Need advice on sleeping right through the night

[ladybug_uk]

Hi everyone

I need some advice! I used to be on a barrage of tablets to sleep: Amitriptyline, Pregablin and Mirtazapine. I decided I was through feeling like I was drugged up and fed up with the side effects (massive weight gain). So I am now off Amitripyline and Mirtazapine, but struggling with the Pregablin. Having to take 150mg every few nights, and will be weaning this down to 75mg shortly.

I take Melatonin, Nytol and Seriphos to help me get to sleep at night (suffer from high nightime cortisol) but I am finding that I am waking up around 1am, and then waking at least once an hour from then until 4/5am. When I take my Pregablin tablet I do tend to get a better sleep, but I have been advised to come right off that tablet due to issues I am having with blood pressure etc.

So I am looking for any recommendations on something natural, herbal, any supplement that might help me sleep right through the night. The constant waking up is leaving me like a zombie, so I'm desperate!

Thanks for reading,

Lou

 

[msf]

Hi,

I was sleeping like you are last year. At that point I was alternating Trazadone with Zopiclone. This year I either manage to sleep through the night, or I wake up just the once. I put this down to adopting a FODMAP diet, along with continued use of Trazadone (now that it doesn´t seem to stop working, I don´t bother with the Zopiclone which made me feel awful).

 

[SOC]

So I am looking for any recommendations on something natural, herbal, any supplement that might help me sleep right through the night. The constant waking up is leaving me like a zombie, so I'm desperate!

My particular sleep disorder is an inability to maintain sleep. Without meds, I wake at least once every hour. The only thing that has worked for me is Trazodone and it works beautifully.

Be aware, however, that some people report a bad reaction to it (although that's probably true of most meds). Trazodone has worked very well for me for many years except when I get the Pliva/TEVA generic which gives me sudden and severe depression. Fortunately, the depression clears as soon as I stop taking the Pliva/TEVA brand, but it's miserable for the day or two it lasts before I realize the pharmacy gave me the wrong generic.

 

[ladybug_uk]

Thanks for the replies it's nice to know I'm not alone in this battle for a decent night's sleep!

 

[*GG*]

Thanks for the replies it's nice to know I'm not alone in this battle for a decent night's sleep!

By no means are you alone in this regard, very common I believe.

GG

 

[Snookum96]

I wake up every 1.5 to 2 hours. Trazadone worked for me for the first couple of weeks and then it stopped working. I've tried a few other things as well, nothing else has helped. I used to have trouble falling asleep as well but I find a small snack just before bed helps me fall asleep.

Before I got ill I would typically get up once a night, now my nights are more a series of naps.

I hope you get some relief and get a good night's sleep, I'll be following your thread for suggestions as well!

 

[*GG*]

I wake up every 1.5 to 2 hours. Trazadone worked for me for the first couple of weeks and then it stopped working. I've tried a few other things as well, nothing else has helped. I used to have trouble falling asleep as well but I find a small snack just before bed helps me fall asleep.

Before I got ill I would typically get up once a night, now my nights are more a series of naps.

I hope you get some relief and get a good night's sleep, I'll be following your thread for suggestions as well!

Hmm, Trazadone worked for me for years. I have been on Remeron since 2009, I wake up felling more refreshed with this med than I did with Trazadone. Might be worth a try.

GG

 

[Snowdrop]

I hope you find something that does work for you @ladybug_uk.
I have trouble getting to a Drs appointment so I haven't experimented with much but poor sleep in all its forms has plagued me.
I have found that over time it does change on its own (and then can change back again) based on what--I don't know.
But meanwhile I presume you follow all the usual sleep hygiene approaches--dark, quiet cool room etc.

My Dr gave me Lorazapam .5mg. As I said I don't get much chance to discuss other options so I use this for sleep intermittently and it does help. Supposedly there are supplements that aid sleep like magnesium, and niacin so I've heard. Since so many people seem to be deficient in Mg this wouldn't hurt to add to the list. Let us know if you do find something that helps. It's always nice to hear about a decent solution that worked for someone even if it doesn't apply for everyone.

 

[perchance dreamer]

I'm struggling with this too. Trazodone worked well for a year, but has now stopped. I hope it will work again if I stay off it awhile.

 

[minkeygirl]

I always wake around 3. I am tapering off trazodone because sll I can get is the garbage Pliva.

I like Passion flower or kava when I wake in the middle of the night. Also Tizandine

I don't expect to sleep straight through. Just need to make sure I get back to sleep without waking drugged.

 

[ahmo]

When I no longer tolerated low dose Klonopin, I discovered pituitary glandular. Very helpful. Only when I got my B12 levels up did my sleep problems end. After a life-time of episodic and then chronic insomnia.

