I am an 71 year old woman and have been experiencing insomnia for 5 years. I had been taking 25 mg Trazodone for 3-4 years prior to the onset of this debilitating insomnia because I worked different shifts and it worked beautifully until it stopped working-at any dose. Since then I have tried Ambien, Lunesta, Belsomra, Dayvigo, Mirtazapine, Xanax, Sonata, Amitriptyline, Gabapentin and Doxepin. Most had too many side effects for me to continue them or didn’t work. I tried supplements (CBD, Gaba, Ashwagandha etc) with limited success but the life altering effects of sleep deprivation were slowly affecting my health and sleep studies and multiple sleep doctors offered no help. The last one I saw said sometimes there is no other option but to stay on sleep medicine forever. For women, often the lack of hormones in menopause trigger insomnia. Sleep is so important and my thought is why go off now? It is a fact that most seniors don’t get the quality sleep we once did. I am currently on 200 mg Gabapentin which does help me sleep 6-8 hours but I have to deal with a slight dizzy/spacey feeling all the next morning. I am otherwise healthy and walk 3-4 miles outside everyday and so I deal with this side effect and hope it may go away in time. Many people do not have this side effect. If you take other medications, make sure that insomnia is not a side effect. My thought is, after 24 years of taking medication for sleep, it would be difficult to sleep without it. What are your prescribing doctors thoughts? Some sleep medications are contraindicated for seniors due to memory loss and other side effects such as dizziness.
In the words of my last sleep doctor, “insomnia is a marathon” and we just have to keep running the course. Try to stay healthy however you can and get your sleep however you can even if you have to take a medication.