Anybody Ever Used Sleeping Pills?

No problem!

I’ve never said anything out of the ordinary during these conversations, I just don’t remember having them. I am also known to speak and carry an incoherent conversation in my sleep from time to time, so this may be an individual thing.

It can take anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes for it to kick in. I like to take it and wait for the onset of the effect before I go to bed.

I was on the fence for a while before I jumped in. I asked the doc for a non habit forming Rx and I he gave me Zopiclone. Many of the guys I work with take it, too. Everyone likes it.

Zopiclone is probably the only sleeping pill I’ve never heard of anyone abusing.

Tried it, didn’t work. I really have tried pretty much everything apart from Rx meds.

Training’s still a bit all over the place. Think I might actually have seen you the other night but you’re so big and tall I was too scared to come over. Plus I was doing cardio and was kinda attached to the treadmill

Until now! I’ve always been a trendsetter

Cool, you have sold me on the idea.

If I do a Heath Ledger then it’s all your fault.

Yogi, I have diagnosed insomnia man from my firefighting days.

Check out the drug trazodone. Doctor prescribed me this a year ago and it saved my life. It is non habit forming, does not lose effectiveness over time (no dosage increase needed), has pretty much zero side effects at low dosages. Best and definitely the safest drug for sleeping in my opinion.

I think most prescriptions are written for 100 mg, but start with 50 mg for 5 days if you decide to try it. Oh yeah, it’s cheap too. I get 90 pills for like $12 USD.

thanks, mate. I’ll definitely check that out

Sometimes I’ll use 5thp and theanine. At the height of some panic and anxiety I was having I used atavan twice, but stuff like can be high risk if a person tends to be chemically dependent or abusive.

Ha the suspense is killing me.

This shit fucked me up good. I took it once, had some of the worst night terrors I’ve ever experienced, woke up less rested than when I fell asleep. So I tossed that shit in the garbage, and switched to a different doctor.

Your mileage will vary obviously, but fuck trazodone in my personal experience.

The sides are really no different than other SSRI’s. But it is an SSRI, so if you have chemical issues in your brain, you need to be honest with your doctor before taking it.

I travel a lot over three continents (Korea, North America, Europe, and Israel) and also have sleep apnea and have used various sleep aids over the time. They are addictive as hell, no matter what anyone tells you.

The best of the bunch for me, when desperate, has been either good old Benedryl or Ambien CR.

Again, use sparingly.

Also, avoid booze. It makes sleep apnea worse and lowers the quality of sleep you get. (It does work to correct insomnia from travel – and yeah, I’ve coupled everything with it when 12 hours off before.)

I would get checked for sleep apnea. I think it is dramatically under diagnosed and most men with a bit of muscle on them tend to have it.

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All of the common side effects listed for trazodone listed are associated with any sedative.

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Yeah man, I was agreeing with that portion of your post. Sorry if ti didn’t come off that way.

Also, a lot of people I’ve talked to have similar experiences with this drug that you do, but I’ve met a couple that are like me and can’t take it.

It’s an SSRI that is used as a sedative “off label”. But it’s not a sedative.

Yes!
I love taking one at about eight o’clock at night and fighting it till ten.

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I don’t want to go into my medical history, but I think most prescribed psychoactive drugs are shit - worse for your than cigarettes. They should be a last resort.

Here are two things you can look at:
First, look at habits - do you watch TV before bed, do you have the lights on in your house, do you lift in the evening, how much caffeine do you drink within 5 hours before bed, do you work before going to bed, do you go on your phone before bed, etc

Second, look at lifestyle - is there anything stressing you out, are you going through a big life change, what does your diet look like, what is your routine, are you taking any supplements, what time of day do you lift, is there something that has been on your mind that has been bothering you, any other changes you notice besides an inability to go to sleep

Here are some suggestions:
1)If you cant sleep, get out of bed. Sitting in bed awake, wondering why you are awake, is stupid and a waste of time. Might as well get up and be a little productive.
2) Keep a journal. Not only should you track your sleep, but it is beneficial to write down your thoughts at the end of the day, sort of like the final chapter in a book - provides closure and has been shown to be beneficial for your mental health.
3) Get a sleep study. If this problem has been going on for a long time (say several months to a year) then you want to figure out what is actually going on with your sleep before taking any medications. An asshole doctor or asshole person in general will just give you something like “Xanax and/or Zopiclone” without knowing the cause. Why is this important: long story short I’ve had sleep problems my whole life, was given those meds, it made me worse, got a sleep study, found out I had sleep apnea. Specifically, the muscles in my throat relax too much causing the airway to collapse. Many of those “medications” will act as a muscle relaxant or prevent your body from waking itself up, making the problem much worse. My point is don’t take medications for something without know what you have.

  1. As a rule of thumb, any medication you take will have an adverse effect. There is no “free lunch” so to speak. You should do your research. There are natural options too which may have side effects as well. Again, take the time to figure out what goes in your body.

And I also want to mention that waking up in the middle of the night is normal to some extend. The phenomena is called second sleep and was very common prior to electric lighting in the home.

thanks for the reply, man. Sad thing is I have done literally all of that except the sleep study. They’re not easy things to arrange.

It’s not a problem with staying asleep once I’m asleep, it’s getting my mind to relax enough to fall asleep in the first place.

Admittedly, things are pretty stressful just now, but they haven’t always been when my insomnia’s flared up so I’m not convinced that’s the cause. I don’t think it helps, for sure, but I am not convinced it’s definitely the cause.

Really, there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to it, which is why I’m thinking of getting the meds as a break-glass-in-case-of emergency type deal. The plan isn’t to use them daily, just knock myself out if I’m having a run of bad nights to try and break the cycle.

Icompletely understand. Ive struggled with sleep problems since I was 13. If you are having trouble falling asleep then it might be in your best interest to log what you did 2 or so hours before getting to bed. From personal experience, working past 9pm, and being exposed to light in the blue spectrum (LEDs, TVs, etc) very badly messes up my sleep.

An activity log’s not such a bad idea. I have a program on my laptop that eliminates blue light and I don’t tend to watch too much television before bed, but there could be something else I’m consistently doing that’s fucking with me

Yeah, writing has helped me a lot. Let me know what works for you.