I am a hardcore insomniac who has fibro. What prescription sleep medication do you feel helps you to get good sleep or causes a flare up of your fibromyalgia?

Thanks in advance for your response!

Restoril or Ambien should do you fine

Oxy80,

I tried both and they didn't work for me.

Have you tried Amitriptyline(Elavil)?

Trazdone are Ambien two prescription meds that can be taken together and are known to be helpful for many people with fibromyalgia. Some dietary suppliments that can also be used and that are good for fibro include: Suntheanine, Fatigued to Fantastic Revitalizing Sleep formula, and Melotonin.

Depending on how bad your fibro-related sleep disorder is, you might need to take all the above. It's a matter of trial and error to see what works best for a particular person.

150mg of Trazodone is my favourite. Ambien, Lunesta, all those others do NOTHING for me. My 2mg of Klonopin helps me relax at night, but its the Trazodone that lets me get a real nice, long, uninterrupted sleep. I have also found that using ear plugs and a sleep mask has worked wonders for me. Might be a stretch for some people, but desperate times call for desperate measures! Good luck!!

 Originally Posted By: findanewway

I am a hardcore insomniac who has fibro. What prescription sleep medication do you feel helps you to get good sleep or causes a flare up of your fibromyalgia?

Great topic, Im in the same boat. I tried Trazadone in many bits* from just 50mg up to 150..but STILL have a drug Hangover for a whole day.
(true, I finally slept..but must have a complete day off of ANY kind of physical or mental activity the next day)

Flexerill sort of has the same affect on me, kind of knocks me out but, with a hangover.. for a few hours of *grogginess* Its hard enough to wake up and get going!

right now, I'm taking some *soma and it helps me relax at least to feel drowsy.. but wont knock me out.. (same with vals... drowsy nice calming, muscle relaxing but not a -sleep through the night* med)

Its definately a trial/search to see what works best for each of us!

I must admit here, I did not try ambien. After reading all the negative ... it bothered me, so cant comment on that.

(I thought elavil was an anit-depressant? it was long ago, I just remember it didnt do anything for me)

Definately, ear plugs! Im addicted to them..they help me stay asleep when I finally get there. if one falls out during the night I notice it.
little noises wake me up and Im like..."oh sheet" but if Im lucky I can find it and plug back in while still in the *zone.

Great Posts... Id like to hear more!

The thing about using Flexeril for fibro which most people don't know, is that it helps the most if you take it a few hours before bedtime, rather than waiting until betime to take it. Taking it earlier should also help with the hangover issue too.

Some other things to consider are stuff such as (1)no caffiene or alchohol both of which interfere with restorative sleep,(2) start unwinding, relaxing etc., a few hours before bedtime so you are already well relaxed and peaceful by betime. Use meditation techniques, a heating pad, etc. Use whatever you can that helps. If you do that, it will help you be more restored and able to function at your best in the morning, and (3) certain sleep meds, Valium being a good example, only promote light stage 2 sleep which is not very restorative for people with fibro. Trazadone, Ambien and the other things I mentioned the the previous post above all help promote deep, restorative stage 3 and stage 4 sleep which is what you need. And as I was saying you can take them all if you need to. The dietary suppliments will add more effectiveness to the prescription meds.

Thanks for all the responses. I have tried Elavil, Trazadone, Ambien, Lunesta(yuck), Restoril, Prosom, Dormicum, Flexeril, Soma, Melatonin, and various herbal remedies to no avail. I do keep taking the flexeril because I know that if I should get lucky enough to fall asleep it will help promote the right stage of sleep. I have currently been trying Klonopin 2mg but it doesn't put me to sleep either. I will look into some of the herbal products mentioned that I haven't heard of and give them a try. Great posts all!

Thanks all,
Bev

I agree with Code21 on this one.Sometimes I can go without it,but it seems to help alot.

As far as meds,I think it's really a trial and error type thing,depending on your individual response.Sometimes zopiclone helps me,other times temazepam.Sometimes it's an anti-histamine,sometimes some magnesium and calcium.Most of the time nothing works though.

It's one of the annoying parts of dealing with Fibro.

and sometimes what works for awhile stops working, or starts having unpleasant affects it did not before.

I use the lowest possible dose of Ambien I can get away with, but there is also an OTC medication from Walmart I have found strangely affective. I will try to remember it.

If you have tried ALL of that to no avail, hasn't your doctor scheduled a sleep study for you yet? I would do it. They did mine at a REALLY bad time - a day after I had surgery and was on pretty strong pain meds - so OF COURSE I slept. But I know they are thorough - I had to have a ton of electrodes glued to my head!

Code21,

Sorry I missed your post. I am scheduled for a sleep study on Monday. I'm curious as to what it will show. Will post what they determine although I hear it could take a while for the results to trickle down to me:-(

I did my sleep study while on meds for pain and ambien for sleep.
It still yeilded the results that they were seeking...

respiration stopped 28 times per hr for 3-4 seconds. REM sleep was almost non-existant and blood O2 levels dropped to 91 during sleep.

The result was a CPAP that I am supposed to wear every nite so that i will still breath even when my lungs stop inhaling. For me it was a very odd experience because I would open my mouth during sleep and the air forced in thru my sinus -nose would just circulate thru my head and out my mouth, so a full face mask was required.

