1. < Depression & Anxiety

Trazadone use for insomnia for seniors

Posted by briarrose @briarrose, Nov 22, 2023

I am 68 years young and suffering from insomnia since age 53. Multiple life stressors/changes kicked it off. I had hoped once I retired, remarried and relocated to a lovely home it would finally stop but it has not. I can fall asleep fairly quickly, my issue is staying asleep & once I wake up can take up to 3 hours to fall back to sleep. 3 AM I am always awake to about 530...but always after just 3 1/2 hours of sleep I start my awakenings. Tried sleeping aids, ambien the best but suffered from the amnesia side effects...& belsomra same. Now looking at trazadone. I am also on Zoloft for a severe panic d/o, some depression & PTSD. Multiple health issues. Any thoughts on trazadone for a 68 y.o. woman?

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mitfit | @mitfit | Nov 24, 2023

I have found Trazodone to be very helpful. I have been taking it for over a year. I get up at night to go to the bathroom (of course!) and fall right back to sleep when I get back in bed. My physician says we can take Trazodone for the long term.

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1 reply
briarrose | @briarrose | Nov 25, 2023

This is so good to hear!
Thank you for sharing!

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kawanhee | @kawanhee | Nov 27, 2023
In reply to @mitfit "I have found Trazodone to be very helpful. I have been taking it for over a..." + (show)
@mitfit

I have found Trazodone to be very helpful. I have been taking it for over a year. I get up at night to go to the bathroom (of course!) and fall right back to sleep when I get back in bed. My physician says we can take Trazodone for the long term.

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I found that many doctors are fine with certain types of sleep meds. Trazadone is one as is Remeron. I couldn’t take trazadone because it affected my liver enzymes. My pcp wanted me off of lorazepam, a benzodiazepine. He’s fine with Remeron which was prescribed by a sleep therapist

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briarrose | @briarrose | Nov 27, 2023

I just got off Remeron after 22 years! Prescribed for my panic d/o and PTSD. And, yes, it certainly helped with my sleep but after years it did not and was not effective for my anxiety disorder anymore as well.
I have been prescribed a new medication and working through it.
Yes, the benzos are not really recommended for on-going insomnia which I have for years.
And b/c of health issues can not take a lot of the sleep aids - or I did and had bad side effects.
I will discuss Trazadone with my new psychiatrist...hopefully it will work out.
Thank you for your thoughts and good luck sleeping:)

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Taylorju | @taylorju | Jan 31 5:57pm
In reply to @dfb "Wow! Your post is right on point for me. I have been titrating off of a..." + (show)
@dfb

Wow!

Your post is right on point for me.

I have been titrating off of a pharmaceutical nightmare for four months now. The first to go were the sleep meds. Even the doctors acknowledged that “pharmaceutical” sleep is not sleep. They will no longer prescribe them even if I want them.

The science is clear, sleep is the time when humans (all animals really) heal. We heal body, mind and spirit during the seven to nine critical hours when our bodies reboot.

Years ago unnecessary medications together with lack of sleep lead to a breakdown that landed me in prison for two and a half years.

Yesterday I was driving home from seeing my friend and I was nodding off at the wheel. I was horrified! I will not be the cause of someone else suffering or death because I can not sleep.

I will stop driving first.

I'm only sixty and very fit by any measure other then lack of sleep.

I too have no trouble falling asleep, I'm out in minutes. I wake up every two hours. Last night I was in bed at 5:00pm and kept waking up and resetting and forcing myself back to bed every two hours until 7:00am. My sleep monitor on my watch indicates very little to no deep sleep, the most important of the of the three sleep states.

I do not know what to do.

Here is what I have been doing:

In bed at 8:00pm sleep and reset until 4:00.
Exercise two hours a day at varying degrees of intensity.
Limit my caffine consumption to no later than 3:00 pm and reducing that even further heading to zero.
I work no more than eight hours, usually far less.
I avoid refined sugar and simple carbohydrates wherever possible.
I have disengaged from modern life as much as possible. I watch very little television.
I do not use my computer, tablet or phone in the hour leading up to my bedtime.
I have a set routine at bedtime and during each reset.
Yesterday I began weekly massage therapy.

Lack of good sleep is at the core of virtually every health problem humans have. Not all, but again most, health conditions are improved by improving the quality and quantity of sleep.

I never had any problem with sleep until I was put in quantities of psyche meds fifteen years ago and who knows what ECT did to my brain. Now that everyone agrees that the psyche meds were and probably still are the proximate cause of my sleep problems what is lacking is a way to help my body recover its natural processes.

