insomnia months after heavy codeine use

[anonlegion]

Around early September I had a mild flu and my doctor prescribed me some codeine cough syrup. Right after I got over it about a week later my dad came down with the same sickness and was prescribed the same stuff.

I can't recall the exact kind of cough syrup but I know it had codeine in it. I know the recommended dosage was a teaspoon.

Well long story short after we both recovered we had 2-3 10 oz bottles of the stuff laying around the house. So I started drinking them over a period of about a week, maybe 2. At the peak I was doing probably 5 shots a night to get high on it.

I'd have really odd dreams and "sleep" for hours but wake up and feel like I hadn't slept at all and I'd wake up with the absolute worst cotton mouth. Also when I'd go to sleep a lot of the time it would be like my body was asleep but my mind never really shut off. I got tired of it so I looked codeine up on drugs.com and realized that was what was causing it so I stopped taking it and tossed the rest out and haven't taken any since mid September.

The crazy dreams stopped a couple weeks later, and the really bad cotton mouth stopped about 2 weeks ago, but I'm still not able to sleep very well. I'll sleep for a few hours but I constantly wake up. It's also thrown my sleep schedule way off. No matter how late I go to bed I always seem to be up around 7-8 AM. When I wake up I don't feel bad like I haven't had enough sleep but I don't feel like I've had enough either.

Could my sleep problems be from the Codeine? I've looked at all the other side effects it causes and the insomnia is the only one I seem to still be suffering from. I never thought the effects from it would last months though.

Debating asking my doctor about getting ambien prescribed.

[Latte]

Totally common. Codeine depresses your central nervous system and when you stop taking it the insomnia can kick in.

I wouldn't take Ambien. If you were taking Codeine to get high, you will likely abuse the Ambien.

When your body is tired enough you will sleep again. It took me quite some time to get into a good sleep routine again. There are natural remedies but I even steered clear of those the first year or so. The whole "take a pill to solve my problem" is what got me started in the first place.

Can you work out at lunch time or after dinner? The release of natural endorphins really does help.

Patience grasshopper, it gets better-I promise.

[anonlegion]

Pretty unlikely. I'm normally pretty strict about following the directions on medicines and everything. I normally don't even take medicine for anything unless I really need it, can't stand going to the doctor either. The cough syrup thing was just a dumb mistake, one I won't be repeating.

I didn't think it was permanent, but I didn't expect it to last this long either. Just sick of not being able to sleep at night, it's been months, it's getting old.