Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I am suffering some really severe insomnia. I've always had trouble sleeping, my whole life, and thought it was as bad as it could get but this...is beyond anything ever before.
Anyway, I've spent some time browsing the threads on sleep in this forum and have bookmarked a few things that I want to work on and re-read. I like that link to exercises for the mouth and face and jaw and have already started those. I read the thread on OTC aids most of which I have already tried and had various negative reactions to, or can't use due to medicine interactions.
Back in my 40s amitriptyline helped, but after a few years it no longer helped, and I read about the high risk of memory loss with long term use so I stopped it.
I used to find marijuana very helpful for sleep, but it no longer helps, and increases my anxiety too much so I've given that up as well.
I've always been unwilling to try prescription sleeping pills, until now. So my doctor prescribed (generic) Lunesta, 1 mg. which is supposedly non addictive (addiction being one of the reasons I was afraid to take them) It had no effect at all except to make me fog brained 12-14 hours after I took the 1 mg dose.
She suggested 2 mg. I took two 1 mg pills last night. For some reason I thought sleeping pills were supposed to put you asleep for the night. I mean, they even warn you to only take the dose immediately before getting into bed, it's supposed to work that fast.
It did not. I took the 2 mg dose and was still awake an hour later, and hungry. Usually I have a small bowl of cheerios before I go to bed, because I can't sleep hungry, but I understood that the Lunesta is best taken on an empty stomach, so I've been skipping that.
However, since it had been an hour since I took it, I got up and had my bowl of cereal, brushed my teeth again and went back to bed. I actually fell asleep after that and slept 3 hours. Woke up. Lay there for about two hours before I fell asleep again and slept one hour. Woke up. Lay there for about an hour and fell asleep again for one hour then it was time to get up.
I go to bed at 8 pm and get up at 5 a.m. and I managed 5 hours sleep total, but only three consecutively, on the 2 mg, which really is a miracle amount for me, but not exactly what I had hoped for and expected.
Is this the best I can hope for with the Lunesta, while I work on other things? I am already doing relaxations, meditation, no screens after 4:00 pm, no caffeine, limiting liquids after 5 pm.
I even tried the blue light glasses, I tried 3 different types, but they all bothered me in one way or another. Causing glare after effects, and headaches, so I had to give that idea up as well.
Will the Lunesta start working better if I keep taking it? I don't mean to the point I build up a tolerance, I hope to not need it that long. But if I keep taking it for now, will it get better than spotty 5 hours a night?
I am suffering some really severe insomnia. I've always had trouble sleeping, my whole life, and thought it was as bad as it could get but this...is beyond anything ever before.
Anyway, I've spent some time browsing the threads on sleep in this forum and have bookmarked a few things that I want to work on and re-read. I like that link to exercises for the mouth and face and jaw and have already started those. I read the thread on OTC aids most of which I have already tried and had various negative reactions to, or can't use due to medicine interactions.
Back in my 40s amitriptyline helped, but after a few years it no longer helped, and I read about the high risk of memory loss with long term use so I stopped it.
I used to find marijuana very helpful for sleep, but it no longer helps, and increases my anxiety too much so I've given that up as well.
I've always been unwilling to try prescription sleeping pills, until now. So my doctor prescribed (generic) Lunesta, 1 mg. which is supposedly non addictive (addiction being one of the reasons I was afraid to take them) It had no effect at all except to make me fog brained 12-14 hours after I took the 1 mg dose.
She suggested 2 mg. I took two 1 mg pills last night. For some reason I thought sleeping pills were supposed to put you asleep for the night. I mean, they even warn you to only take the dose immediately before getting into bed, it's supposed to work that fast.
It did not. I took the 2 mg dose and was still awake an hour later, and hungry. Usually I have a small bowl of cheerios before I go to bed, because I can't sleep hungry, but I understood that the Lunesta is best taken on an empty stomach, so I've been skipping that.
However, since it had been an hour since I took it, I got up and had my bowl of cereal, brushed my teeth again and went back to bed. I actually fell asleep after that and slept 3 hours. Woke up. Lay there for about two hours before I fell asleep again and slept one hour. Woke up. Lay there for about an hour and fell asleep again for one hour then it was time to get up.
I go to bed at 8 pm and get up at 5 a.m. and I managed 5 hours sleep total, but only three consecutively, on the 2 mg, which really is a miracle amount for me, but not exactly what I had hoped for and expected.
