Posted by Hugh on June 1, 2014, at 16:05:26
In reply to Chronic Insomnia-Anyone else?, posted by babbler20 on May 31, 2014, at 4:34:23
For many years, I had a choice between 7-9 hours of drugged sleep and 3-5 hours of "natural" sleep. I opted for drugged sleep much of the time. First Unisom, then Benadryl, then trazodone, Remeron, Ambien, Xanax, and finally lorazepam. I took lorazepam almost every night for three years, until I started to suffer horribly from benzo tolerance, dependence and withdrawal.
Suvorexant is a sleeping pill that has a completely different mechanism of action than anything on the market. It basically gives you narcolepsy for several hours. It was expected to be approved by the FDA last year, but the FDA told Merck to reduce the dosages they were planning to offer. Suvorexant is still expected to be approved, but it might take another year or two.
UCM765 is an experimental drug that promises to be the best sleeping pill ever, greatly increasing the time spent in deep, stage four sleep. But it might not be available for another ten years.
A few months ago I accidentally discovered that putting an electric heating pad on my back for 20-30 minutes just before I go to bed significantly improves my sleep. I recently posted this about it:
http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20131226/msgs/1065521.html
poster:Hugh
thread:1066284
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20140512/msgs/1066357.html