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What has helped with sleep during taper? Anyone?


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Just would like to know what has helped anyone to sleep better during taper or post withdrawals? Any advice or suggestions?!! Thanks.
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I didn’t sleep well last night as I up til 6am this morning and was off meds for almost 2 days. I took .5 mg K and 150mg Seroquel XR. Only slept for 4 hrs. I going to hold here for awhile stabilize for a week and than taper more slowly. Been going too rapid of taper off K lately. And should listen to my body.  :tickedoff:

 

Just depressed, no energy, loss of appetite and chronic insomina. Maybe side effects of drugs, tolerance, and partial rapid WD sx’s. I many here dam if do and dam if you don’t. Not sure what to do?

 

 

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i had the same thing while getting off klonopin ,ambien, and i have been weaning off zoloft now as far as the insominia goes i was not sleeping for a few weeks a a time then i tried cbd oil and now i can get 4 or 5 hours  sleep per night  again its not ideal but better than none.make sure you stabilize before you make your next cut .
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I tried Melatonin, some nights it's helpful, some others I can't sleep  easily, but I always sleep even a little. I use Solgar "sweetest dreams", 3mg melatonin and 100mg L-theanine.
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Trench

You must have a robust constitution — I fell over on 50 of Seroquel and having a great time (NOT) getting off it by 10 % taper. Now 22mg. Sleep ok. I am a sad type who relies on camomile. Hardly a sedative but works for me.

Hope you find a solution

Dick

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Hi trenchmob,

 

I began taking a benzo to alleviate my insomnia, so I knew when I began my taper, I'd have to find alternative sleep solutions.

 

I've been seeing a cognitive behavioral therapist once a week.  She introduced me to sleep hygiene.  Through practice, my sleep has made marked improvement, both in duration and quality without supplementing or further pill popping.  This has all happened during my taper.  At lower doses, my sleep continues to improve, making me suspect the benzo may have actually developed adverse effects on my sleep.

 

Here's more info on sleep hygiene:  https://www.sleepfoundation.org/articles/sleep-hygiene

 

Hope this helps you!

 

sierra  :smitten:

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531290dog, my sleep was  down to zero the first few weeks into my taper. Before that I slept 4-5 hours at best, even though I was still on benzos. Upping the dose made me feel worse, but didn't help me sleep.  After I finished my taper, my sleep is anywhere from 2 to 4-5 hours. Rarely it is seven hours.

I thought of trying cbd oil but wonder if it will work more than once or twice before it stops.

 

Fortylongyears, first of all congratulations on getting this far in spite of what you have been through. Even a lovely rose garden has its thorns.

My condolences on the loss of your wife. You have been on an incredibly rough journey. Finding this site helped me to finally succeed in coming off of both clonazepam. Prior to that I had two failed tapers.

 

Sierra7, I've practiced sleep hygiene for many years with minimal success. I'm going to follow your link and maybe try it again. Thanks for sharing.

 

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I took .5mg and 150XR Seroquel last night and slept til 7. Seroquel was wearing off so decided to sleep in by just taking .50mg Seroquel IR and melatonin 3mg. And I slept til noon. I may have found the seeet spot for now. I woke up rested and near normal. I don’t know what did that worked today.

Just going hold like that for few days to week. Any thoughts? I know we are all different.

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It was forty. I have been through the worst this past 16 months with chronic insomnia, health anxiety, severe depression, etc. 30+ years of drinking not everyday. Muti meds for sleep each 2-3 week change or some times for a few months for sleep. Never something regular until last month. It helped but continued insomnia with side effects and\or withdraw. I finally became stable the last few weeks with only two meds. Sometimes I was polydurgged for a short period of time 3-5 meds for a few weeks. I was all over the place and decided enough. In January at my worst doing poly experimenting in a way I didn't sleep for a DOCUMENTED 14 days including a 5 day stay at a Psyche ward for extreme sleep deprivation and found out they had a policy of not prescribing benzos or z-drugs and only Vistaril or less to sleep. Worst mistake in my life and only low income mental facility in the area. Dr's don't want to do a taper schedule with me, so I got to do it on my own and its been good.  :thumbsup: I'm a former Lab Technologist for 15 years. A Doc also.
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Have you a mentor? Have you a stable family? How on earth you have managed poly use and multiple switching I know not.

Seroquel is a short acting phenothiazine as you know. By 4 am it’s sedative effects are negligible.

I would add promethazine 20/25 every night for a week.  I know it is a phenothiazine too but long half life and anxiolytic. We use it in the psych wards.

Are you in the uk or across the pond? 

