Trazodone for Insomnia

Yann04

Yann04

Senior Member (Voting Rights)
Trazodone has often been prescribed of label at a low dose for insomnia. It's primary use however is an SSRI antidepressant.

Trazodone is the most effective insomnia treatment I've ever tried. It really helped my sleep for a couple months until I had to discontinue it a year and a half ago due to abnormal serotonin levels. (I was taking it every night).

I wonder if anyone knows if it's possible/okay to take the drug very irregularly? Or is it the kind of drug you have to take every night?
 
I've taken trazodone every night for 20 years for FM fragmented sleep problems (sucessfully, mostly).

I use the 50mg dose.

Many drugs have a more pronounced effect when you don't use them regularly.
 
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Yann04 said:
Trazodone has often been prescribed of label at a low dose for insomnia. It's primary use however is an SSRI antidepressant.

Trazodone is the most effective insomnia treatment I've ever tried. It really helped my sleep for a couple months until I had to discontinue it a year and a half ago due to abnormal serotonin levels. (I was taking it every night).

I wonder if anyone knows if it's possible/okay to take the drug very irregularly? Or is it the kind of drug you have to take every night?
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Hi, maybe if you research Mirtazapine and speak with your Dr. It is commonly prescribed in Australia for Me/cfs sleep problems. It has some serotinergic blocking effects and antihistamine effects. Not sure if is available in Switzerland. It has to be used in low doses as in high doses it becomes a SNRI antidepressant.
 
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I took 25mg of trazodone for 2 years and it worked great for me. Sometimes I took 50mg. I got 5 1/2 hours of restorative sleep. I took the name brand Desyrel which was discontinued years ago. It worked much better than the generic trazodone. My doctor told that his patients told him the same thing.

The pharmacist told me that they use low dose trazodone for insomnia with no problems. She said you can discontinue w/o side effects and this was the case for me.
 
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I wish my natural sleep would return! I am suffering severe insomnia which is exacerbating exhaustion and fatigue and maybe the comorbidities I have.

I'm not actually sure that I have a propensity for natural sleep. By the time I was 3, my mother had me see a paediatrician and requested sleep medication. She said I had never slept one night until after I was 3. It was refused obviously and the advised treatment was a day nursery because he (the paediatrician) thought I was understimulated. This was in 1950 when some nurseries begun in the war still existed and I was very happy there, apart from the required daytime sleep. I can still remember the lines of canvas beds for an after lunch sleep, and being severely told off for writing in chalk on the canvas one day when I was bored during sleep time. Sleep was restored when I went to proper school at 5 and lasted through school and university. I slept completely reliably.

I have wondered if I could be bored now. I don't have enough energy to do or read much until bedtime when I seem to wake up however much sleep hygiene I practice.

I was going to write about drugs but will leave that until another day. I have reduced then stopped melatonin after reading the article about an association with long term use and heart failure. I would be interested to read if anyone else has this aversion to sleep. I know the association needs replicating.
 
Binkie4 said:
I wish my natural sleep would return! I am suffering severe insomnia which is exacerbating exhaustion and fatigue and maybe the comorbidities I have.

I was going to write about drugs but will leave that until another day.
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Interested to hear about that. I wonder what percentage of people on S4me take something to achieve sleep at all. Managing sleep and medications when sleep cannot be attained naturally is very challenging.
 
Yann04 said:
Trazodone has often been prescribed of label at a low dose for insomnia. It's primary use however is an SSRI antidepressant.

Trazodone is the most effective insomnia treatment I've ever tried. It really helped my sleep for a couple months until I had to discontinue it a year and a half ago due to abnormal serotonin levels. (I was taking it every night).

I wonder if anyone knows if it's possible/okay to take the drug very irregularly? Or is it the kind of drug you have to take every night?
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I take it irregularly.

I cut a 50mg tablet into quarters or even eights and take according to need. Once every 10 days or two weeks.

I prefer taking it irregularly. I used to take it every day then could not stop. I tapered off. It is habit forming/addictive if I take every day
 
rachel76 said:
I take it irregularly.

I cut a 50mg tablet into quarters or even eights and take according to need. Once every 10 days or two weeks.

I prefer taking it irregularly. I used to take it every day then could not stop. I tapered off. It is habit forming/addictive if I take every day
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Ah interesting, I do similar right now also ahah. It’s been a year since I posted what you replied too and as of now i take it somewhat irregularly as well. Most nights but not all, sometimes half dose sometimes full dose. Definitely works better that way :).
 
I have used it and it is helpful for sleep and cleaner than amitryp. Worked v quickly on me about 28 tyrs ago then my legs stiffened up so I gave it up. No longer have that problem. so not take on and off. Always wary of downregulating my immune system as LDN led to a reappearance of possible Lyme associated symptoms, so I don't take much. If you are not in the UK surmontil (trimipramine) is an atypical tricyclic which used to be available here and gives a clean sleep, promoting REM too. Sadly price hikes and lack of awareness of singular properties have led to disuse and unavailbility here (UK). Traz is probably next best thing imo.
 
Good to see it helps some people. I would also like to warn against this medication, since a friend of mine had the opposite reaction.

It felt like a very activating medication that left her unable to sleep at all. It also made her very sensitive to stimuli. Eventually it wore down fortunately.
 
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