Posted by 3 Beer Effect on June 16, 2002, at 2:39:57
In reply to Ambien vs. Sonata?, posted by JonW on June 15, 2002, at 15:11:28
Sonata is really an inferior drug when compared to Ambien. Sonata is good in that in clears from your body before you wake up in the morning (so there is no hangover like with Halcion) but the half life of Sonata is I believe atleast about an hour shorter than Ambien.
The main problem with Sonata is that it is really only 30% bioavailable while Ambien is 70 % bioavailable. First past metabolism essentially destroys most of the Sonata before it ever get a chance to enter your (CNS) system.
My first sleeping pill prescription was 10 mg Sonata & it was a joke- 50 mg of Benadryl put me to sleep better than Sonata.
I am now on Ambien 10 mg & it works great, although you have to stop taking it periodically (best to do this on Friday & Saturday night when you don't have work the next day) or you tend to develop tolerance to it.
I personally found that 3 mg of Melatonin taken right when it becomes dark & the sun has gone down, & then Ambien 10 mg 1/2 hour before bedtime works great (Ambien 10 mg peaks at I think 1 hr 36 minutes on an empty stomach). I used to have to take 1 mg Klonopin after the sun went down, but now the Melatonin 3 mg has replaced that & seems to work (for me) just as well for sleep.
I read in a magazine that the experts recommend that you take 1 mg of Melatonin instead of the 3 mg that most people take because your body might stop producing it naturally if you are taking it in pill form everyday. I don't have any 1 mg Melatonin pills so I don't know if they would be nearly as effective as the 3 mg ones. Be sure to buy synthetic & not natural/animal derived melatonin since you can get mad cow disease, salmonella & other horrible stuff from "natural" animal-derived supplements.
JonW- Since you take the potentially dangerous MAOI Nardil, I don't know if you are supposed to take Melatonin with MAOIs or not. You better do some extensive research on that combination because if there is some interaction where the MAOI amplifies the Melatonin you might fall asleep & never wake up again. Also, if you are also taking Ambien at the same time, the increases the complexity &/or number of possible drug interactions.
Another (non-melatonin) soluton would be to take 1 Ambien when you go to sleep & another when you wake up again, or perhaps change to Halcion which I think lasts a bit longer than Ambien. But unlike Ambien (& Sonata), Halcion & other Benzos decrease the time spent in deep sleep (but that may not be all that bad since they appear to makes up for that by an increase in total sleep time).
Klonopin or Ativan probably wouldn't make good sleeping pills even though they last all night long, because you become tolerant to the sleep-inducing effects in as little as 2 weeks with regular benzos. It is better to stick with the selective sleep benzos like Ambien or hypnotic benzos like Halcion. There are a few other regular benzos used for hypnotic purposes only but I forget their names- ProSom maybe?, estazolam?, nitrazepam? & one or two others.
3 Beers......
poster:3 Beer Effect
thread:109953
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020609/msgs/110012.html