my doctor has increased my elavil to 20 mg but it gives me horrible nightmares and dry mouth. i just don't want to take it. plus i'm zonked out most of the next day.
what do you do to sleep?
if i don't take anything i get maybe 1-2 hours a night and stay exhausted but still don't sleep.
melatonin gives me such rapid heartbeats. is there anything else.
Posted by faithful777 (Member # 22872) on :
I take lunesta 3 mg, 2.5 mg sublingual melatonin to get to sleep and 15 mg timed release melatonin.
Rozarem is a prescription drug that is supposed to work like melatonin. You might ask your doctor for samples to try it.
I can't take any of the antidepressants to help with sleep for the same reason. I am out all the next day. I do well with lunesta. Ambien made me into a zombie the next day too.
Still, sometimes pain wakes me up and there is no getting back to sleep.
Posted by randibear (Member # 11290) on :
my gp is anti-everything including diflucan. he has flat out refused to give me some meds, even tho i was obviously sick.
all he says is "keep your mouth shut, you'll loose weight. exercise before you go to bed. stay up later. etc, etc., etc."
so talking to him would be like talking to that horse in the field. only right now i think that horse is smarter.
Posted by penguingirl (Member # 28688) on :
You can get herbal sleep meds at Whole Foods. No GP needed!
I tried Valerian Root but that made me very emoational.
Posted by searching4truth (Member # 28481) on :
My LLMD just gave me tryptophan to try. I have been on melatonin since october, and it worked well until I recently added rifampin to my treatment. Now the melatonin is ineffective. So we added tryptophan to the melatonin. I have only taken it one night, but I had no problems going to sleep. We will see how it works long term.
Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :
If you exercise before going to bed you WILL be awake all night. Exercise early in the day or at least before supper.
I take Ambien. I like it better than Lunesta because I can take 2/3 pill when I go to bed and 1/3 when I wake up at 3 a.m.!!
I also take Trazodone and melatonin.
Posted by Bluemoon (Member # 25255) on :
yeah, I'm on the 1/3-1/2 an ambien, then another when I wake up in the middle of the night. I can't seem to get any deep sleep otherwise.
Posted by penguingirl (Member # 28688) on :
I just started Rifampin last night and boy did it make me sooo sleepy. Enough that I did not need my usual melatonin drops for bedtime! And although I kept waking up to pee in the middle of the night, I would have no problem falling back asleep.
Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :
That's amazing, penguin!
Posted by melindacf (Member # 5412) on :
ambien here, works for me. I don't always need it but when I do, it seems to work fine.
Posted by nefferdun (Member # 20157) on :
I was using corydallis root which worked extremely well for two years. You can get it in Zhang's Herbsom.
When I started treating babesia I had more trouble sleeping and needed a drug. The LLMD gave me seroquil. It was only 25 mg but taking half of one pill knocked me out so hard I was staggering the next morning and talking like a drunk.
So I cut it down to one quarter of a tablet. Now I am addicted to it. I do not know if it actually works or it is just an emotional crutch. I don't have side effects at this dose and I sleep so I am happy.
Posted by scorpiogirl (Member # 31907) on :
I was that way before I went on IV antibiotics and now I sleep like a babe! Before I would be up until 3am everynight! While I didn't have a problem falling asleep I just wouldn't STAY asleep, so I was waking up every hour getting 3-4 hours a night total.
Now I sleep for at least 10 hours. In fact, I was just telling DH that I feel like I'm wasting my day away, not getting up until 9! But then he reminded me that sleep is a huge part of healing plus I have been so sleep deprived for so many years, my body is just catching up. I guess I feel guilty sleeping so much!
Anyway, when I was struggling with sleep the one thing that helped me so much was acupuncture. I remember accusing the Dr of putting drugs on the needles b/c I would feel sooo sleepy after each session!! LOL
Posted by sutherngrl (Member # 16270) on :
I use to take Ambien. It worked better for me than Lunesta. I don't take anything now, except my Xanax and my antidepressant. I do wake up at least once a night and I dream a lot; but its better than it use to be.
