ANyone using rozerem for sleep as opposed to ambien or lunesta? New pdoc mentioned the next visit using rozerem instead of klonopin to help me sleep.

Anyone use that over a benzo?

How is rozerem?

I take Restoril (tomazapam) for sleep, but also take 1.5 mg. of Klonopin at bedtime.

Tommy

i took rozerem for awhile and i didn't think it always worked. it was kind of hit-or-miss for me. sometimes i could take gobs of it and it would do nothing, and other times i was totally knocked out.

i personally prefer klonopin (i take 2 mg at bedtime).

If I have a hard time sleeping I will take .5 mg of xanax and Benadryl (just in case)


but that seems to knock me out.


My Doctor said no more ambien for you! It just made me loopy and do silly things.

I'm wondering about this too. I keep asking for sleep drugs and keep on getting benzos. WHY???

I'm having decent luck with Rozerem. But at 16 mg, not 8 mg (the standard approved dosage). Pdoc says every one of his hardcore insomnia patients has been helped by this med, but not at 8 mg. He'd like me to be at 24 mg, but I had a hard time getting the insurance to cover 16 mg.

The goal is to get off the hypnotics (usually Ambien), but that's easier said than done. Ambien's always worked pretty good for me in helping me fall asleep. Staying asleep has never really been a problem for me. But regardless, it's never given me what I felt was quality sleep. I'm getting that with the Rozerem.

As for benzos, they are generally not a good first-line med for insomnia unless the insomnia is due to anxiety. The sedative effect that most people experience w/benzos generally wears off after a while. So you have to up your dose to get the same effect. Until you get used to it at that dosage. So you can see how easily tolerance could become. Plus there's the whole physical addiction thing - even at very small doses.

I think I've taken ever drug known to man to treat my insomnia - including chloral hydrate and at least one anti-psychotic and done tons of research on all of them. In my humble (non-qualified) opinion, Rozerem should be one of the first-line meds due to its low side-effect and tolerance/addiction profile, that it's mimicking what your body is supposed to be doing naturally (as opposed to just knocking you out), and the fact that it's not FDA scheduled (an advantage in the U.S. only).

Lookie here for a big thread all about rozerem from the sleep forums...