Posted by zeugma on August 13, 2005, at 6:31:11
In reply to Ramelteon - to zeugma, posted by ed_uk on August 6, 2005, at 13:44:10
> Hi!!!
>
Hi Ed! Please accept this delayed response.
>
> Are you interested in ramelteon? I wondered whether it might be useful in improving your sleep at night without causing a hangover. Perhaps this would reduce your daytime drowsiness...
>
The sleep docs were willing to recommend Xyrem, which sounds like a stronger version of ramelteon. But not for insomnia. I did suffer from severe sleep-onset difficulties that are overcome with NRI's- probably desipramine would work as well as nortriptyline for helping me sleep.
The problem is with how restorative the sleep is. The problem is that I feel like I have a limited quota of energy to divide throughout the week, and if I exert myself on Monday, for example, I will become that much more drained by Wednesday, no matter how early I go to bed in the interim. I don't know if the problem is with sleep per se or if it is a more general problem with CNS activation. I suspect the latter, because prior to treatment with antidepressants, I would feel more activated at sleep onset than I did while fully awake- hence the severe sleep disruption.Stims work on the other side of the equation to AD's- they do activate me (somewhat) during waking, as opposed to simply deactivating me during sleep. Remember I also have ADHD as well as a sleep disorder, so I do have to work on the waking side of things- I sleep well at night, and one interesting thing about NRI's (Strattera as well as TCA) is that they give me the semblance of a circadian cycle, although they do not help me with many of the processes associated with waking, such as fully engaged perceptual systems (the world is like a blur) and executive function. (Oddly, my perception would intensify at sleep onset, causing the sudden jolting arousals.)
Got to run now, hence the fragmentary nature of this reply.
-z
> Kind regards
>
> ~Ed
poster:zeugma
thread:532130
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050811/msgs/540989.html