Posted by Elizabeth on December 19, 1999, at 10:26:31
In reply to Re: Marplan and insomnia (or something), posted by Scott L. Schofield on December 18, 1999, at 19:13:19
> Did the insomnia begin immediately after adding pindolol?
No, I've had insomnia for a long time. It got worse when I started Marplan and pindolol (I started them simultaneously).
> Insomnia has seemed to be a good-prognosis side-effect for me.
> If an MAO-inhibitor is going to work for me, I develop insomnia early on.It is working. All the MAOIs have caused increased insomnia for me, and all that I have tried except selegiline have worked.
> I have had this type of insomnia along with the day-night reversal with three different MAOIs. It was very frustrating, and the lack of sleep really affected cognition. I used benzo sleeping pills a few times (Ativan and Halcion combination), but found that it can be counterproductive in the long run. I felt like I would go through some sort of mini-withdrawal syndrome every day. I guess this could have been due to the short half-life of the Halcion. I found that Ambien wasn't strong enough to do the job.
I need 20mg (2 pills) of Ambien. It seems to be working okay.
> I did try to keep my behavioral day-night cycle even though my biological cycle was out of whack.
This has been a long-term problem for me. I have tried a lot of behavioral and sleep-hygeine methods.
> I went to bed at 11:00 PM and remained in bed until 7:00 AM, regardless of how wide-awake I was.
I don't think you're "supposed" to do this (CW is that you should get up and go in another room and do something relaxing if you're awake more than 20 minutes or so), but hey, whatever works for you.
> I found that short naps during the day were O.K., but definitely not for more than 45 minutes. I remember hearing something about 20 minutes being ideal.
I don't nap during the day. Mostly I'm just not sleeping.
> I'm sure you thought of using trazodone. Is there some reason you are avoiding using it?
Yeah, 'cause it didn't do anything for me even when I took it (up to 400mg at h.s.) without an MAOI!
poster:Elizabeth
thread:16983
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/19991212/msgs/17127.html