Does anything help with sleep?

I have had problems with insomnia for years, but seems worse now then ever before. I am on .5mg clonazepam, 22mg mirtazapine and 1mg melatonin nightly and I sleep for a couple hours then wide awake for a couple hours that continues through the night and then come morning I don't want to get out of bed because I need more sleep!  I just started my taper of clonazepam and know insomnia could get worse, is there anything I can take to sleep other than the antipsychotic drugs my psychiatrist keeps trying to put me on?

Question? The Rx drugs you are still on......were you put on those things for sleep issues?

I'm so sorry nanaquits, insomnia is so frustrating and for me, scary also.  Getting the benzos out of my system and letting myself heal was the ultimate answer because my experience was like yours - I took a benzo, slept for 2-4 hours and then woke up.  They just wouldn't hold me asleep any longer.  Sleep restriction also helped - I got up early in the morning no matter how bad the night before was and I absolutely never nap.  Sleep finally returned after a year off benzos.

Everything I learned from my personal experience and from hundreds of others regarding Benzos and insomnia can be found here:

http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=235100.0

 

Good luck!

Hi Nana,

 

I hear you about not wanting to get out of bed because you're still tired. That happened to me this morning. I was awake at 8:18 but laid in bed until 9:45 just 'resting' and hoping to fall back to sleep. I think Kate08 might be onto something about getting up no matter how hard the night before was. I don't know about you, but I always feel better as the days goes on. It's just really rough getting up in the morning.

 

HM

I am on .5mg clonazepam, 22mg mirtazapine and 1mg melatonin nightly and I sleep for a couple hours then wide awake for a couple hours

 

Andros01 here suggested time release might be a better option for some than the immediate release. Which one are you taking?

 

It is hard tho to overcome any benzo tolerance induced insomnia with any OTC sleep aid like melatonin. You have to 1st get rid of the root cause which I am afraid might be the klonopin.

Everything I learned from my personal experience and from hundreds of others regarding Benzos and insomnia can be found here:

http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=235100.0

 

Good luck!

 

Yes, this is an excellent post to read.

I am on .5mg clonazepam, 22mg mirtazapine and 1mg melatonin nightly and I sleep for a couple hours then wide awake for a couple hours

 

Andros01 here suggested time release might be a better option for some than the immediate release. Which one are you taking?

 

It is hard tho to overcome any benzo tolerance induced insomnia with any OTC sleep aid like melatonin. You have to 1st get rid of the root cause which I am afraid might be the klonopin.

 

This is why it's hard to respond to a post like this one. Honestly, at the stage the OP is in right now, literally the ONLY advice we can give is what TheWay2 says. All we can do is point to his story and his posts. Unless a person is very lucky, like TheWay2 likes to say: Nothing short of an Rx is going to do anything, and even then other non-Benzo Rx fail.

 

Sadly, the only way out is thru.

 

Sadly, the only way out is thru.

 

So true Andros01.  People at BB told me that time is the healer but I kept hoping there would be something easier than accepting it would take quite a while to learn to sleep without benzos.  (But expecting 'miracles' without doing any of the work to help bring them to fruition was a big part of my downfall!)  Alas, my hope was in vain and time actually was the ultimate healer for me. 

I am having some luck experimenting with multiple exercise sessions (cardio only) of short durations spaced throughout the day. I am literally wearing myself out making myself super tired and forcing the body into sleep (even tho I still feel like I am not getting optimal amounts). Even in acute benzo w/d, you will not die bc of lack of sleep altho it may feel like it. Unless you suffer from  a rare sleep disorder called  fatal familial insomnia, the brain will force enough sleep to keep you alive altho you might feel like you were awake for 10 days in a row (see Sleep State Misperception). Lack of sufficient sleep however will increase your risk of dying prematurely from things like heart disease and diabetes and accidents (Driving while drowsy for example).

My experience during WD (and everyone is different) was that cardio exercise, no matter when I did it, jacked up all my symptoms and made my sleep worse--if that were possible?  My PCP told me the same thing...exercise until you are exhausted...but Benzo-induced insomnia doesn't have anything to do with being physically exhausted...it's about TEMPORARY changes to your brain chemistry that won't allow you to sleep until your brain wants some sleep and even then it's not much!

 

I couldn't sleep and never felt tired even after going 3 and sometimes 4 nights in a row with no sleep.  I was "tired" but my brain was "wired" all the time so there was NO chance of falling asleep while driving...literally ZERO.  If I could have done that, then I could have napped or slept at night or during the day.

 

Fatal insomnia is hereditary and there is an extremely small number of people on the earth that have that genetic predisposition.  I can guarantee you that you don't have fatal insomnia either!

 

Good luck...

 

Sadly, the only way out is thru.

 

So true Andros01.  People at BB told me that time is the healer but I kept hoping there would be something easier than accepting it would take quite a while to learn to sleep without benzos.  (But expecting 'miracles' without doing any of the work to help bring them to fruition was a big part of my downfall!)  Alas, my hope was in vain and time actually was the ultimate healer for me.

 

When I came here originally, my desire was to find a solution as well. I wouldn't say I wanted a "magic pill", but being in the IT world, I am so used to just digging into some forum for a solution to a problem that someone was bound to run into before, and either find a solution, a workaround, or at least the starting steps to properly troubleshoot.

 

This is the first time in my life where the only answer was "wait it out, and it could take years". It was so hard to accept it. I never truly did 100%, but I did accept it enough to just tough it out and hope for the best (while researching what, if anything could be useful).