In the meantime I do not know what else to do.

I will not cause any more suffering to others. I know what is wrong. I just don't know how to fix it.

For now the actions I've outlined in this post are the only scientifically studied remidies for the kind of sleep disturbances I am having.

I guess I will begin looking at herbal remedies. What the hell pscyh meds and my embrace of societies values caused the problem, perhaps nature has a solution.

I wish you peaceful nights and days full of purpose and joy.

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I took a course in Transcendental Meditation many years ago and
was disciplined to practice it twice daily. Before breakfast and before dinner. It kept me calm through a stressful job and 3 Children. Occasionally, I used it at bedtime and cleared my mind
preventing the ruminating I am now doing.
I am working to get back to my schedule. Retired and in smaller quarters with a new husband, I need to find a quiet space for my
discipline. Very important.
Also exercise daily.
I highly recommend the two.

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Ingegerd Enscoe, Alumni Mentor | @astaingegerdm | Jan 31 6:19pm

I have recently tried CBD gummy if I wake up and can’t fall back to sleep. It helps most of the time unless I’m all wound up!
I take Clonazepam at bedtime for anxiety. I start thinking about things that make me anxious..

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briarrose | @briarrose | Feb 1 7:06am
In reply to @astaingegerdm "I have recently tried CBD gummy if I wake up and can’t fall back to sleep...." + (show)
@astaingegerdm

I have recently tried CBD gummy if I wake up and can’t fall back to sleep. It helps most of the time unless I’m all wound up!
I take Clonazepam at bedtime for anxiety. I start thinking about things that make me anxious..

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Right now I am trying Trazodone 25 mg. for chronic insomnia. Helping just a bit.
Thinking of going to the 50 mg. dose which is recommended for sleep...
There are so many CBD gummies on the market I honestly don't know which one is the best.
What are you using? That's a good plan to use a gummy for wake ups during the night of which I have at least 2 nightly.
I more than hear you about "ruminating" over anxious thoughts. I do that also and certainly not helpful. I like the post about meditation & exercise...sometimes not so easy to do though but I know it's a positive!
Best of luck to you in your sleep "quest".

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con123 | @con123 | Feb 1 7:24am
In reply to @astaingegerdm "I have recently tried CBD gummy if I wake up and can’t fall back to sleep...." + (show)
@astaingegerdm

I have recently tried CBD gummy if I wake up and can’t fall back to sleep. It helps most of the time unless I’m all wound up!
I take Clonazepam at bedtime for anxiety. I start thinking about things that make me anxious..

Jump to this post

I took clonazepam 1mg at bedtime for almost 20 years. As soon as I turned 65, I had to taper off it. This despite a long history of same dose, never increasing and consistently helping me sleep through the night. It was one of the hardest thing I ever did, and although we did it very slowly over 9 months, everything the clonazepam treated came back in full force. Totally sleepless nights, anxiety, and my focal dystonia. Tried Remeron for 5 months and it did basically nothing for me. Eventually started using CBD/THC gummies and 5/7 nights are very good. For some reason, I have a lot of difficulty sleeping 2 nights a week even with the gummie. I hope to one day learn to sleep without any aid. Trazadone was prescribed many years ago for anxiety and it made me feel nauseous dizzy.

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briarrose | @briarrose | Feb 1 9:19am

I also take clonazepam 1 mg. at night but not for insomnia. I have a severe panic disorder/PTSD and have been on it for years...I am over 65. I know the docs do not like prescribing the benzos for seniors but if you ever saw me in the middle of a panic attack you would understand why. I was on Remeron for almost 23 years...and it saved my life. Eventually its efficacy wore off. Now on Zoloft 37.5 mg. daily, thinking I might have to increase to 50 mg. My anxiety still not under good control.
I just started Trazodone 25 mg. for insomnia several weeks ago. Again, it's really not helping at that dose. I believe for sleep the dose is 50 mg. I can fall asleep quickly but my problem is frequent awakenings throughout the night and unable to fall back to sleep quickly, therefore, my sleep is a mess. This has been going on for 16 years.
I don't get dizzy or nausea from it. I want to try the CBD gummies but with so many on the market I have no idea which brand to buy. Continued good luck with the gummies & hope you can get that 7 nights of good sleep.
Insomnia is horrible!

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1 reply
raebaby | @raebaby | Feb 1 12:35pm

Lazerous Naturals, gummies with THC work weoll to help me sleep and reduce pain.

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