No sleep or sleep meds

Oh, by the way, my research indicated that the psych meds that I was on you know you think the only affect the d2 dopamine receptor side in the brain that stops the over excitability I guess but they don’t tell you that it leads to Parkinson and when you stop taking it it screws with all your neural chemistry in your brain and even your gut a lot of your neurotransmitters like serotonin your guts you have nausea, vomiting, coughing, sneezing from the histamine and serotonin your gut being out of whack I go on and on but yeah these medicines should not be given to anybody on the planet, ever under any circumstances never antipsychotics ever ever ever

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This rabbit hole goes deep I could post stuff all day and not even scratch service of what you can do naturally, and or the deep level of the FDA corruption, they have been convicted over and over and over again over the last 20yrs and big Pharma controlling the government with their big billion dollar lobbyist, and the doctors themselves are on the take of the pharmaceutical industry, even my own doctors

…. It’s time for the American people to say enough is enough!

You should do some research on drugs available to treat insomnia. Both controlled actual sleep meds and those not but can be prescribed for sleep. Get some idea of what you think is best for you. Print them out and take them to your Dr to discuss them. You have every right to help make informed decisions about what medication you take. I used to all the time until I got sick of buying printers that quit working. I'm going to start again because I'm sick of taking stuff that makes things work. It's easier to explain if you have the information on paper with you.

I was prescribed a small dosage of seroquel and sertraline that helped to get me back on schedule. After 4 months I got on 2.5 mg of Ambien. I also take magnesium. I just stopped Ambien after a year and using 2.5 mg of melatonin with 20 mg of amitriptyline for esophageal spasms at night.

Sleep Aid helps me sleep, sometimes I use it when desperate (in addition to 10 mg melatonin and "natural" remedies like passion fruit, valerian) but then often feel drugged the whole day. And I take only half a tablet. The couple of times I took a whole tablet I could hardly function, felt like a zombie.
I refuse to go back to heavy sleeping pills. I was on them for decades till my wife read about the side effects (long-term) of the tablets I was taking. So I stopped and try milder stuff. My sleep is not great - I often wake up several times a night - usually end up with 6-7 hours total. But interestingly, since I stopped the sleeping tablets I have started to dream again (first time in decades!), which my MD says is great. I feel that the sleeping tablets turned off part of my brain, which is now coming back to life.
Also, I've learned that how I spend my days and evenings impacts my sleep (duh). If I exercise during the day (not late), spend some time meditating (I use a marvelous app called Headspace), stop eating early (7 pm), avoid stressful events (not always easy), stay away from screens in the evening, go to bed early (10-10.30) -- I usually have a better, calmer night. But sometimes things are out of my control - like now, when we're in the middle of a war, and it's hard to not be affected by the news. Last night was particularly brutal. Tonight will be better.

Thanks Gramps, I really like your analysis of sleep quality w/ or w/o meds. I too wish to remain off them, but then I go so many night w/o sleep I get desperate and start to think about taking them again, hence my question in the post. I have now gone 3 months without sleep meds, except naturals like you mentioned or THC/CDN gummies and I get maybe 2 hours per night. That leaves me with fatigue ( unable to exercise), aches and pains, headache, poor judgement, etc. Still trying to decide which foot to shoot myself in. Meds or no sleep?

Hi @cherawgirl , I really feel for you. Sometimes there is no alternative to medication. But if someone had told me decades ago about the long term effects I would have tried to wean myself off them long ago. So now I'm paying the price of long-term use and I try to use sleep aid as little as possible. I'm generally tired during the day and a good day for me is one in which I can function at a reasonable level. For a while I used CPAP but when that didn't help enough a sleep "specialist" prescribed a sedative and when that wasn't enough he simply increased the dosage. When my GP heard that I had been using the tablets for a long time she was shocked and weaned me off them, which was hell. I don't want to ever go through that process again. Right now I'm trying meditation everyday 10 to 20 minutes and hoping that that will make my sleep calmer.
Wishing you a calm, restful night!