Yes, sleep matters a lot!

[dede2fun]

😂😑Hi people I just joined this forum and I enjoy reading the many posts. I suffer from Insomnia and bad RLS, the thing is that I never knew the RLS was a issue until listening to many other people talk about it! Now I know, I don’t take anything for it, but suffer and it’s hard!

The insomnia is a big problem, I may sleep 3-4 days out of a week! I have been on Xanax for about 15 years and slept like a baby, but became dependent on them, so one day I weened myself off of them and never went back. Yes, I went through some things, and it was hard! Now my Psy has me on Ambien 10 mg. But I still can’t sleep. I go to see my Psy in the morning and hopefully he has something else or a higher dose for me or I don’t know what to do

Any suggestions would really help a bunch….

[Typicallygaslit]

You need to treat the restless legs as sedatives won’t help with that. Read the Mayoproceedings on RLS, for instance. You need to dig quite deep to get the hang of it. There’s also an active group on here.

[Hidden]

I take magnesium, which prevents me getting leg cramp. Taking it might also help with restless legs. Using magnesium glycinate, which is supposed to also help you sleep.

[kaliska0]

Being dependent on a med is normal when taking meds and while it's bad you have a reason to need to rely on them it's not bad to rely on them. It won't lead to addiction or abuse by itself and at the correct dose with the correct med for your problem it won't lead to tolerance or health issues. These things come from improper dosages, wrong medications for your specifics, or abusing your meds. There is no reason to stop a med just for being dependent unless you are against taking meds completely because you will become dependent to EVERY med. Every single one you take that helps, you will have to keep taking for it to keep helping. There isn't really a treatment for chronic sleep disorders except to keep doing what treats the causes and reduces the negative results. Like anyone else with an ongoing physical health issue that is managed but not eliminated forever by medication. If there is no other feasible way for you to reduce your problems then being dependent on a med to keep treating it is what's left. Some people with severe health issues can sometimes manage without prescription treatment but it often requires such a strict lifestyle that there are many common conditions people will die from before they keep symptoms under control without medication.

I have ADHD and my brain is incapable of using dopamine correctly. I will always suffer symptoms unless I always take meds. This even includes increases in chronic pain and various health issues that can result from the impact of low dopamine on nerve function and other body systems. Along with a greatly reduced ability to even communicate clearly because my thoughts don't organize into words and sentences well. I lived for 30 years without medication but life was "blah" constantly, nothing was truly comfortable (the floor was as good as laying in bed), and I was always stuck in my own head unable to remain part of a conversation. I was dependent on meds just to be myself even before I ever took them because I was never going to accomplish the same level of improvement without them. It's a known physical difference in my brain even if often treated as a psychiatric disorder and it requires lifelong treatment. Sure it would be awesome if someone could fix my brain to never need meds again but they can't so being dependent on meds is a required thing to live with if I want to truly be able to live my life instead of suffer through it. ADHD also contributes to insomnia in numerous ways with circadian rhythm issues, reduced rem, and trouble shutting your brain up enough to fall sleep.

Sometimes managing sleep issues without a medication can require excessively extreme lifestyle changes in every aspect of your life from diet to countless behaviors, schedule, lighting exposure, vitamin/mineral or other nutrient supplements, keeping bedroom temperatures low no matter the cost of ac, or a new bed for better comfort. Sometimes even when you apply every non-med solution and health improvement it's not always enough. I do pretty much all of that every day with the entire house running on a lighting schedule and no bright room lights after a certain time, I got a rolling 3 shelf cart for my supplements, spent $10,000s on an integrative health doctor to help, tried every sleep hygiene/behavior doctors told me to over the years and improved on their advice, altered my diet, keep the bedroom a max of 68F even if it's over 100F in summer, got a new bed again recently and then numerous toppers to adjust the new bed's firmness and overall comfort.......

I have greatly improved my sleep over time. I get more rem, usually get at least 6hrs instead of the only 3-4 I spent years surviving on even when I had nothing forcing me to get up at a certain time, and maintain a rough schedule instead of completely random sleep.

I still take 3 different sleep aids and numerous daytime supplements to help with energy then and sleep later. Off label sleep aids are generally far more useful long term and less harmful to sleep quality so you can feel more rested on less sleep instead of requiring even more hours in bed to get enough of every stage of sleep. On strong sedatives I can accomplish 12hrs of sleep and still feel worse than the 6hrs I get on a few off label meds that target specific possible causes of my insomnia. Figuring out causes of insomnia is difficult and time consuming. That's part of the reason some will always have to be dependent on meds to sleep well or deal with poor sleep. Medicine has not advanced enough to know why most people aren't sleeping and treatments rarely target specific problems or causes.

Benzos are usually a dead end road that seems great for awhile until it's not. Gabapentin or lyrica work differently on gaba and are mostly used for seizure, nerve related pain, or occasionally as mood stabilizers but may also be useful for sleep longer term. I occasionally use quazepam benzo to fix my sleep schedule or when I need to make sure I sleep well for a temporary event but it becomes steadily less effective.

Various antidepressants and mood stabilizers are often better options for long term sedative effects. I avoid relying on only sedative effects because they just cover things up instead of fixing any potential underlying health problem.

The new orexin antagonists can have the most benefits for sleep quality of any option but they are not sedatives and will not give you that feeling of needing to sleep. While very successful in studies without all the rest of the suggestions for improving sleep and the self control to make yourself go to bed at specific times they often end up having limited benefits. On the other hand the way they reduce wakefulness triggers can make it easier to stay in bed until you fall asleep. I use them to help me feel like lying still in bed instead of continuing to find things to do and they also increase rem sleep.

1st gen antihistamines can also be useful with some of the lowest odds of side effects. Some are available otc like benadryl or unisom and stronger ones like hydroxyzine are usually prescription. While these can just be sedating they also can treat causes of insomnia like inflammatory problems and reduced oxygen exchange from even minor things like allergies. Mild inflammation contributing to various vague symptoms is far more common than most realize and not well understood or diagnosed by doctors. Histamines are also alerting and used by the body when it needs to keep you awake in what it perceives as an emergency. Even if whatever stress your body is under is not at all helped by staying awake to try to fix the problem right now. With a poorly understand bladder inflammation disorder and then a sudden flare up of allergies I'd never had previously about 6years ago followed by 6-8months of chronic bronchitis and then ongoing sinusitis that still isn't fully treated I find hydroxyzine useful for many things and it improves sleep.

[asmckay]

Hi. Restless legs are frequently linked to low minerals. Often low iron or low magnesium. Test for iron (you may be able to do a home test inexpensively), You can experiment with magnesium since it is water soluble and safe in much higher doses that you will need. If you take too much you will simply pee it out. Avoid mag oxide. Magnesium glycinate, s already mentioned, is often a good choice. You may need Vit D supplement to make sure that you absorb the magnesium. Good Luck. Anna