Anyone else using sleep aid medication nightly?

[Anonymous]

Ambien. Nightly for over a decade. Still can’t sleep but it helps somewhat.

[Anonymous]

I wish we had access to edibles here. Melatonin nightly, I go all night without sleeping at least once a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you all take these aids to help you fall asleep or stay asleep? I fall asleep fine but can’t stay asleep. It happens every night and has been going on for years. I’ve only tried Benedryl, melatonin and magnesium with little to no success. I think it’s over time that I look into other options and get my doctor involved.

PP, I say this gently: might you have depression?

There's something called the "2am wake-up call of depression." You may be able to get to sleep, but you cannot stay asleep. It's something to do with the brain trying to raise its own levels of certain neurotransmitters by sleep deprivation. It does work, but only for a short bit, and your brain sort of runs out of options -- so it keeps doing the same thing.

It's hard to get real sleep with anything like alcohol. Exercise helps, as do some other things, but you deserve to tackle the underlying problem, if there is one.

Something to be aware of is that antidepressants like Prozac, Wellbutrin, and Zoloft often have fixing your sleep as the first effect, well before the depression starts lifting (usually 4-6 weeks after you start), and this makes for some VERY vivid dreams. It's startling. Just be ready for it, if you go in that direction. It passes as you catch up on sleep debt.

[Anonymous]

Yep I’ve taken lower dose Trazodone 50mg for years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you all take these aids to help you fall asleep or stay asleep? I fall asleep fine but can’t stay asleep. It happens every night and has been going on for years. I’ve only tried Benedryl, melatonin and magnesium with little to no success. I think it’s over time that I look into other options and get my doctor involved.

Same. I use them to stay asleep. For the past year or so, I had been waking up in the middle of the night, sometimes as early as midnight, and unable to fall back to sleep. Sleep aids are the only way I can get a full nights uninterrupted rest. I started taking the meds during covid, and it's the best and deepest sleep I have had in a while.

I take ZZQuil or the like. I noticed that the shelves at Safeway were depleted of sleep meds recently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you all take these aids to help you fall asleep or stay asleep? I fall asleep fine but can’t stay asleep. It happens every night and has been going on for years. I’ve only tried Benedryl, melatonin and magnesium with little to no success. I think it’s over time that I look into other options and get my doctor involved.

same here, fall asleep easily but wake up after a couple of hours and can't get back to sleep.

[Anonymous]

Melatonin and glycine. When I have then, edibles.

You might look into food intolerances as well. I have several and two of my primary symptoms are gut inflammation and muscle pain, which leads to horrific insomnia. Sometimes the discomfort is less evident, but I know the patterns now. Anything like Benadryl makes me nasty tired the next day; mostly it doesn’t knock me out right away - it just keeps me from being able to wake up.

[Anonymous]

Ps. It seems contra, but lower levels of melatonin are more effective at nudging sleep that’s lasting. Higher doses for me lead to active dreams/nightmares that wake me up. Weird sweats too.

[Anonymous]

PHosphatydyl serine if you get the 2:00 am wakeup.

The best one is Seriphos.

L theanine if you have problems in the evening before going to sleep.

I take, L theanine, Seriphos, and 400 mg magnesium glycinate every night.

[Anonymous]

Yes. Ran out of Xanax and don't feel like seeing my doctor for a refill. So I switched to Benadryl.

[Anonymous]

Unisom + Melatonin every night. Melatonin helps me fall asleep, Unisom helps me stay asleep (or fall back asleep after kids wake me). I can't stay sane without good sleep. I worry about Unisom as a longterm habit, but the effects of sleep loss severely impact brain health too.

[Anonymous]

Magnesium, Zinc, D3 and Melatonin at night. I also need my room very cold so using a room AC at night.

[Anonymous]

Yes. I feel so bad about it. I have been having insomnia since March. And it gets even worse a week or two before my period. I have been taking Zzquil.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. Ran out of Xanax and don't feel like seeing my doctor for a refill. So I switched to Benadryl.

I'm surprised that you were able to get a prescription for Xanax. Benzos are generally pretty tough to get prescriptions for long term usage. I was prescribed valium for 30 days once and it was a great sleep med.

Some of the anti depressants like Doxepin (silenor) work pretty good at keeping you asleep. I don't know how people with depression function on them during the day because it made me feel like crap when I took it during the day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. I live in a place with legal dispensaries, and I'm doing an edible marijuana chew every night. Not getting high -- it just knocks me out after about 75 minutes, and it seems to be a restful sleep.

I had never tried marijuana before the pandemic. Had smelled it from someone nearby at a concert once or twice, but that's it.

My sleep is good, I'm less wound up during the day (and getting more work done), GI issues are quiet, and haven't had a migraine.

This sounds heavenly. Looking forward to dispensaries being the norm. I use low dose melatonin, magnesium, and amino acids - they surprisingly work better than Tylenol pm, but less well than a low the/cbd combo. I’d much prefer an edible.

Are you in the DC area? It’s insanely easy to get edibles here.