Sleep Problems...

[Guest guest]

It has been hard for me to get sleep since I got CP. I have been on

every narcotic out there since I was 10. In the last 10 yrs I have

only had " natural " sleep maybe three times. I consider " natural "

sleep where you don't take any kind of pills and just fall asleep on

your own.

I have been on all three of the leading sleeping pills and I will

try to give a pro and con on each.

Ambien: Is really great...I would usually go to sleep in less then

15 mins. As all of you know though when you are on narc's some tend

to fight the medicine and try to lose that fuzzy headed feeling. I

would fight ambien and decide to want to cook stuff. I have almost

burned down my old apt twice and my new house once. I was lucky

that my fiancee woke up and could smell the food burning. I talked

to my doc about that and he said that is an extreme side effect.

When ppl try to drive on ambien they usually black out and don't

remember anything....so in all...good drug as long as you take it

and lay down. I slept about 8-10 hours with one ambien.

Sonta: I liked this one the most of the three. I could take it and

know that in 30 mins I would be asleep. Taking a bath helped to

relax you. It does have kinda the same effect as ambien though.

Don't decide to drive or cook anything after taking the pill.

Unlike the last sleep aid you can take one and be out. This is the

most expensive of the three presciption aids though. So some

insurance has had to take to a prior approval kinda thing for your

PCP. I slept about 8 hours with just one sonta.

Lunesta: I think everyone has been seeing the commericals for this

one. I have been on it for about 20 days now. So far I have to

take two of them to knock me out in 45 mins. My doc is bad about

not giving me any info about the drugs he put's me on. So I freaked

out the first couple of days that I took this. Cause in about 20

mins you get this really bad taste in the back of your throat. Then

you get to sleep....and when you wake up....the taste is still

there. Even drinking water didn't help with the taste. So I called

my mom up and she was like...yeah she had some patients that also

had that problem and that was one of the side effects. It sucks

that you might have to take more then one to get 8 hours of

sleep....but it is better then getting the over-the-counter meds out

there. If your insurance covers it that is....

> >

> > Hi , That episode is over and I'm just waiting on the

next..The

> > Dr gave me Ambien which does nothing for me and i told him so

but he

> > told me to take it and go right to bed, whereas i was taking it

1/2-

> > 1hour before bed. I tried it his way and it doesn't work. One of

my

> > roommates has back problems and gave me a Flexeril and that

seems to

> > work better. Stress test tomorrow, wish me luck....Jim

> >

>