Ditching all my over the counter sleep aids

Wish me luck hoping to fall asleep naturally.

Omg thats good bc I was taking gravol an antihistamine everyday and even thou it makes me sleepy , I think its giving me agitation at night , restless  after long term use.

Sleep will return on its own over time

 

I ditched everything OTC, herbal and natural as none of it worked for me

 

My sleep is good now.  6-8 hours each night

 

You'll get there too, but if you get off nights of poor sleep, which are very likely, just tough it out until things even out.

As soon as I quite cold turkey from lorazepam and wasn’t sleeping at all my dr suggested I take unisum and it’s worked at least a little and slowly started to work better as time passes so right from the start I was on it  and slowly over the past almost  5 months I reduced my dose.. I didn’t want to be on it for half a year cause it’s not even suppose to be taken that long. I stopped taking it last night and didn’t sleep I expect to have rebound insomnia but hoping since I’m 5 months out almost that it won’t be as bad as when I was in acute.

Ashton says sleep returns for most in 6-12 months. 

 

Some take longer, some take less time.

 

My sleep resolved pretty well by month 15 and then almost completely by month 24

 

Most that have insomnia as a primary symptom seem to see some major relief between month 12 - 24?

 

That doesn't mean your sleep is terrible or non existent until then.  It just means that by that amount of time, you are getting enough sleep to live a fairly "normal"

life.

 

My sleep was all over the map for a long time.  I could go through nice stretches of 3 or more months of 5-7 hours only to be thrown back into months of 2-4 or 5 hour nights.

 

It all evens out over time.

 

Today, I get 6-8 every night with only a poor (3-4 hour night) once every 3 - 4 months.

 

The thing that helped me the most was being grateful for any and all sleep and not expecting sleep.  That way when I did sleep, I was happy.

 

Hang in there....

Thank you! I’m hoping to be apart of the 6-12 month group fingers crossed! I see improvements in other areas. With the unisum I was sleeping 6-7 hours the last couple months with an occasional 2 night run with no sleep I know I can’t take unisum forever and probably have taken it to long (even though I was taking a small portion of the pill) but hoping I can get back to regular sleep on my own at some point

I once read a study where melatonin (needs to be time-released, since the instant release is gone within hours) doubled the successful withdrawal rate of elderly long-term benzo users (https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/485174).

 

I have been taking timed-release melatonin some nights, and benedryl other nights, during my klonopin cuts and after my jump.  Seems to have taken the edge of the insomnia a bit, but has definitely not cured it.  Benedryl causes me to sleep soundly for a few hours, but then sleep poorly or not at all after that.  With the melatonin, I wake up every hour and a half or two hours, but go back to sleep fairly easily each time until I have slept a total of say 6 hours. 

Melatonin is not designed to keep you asleep, only to make you fall asleep.

 

Most take way too much melatonin, which can have the opposite effect and keep you awake?

 

The average person makes mcg amounts 0.3mg per night and most supplement amounts are in the 1-10mg range.

 

MIT scientists have confirmed that a serving size of 0.3mg melatonin is the ideal amount necessary for a restful effect. Taken in that quantity, it not only helps you fall asleep, it makes it easier to return to sleep if you happen to awaken during the night.

 

In fact, scientists discovered, a larger serving size stops working after a few days. That’s because when the melatonin receptors in your brain are exposed to too much melatonin, they become unresponsive similar to how Benzos make GABA receptors unresponsive over time.

 

 

Good luck. I'm in the same boat as I realized (a little too late) that the OTC meds were really aggravating my wd symptoms. I wish I had some tips for you but thus far I have not found one activity or sleep hygiene tip that works. I think it is just a matter of waiting it out. Sending love.