seroquel for insomnia

[Ethansmom]

I am so sleep deprived after upping my dose of effexor to 225MG. for the first two weeks it kept me stable and seems to give me more energy and made me less obsessive and made me ruminate less. Now that i've been on it for about 3 weeks or so, my sleep is even worse. I'm not sleeping. I don't even feel tired at night. I used to take a klonopin at night to sleep (3MG a day if i really needed it), but was falling asleep fine with out. The doctor said i could take 12.5 of seroquel for sleep (just for the time being until i adjust to my effexor and to really give the effexor a good fighting chance to help. The issue is I literally cannot sleep. I take seroquel and sometimes i fall asleep within 30 minutes. Yesterday it took an hour and a half. Is there a trick to this med? Should i take klonopin a few hours before i take seroquel? I'm trying not to take both of them if i don't have to. Is there another sleep med i should ask for? I have been so anxious and crying because i'm lacking sleep. When i get 8 or 9 hours of full sleep on seroquel, i'm fine. Today my son woke up at 4:30AM and i only got about 5 hours of sleep and felt so groggy and awful!

[Iceberg]

I'd call the doc ASAP because they might want a more agressive adjustment than you can do at home. There is room on the seroquel and maybe different benzo options better for sleep

[CrazyRedhead]

12.5mg Seroquel is a very small dose........Could you call and ask your doc about possibly increasing the Seroquel dose just a bit---maybe 25mg-50 mg?........

Edited December 21, 2018 by CrazyRedhead

[argh]

37 minutes ago, Ethansmom said:

I am so sleep deprived after upping my dose of effexor to 225MG. for the first two weeks it kept me stable and seems to give me more energy and made me less obsessive and made me ruminate less. Now that i've been on it for about 3 weeks or so, my sleep is even worse. I'm not sleeping. I don't even feel tired at night. I used to take a klonopin at night to sleep (3MG a day if i really needed it), but was falling asleep fine with out. The doctor said i could take 12.5 of seroquel for sleep (just for the time being until i adjust to my effexor and to really give the effexor a good fighting chance to help. The issue is I literally cannot sleep. I take seroquel and sometimes i fall asleep within 30 minutes. Yesterday it took an hour and a half. Is there a trick to this med? Should i take klonopin a few hours before i take seroquel? I'm trying not to take both of them if i don't have to. Is there another sleep med i should ask for? I have been so anxious and crying because i'm lacking sleep. When i get 8 or 9 hours of full sleep on seroquel, i'm fine. Today my son woke up at 4:30AM and i only got about 5 hours of sleep and felt so groggy and awful!

What else have you tried? I went through a few (hydroxyzine, gabapentin, mirtazapine) before landing on trazodone, as the 3 were either not effective for sleep or horrible otherwise.

So far so good.

[dancesintherain]

I agree with the above--you probably want more than just changes you're allowed to make on your own.  it could be straightforward like raising the seroquel dose or as iceberg mentioned there are benzos that are much better for sleep.  all else fails, other drugs might not hurt.  it sucks to have to bounce around a bit, but sleep's so important that it's worth a quick call. 

[Ethansmom]

You all are so right. I can go up to 25mg, but honestly I’m worried about weight gain! I’ve heard seroquel can really packs on the pounds . The doctor tried temazapam and it did nothing. In fact, it made me anxious. I usually take a klonopin and that works but it doesn’t keep me asleep the whole night. I don’t want to resort to ambien, although I know how important sleep is.

[Iceberg]

2 minutes ago, Ethansmom said:

You all are so right. I can go up to 25mg, but honestly I’m worried about weight gain! I’ve heard seroquel can really packs on the pounds . The doctor tried temazapam and it did nothing. In fact, it made me anxious. I usually take a klonopin and that works but it doesn’t keep me asleep the whole night. I don’t want to resort to ambien, although I know how important sleep is.

