As an insomiac since college MANY years ago, and having it re-occur about 13 years ago to the point where I would go without sleep (0 minutes) for as many as 11 days straight (was admitted to the hospital at that point), I have tried just about every "newer" sleep aid to come out since 2004. I also had a doctor who prescribed Trazadone, a drug originally used as an anti-depressant in the 80's that did nothing for depression, but supposedly helped with insomnia. I tried it for 2 months and have never felt so crappy during the day in my life. Nights weren't much much better either – night sweats, nausea, body aches and headaches, but I did get a little sleep (on average 4 hours a night) for about 2 weeks. Then it gradually stopped working - and I had to taper off.
Keeping in mind that everbody is different (we have a family friend who suffers from PTSD from Vietnam and he has been on a cocktail of Benadryl and Ambien for a decade and it still works for him), here are my experiences:
1.
Ambien: worked great for 9 days and then stopped working all together. Went off of it and tried it years later and it didn’t work at all.
2.
Ambien CR: Put me in the ER. Because it is time released, I would take it, fall asleep, wake-up 2 hours later, forgot I had taken it and take another 1. Fall asleep, wake up a couple of hours later and repeat cycle 2 more times in the same night. By 8:00am the next morning, after having taken 4 pills, I was nauseous, vomiting, shaking, couldn’t keep anything down, even water. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending how you look at it, I was a young Associate at a firm and stuck working on a document review deadline. Since I lived 45 miles free the office (or 1-3 hours, depending on traffic), my evil, sadistic boss said that I had to finish the docs, couldn’t take a sick day, but could work from home. For 4 days I did not sleep, could not keep water, pedialyte or anything down, became seriously dehydrated and because I didn’t want to call the ambulance and didn’t know any of my neighbors well enough yet, somehow managed to drive to the ER, where I waited all day for a doctor. Kids with broken legs were getting bumped in front of me and I couldn't stop running to the restroom to throw-up. I finally got ½ bottle of water down and told the ER admissions desk I was going home. After about a week I was able to eat and go back to work. Still couldn’t sleep after all that.
3.
Lunesta: Took the medicine, fell asleep after a couple of hours, woke up at 8:00am, took a shower, put on make-up, fixed my hair, got dressed, drove the dog to the groomer’s for his appointment, got pulled over by a cop for stopping in the middle of an intersection and failing to complete a turn, talked him out of a ticket, dropped the dog off with the groomer, went back home, took all my make-up off, put my PJs back on and went to sleep. 3 hours later the groomer called to tell me my dog was ready and I was like “What? He’s there?” I had no recollection of what happened before I got that call until the groomer told me about my morning, the police officer and the conversation, etc.. Never took it again.
4.
Benzos: Have tried them all and the only one that works, and at this point not very well, is Clonazepam. I have tapered off a couple of times. During 1 taper, my “addiction specialist” MD told me about a new sleep aid,
BELSOMRA. that would be coming out in February, 2014 and they had high hopes from it as it’s chemical make-up was different than any of the other sleep aids on the market. He said he didn’t know much about it because they weren’t advertising it or sending the doctors any info or samples yet (which in hindsight was a red flag), but thought it was worth a shot. He also told me the name of the manufacturer and I just happened to be friends with a rep from the company I called him, he said he was going to be selling it, but like the doctor, he knew nothing about it yet. He said the official sales launch was at the end of February and he would keep me posted.
5. Flash forward to May of 2014. I am still taking a ridiculously high dose of Clonazepam, along with Benadryl (unbeknownst to my addiction specialist doctor) to sleep, and a trip to check-in with him resulted in me leaving with a bag of BELSOMRA. I always research drugs before I take them and I was not finding anything positive on the internet about the drug. Keeping in mind that everyone reacts differently to meds, I sent my friend an e-mail on LinkedIn, which in hindsight was stupid because most people have their work e-mails as their contact e-mails on LinkedIn and I should have e-mailed him at his personal address or called him. I didn’t hear from hear from him for a few days, as he was on vacation with his family, but when he got back, he called me, explained why he didn’t respond to the e-mail and said “DO NOT TAKE THIS DRUG.” He was adamant about that. Fortunately, I had not started taking it yet, but to have a rep from the company who is selling you the drug tell you that, and in such a strong way, I knew something was up. Without going into details, since this post is already so long, watch this:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bels...2cd5e7fd50
Now, you see why you should research any medication before you take it.
Halcion is still available and some doctors will prescribe it (mine will), but believing there are better medications for insomnia on the market now, and foolishly believing they are not addictive, doctors push the newer drugs. If you want Halcion, you are going to have to find a doctor who will prescribe it and be adamant that nothing else will work. Otherwise, you will have to find another source.
Hope this helps.
M.
