll go crazy. My sleep is like this-----last week----5-7 hrs fragmented waking up1-3 times a night. This is better than 1 month ago which I was sleeping every other day. I beleive Beeper that in 2 years we will be OK--Protracted w/ds according to Dr Ashton can last upto 2 years- Just dont do anything stupid between now and then... I meant me stupid... I do take valerin root for the leg jerks  and a time release magnesium called Jigsaw... That seems to be my natural opiate... I'm also working with a integrated medical center to make sure i dont have metal toxicity, mold or intestinal yeast problem. I got the supplements from them and they are the only ones that recognize that I'm going thru w/ds... They also have an infra red suana to get K out of the bod---- Light workouts 20-30 minutes a day. also no naps for me either---5-10 minutes then I jerk/jilt right back up again...Finnally, I was told from a good friend that has been thru this to try to start living in the moment... This is valuable to me since last year I didnt enjoy what was going on around me because i was soooo consumed with my sleeping issues----Hope I helped

[[Ho...]]

This sounds familiar. My body will not go to sleep unless i knock myself out with something. Otherwise I could literally lay there with my eyes closed for 6-8 hours without falling asleep. It's torture. Now that I started Phenobarbital, I'm not sleeping at all. For this reason I'm tempted to stop the Pheno I need sleep, and the only way I can get it is by taking high doses of Benadryl, or some Trazodone, etc. Idk what to do 

[[ma...]]

Hi Holly. I can relate. I had to take benadryl the last 2 nites because I was so exhausted and had a 3 day migraine. If the headache goes away I will go back to 2.5melatonin and 500 tryptophan. It isn't great, but it helps. Like you, without some help, I would just lie awake all nite. You can do that for a nite of two and then you just can't. I keep waiting for my sleep to improve. I am 4 1/2 mos off temazapam and ambien and still really struggling. Am very glad to be off the drugs but I need sleep. My B12 was low, iron was low, and I wonder if it is from lack of sleep. The B 12 is helping give me some energy during the day and it is actually supposed to help with sleep somehow.

It helps to hear from others, that they are sleeping better, eventually. I just keep praying that will also happen for me. Unfortunately I've always had sleep problems and so does my father, and my son. I can't help but believe there is some hereditary issue here for me. I just think there are people that has sleep problems. That's why we got on the drugs in the first place. I am also trying to get back into meditating. A woman who wrote a book on sleep did a lot of analysis and she said meditation was the one thing that really helped her. It is just taking the time to do it twice a day that proves challenging.

Good luck to you and just know you are not alone in this sleep challenge. Everyone says it does get better.

Kathi

[[we...]]

maltese,

 

I too am 4 1/2 months off and still not sleeping.  To be fair, my bad days were 0,1 or 2 hours, now they are 3, or 4 hrs, so there is improvements, it's just so slow and my brain is so tired and sleep deprived.  It's all borken up, 1/2 hour here, 1 hour there, just all over the place.

[[Su...]]

Last Thursday I went to my psychiatrist because I just couldn't take it anymore. He gave me 25 mgs of Seroquel and .1mg of Clonodine...Thursday night, couldn't fall asleep so I took another 25 mg and slept a total of 8 hours. Next night, same dose...couldn't fall asleep again...took another 25..no sleep... ...Saturday night I took 50mgs and no clonodine and slept 10 hours!.. ...Sunday night I took 50 mgs slept 9 hours...   Monday night I took 37.5 mgs and got a total of 5-6....Tuesday night again 37.5mgs and maybe 3 hrs.

 

50mgs of Seroquel seems to be my magic number but doc won't let me stay that high...no point taking 25 if it doesn't work..why bother?

 

Very frustrated! 8 1/2months off and can not sleep without sleep meds.

[[ma...]]

Isn't it amazing how you can get so much sleep with these drugs...and so little without them? Why can't someone come up  with something natural to help us sleep??? I wonder is there is something wrong with the brains of those of us who can't sleep? I don't mean the benzo problems...I couldn't sleep before the benzo. That's what is scary to me. I know they say you can heal from the benzos and will be able to sleep eventually, but is that true for those of us who couldn't sleep pre benzo? Also, what about how absolutely terrible we feel with no sleep night after night? I have a chronic sore throat and wonder if it is from my immune system being compromised from lack of sleep.

Unfortunately I have to take Benadryl if I want to have a good amount of sleep. Last nite with Benadryl I slept 7 glorious hours. Now tonite I won't take it, only melatonin. Probably won't sleep more than 3. So frustrating. I will be 5 mos on the 15th! Yea for that at least.

Kathi

[[Su...]]

Yes it is amazing, and it amazing how wonderful I feel after I sleep that much! I am completely benzo w/d symptom free after a good night's sleep.

 

I wonder if I can ever heal from benzo w/d without sleep...I don't think so...and that is why I am taking Seroquel again. I get that these meds are all bad, but not sleeping and feeling like I am dying a little bit every night just so I can say I am "medication free" just isn't worth it anymore.

[[Ho...]]

Hi Holly. I can relate. I had to take benadryl the last 2 nites because I was so exhausted and had a 3 day migraine. If the headache goes away I will go back to 2.5melatonin and 500 tryptophan. It isn't great, but it helps. Like you, without some help, I would just lie awake all nite. You can do that for a nite of two and then you just can't. I keep waiting for my sleep to improve. I am 4 1/2 mos off temazapam and ambien and still really struggling. Am very glad to be off the drugs but I need sleep. My B12 was low, iron was low, and I wonder if it is from lack of sleep. The B 12 is helping give me some energy during the day and it is actually supposed to help with sleep somehow.

