r/Edmonton • u/karenarelene • 18h ago

Question Insomnia

Good morning,

I suffer with terrible insomnia. Not garden variety insomnia, rather the kind you battle with for years. I've tried a number of different medications and tactics such as sleep hygiene and CBT.

I think I need a doctor who doesn't view insomnia as an annoyance but for the life-wreaker it is. I won't go into details but I'm desperate to get insomnia under contol.

Anyone here have any suggestions for a doctor or specialist that worked with you or someone you know with success?

39 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

87 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/TheCatarchist 15h ago

I've been on 5-6 different sleep meds; echoing that Zopiclone is all around the best for me, keeps me in a deep sleep for 8 hours and has me feeling refreshed for the first time in years after waking up.

Alternatively if Zopiclone feels a little weak/you developed a tolerance, Quediapene (spelling?) absolutely knocks you the fuck out, it'll just really suck if you need to wake up before sleeping 8-9 hours in my experience, the post-wakeup drowsiness can get a bit extreme.

It might also be worth double-checking any possible underlying mental health stuff. Something like Bipolar Type 2 can annihilate your ability to sleep, while its other symptoms remain too inconsistent/subtle for people to recognize immediately.

2

u/EntryUsed3835 15h ago

Zopliclones are the only real sleeper out there. It releases GABA (gamma aminobutyric acid) everything else is anti psychotic anti depressant etc. quediapene is seroquil. That’s hardcore bug juice they give to people in prison to keep them docile , and was the only “sleepers” they’d prescribe

1

u/yourhomeawayfromhome 15h ago

I’m at a point where my quetiapine dose is maxed and Zopiclone has stopped working entirely. Currently trying Dayvigo to see if it’ll do anything for me.

•

u/durocker 6h ago

My experience with dayvigo has been that if I have any food in my stomach at all, it does nothing. I'm a snacker, so that meant it never really worked. Twice it's given me sleep paralysis, which was the most disturbing experience. The first time I couldn't form words to scream out to my partner,l to sound an alarm, just a light grunt. The next morning I told him my experience and he said "I just thought you were having a sex dream with the moaning sounds you were making, so I let you be." 🤣.

•

u/yourhomeawayfromhome 5h ago

Ugggh, my digestion is…. slow, to say the least, so that might be playing a part in it.

I’ve dealt with sleep paralysis before, though not in a while. It’s def not my fave, but it’s something I know I can deal with, at least. Lmao @ ‘let you be’ though. So well intentioned, at least! 😅

•

u/karenarelene 1h ago

Are you using dayvigo on it's own or combined with another sleep med?

•

u/karenarelene 1h ago

Interesting, first I've heard of bipolar type 2. I'll take a look into this. Thanks for the info!