Is this the best I can hope for with the Lunesta, while I work on other things? I am already doing relaxations, meditation, no screens after 4:00 pm, no caffeine, limiting liquids after 5 pm.
I even tried the blue light glasses, I tried 3 different types, but they all bothered me in one way or another. Causing glare after effects, and headaches, so I had to give that idea up as well.
Will the Lunesta start working better if I keep taking it? I don't mean to the point I build up a tolerance, I hope to not need it that long. But if I keep taking it for now, will it get better than spotty 5 hours a night?
The consensus these days seems to be that behavioral and lifestyle changes are much more effective than the pills. Ask your doctor about Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for insomnia. Your evening relaxation routine, diet and other lifestyle factors might need tweaking since they are not working---or there may be other things you are overlooking that could have a cumulative effect.
For instance, you might be sabotaging your evening relaxation routine with your bedtime snack choice of Cheerios, and maybe what you ate for your evening meal. Sugar, added sugars and refined carbs in general can wreck sleep quality, and increase anxiety and insomnia. Cheerios are a refined carb and one serving has 24g sugar, half of which are added sugars.
Try protein for your bedtime snack instead which is associated with better sleep quality. For example, a plant-based option for protein and tryptophan could be a few nuts such as almonds or walnuts, or all-natural nut butter (we make our own nut butters without the additives in commercial options in less than 5 minutes). Or a little meat like turkey for protein and tryptophan (real meat, not processed deli type meat or fake meats). Try to limit or avoid refined carbs (manufactured foods) earlier in the day by replacing them with whole foods, especially in your evening meal and bedtime snack.
Thank you for taking the time to reply. I am already getting cognitive therapy. Therapy is not an instant cure. It is a long process. I cannot go with no sleep for the duration of the therapy.
I do eat nuts daily, including a handful of pistachios with my supper now, because my doctor said they contain melatonin. It hasn't made any difference.
I don't think the cheerios (which have less than 2 grams of sugar) are the problem. And, as I said I stopped eating them when I started the Lunesta, since it's meant to be taken on an empty stomach. It was after I ate the cheerios last night, an hour after I took the medication,, that I finally fell asleep.
My diet is okay, not high in added/processed sugar or carbs. I eat almost no processed/added sugar. As stated I am working on all the life style things already. There may be a medication that is causing it to get so much worse than before. I have an appointment with my cardiologist next week, and will bring that up.
The Lunesta is a last desperate attempt to get some sort of restorative sleep so that going forward I can eventually work toward functioning without it. I am not sleeping at all, and I often wonder how on earth I am even alive, how I keep going, with no sleep at all. I am afraid to drive anywhere except to and from work or the grocery store. I haven't driven any distance further than 10 miles in months, I am afraid to drive.
At work I have no idea how I am managing to continue to do my job. Fortunately most of it I know so well it's automatic, even the questions my customers ask me regarding taxes or water or whatever. I've seen and heard it all before, so I already know most of the answers. But heaven help me if/when I am presented with anything new I need to learn. The brain fog obscures comprehension. I feel sick every time my boss mentions this big plan to change software providers in the near future. Every time I get a "we're about to upgrade!" message from one of our systems I just want to cry, the fear I won't be able to understand it because I am so tired is so bad.
I have got to get to a point where I can actually function, before I can start moving toward a better way (without pills). I've been already trying the without pill route for a number of years and it's not working.
I want to know if the sleep result described with the 2 mg dose I took last night is usual/common for prescription sleeping pills. Meaning, the sleep is still intermittent, is it usual to still not get a longish period of restorative sleep while on these pills. I was hoping for at least 5 hours straight, but that has not happened. At least not yet.
