Posted by CareBear04 on January 20, 2008, at 15:29:19
In reply to Insomnia, posted by Sigismund on January 19, 2008, at 17:24:04
hi-- i have the same problem with sleep, not having much trouble falling asleep but finding it really hard to stay asleep. this is despite combining substantial doses of lots of meds, any one of which would probably know a normal person out. i usually take 100-150mg of seroquel, 12.5 of ambien cr, 2mg of prosom, and 1mg of klonopin before bed. and i still wake up around 3-4am and can't get back to sleep. sonata is good for that since it's out of your system within 3-4 hours. i need 20mg, but i think the usual dose is 10. unfortunately, my insurance won't cover it, so i'm having to make do without.
for me, sleep problems are definitely depression and anxiety-related. i tend to think it's caused more by anxiety since my thoughts keep racing, making any sleep very surface-y and not restful. but my pdoc seems to view it as more related to depression since early-morning wakening is a classic symptom. what are your symptoms and/or diagnosis? if you have issues with mood, an AD would probably even out your sleep more effectively in the long-term than an AP like seroquel or zyprexa.
as for comparisons among the meds you mentioned, i would relate them in this order from most sedating to least: zyprexa > seroquel > remeron. i've been trying out remeron recently and 7.5 or 15mg doesn't put me to sleep. seroquel used to work really well after i used to the next-day sluggishness, but i think i've become too tolerant to its effects since i need increasingly higher doses to help me sleep. zyprexa had a huge effect on me in lots of areas, but this was about four years ago before i seem to have developed some weird sort of med resistance. at 2.5mg, it knocked me out completely so that i never even had dreams. and it definitely caused the most next-day lethargy of any of the meds. and even at this lowest dose, i gained about 3-4 lbs per week. i was able to avoid the weight gain effect, though, when i stopped taking it regularly and used it only as a prn when i wanted to be completely out of it. despite the side effects, zyprexa was good for anxiety, and it kept my mood stable during the weeks it took for zoloft to kick in. i guess it's an individual matter of balancing costs and benefits.
good luck,
cb
poster:CareBear04
thread:807753
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080114/msgs/807960.html