I prefer Klonopin (Clonazepam) -- My PCP prescribes this, and has done so for 8 yeares. Never had to change dose, so a win/win situation imo.

Doesn't knock me out,.. but helps.

Usually takes me an hour to fall asleep regardless.. always has. (unless I'm just exhausted, or drank alcohol (which I rarely do these days).

Originally in the UK, prescriptions were meant to be secret recipes from doctor to pharmacist, and the patient was not meant to know what the recipe was. If the patient were to have the cheek to ask the pharmacist what was in it, they would be told, "It's confidential".

In fact, a lot of prescriptions in the olden days were for simple inactive ingredients and worked by the placebo effect, but written in latin.

Cough medicine had to be brown. Tonics had to be red, and stomach medicines had to be white.

I haven't found anything that works better than Walmart's over the counter sleep aid, 25mg. Even broken in half,, works very well!

I use the one that doesn't have the same ingredient as benadryl, but I have to take a few tablets of it. I take it to put me to sleep, then my halcion keeps me asleep.

My psych knows this and we alternate that with Ambien CR to avoid any tolerance.

Up until 2 weeks ago my vote, hands down would've gone to Seroquel, in both categories. Right now my Dr. has upped me from 25-50mg to 100-200mg's, and it still isn't working. I fall asleep, Seroquel knocks me out, but 2-4hrs later, I'm up and pissed off.

He claims to have a med, "guaranteed to work", but will only tell me it's a last resort and isn't Ambien-Thank God. My bet is Trazodone (been there, done that) or Halcion. Right now I'm running on 2-1/2hrs sleep, 4 cups of strong coffee and all I want to do is go to sleep. I can barely keep my eyes open. I've tried 95% of the Rx, OTC, and homeopathic/herbal/supplements, mentioned on the board and Seroquel was the only 1 that I knew would work- not anymore.

I assume you've tried this, but I'll ask anyway. Have you considered taking the Seroquel to knock you out along with a Benzodiazepine with a long half-life to stay asleep? Or the time-released version of Xanax?

Also I just looked it up and apparently there are clinical studies for the time-released version of Seroquel. With your history of using regular Seroquel and your doctor's recommendation you might be able to join those studies.

In this order . . . .

Tuinal
Seconal
Nembutal
Quaalude
Amobarbital

Sounds like you've has sleep paralysis Pillar. Nasty experience. There's been a few discussions on here about this condition, also known as Old Hag syndrome.

.

Hail Ceasar! We who are about to die, salute you!

Midazolam.

After been prescribed to temezepam some other benzo's and stuff, i found Dormicum 15 (midazolam). All the longuer ones keep me skipping work. This is a fast dooer.

Take it in bed. Reade a page. Gonner

abien cr worked awsome for me when i needed it

So whats better than ambien?

This is a good point; for a few years the shortest acting hypnotic we had in the UK was probably lormetazepam. The shorter-acting benzodiazepines triazolam and alprazolam had been struck off the formulary and the Z-drugs hadn't been introduced. And for some people, even lormetazepam acted long enough to cause oversleeping the next day.

Now that we have zopiclone, zolpidem and zaleplon I can't see oral midazolam ever making it to the UK, except perhaps for hospital use.

On the voting post question, Which sleeping medication does your "REAL" local doc prescribe to you?

I couldn't answer because it was none of the above.

I forgot to say I take Clonazepam for sleep.

ZZZzzzz...whoops, good mornin'Journey. My doc has me taking lunesta, but as mentioned, at $4-$5 a pill its way too expensive. My mom takes restoril and swears by it. So, when I see my doc again I'm going to have me switch to restoril. My doctor is very young, and I don't think that he is familiar with prices. Also don't think that he is up on some of the older meds that've been mentioned. Is midazolam or dormicum 15 available in the US ? & if so, does anyone know the approx. price? Thanks everyone, some great info. on these meds. Steve

