Posted by chdurie2 on October 11, 2000, at 22:20:19
In reply to Link to insomnia from going through chronic pain?, posted by m1man on October 11, 2000, at 20:55:01
> I have to take massive amounts of something to get some sleep. I am trying a 1/2 terezone w/melatonin tonight and see what happens. 40mgs of valium didn't phaze me at all last night. I used to have a chronic pain problem for about 5 years. Been gone about a year though. Could this create such a tolerance to sleep meds as well???
m1man:
I don't know what kind of chronic pain you've had
for the last five years, but my own experience tells me that chronic insomnia is self-perpetuating, and that you develop tolerance to some sleep meds. And yes, your chronic-pain problem, from what i know, could have given you a physiological sleeping problem.if you have good insurance or are close to a university with a good sleep lab, it might be worth it to have a sleep study done.
My experience is that i've had chronic fatigue syndrome since 1994, when i developed my sleeping problem. i've been through restoril, tranzene, klonopin, ativan, elavil, doxepin liquid, sinemet and a few others. although the combination of klonopin and doxepin liquid prescribed by my cfs-doc was the best, it was not refreshing sleep. i went to a good sleep lab, where i was diagnosed with a bad case of periodic leg movement syndrome (a cousin of restless legs, it means i move much too much when i sleep) and heavy alpha wave intrusion (means i don't get deep sleep-only light sleep.) My cfs-doc told me he could have told me that without the sleep study.
Result? the sleep center told me i'd be on sleep meds for the rest of my life. the chronic fatigue syndrome causes my PMLS and alpha-wave intrusion. So I would think (but I'm no doc) the chronic pain could have caused your insomnia and consequent reliance on sleep meds.
I have tried to go off sleep meds from time to time without any real success. when i was recently in the hospital for surgery, the docs there had some trouble knocking me out, and I woke up before surgery was over. But it was the best sleep i've had in six years.
so i related my hospital experience to my p-doc after suddenly ever-increasing amounts of klonopin/doxepin were doing nothing and told him i wanted to be able to knock myself out. i'm now doing 50 mgs of seroquel a night combined with .5-1.0 of klonopin, and it's a pleasure to get deep sleep at last! But, in answer to your question about sleep-med tolerance, klonopin is notoriously tolerance-developing, and i've taken it for six years without needing more than .5mg. only in the last two months did the amount start to ever-increase.
actually, i'm starting to yawn now without my med, an amazing thing for me. someday i hope to be off this stuff.
hope this helps. in summary, yes, i think there's a link between chronic pain and insomnia, but i'd explore it more with a good doc, sleep or otherwise.caroline
poster:chdurie2
thread:993
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20001011/msgs/996.html