Posted by stargazer2 on February 11, 2008, at 9:11:03
In reply to Re: insomnia can be so rough, posted by raisinb on February 10, 2008, at 18:06:17
Who prescribes the Lunesta, your internist? It is really never recommended to take sleeping pills every night as a routine thing, since that creates a vicious circle of always needing to take them and that is not usually recommended. Your prescription would say prn, not nightly but unless your doc says to not take them nightly, you wouldn't know that. Overtime it can affect your thinking and memory which can cause other long term issues.
You really should see a sleep specialist and have a sleep study, since you may have sleep apnea or a disturbance with your sleep cycles that can be corrected rather than taking Ambien nightly, even though this is what you have done for a long time.
There are really mild AD's like Trazadone that are used for sleep so that would be a med to take every day and perhaps only use the Lunesta prn, as needed, which would be less often than daily, ideally only once or twice a week.
Has your doc that is prescribing the lunesta ever suggested a sleep study? I would ask about it. Does your doc know you take Lunesta daily and does he think this is the best way to handle your insomnia?
Just curious about how insomnia is diagnosed and treated today. I know that giveing a sleeping pill to someone nightly only increases the odds that they will become relient on it rather than using it occasionally. Most docs will give the prescription once or twice to get someone through a period of insomnia, but not to use as a routine med to treat insomnia, that`requires a specialist to work up a case that is intractable.
If I had insomnia, I would want a workup for it to see what other factors are involved and make sure I was treating it the best way.
Stargazer
poster:stargazer2
thread:811840
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/health/20071116/msgs/812008.html