I too have to take something everynight to be able to get some sleep. When I try to go to sleep on my own I have to be exremely exhausted, literally sitting/standing about to fall over, before I can lay down in bed and actually fall asleep. Most times this does not happen until 2/3am. Getting up a 6am is a real B--@! After a week or even 4-5 days of trying to go without sleep-aids and getting 2-3 hours sleep each night, I will have a day where I come home from work, sit down or lay down and am out for the count until 6am the next morninng. Then I feel as though I have wasted a day
I have tried all the OTC stuff, sometimes they work, most times not.
I have used Ambien - worked very well if I took it when I got into bed and layed down immed.
Have tried Lunesta - too expensive and did not keep me asleep.
Am currently taking Restoril 30mg (Temazepam) and as w/ the Ambien, I have to take when I get into bed or the 'window' of sleep will be gone. The probblem I have is the Restoril does not keep me asleep. I find myself waking at different hours of the night.

Its common for many people to wake up after a few hours of sleep on Ambien in particular. (some others as well) Ambien can be a double edged sword. Some people love it because they get a full nights rest and wake up w/out any residual effects. This is attributed to Ambien's short half life. The downside is people like myself wake up as the med starts to wear off into the night. This med is to get you to sleep, not really "keep" you asleep. I've found a safe and cheap alternative to be trazadone. At first I had trippy dreams and felt hungover in the morning. However after over a year of taking it my sleep schedule is as reliable as a swiss timepiece. Something I never thought would happen. Plus no hangover feeling and no freaky vivid dreams. I've tried just about every medication for sleep from benzo's to traz which is technically an anti-depressant. However it needs to be taken at a very high dose for it to be useful as an anti-depressant. I only take 50mg for sleep and I'm 190lbs. My doc says it needs to be taken in doses as high as 500mg's for anti-depressant effect. I can't imagine taking that much. As 50mg knocks me out for a solid 8 count.

I have been taking something to sleep every night for about 20 years.

Ambien: Been on since it came out. I end up having to use 2 pills every night (10mg). I use one and I can sleep for about 4 hrs and another to sleep the rest of the night. I, too, have found that it is very possible to "fight" off the sleeping after taking ambien. You take it thinking you will be in bed in 10 min and then something comes up and it is actually 20 minutes before your ready to go to bed. By then you have "fought through" the effectiveness and I actually get a HUGE energy bump and will be up the rest of the night cleaning house. So I literately have learned to take it as I am getting in bed with water on my bedside table. My doc will only give me 30 a month which means if I want to sleep for more than 1/2 the month I am forced to by the other 30 on a iop. I used budgetmedicines.com for FOREVER. They just switched names and I went to buy it and they now don't have ambien so I am on a desperate search.

Trazadone: I have this too but I hate it. 50mg tablets and I use it only when I haven't slept for 3 nights and I am beginning to lose my hold on reality (hallucinations... I actually also have a seizure disorder but I ONLY have seizures when I haven't been to sleep for 3 days). Trazadone leaves me with a HORRIBLE dry mouth and I have nightmares something awful.

What you have described about being paralyzed happens to me all the time too. I have had studies done because this is actually an indicator for narcolepsy. Your body always becomes paralyzed during REM sleep. Usually you don't know this because your brain is dreaming. But for some of us, your brain wakes up before your body does and you are left with the most horrifying of all things. It is always a nightmare that wakes me during rem sleep so I am laying there paralyzed and sure someone is in the house. Unable to scream or move I lay there for what seems like an hour horrified. Trazadone makes this 10X worse.

Seroquel: Same thing as trazadone. But in addition it has recently been studied and proven that seroquel causes seizure disorders and can cause diabetes II. (I have both). I got both of these things after taking seroquel. Wether it was the CAUSE or not, I don't know. But the hang over effect (I can barely pull my body out of the bed 12 hrs later) is not good for living. Trazadone does this too.

I have used Halcion, Xanax, Ambien CR, Restoril, Trazadone, Clonopin, Seroquel... pretty much everything over the last 20 years. Ambien works the best.

There are some serious warnings about ambien though that I would give. I have done some strange and dangerous things after taking ambien. Ambien will make you starving and the problem is if you get up and eat you will pass up the window of sleep opportunity and be up all night. There is serious rebound insomnia if you stop taking it. (The second night after you quit you will not be able to sleep). I have driven to the store and shopped, came home and put things away and the next day I don't even remember going anywhere.