It helps to hear from others, that they are sleeping better, eventually. I just keep praying that will also happen for me. Unfortunately I've always had sleep problems and so does my father, and my son. I can't help but believe there is some hereditary issue here for me. I just think there are people that has sleep problems. That's why we got on the drugs in the first place. I am also trying to get back into meditating. A woman who wrote a book on sleep did a lot of analysis and she said meditation was the one thing that really helped her. It is just taking the time to do it twice a day that proves challenging.

Good luck to you and just know you are not alone in this sleep challenge. Everyone says it does get better.

Kathi

Hi Kathi,

Yep, you're right on - after a few days of that, you simply can't take it anymore. The only thing is, I've developed such a tolerance to Benadryl, that now I have to take 6-8 25mg tablets (so that's 150-200mg) in order to go to sleep. I know that this amount is not dangerous, and I believe the only effect of too much Benadryl hits when you reach 300mg and up, and that's hallucinations. That's terrifying! I know I would NOT recover from having an episode like that easily  

So, I'm trying to be really careful, and be smart about this... but when I'm laying there trying to sleep, and thinking about how this lack of sleep will impact me the next day, what sounds "smart" is to take the 6-8 Benadryl and get sleep. I just want out of this sleep trap  

 

 

And Sunny, I know what you mean when you question if you can even heal from all this without sleep! I often wonder if perhaps that's part of the reason why there's so many stories about suffering for such a long period of time... surely the outright lack (or absence!) of sleep must contribute to that? I know that Delta brain waves (which are only produced in deep sleep states) are when our body does most of the healing and repairing.

[[ma...]]

Hi Holly and Sunny. Looks like we are all struggling with sleep together. My continual question is...if we couldn't sleep before benzos, how will we be able to sleep afterwards? Now I have menopause to complicate things. I think some of us just have sleep issues naturally. So, how will we be able to sleep naturally? I try not to take benadryl, but I can only go a couple days with no sleep and then take the benadryl. Are we doing any big improvement since we are still taking drugs for sleep? Granted we're off the benzo's but will we ever sleep naturally, since we didn't prior to benzos. I guess we just have to give it more time like everyone says and hope for the best and hope we are like the others who can now sleep. Problem is, some of those people took benzos for different reasons, not sleep.

I have also stopped my nightly wine. I truly believe it helped me sleep. So I am having another withdrawal to complicate sleep problems. Maybe when my body is used to no wine, it will be able to sleep better. I will keep trying...but even those nites I still use melatonin and tryptophan. They help somewhat. Good luck and sleep to you both.

Kathi

[[Su...]]

I screwed myself up royally...stopped Seroquel after 7 nights...rebound insomnia is AWFUL! Friday night I took Benadryl, it made me so anxious and I was vibrating all over, I only slept 45min. in the morning I took Clonodine to try and calm down...yesterday I was like a walking zombie...last night at midnight I decided to try 100mgs of Trazodone again...all it did was give me terrible restless legs...so at 3am I broke down and took 50mgs of Seroquel...I slept like a rock for  6 1/2 hours, but when I woke up I was shaking all over and heart was racing so fast I was getting chest pains...hubby had me take a clonodine...I fell back to sleep for 1 hours..you would think all that sleep and I would feel great...I feel like I am going to die from a stroke.....everything that is wrong with me today is a side effect from the Benadryl, Clonodine, Trazodone, and Seroquel.....How could I be so stupid this far out?

 

I do not believe I will ever sleep naturally....but I don't know what to do because the side effects from sleep meds make benzo w/d 100 times worse. I'm in a vicious cycle and can't find my way out. I do know that I seriouslly feel like this is little by little killing me.

[[Ho...]]

Hi Holly and Sunny. Looks like we are all struggling with sleep together. My continual question is...if we couldn't sleep before benzos, how will we be able to sleep afterwards? Now I have menopause to complicate things. I think some of us just have sleep issues naturally. So, how will we be able to sleep naturally? I try not to take benadryl, but I can only go a couple days with no sleep and then take the benadryl. Are we doing any big improvement since we are still taking drugs for sleep? Granted we're off the benzo's but will we ever sleep naturally, since we didn't prior to benzos. I guess we just have to give it more time like everyone says and hope for the best and hope we are like the others who can now sleep. Problem is, some of those people took benzos for different reasons, not sleep.

I have also stopped my nightly wine. I truly believe it helped me sleep. So I am having another withdrawal to complicate sleep problems. Maybe when my body is used to no wine, it will be able to sleep better. I will keep trying...but even those nites I still use melatonin and tryptophan. They help somewhat. Good luck and sleep to you both.

Kathi

Hi Kathi,

I have never been a good sleeper by any stretch of the imagination either. I think it's a safe assumption to make that if we weren't able to sleep pre-benzo, we won't be able to sleep post-benzo. But really, I am trying to not let it get me down. There is no way to know for sure. Our bodies (especially brains) have changed a lot during this process. It's not outrageous to think that in this healing stage, maybe our sleeping will be repaired, too. It's a possibility!

Personally, I have been diagnosed with and believe I have Delayed sleep phase syndrome. Since I know this is the case, I will continue to take supportive sleep supplements (5-HTP, Passion Flower, Valerian, etc), as well as Rozerem to try to regulate my sleep cycle. Diet and exercise are also VERY important things that must be improved, too.

 

This is a very hard question to answer, because I believe there is always room for hope. I try to realize that although I freak out about my sleep (or lack thereof), I'm still here today, safe and sound... insomnia doesn't kill anyone! We'll be fine!

 

Holly

[[Su...]]

Holly....that combo of 5-htp, passionflower, valerian, and rozerem help you..on average how much sleep do you get per night?