1000 sheep still no sleep

[baggervance]

I have had little sleep in 4 days maybe 2 hrs a night and I feel awful. I have been taking ambein for years my MD had upped me to 20 mil a night. I started sleep walking eating and drove the other night. I have not took them since. Last night I was desperate for sleep and asked my wife for a half of a muscle relaxer I saw tears well up in her eyes and it broke my heart. Ive tried to be normal but my clock just doesnt work. If I take the ambein I go to bed around 9 and get up around 5. If I dont I might stay up 30 hours and sleep 14and it has always been like that. I sleep better in day than at night. My wife hides the ambein from me because I will abuse them if I have the chance I find myself hunting for them when shes not here. I always run through them before my refills. I have no more refills so I going to try and just quit them.

[YouveGotStyleKi]

One thing that truly helped me in my insomnia was melatonin. It's a dietary supplement sold in a lot of drug stores around the country, and it works with the frontal lobe in your brain and is activated by light cues... So if it's dark, you'll start to feel tired. There are plenty of other sleep meds out there, a lot of non-narcotic anxiety medications have been prescribed for sleep issues... You just kinda have to shop around. I wouldn't suggest Ambien or Lunesta or anything of that nature...

Also, exercise can help. Keeping active and doing a lot of things during the day usually helps me too. The minute I lay around and get lazy, the more awake I am.

Hope this helps! Good luck! I know how bad insomnia sucks... There are a lot of ways to help!

[baggervance]

I got some melatonin I finaly got to sleep. I found myself sleeping like my oldself. Went to sleep at about 1 am and up at 8 am. I couldnt get up slept til about 11 and then got up finally at 1. This is why I started the sleeping pills. If I ever get to sleep then I am out. I was not reliable on getting anywhere on time and this jus not gonna work. Im going to try it over the holidays but after that I got to do what it takes to live in the real world.

[hello-kitty]

try "fish oil" supplements or "salmon oil" supplements. I hear it works wonders.

[YaySartre]

Oh, the places you'll go on Ambien, only you won't remember them. (But at least you get some ... sleep, even if it isn't restful. Kind of.)

I feel your pain and wish you all the luck in the world. I'm lousy at sleeping during designated night-time hours, too, but Ambien makes me drive in my sleep, yell in my sleep and swat things in my sleep. I raid the fridge on Ambien.

If you aren't opposed to or uncomfortable with another sleep med, perhaps talk to your MD about an alternative? Restoril and Lunesta have served me better than Ambien time and again. If you're looking to just stop or worry about running through pills at an alarming rate, maybe there are other ways you can find to relax before bed, like the aforementioned supplements that aren't addictive psycho-actively. Reading and light exercise help me sometimes. Sleep is a struggle.

[baggervance]

I talked to my doctor he told me to take the ambein for another month. Then he is going to look at a different sleep med I think he said sequenol. He said it was a more powerful sleep med. I tried lunesta when I wake up it taste like I been chewing on a quarter all night. I put them in bread and peanut butter trying not to let them touch my tounge but it didnt help. This doctor knows about my addiction but Im begining to wonder if he cares. Ive been totally honest with him he said keep giving them to my wife take them at night and not to look for them. Do doctors really understand addiction? He also told me not to be so stressed just let the stress roll off me, thanks doc you finally cured me after all these years who knew it was this easy.

[GiveLove]

Bizarre.....you've told your doctor you want to get off the sleep drugs and sleep normally, and he wants to prescribe a more POWERFUL sleep drug? Is he listening to you? Seems as though he would be suggesting some sort of tapering program for you instead.

I had to taper off ambien verrrrrry slowwwlllyyy. Even then, when I finally got to zero I couldn't sleep for a few nights, and I'd only been on them for a month, compared to your years. They are far more powerful than I'd ever dreamed, and messed with my head so much.

You might consider another doctor, or being OVERLY specific with your own. Tell a new one what dosage you've taken and for how long, and ask for a specific tapering plan over 90 days. Exercise, relaxation tapes on the iPod, and no drugs/alcohol was the only thing that ever got me to sleep after years of staring at the ceiling.