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Hi, I'm now 15 days off Klonopin. I was taking .125 mg for a couple of months only on workdays. I thought I would be fine going off the medication since I was taking the smallest dose I possibly could, but I still went through horrible withdrawal symptoms the past two weeks. While much of the symptoms have disappeared, I still can't get a good night of sleep. I wake up often and cannot fall back asleep afterward. It's not sound sleep at all. I can't tell if my mental lag is from the withdrawal or the lack of sleep at this point. Any support would be nice. I'm not looking to take any other pharmaceuticals at this time or maybe ever. I am just looking for words of encouragement that this should get better in time or any other tips that might be useful for a better night sleep. Thank you.
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That's good news that the worst of the symptoms have left you already. Acute withdrawal often lasts much longer. Insomnia tends to be the longest lasting symptom and lack of sleep will make everything feel much worse. This is VERY common for folks coming off of benzos and z-drugs. Unfortunately, the insomnia can be pretty long lasting but it we get through it. There really is not much that will work regarding sleep, but being too anxious about it will make the insomnia worse. The ultimate goal is to accept the situation until it resolves itself. I would recommend staying in bed resting as best as possible. A lot of short periods of shallow sleep will probably set in without your being aware of them and that can really help with the sleep debt.
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Great idea to stay away from all Rx drugs.  They only cause lots of problems as you learned first hand.  The insomnia will slowly get better.  It has lots of UPs and DOWNs for some time for most.  But it will get better.  Insomnia was my worst symptom and seems to hit most folks that have issues getting off of Benzos.

 

The best things I did to help with getting past insomnia are:

 

1) Accept the situation.  That means NOT CARING if you sleep or not.  Chasing sleep will not work.  It will only allude you.  However, acceptance is something that is not easily done until you are ready for it.  Lack of sleep will not kill you, you will get all the sleep you need before anything "bad" can happen to you.  Later on in my WD, I just stopped caring if I slept or not as I was worn out from trying desperately to get sleep.  That helped my sleep a lot.

2) Be as positive as you can be given the crappy circumstances.  Don't get freaked out if you go for a few days in a row with little or no sleep.  Be grateful for whatever sleep you do get.  Don't make other people's insomnia issues your issues.  If they took X amount of time to start to sleep better, don't think you will take that long.

3) Short term users generally have a shorter WD period/insomnia period

4) Not many things work in early WD.  OTC, natural, CBT, sleep restriction, etc.

 

You'll get through this and heal.  Time is the healer.  Everyone heals. 

 

Good luck!

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  • 2 weeks later...
Im in a world of torment from the same thing. I slept all the time before I got on benzos and now I think I would just keep on going without sleep if I didn't take remeron. I've lowered my dosage to .3 of the klonipone but can't seem to get past that for sleep. Someone told me that benzos mess up your gaba receptors and the glutamate in your brain. In time, it should heal but it feels like you are going to go insane before it does. I'm just having horrible derealization and head pressure right now. If I go I to a store, my head feels like it will explode and my teeth ache. Talk about depression!! It's the worst! Good Luck to you. Things will improve. We will feel like we can take on the world when we get through this.
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  • 2 months later...

I wanted to respond to this. Although I'm not feeling completely better three months after quitting a low dose of Klonopin cold turkey, I am sleeping better. What helped me was sitting in front of a UV light. After sitting in front of a UV light for an entire session of therapy, I was able to sleep all night. After that, for the most part, I haven't had much trouble sleeping.

 

That being said, the past week or so, the depression I felt the first month or so of withdrawal has returned. I'm still trying to figure out how to cope with that.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I wanted to respond to this. Although I'm not feeling completely better three months after quitting a low dose of Klonopin cold turkey, I am sleeping better. What helped me was sitting in front of a UV light. After sitting in front of a UV light for an entire session of therapy, I was able to sleep all night. After that, for the most part, I haven't had much trouble sleeping.

 

That being said, the past week or so, the depression I felt the first month or so of withdrawal has returned. I'm still trying to figure out how to cope with that.

hey! i found this to help me as well. i read that the iphones are using a low blue light background setting called "night shift" to replace the blueish white parts. so i turned on the setting and moved the slider all the way to "warm" and it REALLY helped a lot.

 

also, i use a program on my PC called "f.lux" it filters out the blue light that causes stress and insomnia. i turn it way down to orange and i try to fall asleep listening to peaceful music (dappy t keys) on youtube and it definitely helps as well.

 

tun on night shift settings for iphone

https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/use-ios-9-3-night-shift-mode/

 

f.lux to filter out blue light at night because it causes insomnia

https://justgetflux.com/

 

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