Trouble With Perscription Sleep Aids

[pickledfairy]

Does anyone have trouble with perscription sleep aids? I am haing problems with insomina as I have before, and was perscribed Ambien (5-10mg) and even when I take them I still am up until 4 or 5am, not sleepy just dazed and confused feeling. Does anyone else not respond to a sleep aid?

[Donna F]

Hi pickled fairy

Yes i too have tried ambien, etc. and they all only put me to sleep for a few hrs, and makes me worse cause the next day i feel hung over, have thought of tryin one of the new ex-release ones. I until recently was afraid to take too much at night, as pressure toolow, now that it is up i am gonna try a new one. What other aids have u tried, cause i have known of many with prob with ambien.

Donna

[Rachel]

My doctor prescribed a sleep aid once but I couldn't continue to take it. It had the opposite effect on me and I actually got even less sleep. I can't remember what the med was, though.

Rachel

[Sophia3]

"sleep aids" have NEVER EVER worked and insomnia was my first problem, along with fatigue in the late 80;s, By 1990 I had to quit work.

FINALLY in a CFIDS Chronicle aeoound 1990 was an artcile about Klonopin/Sinequan combo...the latter a very drying antidepressant...over the years I got off the latter but Klonopin's generic is the BEST thing for my sleep aid and didn't develop a tolerance.

When FIRST on the market, Klonopin was a mild anti convulsive and now is in the same category as Valium and Ativan !?!!?!?

Anyway, I have had sleep studies for years, been on govnt sleep studies with GHB (guaranteed to put me to sleep but only did SOMETIMES) and Klonopin has worked for me the best.

Not saying it is the answer for you but none of the sleep meds du jour have done squat.

Also melatonin can help but you might wake up during the night and have wild dreams.

Good luck finding something.

[yogini]

Have you tried any sleep aid other than Ambien? Last time I saw my dr, he gave me a whole speech on sleep medss. He said there are some people who have problems falling asleep, others who can fall asleep but don't stay asleep, and a third group of people who have both problems. There are different meds which are better for treating each of these problems. From what I understand, Ambien is sort of middle of the road med. If you have trouble falling asleep, one of the other meds might be better for you.

[DancingLight]

Sophia,

What color Klonopin do you take?

Pink, yellow, green or blue? Have you noticed any difference b/w the different generics????

Just curious.

Em

[Sophia3]

Good timing of your question, Em.

For years and years have taken the green generic by TEVA. Soft, scored tab..easy to break in half and break again.

Few weeks ago, they switched generics. Like a small yellow rock and can NOT break in half. I called and raised cain I NEVER want this generic again and if they don't have it when I need a refill, I shall call around elsewhere to get it.

They suggested I get a pill cutter!? I said I NEVER needed one and don't intend to use one. So they cut the pills for me when I dropped them off. They are easier to break in case I just need 1/4 tab.

But I am annoyed as this one is like a small rock and the other softer. seems to work ok but I am still irked.

So, I prefer the green (1mg) by TEVA. They printed TEVA on my current lable but it's a spanish sounding name I can't remember.

Hope this helps.

[MightyMouse]

The best one for me was doxepin liquid. Not sure if it's classified as a sleep med or not, but I did well on it. Ambien works for me most of the time, but sometimes, it does nothing.

Nina

[DancingLight]

Sophia!

That's so quirky that this came up at the same time for us.

I have always been given the yellow ones and had to split them, but now I take .5 mg 3x/day (yes, a whole tablet three times a day) While this amount scares the you know what out of me, my ANS specialist assures me that this is okay and I am not taking too much and if it works we should go with it and blah de blah. He's probably about ready to bat me over the head for asking so many times if it is okay.

Anyways, the last fill I got was pink pills...and I had remembered a discussion on the board a LONG time ago about the different ones working differently.

Turns out the pharmacy decided the pink ones were cheaper than the yellow and wouldn't give the pharmacist the yellow anymore.

She fought for me and got the yellow, b/c I called and made a pain of myself also. Mostly b/c I take so many medications and several of them are pink and round also. So, I actually wanted the yellow so that I wouldn't make an error (even with the pill packs--there aren't pill packs with spaces for 8x a day!).

She did say that the generics DO differ in effectiveness, but usually the pink and yellow are fine, but not the green and blue...sometimes people have trouble with those not working as well. So, it is good you have been find all this time with your green ones (or did you say blue?) Oh lord, my memory.

Hmmmmm.....interesting how we differ so much on these things....

Doxepin didn't do diddly squat for me, and no one coudl believe it wasn't knocking me out! I think it is often used for sleep, Nina, but I think it's officially classified as a tricyclic anti-depressant? Don't quote me though!

Em

[Sophia3]

Actually Em, the pills could be blue -green

And GHB is supposed to knock out EVERYBODY....not me.

And when first given a sleep med, I was given old fashioned Chloryl Hydrate (been around since the late 1800's) I was awake until 6AM.

When I called the pharmacist to tell them that, they had NEVER heard of such a response.

I still feel like this.

[DancingLight]

Sophia!

Where do you find these things???? That has to be one of my favorite graphics so far. Love the slippers. I also loved the tweety one you posted to Melissa and I...I love tweety! (Are you surprised?).

Pickledfairy,

I am not sure your question really got answered here. I don't know if it will help you at all, but if you do a topic search on sleep meds or on a med in particular (Lunesta, Rozeram, Ambien, Ambien CR) you will get hits and hear what others have experienced. Also, Melatonin has been discussed.

So many things can be used for sleep other than the class known as sleep meds, like the doxepin, other anti-depressants, klonopin, etc. etc...it just takes a lot of experimenting. (unfortunately!)

Emily

[pickledfairy]

Thanks Daninglight....I have tried most on the market with no luck )when I am going through the symptoms I am now that my doc think may be due to a connective tissue disease of some sort) but I have gotten some new ideas from this thread...so thanks for the replies all!

Nighty Night (yeah right)

Sheridan

[Sophia3]

Em

off topic: The graphics are from a free program called SMILEY PAD. It comes with a handful of graphics, then another racing board, some sweet older man posted over 230 of these types of things!! Many of them move and can make me or others dizzy but they are great fun.

As far as meds, PFairy,

some of the old antidepressants like Doxepin and what i mentioned sinequan, can make OI WORSE but back in the day when I started that with klonopin (1990) my OI was not as bad as it has gotten in the last 10 years...and getting sleep was the main thing. But I have alpha intrusion sleep and there is no 'cure" for that but my sleep doc continued to see me long after Medicare stopped paying to try and help me out.

But my insomnia, he had not seen the likes of but this was pre TTT and we were calling my illness CFS and fibromyalgia.

I hope you get sleep meds to help you.