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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 6 of 6. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by Emme on August 27, 2004, at 8:29:53
Hi All,
My pdoc believes I'll feel better if I can sleep more/better. She was wanting to give me something. I told her I wanted to hold off on adding another drug and try other options first.
I find I'm waking up in the middle of the night or entirely too early, thinking negative, worried thoughts. I'm still half asleep and too tired at that point to get up and do anything, or to try to talk myself out of the negativity. This leads to suicidal thoughts and sets the stage for a day of exhaustion, inability to think, and depression.
At the moment I take Lamictal, a dash of mirapex, a dash of atenolol, and some xanax as needed.
Any suggestions? Melatonin may help me fall asleep, but I don't make it through the night. Niacinamide makes me sleepy, but I don't make it through the night. Might increasing the dose of niacinamide help? Does anyone find that valerian helps sustain sleep. Other ideas?
Thanks,
Emme
Posted by Patient on August 27, 2004, at 13:18:24
In reply to How to sleep through the night, posted by Emme on August 27, 2004, at 8:29:53
Hello to the both of you,
After reading both of your posts I found similar problems I have with sleeping through the night. Before I ever started on behavioural medicines I had problems sleeping soundly through the night. If I had to pee or let a cat out I would find myself going back to bed beginning to feel my adrenaline rise as I began to concentrate on worry thoughts. It's as if this time of the night is made just for this to occur-nothing else to do since you're supposed to be sleeping, right? Then my stomach would start to act up-wrenching ulcer-like pangs. I'd lay on my stomach to try and shut it off. Frustration would kick in as my stomach would not stop wrenching, and I would find myself thinking of another negative string of thoughts. I'd tell myself "NO", or "STOP", but this only seemed to make it worse, that I was fighting back-more adrenaline kicking in by now. Sometimes I'd finally settle down by thinking of the ocean, the sound of the waves on the beach. This would work for a bit, but I'd already gotten my adrenaline up, so to fall back asleep was impossible until after about two hours passed.
On most occassions I find .75mg melatonin taken before bedtime very helpful, as well as valerian, hops, chammomile, calcium with vit. D and magnesium, as well as l-glutamine. Taking medicine makes a big difference in one's sleep cycles. I found insomnia worse with Zoloft, Wellbutrin, or Prozac, and sleep quality much improved with trazodone and Lexapro. On Celexa I tended to need a nap during the day, and would awaken at 2, 3, or 4 a.m. unable to go back to sleep. Actually most of these medicines would make me sleepy during the day after I'd been on them for a while-is this because they were disrupting my sleep cycles at night-possibly.
One suggestion I found helpful is that as soon as I felt that I wasn't groggy or sleepy enough to fall asleep after awakening in the middle of the night, I'd get up and take a combination of calcium, vit. D, and magnesium, (other choices would be l-glutamine, colostrum, magnesium, B-12 lozenge, or a herbal sleep aid). This way I would find myself falling asleep within an hour or less; unlike the two plus or minus terrible hours I'd spend tossing and turning waiting for my body to finally rid itself of the shot of adrenaline. I believe part of why this was helpful was the fact that I felt "I'd done something" to help me get back to sleep-which would get rid of some of that frustration that arises when one tells oneself, "Oh great, not ANOTHER sleepless night, argghh!" . I've often wondered if a stroll on the exercise bicylce (if we had one) would work-getting rid of some of the adrenaline hormones so I could once again feel sleepy, cozy, relaxed enough to doze off into dreamland. Other suggestions if you are sensitive to glare and noise, as I am, is to darken the room with the use of heavy curtain on a window, or a bed pillow to cuddle up to-yeah one's mate is great to cuddle up to, but sometimes their arms get in the way as well as their body heat can make you hot and sweaty. I like a body pillow that I can rest my arm atop (I like to lay on my side). White noise machines are very helpful as well.
Regards, Lisa
Posted by sb417 on August 27, 2004, at 23:45:48
In reply to How to sleep through the night, posted by Emme on August 27, 2004, at 8:29:53
Hi Emme. I can't improve upon Patient's excellent suggestions, but I just want to mention that I have found Magnesium to be one of the best relaxation/sleep aids. The best, most absorbable forms are magesium glycinate and magnesium citrate. If I take the magnesium too late (too late in the early morning hours, like AFTER 3:00 AM, for example), I get too sluggish and sometimes even slightly more depressed during the day. If you find that happens to you, don't give it up; just try taking it at night or much earlier in the wee hours of the morning. I find that nutritional yeast is very helpful, too, but I don't take it that much later than dinnertime. It has lots of B vitamins, calcium, magnesium, etc. One of the biggest obstacles I have to sleeping through the night is that I drink a lot of water, especially during this hot, humid weather, so I have to get up to go to the bathroom a lot. I haven't solved that problem yet because I do need the water.
Posted by Larry Hoover on August 28, 2004, at 10:33:47
In reply to How to sleep through the night, posted by Emme on August 27, 2004, at 8:29:53
> Hi All,
>
> My pdoc believes I'll feel better if I can sleep more/better. She was wanting to give me something. I told her I wanted to hold off on adding another drug and try other options first.Patient posted some real nice ideas, so I won't belabour those points. However, I hope you might reconsider medication. I'm specifically thinking of Restoril (temazepam), which has done wonders for me, over all. I also use low-dose trimipramine (a sedating tricyclic), with about .4 mg melatonin. Along with the white noise generator, I am getting restorative sleep.
Lar
Posted by Emme on August 29, 2004, at 13:15:30
In reply to Re: How to sleep through the night » Emme, posted by Larry Hoover on August 28, 2004, at 10:33:47
Thanks for the suggestions folks. I'll give them a try.
My Ca intake has been sporadic. I'll also try to take Mg citrate again. I got out of the habit because I was tired of dealing with swallowing the big Mg-citrate tablets. But I'll steel myself for it again and see if it does anything.
Any suggestions on good ways to ingest the brewer's yeast?
I'll try to have a few options on hand if I wake up at 2:30 and need to knock myself out again. I also just got a CD-playing alarm clock and I'm thinking of keeping my Peterson's bird call CDs on hand.
Larry, do the medications you mentioned leave you hung over in the morning or make it very difficult to get up? I gave up on trazodone b/c even a low dose left me pretty wiped the next morning.
Emme
P.S. A few late-night playstation games of Spongebob Squarepants with my cousin's kid seems to have done the trick this weekend. Go figure. :)
Posted by Larry Hoover on August 29, 2004, at 13:18:22
In reply to Re: How to sleep through the night, posted by Emme on August 29, 2004, at 13:15:30
> Larry, do the medications you mentioned leave you hung over in the morning or make it very difficult to get up? I gave up on trazodone b/c even a low dose left me pretty wiped the next morning.
>
> EmmeNo hangover from those two. Trazodone was all the fun of a hangover, without the benefit of the drunk the night before.
Lar
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