Background: These are the medications I have been on for sleep (none have worked): Chloral Hydrate, Ambein, Lunesta, Sonata, most antihistamines (incl. Hydroxyzine), most benzo’s (incl. Nitrazepam, Xanax bars, Klonopin, etc.), Trazedone. My doctor ramped most of these up to their maximum doses before finding them ineffective for me.

NOTE: I also tried some other drugs (the street kind) which only made me high and not sleepy – including green crack (a special variant of MJ where I live – knocks most people out in a half hour – despite the name there is no ‘crack’ in it) – and alcohol, which only gave me a bleeding ulcer – note that MJ is legal in my state for medicinal use (for which I have a license)

I have co-occuring severe depression with psychosis so I’m also on 800mg Seroquel, and Mirtazepine (Remeron) 60mg, and some other SSRI’s/NERI’s (fluvoxamine, and ecitalopram). I’ve also been on Thorazine, Risperdal, and Zyprexa (none of which helped me sleep) – thorazine made me groggy, but not sleepy.

Any help on other options would be greatly appreciated.

BTW I have trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, and waking up early -I get about an hour to three hours in bed sleep at night and about 1-2 hours microsleep during the day. Also, I don’t drive (cause I start seeing and hearing things when I’ve been up for a while and I doze into microsleep sometimes).
EDIT: I’ve also used halcion (triazolam) with no effect – 1/2mg a night.

I was just wondering if you had tried a more ‘natural’ approach to correcting your insomnia as opposed to all the medications. I had a conditon a year ago that required me to take a lot of prescription meds. Some of these meds actually contributed to my lack of sleep. I was tired all day, couldn’t concentrate and this did not help the depression that I was suffering from due to the medical condition either. My doctor prescribed more medications for the insomnia and I became increasingly concerned about having to mix so many medications. So, I decided to try the natural methods and they did help me.

Good sleep hygiene and sleep habits:

You need to schedule a bed time and stick with it.
Turn off that television about an hour before bedtime. (That means no watching TV in the bedroom.)
Eliminate or greatly reduce your intake of caffeine.
Do not snack before bedtime.

Another thing that you may want to try is binaural beats (meditation).

This one worked really well for me, not only as a sleep tool, but also helped me to relax. Brainwave entrainment is a way of training your brain to settle into a different pattern. It can be done with audio or visual methods, but the one most commonly used for insomnia treatment is audio tones.

There are many online stores that offer these tracks and they can be downloaded following purchase. Some of them are more expensive than others. I purchased some inexpensive meditation audio tracks from this site as a test and they really did help. http://tinyurl.com/nj8zg5

I know just how miserable life can be, when you can’t get enough sleep. I do wish you luck and sweet dreams.
TC,
D’Ann