My experience during WD (and everyone is different) was that cardio exercise, no matter when I did it, jacked up all my symptoms and made my sleep worse--if that were possible?  My PCP told me the same thing...exercise until you are exhausted...but Benzo-induced insomnia doesn't have anything to do with being physically exhausted...it's about TEMPORARY changes to your brain chemistry that won't allow you to sleep until your brain wants some sleep and even then it's not much!

 

I couldn't sleep and never felt tired even after going 3 and sometimes 4 nights in a row with no sleep.  I was "tired" but my brain was "wired" all the time so there was NO chance of falling asleep while driving...literally ZERO.  If I could have done that, then I could have napped or slept at night or during the day.

 

Fatal insomnia is hereditary and there is an extremely small number of people on the earth that have that genetic predisposition.  I can guarantee you that you don't have fatal insomnia either!

 

Good luck...

 

It sounds like you were probably put on benzos for sleep issues to begin with (IDK). Yes, this may not work for everyone but it is working (somewhat) for me, even tho my sleep is still suboptimal. YMMV as they say. I personally found you must get the duration, intensity and timing just right. Also, many ppl claim they are exercise intolerant during bzd w/d and can't exercise, so they can not even try to see if it helps or not. Regardless, You will sleep tho even if you think you are not sleeping (albeit very little perhaps) and you will not die from lack of sleep. There are powerful mechanisms in the brain that will force sleep from what I have read. Lack of sleep (risk factor) does increase things like heart disease and diabetes and  will kill you indirectly, so sleep is very important to overall health and longevity for most ppl. It is said that men like Thomas Edison thrived on 3-4 hours of sleep only so it seems there are some ppl who can not only survive but thrive on very little sleep.

 

Many ppl were put on these drugs for sleep to begin with. These are the ppl who will have the hardest time with sleep again IMO even after successfully withdrawing from benzos, sometimes even after being off benzos for years. These are (especially) the very ppl then who should use natural lifestyle things like a truly healthy whole food plant based diet, exercise, meditation, stopping alcohol and cigarettes if they are drinking or smoking, and good sleep hygiene by sleeping in a dark quiet comfy temp. room by going to bed and getting up at the same times no matter what and  avoid daytime napping at all costs.

Yes, I was put on Benzos for sleep.  I slept very well for 52 years and then out of the blue, I starting getting some poor nights of sleep, so per our "fast food" society, my PCP put me on Xanax right away.  It worked like a charm, until it didn't.

 

My sleep has been pretty good the past 3.5 years, although I still get hit with a poor night of sleep every month or two.

 

Sleep hygiene, eating well, exercising, avoiding smoking, alcohol and sugar, etc. are all great habits to get into...no denying that.  I currently work out 6 days per week and do both weight training and cardio.  I am actually in the best condition of my life at age 58.  I can still bench press 325 lbs and go for an hour an elliptical machine, but would still like to lose some more weight!

 

As you said, lack of sleep won't kill you--far from it; but I think there are a lot more factors that put you at risk for diabetes and heart disease than lack of sleep.  I've known people that only slept 4-6 hours per night and they lived well into their 90s.  I've known other people that slept 8+ hours per night and died in their 40s and 50s.  I believe it is genetics + diet and exercise (this includes alcohol, other drugs, smoking) + stress/inflamation levels, + attitude + existing medical conditions/comorbidities + family history of disease + gender + lifestyle + crime rate + BMI/weight....I know there are more...?

 

I go to bed when I'm tired...thankfully that is usually around the same time each night, but sometimes it varies by as much as 2 or 3 hours either side.  I nap if I'm tired.  Naps do not affect my night time sleep but I rarely nap and it is only on the weekends.  Sometimes I fall asleep within 15 minutes, but most of the time it takes a good 30 - 60 minutes for me to fall asleep...sometimes longer.  I average about 7 hours of sleep per night according to my Sleep Number bed.  Sometimes I get more, sometimes less.  I do not let the amount of sleep I get dictate how my day will go.  In the past, I thought I should feel like crap if I didn't get much or zero sleep.  Today, I just ignore those thoughts and live my life as if I slept well.  My sleep always evens out after a bad night or two.

 

I wish I would have known all of this prior to going on Benzos! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hear you....all good points. You are correct. Sleep is a minor risk factor for the things I mentioned. The biggest risk factor for premature disability and death is SAD or the Standard American Diet. That was why I essentially cold turkied SAD in 2013 and completely changed my diet. I did not do it bc I did not like the foods I was eating. Quite the contrary...I loved eating the ice cream, and cookies, and all the meat and dairy, cheese, pizzas, soft drinks, etc but this stuff was killing me literally and it will kill most Americans prematurely unless they change bf it is too late. There will be some rare exceptions to this rule just as there are some ppl who can stop taking benzos CT and have little to no w/d but it is mostly true as a general rule for most ppl. I also think a truly healthy diet will help you deal more effectively with benzo w/d by fortifying your body against other diseases and medical conditions as you go through this painful process that puts a lotta stress on the body. Imagine going through benzo w/d and you do have things like true heart disease or diabetes also that you might have to take meds for....In fact, most Americans who eat SAD do have some degree of coronary heart disease...just not enough yet to cause you any problems. That is why it is so important to change in advance before you do develop a problem. IOW, disease prevention.

Yes, the SAD is the root cause of almost all health related conditions in the US....Excellent post! 

AntiBenzo7

I was put on clonazepam for severe anxiety and mirtazapine  for appetite and sleep

Not sure if this was mentioned at all, but you may be on too much Mirtazapine. Above 15mg, it works more as an AD for most people. But at 15 and below, it helps with sleep more. It might be overstimulating you. Just a thought ... but you'd obviously want to talk to your doc first before making any changes ... hope you get good sleep soon!