RE: Sleep and side effects

[Guest guest]

-----Original Message-----

From: shanlon609@...

it sounds to me like a lot of you insomniacs ought to try trazodone.

**********Gotta tell ya, been there done that too,,,,,and I am not exactly

sure that the term insomnia is exact enough to define what I have tried to

describe as a lifelong illness for me. Trazodone works but it makes me a

zombie,,,,,total zombie and I did not have this surgery to be a zombie nor

do I want to give away any more life force to anything but consciousness.

Thanks for the suggestion tho!

Dan Slone

Surgery 5/2/2000,Yahoo Msg navwriter

AIM Navwriter58, ICQ 260890468

[Guest guest]

Trazadone doesn't work for everyone; I was put on it as an anti-depressant,

warned sternly to take it at bedtime because it could make me tired, and learned

quickly that it was a placebo pill for me. I could have taken an entire month's

worth at a time and nothing would have happened. It doesn't work with my body

chemistry at all, either to make me less depressed OR sleepy... but I understand

it helps many.

Here's what I do on the rare nights I can't sleep.

1. Take the dog for a run. And I mean RUN, not jog. Do this until exhausted in a

direction away from the house. Walk home, fall into bed. 95% effective :-)

2. Hot shower. Many times my insomnia is a migraine creeping in on little quiet

feet. The shower clarifies that for me; if it's tension, it will dissolve, and

I'll fall asleep. If it's a migraine, each drop of water will be excruciating.

Then I can take my Imitrex and within 20 minutes, can usually fall asleep. 75%

effective

3. Read something boring. For this purpose, I like user manuals, financial

prospecti, or things like that. effective eventually

4. Improve my sleep hygiene. No more reading, eating, talking in bed. Retrain

myself to get into bed and fall asleep. People with TVs in their bedrooms should

probably move them out if they have trouble sleeping. Helps with the other steps

to improve sleep

5. Shrug and just stay up. Chat in the AMOS chat room. Find Vitalady or some

EMOSS friends online and chat with them. Eventually I am tired enough to go to

bed. effective eventually

I experience one night or less of insomnia a week, but if I had it more than

that, I'd be begging my PCP for a referral to a sleep doctor (and not someone

who's just going to hand out sleep drugs.) Just because we're no longer fat

doesn't automatically mean we no longer have sleep apnea or other sleep-related

illnesses, and they can and do kill skinny people too. I would dig for

biological causes of sleep disturbances instead of accepting them if I was

really suffering and had improved the conditions that favor sleep in my life

(eat right, get enough exercise, reduce stress sources, etc.)

Maybe this will change as I get older, but I find now, at nearly 36, that if I

can't sleep, it's usually because I have a migraine and haven't realized it, or

because I haven't done even 5 minutes of exercise all day and my muscles are as

freaky as cabin-fever toddlers, or because I am really worried about something.

Sleeping is the most important thing your body can do to repair itself and

requiring drugs to get there can mean that you are robbed of important,

restorative sleep phases (as any new mother can tell you, missing out on those

sleep types makes you grumpy pretty fast! I remember that well and really

suffered with it.) If you're taking pills to get to sleep, have you had a sleep

study to verify that your medication's not robbing you of REM sleep? Ultimately,

that can make you feel WORSE than you felt before.

I got addicted to Vicodin after my plastic surgery last summer and couldn't go

to sleep without it. I had three TERRIBLE weeks while I fought that addiction

off... I couldn't exercise myself into exhaustion because I wasn't allowed to

(and didn't feel up to it anyway), so it just SUCKED. That experience is what

put me off " sleep drugs " . I never want to be in a situation where if I'd

forgotten my magic pills, I'd be awake all night for sure... that's my personal

idea of hell.

Sweet dreams everyone,

Z

Open RNY 09/17/01

310/130

________________________________

From: shanlon609@...

Sent: Sun 6/29/2003 7:03 AM

To: suebarr@...; Graduate-OSSG

Subject: Re: Sleep and side effects

In a message dated 6/29/2003 12:44:24 AM Central Daylight Time,

suebarr@... writes:

> All ambien and sonata do is get you to sleep but they don't keep you there.

> Restoril and ativan work longer. After a few days that sleeping pill

> hangover seems to go away

it sounds to me like a lot of you insomniacs ought to try trazodone. it will

hit you very hard at first, but in a few days you'll adjust and shouldn't

have the sleeping-pill hangover. it's not an anxiolytic drug, so it isn't

addictive.

p.s. LOOK, i've lost 200 pounds!!

~stacey

Lap RNY 4/1/02

Dr. Srungarum

320 / 130