Like you, I use to only get 2 or 3 hours of sleep a night. It was horrible.
Posted by amk33 (Member # 13206) on :
A natural sleep aid that works well for me is Prohealth's Fibrosleep. It helps me to fall asleep, and stay asleep.
Posted by mati (Member # 15233) on :
I started on Doctors Best D-Ribose 5 days ago and there has been a significant improvement in sleep and dreaming. It has also boosted my energy levels. I love it!
Posted by lmedler (Member # 32429) on :
I also take Ambien. It works most of the time but I have to take it every night or I will not sleep at all.
Posted by Jamers (Member # 28016) on :
what about plain old benedryl? That usually knocks me out.
Posted by Razzle (Member # 30398) on :
Progesterone helps me a lot with sleep, without the grogginess the next day - I use a product called Progessence Plus, it is absorbed better than anything else I've tried.
Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :
Razzle... pills or cream?? I take the NOW brand cream and notice nothing when it comes to sleep. I can use it in the morning too... nothing.
Posted by Razzle (Member # 30398) on :
Neither - it is a vegetable oil base liquid applied in drops topically. I use 2 drops topically in the evening, about an hour or so before bed.
The product was developed by a doctor. I heard a lecture given by this doctor earlier this year and was quite impressed. He believes many, many women have a hormone imbalance as one major contributing factor to health issues. He also says the size of the particles of the progesterone makes a difference with topical products, and finds that some of his patients actually have to use a sublingual form. But the Progessence Plus he developed has a lot smaller particles than most other topical progesterone products, and he says that helps it to be absorbed and used better by the body. I agree. I tried wild yam creams and had no luck with them. But this stuff makes a difference in how I feel. PM me for more info about the Progessence Plus if interested.
Take care,
Posted by randibear (Member # 11290) on :
hmm, imbalance. does a obgyn test for these at the annual checkup? or do you have to ask for it?
i'm on premarin.
Posted by Tiramisu (Member # 15082) on :
I am fortunate that 1/4 pill of melatonin works for me. I read somewhere that taking less was better in some aspect (can't remember why), so I tried it and had success.
Posted by merrygirl (Member # 12041) on :
ambien or restoril
Posted by payne (Member # 26248) on :
ambiem, 20 mins before the time I want to be asleep, but, if i wake up within the first 30mins of sleep i tend to be up for another hour trying to fall back to sleep, I try to use it every other night, once in 6 months i woke up vertigo bad.. it may raise liver emz ? a coffee cup of mint ice cream in the heat helps me some... wishing you a restfilled night..ZZZ ZZ Z (: Posted by FYRECRACKER (Member # 28568) on :
I tried L-Tryptophan, didn't seem to work for me.
Posted by Jason21 (Member # 16393) on :
I had severe fractionated sleep before I started LD treatment. My problem was not falling asleep, it was staying asleep. I would wake up about every hour during the night.
Even when I got back to 100% after 2 years of abx, I still had problems sleeping through the night. A sleep study showed I did not have sleep apnea (which I knew), but it also showed I was only getting about 4 hours of sleep and less than an hour of deep, restorative sleep.
I tried about every sleep med out there (Ambien, Lunesta, Rozerem, etc.), but they either had no effect or had the opposite effect. I tried natural remedies without much success, but I think magnesium helped somewhat.
There are only 2 sleep medications that I am aware of that promote deep sleep (what used to be called Stage 4 sleep), and they are Gabitril and Remeron.
I tried Remeron first, and it has worked well for me. I usually get 7 hours of restful sleep. Getting that deep, restorative sleep makes a big difference in your energy level and your body's recuperative ability.
Posted by lpkayak (Member # 5230) on :
vistaril or neurontin or benedryl
Posted by Razzle (Member # 30398) on :
I've found that it is necessary to ask for hormone tests, and not all gyn's are willing (I saw one who was trying to tell me the blood tests for hormones were meaningless! I never went back to that doctor...). Lukily for me, my PCP is a Naturopath and so is more into this sort of thing...
![[sleepy]](graemlins/sleepy.gif)