So replies from anyone who has any experience with Lunesta, would be appreciated. I know everyone's experience can be different but still, I'd like to know.
pills are not the answer. medication and drugs are not the answer.
the sooner you orient yourself in that direction, the better.
have you eliminated caffeine 100% across the board?
explore, evaluate, educate and implement "sleep hygiene"
that is going to be waaaaaaaaaay more effective anad healthier long term
start practicing and continue practicing mindfulness habits before bed (such as deep breathing, listening to specific music, meditation, sounds, inspirational speakers such as Eckhart Tolle
and do tapping. it is free, it is easy, it can be done anytime anywhere, including when you are in an anxious frenzy trying to sleep or worried about not sleeping, and it is remarkably effective. best source is online (all free, and learn it in 5 minutes) Gary Craig his own site, and also you tube Gary Craig where you can see and hear him and follow along yourself, here is basic tapping recipe. For you it would be along the lines of "even though I have insomnia" "even though nothing is working for sleep problems" "even though I'm worried about not getting enough sleep" etc. here
and here is archives of Gary Craig library where you can read more on basic tapping recipe; and also search by specific topic or specific conditions including your own.
His site says it is "old" and "out of date" but i never stopped using it and it works great. if it aint broke don't fix it is my view. So i still use this and have found it effective for a whole range of different conditions. you just keep doing it over and over and over. it is mind-boggling to me that something this simple can and does have such far-reaching effect.
and you just keep doing it using different phrases related to all the different aspects of this condition, like the ones mentioned in this thread: "even though I am afraid to drive" "even though i am worried sick at work" "even though i keep trying different sleeping pills" "even though sleep cycle is a mess" "even though i am not getting restorative sleep" "even though there is brain fog and anxiety"
Last edited by Tzaphkiel; 05-10-2024 at 12:08 PM..
I've had sleeping problems like the OP for years now. I'm against drugs and have learned to live with it. Most nights I'm wide awake from around 3-4:30am. I read a book in bed with a dim light until I drift off again.
I've noticed that on days where I'm truly physically tired after exerting myself, I sleep like a rock, solid through the night without waking up. Tomorrow I'll be working in the garden all afternoon and I expect to sleep more soundly tomorrow night.
You could try something extreme to see if it changes anything. Over-exert yourself or do strenuous physical activity in the evening before bedtime. If your body is tired enough it may insist on resting all night.
Another thing I did was move my bed directly under a window that gets morning light that shines right into the bed. No more alarm clock - it was creating dreadful anxiety for me. Waking up naturally from the light, usually between 5:30-6:30am depending on the time of year, has helped me overall. I'm fortunate to be able to set my own work hours and don't have to punch in at a certain time.
OP, if you have to wake up at 5am for work reasons, look into the possibility of changing that to be more flexible. I wish we could abolish alarm clocks from the planet.
I don't know your age or lifestyle & I am guessing that you're female. I know that entering menopause messed up my sleep big time & it was never the same again. All that stuff about good sleep hygiene did nothing for me. If you are perimenopausal, look into that.
I haven't used Lunesta but I know that it's a hypnotic. I'm now using generic Ambien, which is also a hypnotic, & it really helps me sleep. Maybe you need a change of meds. At least your doctor is willing to work with you. I had an absolute witch who thought everyone was a drug addict. Fortunately she is gone & my current PCP realizes I'm just a old insomniac who needs to sleep.
You mentioned eating pistachios for the melatonin. Nuts are great but why not just take melatonin in pill form? You get a lot more of it that way.
Status:
"It's WARY, or LEERY (weary means tired)"
(set 7 days ago)
Location: A Yankee in northeast TN
16,101 posts, read 21,239,084 times
Reputation: 43737
OP, I did a sleep study many years ago and was told I have a "non-restorative sleep disorder" (no apnea). I've been this way since childhood and any day I wake up feeling refreshed and restored is a rarity. I've done all the OTC meds, I've done delta-8, I've done Effexor, Lunesta, Ambien (shudder, dreadful side affect), Trazadone, and on my last dr appointment I asked for a weeks worth of Temazepam to try out. I've probably missed listing one or two more drugs. NONE of it does much more than put me to sleep faster. NONE of it keeps me asleep more than three to four hours at a go. None of it makes me FEEL rested. Brain fog and memory issues are familiar problems.
Of the drugs I have tried I do the best with the trazadone, because my dr prescribed the lowest dosage and I am allowed to adjust the number of pills I take. I will sometimes take a second pill after I wake the first time and sleep for an additional three or four hours. Additionally I use blackout curtains to keep my room dim, and I use black screen videos of rain or other soothing noise to block distractions. On a side note an interesting article- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/art...sner%20et%20al.