Even still... I will take ambien for the rest of my life. I just get my DH to take the keys away from me when I do.

Tricia

Ambien blackouts are scary. Here's a good one and it really happened - I brought an Rx (other than ambien) in to be filled one eve after I took the ambien, and I didn't remember doing it (pharm is only a few blocks away luckily) so for DAYS I thought I'd lost the paper that the Rx was written on (there were 2 on one page actually) and the whole time it was sitting there filled at the pharmacy. It's funny but not funny at the same time of course.

Do you have a place online that you buy ambien? an nrop? I am looking for somewhere safe. Luckily I have had only good experiences. I lucked into a good place but they don't sell ambien anymore. Any ideas?

No I don't buy it online, I get from local doc. If I run out early I just have to put up with not being able to sleep. I am scared to tell the doc that 1 tablet does not work for me. I have the same problem as you, only lasts 4 hours, not the 8 it's supposed to.

I have never tried Ambien or Lunesta, because I have had ideal results with both Xanax and Lorazepam. For me, they both work about the same, keep me asleep for a good 7-9 hours. It's wonderful to be able to sleep finally.

For some background, I am a total insomniac and also have a pretty severe (and rare NOS) sleep disorder on top of it, so I don't sleep much at all. When I do, I wake up every 45 mins or so. My eyes are chronically red, both from sleeplessness and because I sleep with my eyes partly open. (Serious.) This is part of the disorder, that my body just *will not* go down. I am always sort of half-awake, even when I'm dreaming.

I started taking OTC sleep meds (diphenhydrinate? Or whatever it is). This helps for a day or two, but then stops working, even if I increase the dose, which gives me nausea. My chronic pain (OMG... Insomnia + chronic pain? Holy hell. You get NO SLEEP at all. I am awake for days sometimes) has kept me so occupied with doctors that I have really not investigated the sleep problems with my doc yet.

As a random experiment, I ordered some Xan and Loraz from an IOP. I have been so amazed at what it is like to be able to sleep. I had forgotten how nice it is, to be rested. To be able to close your eyes and actually relax.
Just to be able to interrupt that "infinite time cycle" that I'm always in. That place where you never sleep, where there is no day and no night, only hours and hours and hours, over and over. It is like being in hell, sleepless eternity.

Both of these meds reduce my eye bloodshot considerably, too. I take 1-2 mgs of one or both at the same time, right before I'm ready to go to bed. (Wow... "Go to bed." It's so cool to be able to do that !! WAHH!! I look forward to it so much now.) It starts to make me drowsy, and I can fall asleep in maybe half an hour. Incredible.

In conclusion, Yay for sleep. Yay Xanny, Yay 'Pam. Sleep is heavenly.

SeaBreeze I can relate to the never sleeping thing, but Xanax is a Benzo and so I think I'm even more afraid of addiction to Benzo than I am to not sleeping. I have enough problems with Ambien (and struggling to get off pain meds), rather not try something that's physically as well as mentally addicting. I've heard withdrawal from Benzos can be very dangerous.

OH YES this happens to me a LOT (when I can sleep, that is) - I feel like there's someone in the house or the room and I cannot move. My fiance will often hear me trying to scream and will shake me awake and hold me to "unscare" me. I didn't know this paralysis thing was common. IT SUX!

Also, Seroquel - I've taken that as well, lower doses actually work better for me (25 mg is ususally sufficient and don't get hangover) - if I take 100mg or more I feel like I'm having a heart attack (was originally Rxd the 100mg pills) - it seems to have the OPPOSITE effect at higher doses. Thought I was ODing at 300mg once because the palpitations were so bad, then read that that is actually considered a "normal" dose for mania/psychosis. For me, it CAUSED mania/psychosis!

I gotta chime in here. I was taking Ambien then my doc moved away and I have had to ration them out for when I really really need it. Soma works well for me, but what I found works even better is a nice little cocktail of 1 Soma and 1/2 ambien or 5mg, knocks you out fast and keeps you asleep and wake up no problem 8 hrs later.
Hated Lunesta, nasty taste and didnt work that well at all.