RIP Chris Cornell

[Julio Riddols]

Clonazepam was what I ended up taking as needed for about a year back in 09. Was able to stop taking it without much in the way of side effects. I was taking that along with Sertraline. I agree with the assessment that it helps anxious people sleep, because I slept like I had never slept before during that time. Nowadays I can sleep decently, but I rarely get a solid 6 hours or more in a row. Usually its 3 or 4 hours here, 3 or 4 hours there, often less, sometimes more. Thankfully my anxiety is essentially nonexistent since I stopped smoking that sticky green stuff. I miss it, but I wouldn't trade my sanity for a bowl every night. I don't think my body handles it right because it aggravates mild digestive issues and makes things get way out of whack in my gut. I've become a firm believer that mind and gut work in tandem to keep one sane.. Gotta balance that bad bacteria out.

I took Ambien one time.. And damn I had the most insane dream I have ever had, to the point where I had the only sleepwalking episode of my life.. Well, it wasn't really sleep walking.. It was more like sleep slamming my head into the wall next to the bed because in my dream I was trying to escape a swarm of bees. I woke up after two or three good shots as I tried to scramble over this log in front of me (in my dream) and I decided I better try and find another way to sleep after that.

Tried valerian root recently.. That was a more pleasant experience, but the after effects of waking up and still feeling completely exhausted weren't worth it for me. I slept about 8 hours and woke up as sluggish as I could be. Fought through it and made it through the day fine, but won't likely turn to that stuff again until I have a full day to devote to just catching up on sleep.

My current go to is benadryl. I take one allergy pill and sleep like a baby. If I get way behind and need to "bank" sleep, I'll do that.

[RainMaker]

I've had some decent luck with extremely low doses of Melatonin. Doctor told me that most places that sell the supplement sell in doses that are too high and can almost have the opposite effect. He recommended 0.3 MG (which is hard to find) and it works well. Take like an hour or two before bed and sleep well (albeit with crazy dreams).

Doctor hasn't prescribed Ambien at all. Recently had to wear one of those watches that tracks sleep and I go in for a sleep study in a couple weeks. We'll see how that goes. We should make a sleep thread.

[thesloppy]

Hearing everybody's sleep stories just make me jealous, cuz I've been suffering with chronic insomnia seemingly forever. I've taken every hormone, herb, and amino acid there is. I take 2 Ambien & 3 Trazodone every night, and maybe it'll take me one hour to fall asleep instead of two. I think I'm just going to invest in one of those hydraulic boltguns they use to kill cows and set it up next to my bed.

[Julio Riddols]

I think that sleep thread idea would be prudent, haha.

I was going to do a sleep study around the time I was having my anxiety issues too, ended up losing about 10 pounds though, and that seemed to clear up a lot of my apparent issues. I tend to snore a lot once I hit 190 or so and that seemed to have a big effect on the quality of my sleep. I'm hanging out at about 175 now and the little sleep I do get seems to be enough. Never have been a good sleeper. I might try and find some of that low dose melatonin though, as I have considered it in the past. Hopefully my dreams don't go back to being violently vivid like the bee dream was. Usually my dreams are heroic ones where I save someone from some impending calamity. I would be fine with having those every night. They're kind of empowering.

[Julio Riddols]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

Hearing everybody's sleep stories just make me jealous, cuz I've been suffering with chronic insomnia seemingly forever. I've taken every hormone, herb, and amino acid there is. I take 2 Ambien & 3 Trazodone every night, and maybe it'll take me one hour to fall asleep instead of two. I think I'm just going to invest in one of those hydraulic boltguns they use to kill cows and set it up next to my bed.

I've had bouts of insomnia, but never chronic I guess. I'll sometimes go for a week only getting a few hours a day total, but eventually I am able to balance that back out with a solid week of sleeping every minute I possibly can. It sucks though because it does take away from quality of life. I can only imagine the pain in the ass chronic insomnia would be like.

[Julio Riddols]

The Sleep Thread - Front Office Football Central

Maybe we can get Ben to move some of this to that thread.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by Julio Riddols

Thankfully my anxiety is essentially nonexistent since I stopped smoking that sticky green stuff. I miss it, but I wouldn't trade my sanity for a bowl every night.

The funny thing is I quit when I was 20 for the same reason and didn't touch the stuff for 34 years, until I got my Medical MJ card a year. I had gotten to the point where arthritis and injuries from a lifetime of sports/being active was starting to interfere with my lifestyle and sleep at times.

I had a couple of moments of very mild paranoia early on while I was searching for the right strains/doses, but since then it has been a god send for me. I have found three go to strains of indica. I take 2-3 hits off my vaporizer over the course of the evening after dinner and I am golden. Not taking any Nsaids or pain pills and my sleep has been so much better. I know this isn't for everybody, but it has helped me a lot.