Best wishes

Dick

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Across the pond. I wish they would develop a long acting, sedative with a half life of 14-16 hrs with effect of 8-10 one day and non benzo or gaba mechanism to sleep. And hit the H1 receptor only for long term hypnotic effects.
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  • 2 weeks later...
Have any of you tried 5-HTP (5 hydroxytryptophan)? I take 100 mg at bedtime and it helps me sleep a bit better. With that being said, don't take 5-HTP with any SSRI's, MAOI's and some other meds like Tramadol and Dextromethorphan since it can increase serotonin levels in the brain. (webmd.com has the list of interactions with 5-HTP).
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There is a special kind of CBT called CBT-I (insomnia). I recently completed it. It is a 6 week program or you can do or a free website called Sleepio which is free CBT-I. I did that too. I am doing an ultra slow taper off 4 mg of Ativan. I have had sleeping problems my while life due to Night Eating Syndrome which sometimes left me exhausted during the day. At age 50 I had a big job which required more sleep. I took Ambien for 8 years very successfully even though I knew one day I wanted to get off. But then my psychiatrist put me on Wellbutrin and one dose wiped out the Ambien efficacy. We tried everything and nothing worked so we went to Ativan. It worked but I quickly got dependent on it in just 1 month. Now I am trying to get off so I get do more CBT-I. I have developed excellent sleep hygiene and have high hopes for my slow withdrawal which Dr. Ashton recommends. I wish you well.
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There is a special kind of CBT called CBT-I (insomnia). I recently completed it. It is a 6 week program or you can do or a free website called Sleepio which is free CBT-I. I did that too. I am doing an ultra slow taper off 4 mg of Ativan. I have had sleeping problems my while life due to Night Eating Syndrome which sometimes left me exhausted during the day. At age 50 I had a big job which required more sleep. I took Ambien for 8 years very successfully even though I knew one day I wanted to get off. But then my psychiatrist put me on Wellbutrin and one dose wiped out the Ambien efficacy. We tried everything and nothing worked so we went to Ativan. It worked but I quickly got dependent on it in just 1 month. Now I am trying to get off so I get do more CBT-I. I have developed excellent sleep hygiene and have high hopes for my slow withdrawal which Dr. Ashton recommends. I wish you well.

Hi powerball......could you please elaborate on your good sleep hygiene? List some of the things you are doing.

 

thanks--

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Mirtazipine gives me 6 hours if no pain breakthrough but it’s another one to get off in due course.

I googled sleep hygiene some time back, but I am so ill disciplined it’s not consistent.

Dick

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  • 1 month later...
try Calm Support. Someone on one of these sites recommended it for insomnia during taper and post benzo free if necessary. It is OTC. Two nights ago I took it with my Ativan and Xanax (I a tapering ATIVAN) and one capsule knocked me out Last night my taper wasn't working very well (I could not get to sleep) - so I got up after 45 minutes, did around 25 minutes of meditation, took another capsule and It knocked me the hell out. I do not if this pill is working on me placebo or not. Tonight I have chosen to keep my Ativan dose as last night and am taking another capsule one half hour before bedtime. I may post the results here although this is not my regular group. But thought this little capsule and my experience with it might be helpful. I bought it on Amazon. Powerball
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Powerball

As long as you are aware Calm support has Passion flower and thus Gaba in it, so you will slow any taper.

Camomile is the same and I find it gives me a great sleep but I know it’s not helping the Gaba receptors at all-)) but sans sleep the panic disorder is foul.

Dick

 

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I just discovered u-dream from a Canadian company  the lite dose (4-5 hours) knocked me out for 8 with no morning handover. I used it 5 nights in a row on a recent trip but 6th night-before I took it I had extreme anxiety towards night time. Not sure if it was related but stopped for 2 nights and went back to not sleeping. Tried again last night-8 1/2 hours later woke up -without getting up even once. It does have Passion flower and some Chinese herbs. The company keeps selling out  so guess it’s not just me. I have spent a lifetime trying to get sleep (also presently taking CBT-I) and nothing worked as well as this. Too good to be true?  Probably but willing to keep experimenting with it. Will see if extreme anxiety (before dose) returns. 🤞
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Have you a mentor? Have you a stable family? How on earth you have managed poly use and multiple switching I know not.

Seroquel is a short acting phenothiazine as you know. By 4 am it’s sedative effects are negligible.

I would add promethazine 20/25 every night for a week.  I know it is a phenothiazine too but long half life and anxiolytic. We use it in the psych wards.

Are you in the uk or across the pond? 

Best wishes

Dick

 

I thought seroquel was a long lasting med? I didnt know that it was short acting. Learn something new.

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I have been going thru this now for about 10 months and I have noticed that if my insomnia is partiularly bad then there is nothing to do about it but white knockle it.

 

If the insomnia is kinda mild I can get some sleep with a small piece of a seroquel and some breath exercises.

 

When my insomnia was the worst there was nothing that would get it under control. At its worst when i was up for over a week i was taking multiple sleeping meds and it didnt touch the insomnia.

 

It was like my brain was on fire and being electricuted at the same time. Crazy stuff.

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Just wanted to update with U-Dream in case anyone read my post and was thinking of getting it- Tried it again night before last -slept the 8 hours but last night was horrible and today is worse with inner trembling/shaking, crawling out of my skin - The passionflower and whatever Chinese herbs might be great for those not on or withdrawing from benzos- I won't touch it again- Back to "normal" 1-3 hours until I heal- 
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I’ve been off Benzos for 13 months. I only took them for 8 months including taper but I’ll tell you where I am in recovery. I learned that taking a pill for sleep was comforting and horrifying at the same time. It felt good to know I had something to help but I also felt dependent on it and I hated that. The last thing I took was a Tylenol pm every night because I didn’t want any more prescriptions. I thought I had to have it but soon realized I slept the same with it without it. I’m sleeping 5-9 hours every night now but I have no ability to feel rejuvenated or sleepy. Headaches are constant and I still wake up some and it’s hard to go back to sleep. It’s still pretty hard to go sleep when I go to bed and when I do, it’s a lot of dreams. Just try not to take anything. That will help more than anything.

 

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