Do you have "crash days"? As I have gotten older I find I generally go on three to four hours of sleep a night for a week or two, and then I spend a day or so "crashing", where I sleep for a few hours, wake for a few hours, rinse and repeat the cycles throughout a twelve to sixteen hour period. It doesn't refresh me but it does keep me going (barely) from week to week.
Roughly a decade ago I spent a lot of time researching the various sleep aids/drugs that were on the market and it seems that the majority of them are simply aids to help in falling asleep, not staying asleep or getting restful sleep. At the time there was a drug company researching the problem, but after trying to follow that news for several years and not seeing anything encouraging I gave up tracking it. Don't know if anything ever came of it but since I haven't read of any sort of big break throughs in this area in the last several years I feel that it never really got off the ground. From a 2022 article about unrefreshing sleep-
Quote:
To date, no drug has been FDA-approved for treating this disease.
Some species are diurnal. Chickens wake up at dawn and return to the coup at dusk. Owls do just the opposite. Their genetic make up determines this.....H.sapiens in the natural state is more like cats-- sleep a few hours, then go chase mice for a few hours, then take another cat nap etc etc.
It's only since the invention of the electric !ight and the change from farm work to factory shift work that we have tried to force ourselves Into the strictly diurnal pattern...For many of us, it ain't working out real well. We don't really have a sleep problem, we have a scheduling problem.
If you're retired and don't have obligations on your time, go with the flow. Sleep when your body says it's sleepy, and stay awake when it says it's awake.
If you don't have that luxury, it's more difficult to deal with. Newer sleeping pills (Ambien, Lunesta etc) don't give you sleep, they give you amnesia. You literally forget that you tossed and turned all night. That explains all the reports of people driving cars and not knowing they were doing it etc.
Younger people work hard and are exhausted by bed time. They sleep thru the night. Older folk often wake up fully every two hours as they come up out of the depths of the two hour sleep cycles (REM sleep etc) After 4 or 6 hrs of sleep, it can be tough to go back to sleep. Go with flow. Just get up.. Don't fight it. It:s not like you'll never sleep again.
I don't know your age or lifestyle & I am guessing that you're female. I know that entering menopause messed up my sleep big time & it was never the same again. All that stuff about good sleep hygiene did nothing for me. If you are perimenopausal, look into that.
I haven't used Lunesta but I know that it's a hypnotic. I'm now using generic Ambien, which is also a hypnotic, & it really helps me sleep. Maybe you need a change of meds. At least your doctor is willing to work with you. I had an absolute witch who thought everyone was a drug addict. Fortunately she is gone & my current PCP realizes I'm just a old insomniac who needs to sleep.
You mentioned eating pistachios for the melatonin. Nuts are great but why not just take melatonin in pill form? You get a lot more of it that way.
Thank you. Melatonin in pill form or dissolve in the mouth tabs make me sick. I have a lot of trouble with medicines and supplements, most make me sick in one form or another. I am pushing 64.
Lunesta is my first attempt at sleeping pills. I've always balked at them, not wanting to take addictive drugs. But supposedly Lunesta is not addictive. I asked for either Rozerem or Lunesta. Doc suggested Lunesta.
I started with 1 mg which did not help me sleep, but 12-14 hours later it would hit me hard, a weird ricochet effect. I asked the doc if I could try 2 mg and she said yes.
The first night that I took 2 mg I had intermittent sleep totaling about 5 hours. 3, 1 and 1, with wakefulness in between. While that's an astronomical amount of sleep compared to what I usually get, which is almost none, I had hoped for more than that. That's when I started this thread.
I wondered if that's as good as it gets with pills or if they are supposed to help better than that.
Yesterday, the day after first taking the 2 mg, I was hit with the usual grogginess 12-14 hours after taking the 2 mg, meaning just at the start of my 8 a.m. work day. It eventually passed but I felt so tired all day, but a different tired from the no sleep tired, and when I got home, after taking care of The Cat, I landed on the couch with my book until I started to doze off. Went to bed at 8 but did not take any pills. Intermittent sleep, and crazy dreams, but I did sleep for 2 hours at a time between wake ups and no long wakeful periods, after each wake up I went back to sleep. Seems like I am getting some weird delayed reaction with these pills lol. (I had similar delayed reaction trouble with an anti-anxiety med she tried me on a few months ago, Buspar, and I stopped taking it)
I know a few people who take Ambien and love it but I was afraid to try it. There is so much alcoholism in my family.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