There are many stops on the train you can take advantage of before ambien...I don't think 25 mg of seroquel at night would cause tremendous weight gain but obviously it's individual so I could be wrong. My personal preference for sleep is halcion, and had some luck with high dose Valium. there's also flurazepam which I haven't tried. However, if this is short term ambien may not be the worst thing to help if it's just til u adjust and it probably wouldn't be more habit forming than a benzo. But if you can't stay asleep you might want to Also look at lunesta 

[BrianOCD]

Ya 25-50mg will do the trick.

I've taken it alongside ativan for years off and on.

If you take it and go to bed you'll be fine weight gain wise.  But Seroquel gives the munchies, at least it does for me big time.

Edited December 22, 2018 by BrianOCD

[Ethansmom]

I’m worried about getting diabetes or high sugar levels, increased cholesterol etc. does anyone know of this would happen at a low dose. I took 12.5 of seroquel last night, and knocked out for 11 hours. It felt so good, how I woke up trembling again. I have wild dreams on my meds. Once I realize I’m shaking I stop! Take a few calming breaths and wake up. I’m scared seroquel is going to give me a sudden heart attack . I suffer from health anxiety and panic and OCD- mostly ruminating thoughts. Its a bit more controlled now, but not enough. Doctor thought about adding buspar air gabapebtin. The gabapebtin made me shake when I upped the dose . I was anxious so stopped. Should I have waited out the gaba? Or try buspar as an add on. I just want to feel calm and not have all these anxious thoughts running around in my head. I’m having a small surgery in two weeks to have fibroids removed and I will be put under with twilight type medication. I’m scared of not waking up- I have not had this before and I’m worried my meds will interact. I’m not a rational person right now.

[DammitJanet]

1 hour ago, Ethansmom said:

I’m worried about getting diabetes or high sugar levels, increased cholesterol etc. does anyone know of this would happen at a low dose. I took 12.5 of seroquel last night, and knocked out for 11 hours. It felt so good, how I woke up trembling again. I have wild dreams on my meds. Once I realize I’m shaking I stop! Take a few calming breaths and wake up. I’m scared seroquel is going to give me a sudden heart attack . I suffer from health anxiety and panic and OCD- mostly ruminating thoughts. Its a bit more controlled now, but not enough. Doctor thought about adding buspar air gabapebtin. The gabapebtin made me shake when I upped the dose . I was anxious so stopped. Should I have waited out the gaba? Or try buspar as an add on. I just want to feel calm and not have all these anxious thoughts running around in my head. I’m having a small surgery in two weeks to have fibroids removed and I will be put under with twilight type medication. I’m scared of not waking up- I have not had this before and I’m worried my meds will interact. I’m not a rational person right now.

Please try to calm yourself down. Breathe lots. Lol. Everything you mentioned that you’re afraid of have very low chances of happening. Especially on such low doses. And an FYI about Seroquel weight gain, if you take the extended release (think only comes in 50 mg not 25, but has less chance of wt gain.  Also, if you end up taking the XR, you need to take it 12 hours before you want to wake up, it takes a couple to a few hours to fully kick in.

Your surgery will be totally fine. In over 20 studies,  there were only 218 deaths out of 71.5 million from twilight sedation, and those that did die most likely already had some type of other illness such as cardiac or pulmonary issues. 

You will be A-Ok. 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5535496/

Edited December 23, 2018 by DammitJanet

[Ethansmom]

Thank you damnitjanet. I will take a look at those statistics. I have no cardiac issues so hopefully everything will be okay. I will ask about seroquel Xr

[Iceberg]

8 hours ago, Ethansmom said:

Thank you damnitjanet. I will take a look at those statistics. I have no cardiac issues so hopefully everything will be okay. I will ask about seroquel Xr

I did twilight sedation on like six meds including at least one AP but I think 2 and I think the second one was maxed out. They just did a quick call to my psych to clear it and then there were no issues.

[Ethansmom]

Thank you iceberg. That’s so reassuring to me!!! I will be okay!!

