Sleep pills, supplements, and other sleeping aid experiences

I want to start a thread of sleeping pills and other things that have helped people to overcome insomnia. From experience, insomnia cannot be cured by a magic pill or amagic bullet, since it is an ailment of the being. However, I wish to include pills because they are helpful in getting one into the mood of sleeping when they have been grappling with this issue for ages.
I found a thread that has to do with prescription medication, which some people have found helps/does not help.
insomnia/topic126837.html

Regarding supplements:
5-htp: This is responsible for synthesizing trytophan, which is responsible for helping one go to sleep. My experiences for me are that it has been helpful in getting me to sleep. However, taking it too late at night has made me feel a little jet-lagged the next day. If I was to take it again, it would be at 8pm, instead of 12pm.

Melatonin: This is a hormone present in people who get sleepy. It helps you go to sleep. I took about 5 mg, and it induces a calming feeling. The most I have taken is 15mg, but I have heard there are others that have taken up to 30mg. I would stick to 5 mg because it is the minimum amount that has allowed me to fall asleep.

Ashwaghanda root: This allows you to feel relaxed. Some term it as an adaptogen(something that allows you to deal with stress). Ash root has allowed me to feel relaxed as well, like more in tune with myself. I have taken 450mg in one sitting(normal dose0, up to 1000mg. It is believed that it may contribute to thyrotoxicosis if you take too much too long. So if you have thyroid issues I would advise against it

Magnesium: It is believed that Mg calms the autonomic nervous system. I used to take it every day, now I take it every night. I have not felt much of a difference.

Rosemary tea: Rosemary is a herb. Upon taking it, I noticed several minutes later that I would feel calm. The tea is made by boiling the herbs for a prolonged period of time. I usually get a stalk and boil it in 2 cups of water until the water is consumed to 1 cup of water.

All these supplements I cycle through them, that is each week I take a different one, except magnesium, which I take every day. I do it so that my body does not get used to the supplements(in the case of ash root, you could produce thyrotoxicosis; in the case of melatonin, your body may stop producing melatonin on its own).

I routine would be something like this:

week 1: rosemary tea
week 2: 5-htp
week 3: melatonin
week 4:ash root

It would be interested if we could hear more of what people in the forum have to say.

Thank you for posting the thread rosamel, I'm going to make it a sticky if we get some responses.

My experiences:

Zopiclon: Works very well at dosage from 3.75 to 10.25 mg. I was also able to go down from 10.25 to 3.75 within a week or so if my insomnia wasn't too bad. However you develop dependence on this pill -- a few times I didn't have any with me I spent an entirely sleepless, exhausting night. This is why doctors don't recommend using it long-term.

Zolpidem: pill of the devil. If there's a group lawsuit coming please let me know and I'll join. Sleep-walking, sleep-mail-writing, sleep-Amazon-purchasing and sleep-falling-on-chair-getting-bruised-and-wounded were selected side effects.

Temazepam: works beautifully, but I develop tolerance at terrifying pace. Day 1 and 2 10 mg works perfectly; day 3 10 mg is not enough and I need 20 mg. Therefore I try to avoid it as much as possible. But if I take it only every few days, it works.

Seroquel: this anti-histamine has a sedating side effect. It worked amazingly for me, but sadly gave me another side effect of heavy tremor. Had to stop using it -- couldn't write or hold a spoon steady.

Promethazine: this anti-histamine worked well too, but the side effect was, this time, akathisia -- feeling of my entire body itching terribly.

Melatonin: I took from 1 to 3 mg. It makes me sleep better but it does not make me fall asleep. Never exceeded 3 mg so I don't know what happens then. A friend was terrified I take 3 mg -- he said 1 mg knocks him down. To each his own I guess.

Rosemary tea ("Calming tea"): I found this one to work, actually. When I was quitting zolpidem this tea made it easier for me to fall asleep in the initial phase.

Please post your experiences with pills and supplements. Also welcome are links to studies and articles. Please do not post links to shops and links advertising particular brands -- those will be removed.

Melatonin supplement gives u good sleep except u can have very life like dreams, specially bad or scary dreams.

I am interested in ur experience.

