i am concerned about Restoril and what its supposidly doing to me

[ryanjosef]

i just started taking this a week ago, my wife told me today that i have done things, like falling down a flight of stairs ( which for some reason didnt hurt me except i hurt my shoulder but im not shure if i did that when i fell when i triped over a car jack, the big ones)then she comes to see if im ok i give her a hug tell her how much i love her, and i have no memory of ever doing this or the other things she mentiond like getting a computer mouse for someone early in the morning or supposedly getting dizzy and just falling down where im at. she seis things to me and i dont remember ever having seid anything. this is kinda freeking me out , i just looked it up on the internet but it seid nothing about addiction and only slight memory loss, but from what im told nothing like i have experianced. i take them only 5 to 10 min before i got to bed as far as i know i make it there and try to goto sleep and have been (for the first time in a year) sleeping threw the night. supposidly. can any one tell me anything more about this

[shutterbug]

Oh....one thing I forgot to mention about ANY sleeping medication is that you have to be sure you DON'T have sleep apnea, because if you do and you take sleeping pills it can kill you.

From what I've been told...most people who snore have sleep apnea and don't even know it.

When I admitted myself into the hospital the first time, they gave me a strong dose of Trazadone and I don't think I've ever slept harder in my life. Later, after I had gone through 2 sleep studies and found out I had sleep apnea...I found out that I could have very easily died in my sleep from the Trazadone.

I still say call a pharmasist and ask them about Restoril...

Hope you find some answers cause I'm curious about this myself. (I'm wondering if the memory loss is from the meds or from the severe depression?)

Hugs,
Jenna

[shutterbug]

Wow Stormy ...looks like you nailed it!

Ryan....looks like your wife was right to be worried about you and looks like you should probably go see the doc ASAP...and at the very minimum....call and pharmasist TONIGHT and tell him your symptoms and ask him what you should do.

God Bless,
Jenna

[ryanjosef]

i have a doc apointment in the morning the other thing i forgot to mention is i stop breathing for a short period wich imediatly wakes my wife up, which is interesting the other thing is that i take lamictal which is anti seizure med which i just read is a bad mix with restoril. thanks for the help

[shutterbug]

((((RYAN)))))

If you stop breathing in your sleep then that is what sleep apnea is! It's where the soft tissue in your throat collapses and you stop breathing. Something in your brain realizes you aren't getting any oxygen and wakes you up just enough so that you start breathing again. Most people with sleep apnea stop breathing 100's of times a night and never even know it. So you are literally waking up hundreds of times each night so that you can start breathing again.

The only clue I had was that maybe once every couple of months or so...I would wake up gasping for air. Never thought much of it...just always thought I was choking on my own saliva or something stupid like that.

I was also tired all the time...all my life.

When I was on insurance and off work...I decided...what the hell, I do a sleep study and see.

Well...come to find out I stop breathing an average of 40 or so times an hour when I'm asleep. Usually, I only stop breathing for about 10 seconds or so, but my longest recorded time was for 90 seconds. (I even have trouble holding my breath on purpose for a minute and a half, I didn't understand how I could sleep right through something like that....but millions of people do it every night and never know it).

Like I said....sleeping meds are a BIG no-no for a person who has sleep apnea. SO PLEASE TELL THE DOC IN THE MORNING THAT THERE ARE TIMES WHEN YOUR WIFE WAKES UP BECAUSE YOU STOP BREATHING!! The doc really needs to know that!

My Pdoc's wouldn't prescribe me anything other than 100 mg of Visteril at night to help me sleep...doesn't help much, but it's better than nothing and better than dieing in my sleep.

I guess that's why I still have a stash of Restoril that I haven't used....be the dosage is much less than what you take too...and I also take Lamictal too...so I guess I will just throw them away now (especially since I havent' been using my sleep apnea machine when I sleep at night...I gotta start doing that again.

God Bless

[ryanjosef]

you have got me thinking now that you mention it i do on ocashion wake up for a gasp of air and think nothing of it and go back to sleep, i have an aunt that workes in one of those sleep study places maybe i ought to go get tested if i can. though i dont know how people can goto sleep with a mask on.

[ryanjosef]

tell ya what the doc sies tomarrow

[shutterbug]

Yeah, I still struggle with mine, but it's one of the small kind that just sits in the nose (I thought I wouldn't be able to stand that at all....but it's much better than the face and nose masks...I just kinda have trouble keeping it from coming off my head in my sleep, not because it's uncomfortable, but because of moving my head around.)

AND...this is the cool thing....I just saw on the news a couple weeks ago that they have come up with this quick 10 minute procedure that they can do in a regular docs office where they insert 3 tiny stick-like things into the back of your mouth and it only takes a few stiches to do it! AND...what happens is the stick-like things tighten up and they keep your air way from closing. SO YOU NEVER HAVE TO WEAR A MASK OR HAVE MAJOR SURGERY EVER AGAIN!!!!

I'm so excited about it....as soon as I get back on some kind of insurance...I'm definetly going to have it done...and maybe before depending on how much it costs!

AND...besides being able to kill you in your sleep....when you stop breathing during the night, over and over and over again, it makes it to where your heart has to pump twice as hard to push oxygen through your body...so untreated sleep apnea is hard on your heart too.

I would definetly talk to your aunt about it and see what your options are. The sleep doc I went to was so great. My dad can't afford to get the study done, but people have given him 2 different sleep machines (he tried using them but the air pressure wasn't set right for him and he didn't know how to find out what to set it at). So I asked my doc about it and he said that dad can come in and borrow one of their self-regulating machines (where the machine figures out for itself what the air pressure should be at all times)...doc said he could borrow it for a week for no charge and then bring it back and download all the information the machine stored up and the doc would tell him what to set my dad's own machine at. (Otherwise it literally costs $1,000's of dollars to do the sleep study and to buy the machine).

That's why this new little operation they've invented is SO AWSOME!!!

Anyway....I'm jabbering again...Good night and let me know how the doctor visit goes.

[ryanjosef]

ok the doc wasnt concerned about anything except that the hangover affect lasted so long.pffft. but he changed me over to amitriptyline but told me if i have a hard time sleeping one night that i can mix one of the restoril with one of the amitriptyline.
anyhow he realy didnt care when i told him i had been realy depressed for a couple of weeks, the only time my wife seid anything was when he asked how long i had been depressed for and she seid like a week and a half. anyways thats how my doc appointment went worthless and crappy pretty much same as always.

[Don W]

Ryan, I would suggest talking to your doctor. I was taking Paxil and because it was working I overlooked some of the side affects. I found out there are alternatives available. We all have different chemical make ups so sometimes they have to try different ones. However, I'm concerned about the loss of control. With the Paxil I had some terrible nightmares and did some things to defend myself. My wife told me the next day that I'd push her out of bed. Sometimes I think the side affects are worse than the problem their for. To add a little humor, the doctor gave me something to offset the depression medications affect on my sex life. My wife and I were reading the possible side affects. Most of which would kill any moment of passion. Or having to rush to hospital if it lasts more than 4 hours. How would I explain the problem? Keep up your fantastic spirit. You are an insperation. Don W

[ryanjosef]

went to bed around 2 still had a hangover to day i got up around 11am and went back to bed at 3 and just got up at 7 and im ready to go back to bed only got up cause i felt id better but i didnt so going to eat and go back to sleep was having dreams that i met a mermaid and she gave me powers and there were anacondas after me. weird but interseting.