Posted by yxibow on May 2, 2009, at 4:02:04
In reply to Anyone know of a good sleep aid?, posted by greywolf on May 2, 2009, at 1:17:49
> Right now I'm taking Parnate 10mg 6x/day, Xanax at 4.5mg/day, Cytomel 50mcg/day, and Lunesta 3mg/night. Still, I have intractable insomnia.
>
> The Lunesta gave me slight relief, but it's not covered by insurance, so 7 pills cost me $60. Ambien did nothing for me.
>
> Basically, I sit up all night, then doze for an hour or two in early evening. This has been going on for months, punctuated by occasional days where I might get 4 or 5 hours of sleep.
>
> Anyone have some sleep aid suggestions?
>
> Thanks.
>
> GreywolfLunesta is a bit stronger for some than Ambien, but since you're not benzodiazepine naive (Xanax 4.5mg /day), there's a chance of cross-pollination.
In a sense, those sleep aids are pseudobenzodiazepines, so having Xanax in your system could mean some possible tolerance, hence an agent like Ambien wouldn't work.
At least that's how I've experienced it.
And the naps in the evening, I'm familiar with that too -- yes, I do it, partially because I'm quite tired and have a sleep disorder most likely and also because it helps my symptoms.
But it does disrupt the sleep cycle. Possible regulating the naps with a timer a bit and getting a little bit of a walk or something like that a bit before going to sleep might help also.
Antihistamines are a possibility -- doxylamine succinate (Unisom doxylamine formulation) is a bit less of a sledgehammer than the diphenhydramine (Benadryl / Unisom / generic) formulation and is what I use currently as even the Seroquel I take for off label purposes won't give me full sleep.
The other one I believe would not mix with a MAOI, amitriptyline even at its lowest 10mg dose, a TCA would be certainly out of the question.It also is effective because of its antihistamine qualities but does have transmitter interactions that would be prohibitive for you -- but you'd have to ask your doctor about that one. I know its label doesn't allow for it.
-- tidings
Jay
poster:yxibow
thread:893834
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090426/msgs/893840.html