Insomnia!

[dahon]

I have been reducing my dosage of Ropinerole from 0.5mg to 0.25 a good few weeks ago with a couple of Tumeric tablets I have mentioned about on my earlier posts. It seemed a good combination that seemed to work by reducing my RLS in the evening and night, but all of a sudden the last week or so I have suffered from insomnia having not sleeping or very little sleep over several nights, the RLS symptoms are a bit more persistance due to lack of sleep but I think the Insomnia is keeping me awake not the RLS.

I decided to take a 0.25mg and then 0.5mg Ropinerole a few hours later that should knock me out and get a decent nights sleep tonight hopefully! I feel that I have got into a run of sleepless nights that I think needed a larger dose of Ropinerole to get me to sleep. Thinking of asking my GP for a short course of sleeping tablets but do they increase RLS?

[Jerry57]

Dahon,To answer your question, yes, sleeping pills can increase RLS. I can only speak from my own experience.

Years ago, when I had RLS, but it had not yet been officially diagnosed, I went to the doctor for insomnia. He prescribed Ambien. At first it worked well, and I was able to sleep through a few nights. But sometimes the Ambien would not quite knock me out. It made me so sleepy, but if I didn't fall to sleep soon enough, my RLS would kick in, and then I could not get to sleep at all, and the rest of the night was torture. A couple nights of torture, and I quit taking the Ambien, and probably will never take another sleeping pill. Hope you have a better experience.

[SueJohnson]

Try clonazepam. It won't make your RLS symptoms worse.

[4fishylady]

dahon, I have taken 1 mg ropinerole for6 years, but had chronic insomnia for about 20 years prior to the onset of rls. I cannot relate them together. During those years, I took ambien off and on, as often as I could get my hands on them. There came a time when I only got about 4 hours sleep with ambien, and was given other drugs for sleeping. I cannot remember their names right now. When I was diagnosed with MS, the same Neuro's prescribed the ropinerole for rls, but also recognized my insomnia and treated that as well. I take 300 mg gabapentin for neuropathy, at bedtime along with the ropinerole, and clonazepam for sleep. I also take an OTC pill doxalamine (Unisom), which is an antihistamine, which seems to help extend the actual time spent sleeping. I do sometimes add turmeric, and during the day take many supplements and additional specific vitamins to strengthen my immune system against Covid19 and all its counterparts. I am 78 years old. I have had no sickness for at least 2 years!

[grassgree in reply to 4fishylady]

It's been reported on this site that antihistamines such as Unisom can aggravate RLS.

[RLSofManyYears]

dahon, I have been prescribed Zopiclone here in the UK and it certainly helps me sleep. Unfortunately it can be addictive and so I only am able to get it infrequently and even then I only am prescribed 7 tablets. The other medication that you can get is Pregabalin which is the better option than a dopamine agonist.

[grassgree]

It sounds like you have rebound insomnia, which will happen sooner or later with dopamine agonists such as Ropinirole. Better to decrease the dose very gradually over weeks. The RLS symptoms will worsen for a while but increasing the dose will only make withdrawal that much harder.

[Hidden]

Hi Dahon, I suffered with insomnia for years, sleeping tablets made me very drowsy during the day, I now take Trazadone at night, they are an antidepressant but work very well for me , ask your GP about them best wishes