??? changing my sleep med plan

[heapsreal]

ok i normally take 2 zopiclone at night with either lyrica or neurontin, which ever one is working for me at the time for leg pains and maybe add some phenergan. The other night its 10mg of valium with lyrica/or neurontin and baclofen or mirtazapine. These 2 combo's i usually rotate between and if not working the next day i may take seroquel 50-100mg with lyrica/neurontin or another non work day doxepin 50-75mg with 1 zopiclone and lyrica/or neurontin.

What i have found of late is that sometimes when i use the seroquel or doxepin i sleep well at the start of the night but toss and turn towards the end of the night because of pain and tight muscles and all the next day have these muscle aches all through my back. It seems to be the meds which is a shame as they really knock me out but the aches and pains are shockers and seem to happen most times i use them now. I wonder if its a form of restless leg syndrome as these 2 meds can worsen this.

Also my zopiclone has been losing its effects because i have been using it more regularly as the valium has also stopped working. My plan is to ask the doc to try gabitril and hope it helps with sleep but will probably be just an add on like lyrica. I also going to ask him about xanax and clonazapam, both i havent tried before, both have read are addictive but i think i will be on some sort of sleep meds forever anyway. Clonazapam looks good from what i have read but i think my doc is hesitant with this med plus the longer half lives i think may speed up tolerance to them. Xanax seems to give people a good 6 hours sleep and is out of the system quite rapidly so u would think there would be less tolerance issues. I was going to stick with the zopiclone but only use it once or twice a week and xanax or clonazapam 3-4 times a week for a few months then switch back to what i was doing before.

Does this sound reasonable for a severe insomniac, any other ideas for tolerance issues would be appreciated as i am avoiding increasing my dosages.

Anyone use zyprexa(dosage) for sleep, i know its in the same class as seroquel but wonder if it doesnt have the muscle pain side effects.Other benzo's i have tried are tamaze, mogadon and rohypnol and have been much chop, although rohypnol was ok but trying to avoid benzos for awhile.

Going without sleep for awhile isnt an option as i have to keep working.

cheers!!!
:In bed:

 

[heapsreal]

Atypical antipsychotics are sometimes used for sleep, i have used seroquel with some success but find im getting muscle pains from them, i only use seroquel maybe twice a week at most and probably more like once a fortnight. Has anyone used zyprexa or risperdal for sleep, risperdal seems to have a shorter half life then zyprexa which would give it less of a hangover effect. I might just need to run the gauntlet of using nothing for awhile and see how i go, i slept from 7am till 1030am today, that was it, im suprised at how well i feel at the moment but will crash this arvo probably. I have a few days off, so maybe using zopiclone in a couple of days after having a complete break will help it work again. I reckon i go through one of these no sleep phases 3 or 4 times a year, i wonder if its a drug tolerance or just ebv/cmv kicking up some dust, i have had some nerve time pain accross the back of my shoulders and neck, maybe its tickling my sleep centre although i dont have any brain fog.

cheers!!!

 

[heapsreal]

I see my doc in a couple of weeks so after some thoughts. Valium and zopiclone i alternate for sleep just isnt doing it for me, but im not as buggered as i thought i would be, although with better sleep and i would be functioning better. Any other thoughts on sleep meds that are out of the box that are worth trying, i have tried most of the typical stuff.

cheers!!!

 

[Otis]

Hi heapsreal,

We haven't talked sleep for a while.

One med to consider is Mirapex. It's a dopamine agonist, I believe. Google it with fibromyalgia and/or restless legs and you should get some info on studies. I tried it to help sleep and got some benefit but stopped due to constipation problems, it compounded existing problems. It sounds like something worth trying in your case.

There's a fibro researcher named Patrick Wood who thinks there is a significant dopamine deficiency in fibro. I carry a dual Me/CFS Dx and see some definite merit to Wood's hypothesis, although I think it's a secondary effect and not the "cause". He's done some interesting brain imaging studies. Try searching for some videos of his. I think I commented on one in a thread here. If you can't find them PM me and I'll try to dig them up.

 

[heapsreal]

Yes i will talk to my doc about dopamine, i am low in free testosterone and i have read that there is some relationship with testosterone and dopamine, was considering TRT and see if that helps with aches and pains etc as they seem to have increased lately which i think is because of my sleep being abit off of late.

So would a med like mirapex be ok to take with seroquel for sleep?? seroquel is a dopamine antagonist so sort of opposes mirapex. Is mirapex on its own sedative and help with sleep or u think i will need something with it. I do get the pains even if i dont use seroquel or doxepin but these meds seem to worsen it when i get these pains. The pains and stiffness seem very cyclic, i suppose its just fibro and tramal and lyrica does help some but whats strange is neurontin doesnt really help with overall pains but helps with lower leg pains i get sometimes at night.

Poor sleep and fibro go together i suppose. I feel like im getting on top of my cfs with all the other treatments im using but i think cfs has permanently damaged my hypothalamus/sleep so i think i will always be stuck with fibro symptoms and it will be cyclic depending on my sleep and sleep med tolerance, which is what im going through at the moment.

Hows your sleep going Otis? Anything interesting treatment wise u have come across lately??

cheers dude!!!

 

[soxfan]

I am having sleep issues at the moment also. I have slept well for 4 years on just lunesta and in the past 2 months it has just stopped working. I fall asleep okay but within 3 hours I wake up and can't get back to sleep. I have tried - ambien, ambien cr, sonota, gabitril, remeron, amyltripline, trazadone, mirapex, and none of them put me to sleep. They just get me in a drowsy half awake/half asleep the entire night. I also can only take about a quarter of these pills as I get terrible hangovers which last 24 hours.

I have nerve pain in my leg so that is why the doc gave me mirapex but it gave me a terrible hangover on half the pill. If you are sensitive to meds then start slowly. I am not sure what I am going to do at this point. I was hoping I was just going through a bad sleep spell but it is going on 2 months now and I am starting to get irritated and grouchy!

I can't believe how the sleep changes...I was using half a lunesta all summer and sleeping great and woke up feeling fairly refreshed. Now I just wake up tired again....

I have an appt. with Dr. Komaroff in March so I might just stick it out until then and see what he can do for me.

 

[heapsreal]

hi soxfan, maybe just change to tamazepam or valium for a month then return to lunesta and it might start working again. Most non benzo's like remeron etc u mentioned have long half lives so cause that hangover effect. I try to use those types of drugs when i dont have to work and use benzo's on work nights as i find i dont get hangover from them. Talk to your doc but someitmes need to use combo's of meds like ambien and trazodone, one helps get u to sleep and the other keep u asleep but obviously theres a crossover bewteen both of them.

So mirapex does make u drowsy, will have to try that when not working, i would have thought someting that increases dopamine levels would increase energy and keep u awake, but anyway i suppose it effects receptors in a slightly different way.

cheers!!!