Posted by bleauberry on January 11, 2009, at 19:01:32
In reply to trazodone - don't like this stuff, posted by Cseagraves on January 11, 2009, at 16:13:15
Trazodone - don't like this stuff?
Yeah well, me neither! We aren't alone, this has happened to others here and at other websites. I have a friend who does pretty lousy with it but he stays with it anyway. Geez.You could try 25mg, then 12.5mg, before ditching it.
The top sleep med on my list is Lunesta. Others would include 25mg Seroquel, 10mg Nortriptyline (give it 3 nights though), 10mg Amitriptyline, 7.5mg Remeron, low dose Klonopin.
Herbal options can work. They did for me. I tried these one at a time and then in combination:
Valerian, Skullcap, Passionflower. You just have to experiment for the right doses.A common sleep supplement that hundreds of thousands of people take every night is melatonin. You could take a regular release and a timed release at the same time. That should get you to sleep and keep you to sleep.
Prepping for a good night's sleep is real important:
*Avoid exertion or exercise after 4pm.
*Maybe a calming bath with 1/2 cup Epsom Salts in it (the magnesium will absorb and mellow you out).
*An hour before bed drink some milk.
*Another food that is pro-sleep is a baked potato with the skin...it has all the right stuff to turn the tryptophan circulating in your bloodstream to serotonin and calming stuff. The skin keeps it working longer and counteracts the immediate sugar dump of potato.
*Avoid high protein foods, sugars, fruit, fruit juices, sodas, etc in the 3 hours leading up to bedtime.*You want only complex carbohydrates during those hours leading up to bedtime. And the milk, potato.
*No caffeine after 2pm, preferably with an earlier cutoff time than that (its halflife is 7 hours...at 9pm there is still half a cup of caffeine in you that you drank at 2pm).
*If you can find something you like to read that doesn't get your adrenaline going (no thrillers, no mysteries), do that. Reading can make one feel sleepy, especially if the lights are dim. No joke, read the Bible and ask God to give you a good night's sleep and see what happens. Keep doing it until it does.
*Speaking of light, an hour before bed cut the lights way down. Make sure your room is very dark. If you have to staple a dark blanket to the window and turn the glare of the clock away, do it.
*Something else that can help a lot is background white noise. That is easily achieved with a fan, or a box fan. Just have it turned on the low speed somewhere in the room.
The right conditions, the right food, the right timing, and the right supplements or meds, you should be all set. Until then, just know you aren't alone in your opinion of trazodone.
poster:bleauberry
thread:873385
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090104/msgs/873413.html