I have been on mirtazapine and found the first time I used it to be wonderful - started on 15mg and it knocked me straight out. So much so that I had to go down to 7.5mg which was half a tablet as 15 is the smallest they make them! However it also incurred a ridiculous increase in appetite so this will not suit those conscious of their weight or already unhealthily overweight.

Unfortunately after time the medication wore off and I increased the dosage to the max (45mg = 3 tablets) and this was no longer effective. Thus I came off it and was off for 3 months until my Dr put me back on it again the other week. However the effects are so far not as impressive as before however my Dr has asked me to wait before I write it off again.

Hypnotics don't really work for me.

I have found ashwaganda and indian gooseberry mildly effective.

Pierre

-- Sun Dec 29, 2013 12:07 am --

P.S. Good topic!

One of the things that I have noticed is

STRESS, ANXIETY OR DEPRESSION

can be so dangerous that no sleep medicine works, nothing works

I remember me being extremely stressed because of PTSD, I drank one full bottle of whisky I kept waiting and it had literally no effect on me. I thought alcohol doesnt work on me any more but then after three days when I slept (not really sleep just laid on bed for 8 hrs every night) without any alcohol I was much more relaxed as I thought I could still function this way. So, I tried alcohol again and with less than half bottle I was ready to pass out.

This thing happened many times so, I figured if I wanted to sleep I need to relax first, not worry about whether alcohol will work or not, just take it in a relaxed mood.

This thing worked to a point where I slowly started sleeping three hours and gradually increased to 8 hours without any supplement, sleeping pill or alcohol.

FOR ME RELAXING AND RELIEVING STRESS BY NOT WORRYING ABOUT ANYTHING ( that includes not worrying about not getting enough sleep)
Was one biggest factor in solving my sleep related problem. And that makes sense since I had no sleep related problem before PTSD or the traumatic relation with my Ex N

I actually stumbled upon something that worked by total chance.

My husband began a supplement program to lower his cholesterol without having to go on statins. It's supplements to improve blood circulation and rebuild collagen. After 2 months on the program I began noticing how wonderful his skin and skin tone looked. I'm 51 and wanted in on that! So I began taking it solely for the purpose of, hopefully, helping my body rebuild collagen and help my aging skin.

After a week on the program I notice a most wonderful side effect - I began sleeping! I fell asleep within 15 minutes and slept solid for hours before waking, maybe looking at the clock and simply falling back to sleep. In fact, if I didn't have my alarm clock set, I wouldn't wake up. Up until then, an alarm clock was only there to mock me during the night - not to wake me up because I was always up before I had to be up.

I take l-lysine, l-proline and vitamin C. I began wondering what in this combination of supplements was helping me sleep. After much reading, the l-lysine is an essential amino acid, meaning our bodies don't create it and we must get it from diet of supplements. If your body is low in this essential amino acid, it has a great effect on serotonin levels. We all know how important serotonin is for sleep. And reading even more, l-lysine is being studied for use in treating anxiety and depression. I think the l-lysine is reducing my stress and cortisol levels and finally allowing me to sleep. I haven't slept like this in over 10yrs and it's still working 5mos later.

I take 500mg l-lysine and 500 l-proline on an empty stomach in the morning. After breakfast I have 1000mg Vit C and then I throw in a few other supplements. At lunch I have another 1000mg Vit C, dinner another 1000 Vit C and then at bedtime I take one 500mg l-lysine on an empty stomach.

I only wish this little fix worked on everyone. I hope it does!

Jatin wrote:FOR ME RELAXING AND RELIEVING STRESS BY NOT WORRYING ABOUT ANYTHING ( that includes not worrying about not getting enough sleep)
Was one biggest factor in solving my sleep related problem.

But how did you manage not to worry about anything? I'm honestly curious.
I mean, if you tell yourself 'I'm not worrying about sleep right now!' isn't that just worrying again? Because you're thinking about the problem?
It would be nice to stop worrying, so please share your secret

oliveira wrote:Thank you for posting the thread rosamel, I'm going to make it a sticky if we get some responses.

My experiences:

Zopiclon: Works very well at dosage from 3.75 to 10.25 mg. I was also able to go down from 10.25 to 3.75 within a week or so if my insomnia wasn't too bad. However you develop dependence on this pill -- a few times I didn't have any with me I spent an entirely sleepless, exhausting night. This is why doctors don't recommend using it long-term.

