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If I get around 4.5 - 7 hours of sleep should I bother with Trazadone?


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I’m on 2mg of Valium. I generally get around 4.5 to 7 hours of sleep every night these days. Usually more on the 4.5 side of things.  I feel like I should be getting more sleep, so I am wondering if I should consider taking Trazodone or something like that to help. I worry all the time about illnesses caused by chronic lack of sleep and that’s why I wonder if I should consider a medication like Trazadone.
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No, do not add another drug. You will be polydrugged and take it from me it's not where you want to be. Trazodone has plenty of side effects (look them up) and can be difficult to taper. After a while it will make you sleep less.

 

Becky  :smitten:

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I’m on 2mg of Valium. I generally get around 4.5 to 7 hours of sleep every night these days. Usually more on the 4.5 side of things.  I feel like I should be getting more sleep, so I am wondering if I should consider taking Trazodone or something like that to help. I worry all the time about illnesses caused by chronic lack of sleep and that’s why I wonder if I should consider a medication like Trazadone.

 

No 4.5 - 7 is great!  You can live just fine on that amount of sleep.  I am 20 months off and get 5-8 hours per night.  I went 8 months with about 5 hours per week average and never got sick, not once, even when the flu and colds went through everyone else in our house.  You probably won't get sick from lack of sleep, I never did and so did many others on this site.  I would routinely miss 3 and sometimes 4 days in a row of zero sleep.  Not sleeping sucks, but won't harm you. Your body will get all the sleep it needs before that can happen.  Since you are tapering and at a low dose you, you might not get hit too bad with insomnia?  Drugs are a dead end road. Eventually they stop working at the current dose and then you have to increase the dose to get the same effect.

 

I would not take trazadone or any other drug to help you sleep.  You are getting "A LOT" of sleep compared to many on this site and compared to people that are not going through drug-related WD insomnia.

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I agree what have been said about trazadone already. I would go without any sleeping drug and allow natural sleep to return. It might be that your sleep goes even less than today when you jump but going further without any drug would allow natural sleep rcovery. In my case I had 3-4 hrs broken sleep when I jumped and nowadays I have 5-6.5 hrs sleep with 1-3 wake ups in the middle so I think my current situation is already tolerable, not bad but not good. I'm 6 months off.
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Wow.

 

If I could get 4.5 - 7hrs sleep on even a semi regular basis that would be bliss.

 

I live on microsleeps most nights with sometimes an hour or two of unconsciousness every so many days. It's hard.

 

I have trazadone, but I have been afraid to try it.

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your kidding right?! I take Nyquil to sleep, If I could get 4-5 hours I wouldnt take anything yet I cant, 7 hours really?! Thats about normal for a person!
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I’m on 2mg of Valium. I generally get around 4.5 to 7 hours of sleep every night these days. Usually more on the 4.5 side of things.  I feel like I should be getting more sleep, so I am wondering if I should consider taking Trazodone or something like that to help. I worry all the time about illnesses caused by chronic lack of sleep and that’s why I wonder if I should consider a medication like Trazadone.

 

Don't do it!  :crazy:

 

Firstly, you might sleep "more" in terms of hours - but for sure the drugged sleep will be of lower quality. More shallow and a worse distribution of sleep stages. In terms of your health, I'd make a confident guess that a bit less non-trazadone sleep is better than trazadone sleep.

 

 

Secondly, as within any, or at least most psych drugs, you'll have to deal with tolerance and eventual withdrawals. This is a headache you definitely don't want if it can be avoided - you know this from how long it's taking to taper valium and navigate withdrawals.

 

 

Thirdly ... adding another medication is another variable to contend with. What if trazadone "poops out" or has some side effects, how will you know it's trazadone or a valium cut? How will you know the rate to come off it? Will you know if it's the trazadone or a delayed effect from a valium cut? ... It just makes it complicated...

 

 

Last... what else have you tried for sleep? Is there any pattern in the nights you can get 7 vs 4.5?

 

 

To run some things off the top of my head; fixed sleep and waking routine ... pre-bed relaxation routines ie meditation, hypnosis, tapping .... a diet that stabilises blood sugar during sleep .... pitch black room with blackout blinds, sleep mask ... noise minimization via ear plugs .... CBT for insomnia including about 20 different things for sleep hygiene ..... avoiding all tech 2 hours before bed ... "flux" or "twilight" to eliminate phone/computer blue light and mimic sunset ... fresh air, sunlight, grounding, exercise, water in quantities you can handle every day .... other strategies like cutting slightly slower or micro-tapering to minimise sleep disruption .... zinc, magnesium, vitamin d ... improving general diet ... incline bed therapy ...

 

... I could tell you about 100 more things you could try ...  :thumbsup:

 

But the point is I think this is where you should look, at lifestyle factors and tapering factors you can improve easily to optimize your sleep. You might get 1% improvement out of each method, but they all add up to much much better sleep than otherwise.

 

 

Also an observation, this fear of not sleeping enough and having health problems due to it will certainly negatively impact your ability to sleep well  :angel:

 

 

Wishing you health happiness and sleep - Mr Eggplant

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your kidding right?! I take Nyquil to sleep, If I could get 4-5 hours I wouldnt take anything yet I cant, 7 hours really?! Thats about normal for a person!

 

I’m not kidding. First off I’m not completely tapered off. Secondly I’m really anxious about all the stories of how you develop dementia because of lack of sleep. That’s why I was worried about that amount not being sufficient.

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your kidding right?! I take Nyquil to sleep, If I could get 4-5 hours I wouldnt take anything yet I cant, 7 hours really?! Thats about normal for a person!

 

I’m not kidding. First off I’m not completely tapered off. Secondly I’m really anxious about all the stories of how you develop dementia because of lack of sleep. That’s why I was worried about that amount not being sufficient.

 

From my understanding and from everything I have read, you don't automatically develop dementia from lack of sleep.  Not many scientific studies confirm that correlation.  Also, there is a greater risk of developing dementia from long-term Benzo use and/or anti-psychotic drug use.  Lots of people have insomnia their entire lives.  My Grandmother did and lived to be 96 and never developed any type of brain disease/disorder.  Stop Googling lack of sleep induced diseases, etc.  It is a MYTH that people need 8 hours per night. 

 

The test for sleep sufficiency is how do you function the next day given the amount of sleep you got the night before?  I got about 2 hours last night (had one of my monthly off nights) and I am at work and feel completely fine.  Not even tired.

 

In fact, during the first 8 months of my WD, I got almost no sleep...maybe 5 - 10 hours per week average, I never even got a cold or sick one time, even when the rest of my family did.  Not sleeping is surely NO FUN, but it won't kill you or even make you sick (most people).

 

Good luck!  :thumbsup:

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I agree with TheWay. At first I was googling like crazy and fighting it so hard that it worsened my obsessions and anxiety - probably worsening my chances of getting sleep even more.

 

At this point I have been beaten into submission by my lack of sleep. Since 2/2, I have rarely had more than a couple hours of unconscious sleep most nights. In fact, this week was the first time I've slept 5-6 hours straight one night. I have a nightly routine every night now, and I go to bed and hope for the best. Ive learned that although I don't like it, I can function to some degree on less sleep.

 

Am I competent as an engineer on 2hrs sleep? That is another question. I'm trying. I would be very grateful to get 4-7hrs nightly.

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