 

[perchance dreamer]

@ahmo, I had told an integrative pharmacist that you've had success with pituitary for sleep problems and asked what time of day to take it. He said to try it first in the morning since it can be stimulating.

But I seem to remember you take it before bed, right? Thanks.

 

[Snookum96]

Hmm, Trazadone worked for me for years. I have been on Remeron since 2009, I wake up felling more refreshed with this med than I did with Trazadone. Might be worth a try.

GG

I did try Remeron for a short while, I was eating everything in sight lol! It didn't help my sleep much. I keep hearing about amitriptyline so I may try that.

 

[AaroninOregon]

I did try Remeron for a short while, I was eating everything in sight lol! It didn't help my sleep much. I keep hearing about amitriptyline so I may try that.

Amitriptyline works well for me and typically gives me mote refreshing sleep than the other meds I use. It's just the side effects that keep me from staying on it. If you have OI it can really exascerbate the symptoms. It gives me awful tachycardia, light headness upon standing, anxiety and the worst dry mouth.

A couple good side effects are that it does help reduce pain and if you have a tendency to get up in the night to go pee, it does cause urinary retention

But, we're all different and I imagine some people get none of the bad side effects

 

[perchance dreamer]

Years ago when I had constant, excruciating pain from fibro, I tried Elavil. It helped with the pain, but made me extremely spaced out during the day. I don't remember the effect on sleep.

 

[ahmo]

But I seem to remember you take it before bed, right? Thanks.

yes, bedtime.

 

[minkeygirl]

Seroquel is a good add on for me. 25 mgs. Lyrica works but talk about eating everything in sight. @Snookum96 Boy I know how that is! If it wasn't nailed down I ate it.

 

[DeGenesis]

I developed tolerance to Lyrica very quickly and now I am stuck on 300 mg (bad withdrawal). It is really awful for my cognition.

I've used quetiapine 25-50 mg in the past with no tolerance, but now it gives me hypotension. Trazodone gives me nightmares and hypotension. Low-dose mirtazapine 3.5-7.5 mg worked amazingly well, but it gave me DP/DR when I took 15 mg. I'd like to try it again at a now dose. I still want to try low-dose doxepin. Olanzapine 2.5 mg gives me the smoothest sleep ever but it makes me feel very inflammed and fatigued the next day (studies show this drug causes low-grade inflammation even in healthy people). Now I like to take cyproheptadine 4 mg, which is OTC in Canada. It is very bad on the weight gain side of things though.

Some people here find anti-inflammatory or cortisol-lowering herbs to help them sleep. I have even heard of people saying that ibuprofen gives them great sleep. I believe holy basil is a good anti-inflammatory and cortisol-lowering herb (you mentioned you had high cortisol). @adreno has good knowledge here I think.

 

[SOC]

I wake up every 1.5 to 2 hours. Trazadone worked for me for the first couple of weeks and then it stopped working. I've tried a few other things as well, nothing else has helped. I used to have trouble falling asleep as well but I find a small snack just before bed helps me fall asleep.

Before I got ill I would typically get up once a night, now my nights are more a series of naps.

I hope you get some relief and get a good night's sleep, I'll be following your thread for suggestions as well!

Have you tried a mild analgesic (Tylenol, ibuprofen) along with Trazodone? That's what my doctor first suggested -- Tylenol PM plus Trazodone. He said if you have constant low-grade pain, it can wake you if you aren't sleeping deeply. For the first few years, when I still had constant ME aches, I had to take both every night in order to sleep through. Now that I don't have constant ME aches, I don't have to take the analgesic most nights, but if I can't fall asleep, or wake a lot, or wake and can't get back to sleep, I take an analgesic in addition to the Trazodone, which I take every night.

A snack before bed helps, too.

 

[taniaaust1]

Amitriptyline works well for me and typically gives me mote refreshing sleep than the other meds I use. It's just the side effects that keep me from staying on it. If you have OI it can really exascerbate the symptoms. It gives me awful tachycardia, light headness upon standing, anxiety and the worst dry mouth.

A couple good side effects are that it does help reduce pain and if you have a tendency to get up in the night to go pee, it does cause urinary retention

But, we're all different and I imagine some people get none of the bad side effects

There are at least 3 of us at phoenix rising (all with ME meeting the international criteria) who got permanent damage from Amitriptyline.. two were left with permanent paralysed bladders and in my case it damaged my bowel as it caused my bowel to prolapse as one of its physiological affects is that it slows down bowel peristalisis (it says that on wikipedia) and I already had IBS-C with the ME.

So I warn anyone with ME to take great care with Amitriptyline (I think all of us had these things happen to us quite quickly while on it (within months).. in my case only after 2-3 weeks with a low dose trial of it for sleep.. it left me damaged and didn't even work on my sleep).