[jen27nc]

Hi all Ive been taking lunesta pretty much every night for probably about the last month. I normally a half of a 2mg pill. Problem is I cant fall asleep without it. I am trying to think of what I can substitue for it to get some sleep. I have taken benadryl but that usually takes awhile to work and gives me grogginess and frequent urination, so I dont like it much.. I have some muscle relaxants but Im not sure if that would really help. I just need to stop taking this lunesta soon.. If anyone has any suggestions, I would appreciate it. Thanks!

[jen27nc]

Re

[dddan_da_man]

Nice, finally someone with the same damn problem, but mine is a little worse than yours, I have been on this for about 3 months, I was even supposed to have a prescrption this long but due to a screw up at the pharmacy I keep getting it. I absoluty have to take this in order to sleep. Not just take but chew it up first, sometimes two. I have the strongest **** lunesta makes too. I tryed to get stronger and they said it wasnt made. I think the pill it self works well but I got it to cure insomnia not make me need pills to sleep every night of my life. Lunesta f's me up pretty bad. After chewing one or two you start hallucinating and can't remember much the next day. It sucks, I would like to be back to normal now.

YAY!.

[Insomniac]

ACK! It says all over the place not to crush or chew Lunesta. It screws up the delivery system of the medication. Doesn't it make your mouth all numb too?

I'm in the same boat as both of you. I have to take SOMETHING every night to go to sleep. I rotate what I take so that I don't build up a tolerance to any one thing, and can try to stay on a low dose. I find that Soma, valium, xanax, klonopin all work for me. Lunesta gives me the bedspins, and Ambien gives me a whopping 2 hours of sleep. I can't fall asleep, nor stay asleep without being chemically helped. But I'm not concerned about it. I take nothing else, and only take something at night, before bed. Yeah, you could probably say I'm addicted, but I don't abuse it. Some people need to take blood pressure meds, others need cholesterol meds. I need sleep meds. There are worse things in life, IMHO. Or I'm just rationalizing it. Anyway, try rotating. The lowest dose still does the trick for me, and I've been doing this for 8 or 9 years.

[Casey55]

jen,

>>>Problem is I cant fall asleep without it.>>> Isn't that why you are taking it?

I am confused. Isn't the reason you started taking the medicine because you couldn't sleep? The med helps you sleep, right? You don't sleep if you don't take it, right? If so, what is your question?

[Greeneyes]

Try melatonin-time release, our body produces melatonin. You can get it at any health store.

quote:Originally posted by jen27nc

Hi all Ive been taking lunesta pretty much every night for probably about the last month. I normally a half of a 2mg pill. Problem is I cant fall asleep without it. I am trying to think of what I can substitue for it to get some sleep. I have taken benadryl but that usually takes awhile to work and gives me grogginess and frequent urination, so I dont like it much.. I have some muscle relaxants but Im not sure if that would really help. I just need to stop taking this lunesta soon.. If anyone has any suggestions, I would appreciate it. Thanks!

Roberta

[Junkie781]

I'm taking Lunesta too. Been taking it for about 6 months. I try not to take it every night, but on the nights I don't take it, I really don't sleep well at all.

Before Lunesta was Ambien, but that didn't work at that great.

So, the way I see it, it's NON narcotic, so it ain't gonna make me use narcotics (I have a definite opiate problem, so I need to stay away from opiates) but I cannot sleep at all without the Lunesta so I take it, oh, 3 or 4 nights per week - good thing I have insurance!

I would have never even thought of crushing them. I don't want to get high from them, I just want to sleep.

I'll tell you one thing - I've had insomnia for YEARS. Lunesta allows me to get 4 or 5 hours of sleep a night so I have no plans to stop taking it, although I don't see myself taking it EVERY night...

If you want to stop taking it, I suggest Tylenol PM. Slowly cut down on the Lunesta and then try the Tylenol PM. OK, maybe that suggestion S U C K S, but it's all I could think of.......

[RobMunsters]

on reading this post all I can say to anyone reading this NEVER take Klonopin and Ambien or even have Ambien anywhere around you. As I did and luck me and still alive as I was taking the Ambien normal but when your on that stuff you have NO clue as to what is going on around you and well, that was me taking Klonopin and The next thing I know I've jumped out of our 2 story house and cracked my head wide open, broken ribs, arm and best of all my Kidneys both shut down I was in the hospital for 2 months.
I've had a lot of problems with sleep and abusing every pill under the sun. You could not pay me enough to ever take Klonopin again. As for the Ambien works great in the beging and then it's pointless. towards the end of my taking Ambien 2-3 pills would only help me sleep for 2-3 hours and I would have my other 2 pills right next to me to get the next 2 hours of sleep. I've had sleeping problems for 15 years straight. Take care to anyone reading this. Robert Munsters

[Junkie781]

I kind of (ab)used Lunesta a little to get me through the w/d recently.....I took them every night for 11 nights in a row, where previously, I only took them twice a week.....

So last night was my first night not taking Lunesta in 11 days and I did not sleep for one single moment all night

Tylenol PM did nothing [xx(]

Tonight is night 2 with only Tylenol PM....I'm dead tired, but there's no guarantee I'll sleep...yet....but I know it will get better....eventually

Ambien never really worked for me and I've never had Klonopin....

[bythegraceofgodneveragain]

I am having a real hard time sleeping to you have any thoughts or advice for me i have tried almost everything nothing is working

quote:Originally posted by Insomniac

ACK! It says all over the place not to crush or chew Lunesta. It screws up the delivery system of the medication. Doesn't it make your mouth all numb too?

I'm in the same boat as both of you. I have to take SOMETHING every night to go to sleep. I rotate what I take so that I don't build up a tolerance to any one thing, and can try to stay on a low dose. I find that Soma, valium, xanax, klonopin all work for me. Lunesta gives me the bedspins, and Ambien gives me a whopping 2 hours of sleep. I can't fall asleep, nor stay asleep without being chemically helped. But I'm not concerned about it. I take nothing else, and only take something at night, before bed. Yeah, you could probably say I'm addicted, but I don't abuse it. Some people need to take blood pressure meds, others need cholesterol meds. I need sleep meds. There are worse things in life, IMHO. Or I'm just rationalizing it. Anyway, try rotating. The lowest dose still does the trick for me, and I've been doing this for 8 or 9 years.

[Junkie781]

I didn't take any Lunesta all week this week. Got NO sleep for the first couple of nights, got a couple of hours the third night, got about 3 or 4 hours the 4th night and last night I probably slept a good, solid 5 hours - which is very, very good for me.

I'm going to stick to my plan to only take Lunesta once or twice per week and I think if I do that I'll avoid becoming dependant upon it to sleep.