I was able to stop using the CPAP after I stopped smoking and got away from the Az dessert where I had contracted valley fever. Between that and the dust and the smoking, i was not getting any good air while awake and the low oxygen levels were effecting my sleep. the CPAP and 2 different inhalers were a way of life until things changed. Now after quitting and changing my enviroment, my blood o2 level is back to 100%.
The CPAP still sits next to the bed in case i ever do wake up gasping for air, ever again.

I probably would have died in my sleep from simply not breathing if we had not done the sleep study. we did it because i was tired all the time and my o2 levels were so low. low o2 in the morning means that you were not breathing at nite. that also means exhaustion and weakness that cannot be explained.

Where is 91 on the scale eluded? I take it 91 is low?

If it's ok my asking,did you use to wake up gasping for air before.And if so,did it ever feel like a panic attack coming on at all?

91% o2 saturation is poor. steps away from a o2 tank following you where ever you go. in the 80's the brain starts to fog and stop functioning.organs fail. a normal human being SHOULD be at 99 or 100%. if you are less, that indicates that your lungs are damaged or there is something that prevents oxygen from being absorbed by the bloodstream. crutial to life.

yes, that was the tip off. 2 or 3 times i barely woke up and it was like i had exhaled 3 minutes ago...barely able to take in a breath. like choking except the lungs were collapsed and almost too empty to refill. scarey as h3ll. At first I thought it was the stronger pain meds effecting my pulmanary function combined with the disease that i had encountered which I knew took months to go away, if ever. After I mentioned it to my dr he said that it was not the meds and possibly sleep apnea, cause undetermined.
The final diagnosis was indeed sleep apnea where you simply just stop breathing. many people die in their sleep that way. those that live are tired, exhausted, cannot focus, and live a miserable existance half between wake and sleep somewhere.
Mine was caused by smoking and a serious case of valley fever. There were times during the day when i was awake that I could not breath, so a problem at night was understandable. The panic came from suddenly realizing that you were a second or 2 from death. your eyes fly open, you realize that your chest is totally collapsed and you barely find the strength to suck in a partial breath and that seems to do little good. the panic comes after you regain control of your breathing. Panic attacks do not happen while asleep. that might be related to night-terrors, but not real panic attacks while asleep. you stop breathing while asleep,. and IF you do not wake in the next minute or 2, your heart stops beating from lack of oxygen, brain damage occures, and you die quietly.

As I said, after many months of treatment and the CPAP, quitting smoking and getting out of the dirty atmosphere that was so dry, i improved almost immediately. I still dont sleep well, but its not from lack of respiration, its just discomfort from injury.

google "sleep apnea" and that will tell you all you need to know about it.

Thanks for the reply and info eluded.
I have had that happen many a time.Sleep apnea is also common in my family.The times when I woke up gasping,I noticed I have had to run outside to try and breath.I bought myself an oxygen tank years ago,as well as taking other oxygen supplements.I must say they have helped a lot.I too was smoking A LOT when I had the worse episodes.I have since cut back quite a bit.Maybe that has helped too.
One dr did suggest a sleep study,but at the time I wasn't able to get into the clinic.I've never bothered to worry about it since.

I'm glad you are feeling better than you did before.
Thanks again.

Eluded,

Thanks for the response. I'm glad to hear that you worked through your sleep apnea problems. My husband was diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea. Of course, he never woke up when he would stop breathing. I had to make him go to doc and went with him to explain his symptoms. I even had to help him fill out his sleep study form since he would sleep through the symptoms. His oxygen levels would dip into the 80's so he was classified as severe. He is on CPAP and doing a lot better. I would be surprised if they said sleep apnea for me as I don't wake up gasping for breath nor do I snore very often since I had sinus surgery a few years ago. Plus, I quit smoking over 3 years ago. I do have fibromyalgia and have had trouble with undiagnosed(tried a lot of avenues to get a diagnosis) facial pain from time to time. Hopefully this sleep study will yield an answer so I can at least deal with one problem. I'll take what I can get at this point :-)

there is alot to be learned while the body is at rest and your conscious mind is not making the body do things out of the ordinary.

I was very surprized at how slow we breath, how slow the heart beats and just how well the body functions and does its job when things are normal. That also places you closer to the danger zone if your breathing slows or stops. When I had the full blown case of valley fever, it was weeks of barely being able to breath. a bad day was like someone was holding their arms around my chest and i could not inhale, or like i was trying to inhale thru a straw. it scared me to go to sleep each nite. I never knew if i would wake up or not. I was on all kinds of medication to treat the disease and the symptoms and finally worked thru it. I am STILL supposed to be using the CPAP nightly but the thing is so annoying to me with the full mask that I'm willing to risk it for now since I have cleaned up my act alot since being diagnosed. Seeing 100% o2 saturation was a VERY pleasant surprize after flirting with portable o2 only 2 yrs before.

I hope things work out for you. I am sure with proper treatment that things will improve. if you DO end up on CPAP do stay involved and have it adjusted so that its comfortable for you. mine was too short on the start up and after only 3 minutes went to full power and that made it impossible to get to sleep. I had the dr authorize the dealer to slow the ramp up time to 20 minutes so i could go to sleep with a gentle "push" of air and not that full pressure blast that when awake, was very annoying and hard to deal with. That full blast was what it took to pressurize my lungs when I was unconscious but it was way too much when i was still semi awake.

Good luck with your studies.