UK sleep meds
- Thread starter Saz94
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- sleep medication
InitialConditions
Senior Member (Voting Rights)
Low-dose (3.75 mg) mirtazapine. Helps me get 9 hours a night and probably reduces sleep latency. Still wake up feeling horrendous, but I'd feel even worse with regular poor sleep.
Kitty
Senior Member (Voting Rights)
I went through lots of options over a few years, but never found anything that made me feel less crap. I wasn't even convinced the hours I wasn't awake actually constituted sleep, because being not-awake didn't help in the slightest. I just got a hangover from the meds.
In the end I decided to think of weird irregular sleep as a symptom I can't do much about, like all the others. I feel better for it even though there are occasional nights when I don't sleep at all. We're all different, but 'just roll with it' is the best option I've found.
In the end I decided to think of weird irregular sleep as a symptom I can't do much about, like all the others. I feel better for it even though there are occasional nights when I don't sleep at all. We're all different, but 'just roll with it' is the best option I've found.
Binkie4
Senior Member (Voting Rights)
@Saz94- we have a thread you initiated on daridorexant which contains full discussion on sleep issues.
You might want to look at that again. At least daridorexant seems to be being prescribed on the NHS now.
I am currently taking nitrazepam and melatonin but they don't work very well. I might retry the daridorexant but I didn't find that its usefulness persisted. Nothing really seems to work reliably, and if in PEM, just nothing works.
You might want to look at that again. At least daridorexant seems to be being prescribed on the NHS now.
I am currently taking nitrazepam and melatonin but they don't work very well. I might retry the daridorexant but I didn't find that its usefulness persisted. Nothing really seems to work reliably, and if in PEM, just nothing works.
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I heard mirtazapine makes you more tired during the day as well?
And also that it makes you hungry?
Does it help to relax you for sleep, or just make you tired?
Well at the moment "just roll with it" for me would mean getting about 1 hour a night, so not an option
Yeah I've had daridorexant and it made me really agitated the day after taking it, and anyway stopped working after a few days.
How long have you been on nitrazepam for? I thought doctors don't prescribe that kind of med for more than short-term use. Are you prescribed it for use every night?
I've stopped using antihistamine sleep meds because they don't seem to work well for me anymore, they raise my heart rate, and their anticholinergic side effects cause me constipation and urine retention.
Starrynight
Senior Member (Voting Rights)
Daridorexant still seems to work for me after almost six months of taking it most nights. I felt I was getting more restful sleep when I took temazepam though, it also helped for PEM induced insomnia (super agitated nervous exhaustion sort of thing). I was quite restricted with the amount of temazepam I got and probably won't get prescribed it again, even though I never developed a tolerance for it. GPs here seem ok about prescribing daridorexant on a nightly basis and I do wonder how that will pan out.
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Sly Saint
Senior Member (Voting Rights)
I don't take any meds for sleeping anymore (tried anti histamine, zopiclone, melatonin). I have quite a strict eating regime and don't eat anything after 7pm and I cut out all caffeinated drinks after 3pm and round off the evening with a cup of rosebush tea.
But a 'side effect' of taking amlodipine for high blood pressure made me very sleepy and I would drop off into a deep sleep in front of the tv, which was very unusual for me.
But a 'side effect' of taking amlodipine for high blood pressure made me very sleepy and I would drop off into a deep sleep in front of the tv, which was very unusual for me.
Binkie4
Senior Member (Voting Rights)
I don't take it every night. I have tried a range of sleep meds but none are long term useful, just a bit better than nothing. I will probably return to try daridorexant again or maybe discuss the z drugs with my GP.
InitialConditions
Senior Member (Voting Rights)
I'm not sure about the daytime. I have a level of moderate to severe fatigue/tiredness all day so it would be hard to pick out that signal.
Yes, it increases appetite in most people. I have gained weight. It also affects lipid metabolism. I've now got slightly raised triglycerides and borderline high cholesterol despite a reasonably good diet.
I don't feel more relaxed, just sleepy. Higher, anti-depressant, doses might make you more relaxed.
Kitty
Senior Member (Voting Rights)
Yep, exactly the same.
But the drugs didn't make me feel any better, and none of them came without side effects. Stopping them was the least worst option.
I posted about it because I ended up mad at myself for wasting so much time trying to solve something that wasn't amenable to being solved. If I'd been paying attention to the fact that the meds didn't actually help—and never had helped at any point—I could have avoided a lot of depressing doctors' appointments and medication hangovers.
I just hope you have a less frustrating time with it!