Does anyone have experience taking low dose Remeron for sleep?

Newbie here.
I take 7.5 mg remeron (mirtazipine) for sleep. In years past I had been prescribed 15mg to begin and bumped 30mg when 15mg no longer seemed to be effective. (I'd estimate the time frame to be 6-9 months before raising dosage.) Within that same time frame of taking the higher dosage it too seemed to become ineffective. That was about 7 yrs ago. Just over a year ago I began having sleep issues again and Dr prescribed the 7.5mg, I was very doubtful and fully expected it not to work or maybe only work for a short time. To my surprise the lower dose has been very effective. I don't have the "hangover" feeling the next morning as I did with higher doses. It also seems to be working just as well as it did over a year ago! I would give it a try!
I will tell you that it does seem to take quite a while from when I take it to when I'm tired enough to sleep. It's definitely not fast acting. I usually take it 2 hours before my normal bedtime and when I lay down I usually fall asleep quickly, sleeping soundly through the night!! Give it a couple weeks even if at first you feel like it isn't working at first!
Wishing you the best!

Thank you so very much for that encouraging post. And for the information about dosing. I start it tonight and will take it 2 hours before bedtime. From what I've read, at higher doses it does not help much with sleep. I think the 7.5mg is the key. I hope so anyway - I'm so tired of not sleeping.

🤞 I would love an update in the morning if you're up for it! TIA ❤️🛌😴💤

I don't know that it will work the first night. From what I have read it may take 1-2 weeks to kick in. I will be sure to give an update when there is something to report.

I take 7.5 mg Remeron (Mirtazapine) for depression, for which it is quite effective (even at that low dose, anything more causes extreme anxiety). It does have the added benefit of helping with sleep. You definitely need to take it much earlier. My phone alarm is set for 8:45, and my normal bedtime is 11:00. This works well for me and does not cause morning drowsiness. I feel the drowsiness start coming on around 10:30. Beware, however, that Remeron can cause significant weight gain. I have to eat like a mouse, with very few carbohydrates for it not to push my weight up. Just watch.

When I started my Ativan taper my doctor put me on 7.5 mg of Remeron for sleep. It really helped my sleep but I was a zombie all the next day. I got a rare side effect from the meds and also felt more depressed so I thought I was going to have to go off but worried about tapering two drugs at once. I decided to start experimenting by slowly lowering the dose by cutting the pill. I was going to go as low as I could and still sleep. After getting down to 1/2 of the pill which is 3.75 mg I asked my doctor to call it in to a compounding pharmacy in a liquid form which she gladly did. I slowly worked my way down to 1.80 mg. I am sleeping well at this dose and figure when I finish my Ativan taper I can slowly taper the Remeron. I also thought of possibly continuing the Remeron after the taper as insomnia was the reason I ended up on the Ativan to begin with! My Ativan taper is very slow and sometimes I feel like speeding it up. My brain is very sensitive to medications. I was on 0.5 Ativan for about 7 months and stopped cold turkey. Even at that low dose I thought I would die during the 3 weeks before I reinstated the Ativan and got stable and then started tapering. It is a long road as my taper will be 1 year 2 months when I am finished. ( I have 7 months to go) I also get Ativan in liquid form which makes the taper a lot easier, I don't have to cut pills, dissolve in water, etc. This is my 2nd Ativan taper as I did not learn from the first one. I successfully lived without Ativan or any med for 4 years and was doing very well but a bout of bad health and sleep issues made me start up again. They say the second taper can be a bit harder because of your brain already being exposed to the meds If you do some research online about Remeron is says that the lower doses are actually more sedating than a higher dose. Anyway, good luck to everyone who is on the journey of getting off medications that no longer serve them.

That is very interesting and helpful! My primary care doctor prescribed 15mg, but my psychiatrist (who I no longer see) had suggested 7.5, so I cut the pill in half. I'm glad to know it works at even lower levels if I need to do that. I am currently on 0.125mg of Klonopin down from 1-1/2mg 7 months ago. I don't think it is doing anything at this level but feel I need a bit more time to go to 0. I will be glad for that. And I desperately needed something for sleep so I hope this does the trick. I slept great last night and not at all the night before. I was prescribed Klonopin in 2012 for insomnia and night sweats. It was my bedtime friend for a long time but I did not realize the hold it had on my brain. I cheering everyone on as we taper off and allow our brains to heal!

Thank you for that information. I had read about the weight gain and will be mindful. I don't eat much as it is and exercise almost daily so I hope it won't be an issue. I do need to sleep!

I slept 10:30-7:30!!! I hope this continues. It was awesome. I took 7.5mg of Remeron at 8:30. Glad that it seems to be much safer than a benzo.

I too was on .5 mg Ativan and began relying on it for sleep. But I wanted to be off this benzo, so came up with Avery slow taper which worked for me. Sleep therapist recommended 7.5 mg Remeron and 1 mg melatonin. Sleep has become much better!
Both my doctor and sleep therapist are fine with my being on this long term, unlike Ativan.