Question:
I am having a bad week! I have
been on Ambien for a couple years. Took it a few nights
a week previously--I broke tabs and took 2-3 mg. Then,
when I went on Luvox/ Effexor XR (after other things), I
began taking Ambien every night and I needed more and
more, 7-10 mg. It stopped working as well. So last
week I tried Trazodone (50 mg) at bedtime. Shallow
sleep, kept waking up, had vivid, strange dreams...
20 mg of Elavil did not help last night. WHAT do I do?
Any suggestions? I am feeling horrible.
Answer:
1) Talk to your doctor. but...
2) It could be your body needs a little break in time with the new meds.
Some side effects will go away after a week or two and insomnia could be
one of them.
3) My doctor told me of ambien... take ten mgs to get to sleep. If an
hour or two later you still aren't asleep, take ten more. Just make sure
you have eight hours of sleep in front of you. That has usually done the
trick for me during those times I'm having real difficulty myself. Also,
go some place else that's comfy (couch, futon) and see if you don't
sleep better then. Sometimes that change to break up our mind patterns
helps.
This might not be the Ambien - although it does lose effectiveness for some
people, it's not common for this to happen. What can happen is you need a
larger dose when you start taking another drug (such as Effexor!) that
interferes with sleep!
Most adults need 10mg of Ambien to sleep, and some (me) need more.
Karen: I have the same problem, only I actually get 4 hours on it. :-) (I
suffer from middle and terminal insomnia - frequent awakening in the middle of
the night, and waking up after only a few hours of sleep and not being able to
get back to sleep - so I really wish there was a longer-acting version of this
stuff out there!)
Paxil usually isn't always that sedating, but occasionally people do find it
makes them drowsy.
