Posted by Dav9834 on May 25, 2009, at 19:11:48
In reply to Re: Seroquel for Sleep Augmentation? Parnate Insomnia, posted by mav27 on February 21, 2009, at 10:59:48
I've been taking Seroquel off label for about 4 years now. I had a fairly bad case of Insomnia. I first started taking NyQuil to fill my need and after a couple times you need to up the dosage of NyQuil. Well after a month or so i was taking a half a bottle just to get drowzy("Green Death Flavor" mind you).
Needless to say I couldnt take it anymore,(Robo-tripping is NOT that much fun people) so I started staking Benadryl, and again the same thing of having to up the dosage until you successfully take so much you could diagnose yourself with restless leg syndrome!(Not seriously, but it felt like it, after stopping benedryl it stopped as well).
I finally went to alcohol, and yeah sure that works unless you have a problem being labeled an alcoholic (dead serious). Needless to say i stopped that. Went to a psych and he gave me Seroquel (He told me at higher doses it was used for antipsychoticness) But I tried it... and i may never give it up. I wake up (Wasn't a morning person before that's not gonna change) feeling great....drowsy, but great. Drowsy can be combated, which I go over below.
I have a few things to just help those new to Seroquel at low doses.
-There is a hunger side effect. I eat a full meal everynight before i go to bed (Thanks to a hereditary high metabolism this is ok for me) However I find if im too lazy to make a meal, a banana, a glass of milk, and a cracker or two will do the job. Be prepared for this, don't be surprised. It's not that bad if handled casually
-You have a deeeeep sleep all night (Depending on your schedule day) and because of this, when you wake up, you could be considered still slightly asleep. This does go away on it's own, however i speed it up with a cup of coffee (works like a charm, tea works too) I'm more awake now during the day than I've ever been in my life (Coffee and really good sleep has this effect, mmmmm)
-Before you go to sleep, I encourage you to drink a glass of water, Seroquel is found to dehydrate. Which unfortunately for us alcoholic drinkers makes drinking more of a planned process. If I have 1 beer and then take my pill a couple hours later without drinking water I will have the worst hangover. You can imagine what it'd be like with more than 1 beer. So be carefull, drink lots of water with alcohol (alcohol then immediately a glass of water) and make sure the alcohol is completely out of your system. Or face the long list of consequences.
In the end I would never give this up, not only do I get a great sleep, I get to choose when I want to start my deep sleep. (Not many can say that!)
I have NOT experienced mood changes, however maybe is possible.
Goodluck, I hope my story helped someone with similar issues.
Dave
> My experiance is different
> For me if i try and force myself to stay awake for some reason like i've changed my mind about going to sleep then my head will feel cloudy.. but otherwise i just drop off to sleep nicely. I wake up about 8 hours later and the only thing that tells me i even took the stuff is a slightly dry mouth.
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> > Hi,
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> > Seroquel feels somewhat similar to trazodone, if youve taken that one. It's not a nice easy relaxing drop into sleep...I like to say, regarding these two (seroq & traz), that they are like "elephant darts". It feels like a very high dose sedative antihistamine...it comes on slow, mild headache perhaps (for me), slight feeling of warmth, heart may speed up a little, nose gets stuffy (for me)...everything just intensifies...all movement ability and thinking slow way day and you crash out like a light. Waking up the initial first week or two is similar to trazodone...the morning feels like you are "slow", mildly 'retarded' lol (no mean to offend), kind of groggy-like or somepeople say feels "hungover". this may last a few hours into the next day, depending on when you take it at night. People who like seroquel and traz are very fond of them and others hate them. Seroquel is safe with maois and a good call for very severe insomnia that benzo's and pseudo-benzos wont touch.
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> > myco
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> > > My one general question is at the bottom...
> > >
> > > Hello I am on Parnate 25mg (was 20mg) since few days ago. I also take 5mg Ritalin 3-4 times a day as well as Valium 10mg twice daily.
> > >
> > > Insomnia on Parnate on 10mg, 20mg and other doses has been very SEVERE to the point of recieving only average 2.5 hours sleep a day.
> > >
> > > Risperidone (Risperdal) 0.5mg and 1mg have helped somewhat initially but that effect seemed to have dropped off expecially when I rose my 20mg Parnate to 25mg and it is tremendously difficult to sleep now. Ugh, maybe I need to go back down to 20mg Parnate for the time being.
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> > > My doctor told me Seroquel is a good idea if Risperidone doesn't work and... here in Canada we dont have Ambien, Lunesta, and Zipricone doesn't work for me regardless of dose.
> > >
> > > So What can I expect from Seroquel 25-50mg? I dont need it for any depression augmentation just sleep. Weight gain if it happens would be nice though. Will I be super sleepy during the day or will it only effect me for a 8-10 hour sleep period? PLEASE offer any insight ASAP as I may have to cancel any plans made for the coming week.
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poster:Dav9834
thread:881469
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090524/msgs/897635.html