Zolpidem: pill of the devil. If there's a group lawsuit coming please let me know and I'll join. Sleep-walking, sleep-mail-writing, sleep-Amazon-purchasing and sleep-falling-on-chair-getting-bruised-and-wounded were selected side effects.

Temazepam: works beautifully, but I develop tolerance at terrifying pace. Day 1 and 2 10 mg works perfectly; day 3 10 mg is not enough and I need 20 mg. Therefore I try to avoid it as much as possible. But if I take it only every few days, it works.

Seroquel: this anti-histamine has a sedating side effect. It worked amazingly for me, but sadly gave me another side effect of heavy tremor. Had to stop using it -- couldn't write or hold a spoon steady.

Promethazine: this anti-histamine worked well too, but the side effect was, this time, akathisia -- feeling of my entire body itching terribly.

Melatonin: I took from 1 to 3 mg. It makes me sleep better but it does not make me fall asleep. Never exceeded 3 mg so I don't know what happens then. A friend was terrified I take 3 mg -- he said 1 mg knocks him down. To each his own I guess.

Rosemary tea ("Calming tea"): I found this one to work, actually. When I was quitting zolpidem this tea made it easier for me to fall asleep in the initial phase.

Please post your experiences with pills and supplements. Also welcome are links to studies and articles. Please do not post links to shops and links advertising particular brands -- those will be removed.

"sleep-Amazon-purchasing" Does this mean that you managed to switch on the computer, log into amazon, select, purchase and confirm your order while in a sleep state?

Also, what dose did you take of Seroquel?

Thanks

Welsh_Tom wrote:"sleep-Amazon-purchasing" Does this mean that you managed to switch on the computer, log into amazon, select, purchase and confirm your order while in a sleep state?

Also, what dose did you take of Seroquel?

Thanks

During that day I looked up some books. In my country you get the free postage if you order above 25 Euro, so I found some books around that price, saved them for later, then moved on to doing other stuff. Didn't think much of it until I got a mail from Amazon two days later "your items have now been shipped". Apparently when I was "asleep" I went back to the computer, moved the items to "buy now" and confirmed the order, then deleted the confirmation email -- hence me not realising until the shipment happened.

My psychiatrist told me Zolpidem doesn't actually cause sleep-walking or sleep-purchasing, it causes loss of memory. So I have done the purchase sort of semi-consciously, but then forgot it happened. In any case I'd like to never have that happen again.

Seroquel: I took 12.5 mg, 25 mg, 50 mg, 100 mg. Never managed to get rid of the tremors though.

shrimp wrote:

Jatin wrote:FOR ME RELAXING AND RELIEVING STRESS BY NOT WORRYING ABOUT ANYTHING ( that includes not worrying about not getting enough sleep)
Was one biggest factor in solving my sleep related problem.

But how did you manage not to worry about anything? I'm honestly curious.
I mean, if you tell yourself 'I'm not worrying about sleep right now!' isn't that just worrying again? Because you're thinking about the problem?
It would be nice to stop worrying, so please share your secret

What I did was first changed my thinking, I decided that it doesn't matter how much money I lost becoz of my ex N, how much money I wasted on drinking, sleeping medicines, how much debt I had,
And whether my sleep would make meats at work etc.

I watched many motivational videos of real life examples where people changed everything and has a great life. I thought regardless of what happened, I can eventually live a very good life again, and even at that time I had no big problems as I have a luxurious car, nice bed, nice house, even if renting.

So, I started to appreciate what I had and what I could have in the future.

This meant when I went to sleep, I didn't care whether I would be able to wake up at right time for work, my problem was usually it was very hArd for me to fall asleep, like it would be hours before I fall asleep but once sleeping the I would not be able to wake up, that meant being on bed for like 12 hours. Loss of so much productivity and at the same time not proper sleep.

So, when I thought no matter what happens, and at that time with the help of a sleeping pill and supplements I fell asleep like in15-20 mins. Then I started to skip sleeping pill only relying on supplements, then came a time when I started skipping supplements, and 5 mins of meditation before sleep works like magic for me.