best sleep med? I'm bipolar.

[blackmilk]

hey team

I'm wondering what everyone's favorite sleep med is excluding seroquel (don't play well with blood sugar problems). If somehow it's relevant (is there a sleep med that can make you manic?), I'm bipolar.

Need not be a horse tranquilizer. A mild-to-medium's likely to work just as well.

-

k

[Fiona]

If you want something just to put you to sleep, you could try Ambien or Lunestra. I've taken Ambien and can vouch for it putting me to sleep and helping me stay there.

You could also try something like trazodone. It's officially an anti-depressant, but by the time you take enough of it to do any good you'll be completely asleep. I used trazodone for a long time with success and easy tolerance.

Fiona

[berelain326]

From an insomniac's point of view, I thought that Lunesta was pretty mild. To my knowledge it comes in three levels of doses (1mg, 2mg, and 3mg). For me, 3mg was too much, but anything else wasn't enough.

Then finally to ambien, yes, love it. I do not sleep without it. Or I get up ten million times a night otherwise.

Geodon didn't work for me at all, but like they say, it might work for you where it didn't for me.

Seroquel was not so good for me either- bad experience.

Look luck, and there's a sleep depreviation board here somewhere.

[Pastafarian]

remeron is one that has not been mentioned.

[Anne]

I think what med works best depends on what is keeping you awake; anxiety, panic attacks, racing thoughts, or just plain idiopathic insomnia.  I'd be willing to bet that you have to figure that out first to decide which drug choice would work best.

I don't know for sure, but that's what I did and obsessive, racing thoughts and axniety keep me awake at night.

[trailerparkbarbie]

Ambien CR allows me to sleep all night!

With regular Ambien, I wake up in about 3 to 4 hours after taking it.

Good luck!!

Sleep deprivation really sucks.

[Yvette]

I'm bipolar & ambien works really well.  I just take the regular version, though, and only when I'm really suffering--like 3X a week! or when I have to do something yucky the next day.  I don't want to get too used to the stuff.  One of the good things I've found about ambien vs. benzos is that a. doesn't cause me to suffer from insomnia the following night.

I've heard that the new, extended-release (ambien CR) kind is even better! 

[HaloGirl66]

you might try regular ambien. it works pretty well and its patent runs out next year so we can look forward to some generics being avalable.

I don't think the Ambien CR is really more effective, at least it wasn't for me, but YMMV but since it just came out it won't be generic for a long time. and, I had to fight long and hard with my insurance company to authorize it.

Lunesta didn't work for me, but it does for some. beware of the crappy aftertaste you will get the morning after.

Sonata basically sucks, but it is an option. I've not met one person who has found it to be effective.

[NARS]

Regular ambien works well for me, though it doesn't help me sleep all night when I'm having hot flashes, which is almost always these days.  I haven't tried the CR version, so maybe I'll ask new pdoc about it when I see him next week.  Who knows, maybe if I slept more deeply past the 4 hour effectiveness of regular ambien, I might not get hot flashes, or at least might not wake up for them.  I'd rather find myself drenched in sweat in the morning than not get any sleep at night!

At any rate, ambien is the most reliable way for me to get to sleep.  I use it every night right now because I'm on too much AD and, also, there's the hot flashes. 

[revlow]

Lunesta didn't work for me, but it does for some. beware of the crappy aftertaste you will get the morning after.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

God, the crappy aftertaste! I'd have it ALL the next day. Just awful. I guess some people don't get it, but I certainly did.