[Ethansmom]

Hi guys! I had my psyc review yesterday. The Effexor is working but it’s not enough by itself . Doctor added seroquel xr (50 mg). Slept for 11 hours last night. Woke up fine, not groggy. I feel calmer, but my brain is telling me that seroquel is bad for me. I just took my 1mg of klonopin a bit late today, so That could be why. I feel a bit uneasy and shaky. Is this the seroquel or my fear of meds. When I took 12.5mg I’d seroquel I knocked out hard and fast. Woke up fine and not shaky. I am worried about my procedure next week... wondering if that’s causing the anxiety. I don’t want to put on more weight with seroquel. So far I don’t feel hungry. Appetite is normal. Would I feel super hungry by now if its going to cause weight gain, or would it take a couple of weeks. I’m going to try hard to ignore the sweets and carbs . Hopefully seroquel will help and not give me diabetes!!!

[CrazyRedhead]

2 hours ago, Ethansmom said:

 So far I don’t feel hungry. Appetite is normal. Would I feel super hungry by now if its going to cause weight gain, or would it take a couple of weeks. I’m going to try hard to ignore the sweets and carbs . Hopefully seroquel will help and not give me diabetes!!!

Glad to hear it's helping with sleep.......As for the weight gain, you might just have to wait it out for a little while,  and see what happens.

 I have tried both the Seroquel IR and XR in the past, and both caused me to gain weight, but I was on a much higher dosage than you (200-250mg).

Not everyone gains weight on Seroquel, but if you start gaining weight, let your pdoc know that you are not comfortable with it.

[DammitJanet]

4 hours ago, Ethansmom said:

Hi guys! I had my psyc review yesterday. The Effexor is working but it’s not enough by itself . Doctor added seroquel xr (50 mg). Slept for 11 hours last night. Woke up fine, not groggy. I feel calmer, but my brain is telling me that seroquel is bad for me. I just took my 1mg of klonopin a bit late today, so That could be why. I feel a bit uneasy and shaky. Is this the seroquel or my fear of meds. When I took 12.5mg I’d seroquel I knocked out hard and fast. Woke up fine and not shaky. I am worried about my procedure next week... wondering if that’s causing the anxiety. I don’t want to put on more weight with seroquel. So far I don’t feel hungry. Appetite is normal. Would I feel super hungry by now if its going to cause weight gain, or would it take a couple of weeks. I’m going to try hard to ignore the sweets and carbs . Hopefully seroquel will help and not give me diabetes!!!

I was on it for awhile at your dose and did gain some weight. But try not to think about what could happen, just wait and see how it goes. If you slept good, and feel calmer that’s wonderful. Many people don’t gain on the low dose. You’d probably be feeling the huge hunger if it was gonna happen by now. I know I did right away. But everyone’s different, so please just give it a chance. It’s a super helpful med. 

[Simba Cub]

Quetiapine is a VERY sedating antipsychotic. And I mean VERY. It's mostly so at low doses.

[Ethansmom]

Thank you all. I hope this feeling continues. I e had such a rough few years with anxiety and depression. I just want some relief but won’t take it if I notice a ton of weight gain.

[looking for answers]

2 hours ago, Ethansmom said:

Thank you all. I hope this feeling continues. I e had such a rough few years with anxiety and depression. I just want some relief but won’t take it if I notice a ton of weight gain.

FWIW i told seroquel XR up to 500 mg with no weight gain, not an ounce

I took high doses for a few months..........

im still on 100 , weight neutral for me

[Iceberg]

2 hours ago, Ethansmom said:

Thank you all. I hope this feeling continues. I e had such a rough few years with anxiety and depression. I just want some relief but won’t take it if I notice a ton of weight gain.

Also the Xr sticks around longer than it... So the dose increase + the Xr lasting a bit more into the AM could be why u feel a bit different in the morning. Also I took high dose seroquel for a while and didn't have any major weight issues