Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Anyone else here suffer with Insomnia? Remedy idea's?

One of the classic side effects of PKD (Polycystic Kidney disease)is insomnia. Mine is getting pretty bad. The doc gave me a prescription for Ambien, but I am not to use it more then 3x per week, so I only get 12 pills a month. I just took one for the second night in a row which I HATE to do and I do NOT like the effects of Ambien but am at a loss for other remedies.

To add sleepiness all day to my PKD caused joint and muscle pain makes me a pretty worthless hunk all day long and I am not wanting to give in to a life of a sedentary zombie like existence.

anyone else out in campfire land dealing with chronic sleeplessness? Have some remedies that help you?

Thanks in advance.

On the plus side, my post count is going through the ROOF, and quickly! Watch out Oracle, here comes Safariman - right at ya <G>

Might try melatonin. It is a chemical naturally produced by the body to help you stay asleep. you can find it in the pharmacy areas by vitamins and such. I use it when I am working grave yards to help me sleep during the day. I will only use it every other day though as I start to feel a little weird if taken every day.

I have treid that some, and it DOES seem to help a little. Thnaks. I am away from home at the Cancer Treatment Center in Ill again and we travelled too light, did not brig that along. Wont make that mistake again and might buy some more of it at the hospital pharmacy tomorrow.

Computer screen is taking on a yellowish hue and starting to look a little wavy as well. This tells me that the AMbien is kicking in and kicking my butt. HAve to force the fingers to move now and concentrate more. Night night time..... But more ideas and insights would be appreciated if you all hacve some. Benedryl is like candy to me know, lost its effectiveness.

I run if I can't sleep, if that doesn't work I hit the weights.

Not much help, sorry, sir.

Ambien is pure poison and should be outlawed! And anyone who believes it's "non habit forming", I have a bridge I'd like to sell you! I guarantee you'll see class-action lawsuits in the not so distant future!

When I was younger a had a lot of trouble with Insomnia it was always when I was sleeping with a Redhead!

Ambian is poison like mentiond above, ive seen first hand what it dose to some people. I second the melotonin idea i have to take it to sleep and it works. If the 3mg dont work you can get it in also 5&10 mg. it just takes it about a hour to work with me and ive gotta be in the bed when i take it or it wont work.

safariman,

Please accept my most sincere empathy. I am an orthopedic nightmare, having had seven surgeries and scheduled for two more, one of which is serious. So I know not sleeping.

Sleeping meds do help, but they cause me to be tired when I awake. So I have resigned myself to sleeping when I can. But I will take then when I go a prolonged period of time without sufficient sleep.

Even though I am in varying degrees of pain every single day, I refuse to submit to it. Here's what I do that might help you. I try to do some sort of physical activity every day. Not only is it physically beneficial, it also prevents me from lapsing into depression. So you might want to consider setting a goal such as walking to a nearby store or meeting friends for a game of chess. Any reason that gets me out of my home and doing something helps. It might help you as well.

I do not like pain meds. So when I anticipate severe pain I will drink a couple good belts of whiskey. I told my orthopedic surgeon that I do not do well with narcotic pain meds and use alcohol instead. He said that was fine as long it does not become habitual. It hasn't. I might hit the bottle a day a week. The rest of the time I take naproxen and moderate activity. Maybe it might work for you.

I wish I knew of a remedy that will work for you. Not sleeping is horrible. It has even worse consequences that only people in our predicaments understand.


My best to you,

R

Xanax

I tried Ambien for a short time. Nasty stuff. Melotonin is a much better choice but I don't believe any ingested sleep aid will return a person to the kind of sleep they had as a younger, more active person. Personal habits can play a big part for many people, such as daily exercise and fresh air such as walks well before bedtime, not eating before bed, not watching TV in bed, reading something relaxing and encouraging before bed. If apnia is suspect, a sleep center should be consulted. Of course, prayer can help as well.

Tylenol PM works for me, but I don't have insomnia.

I know all about insomnia. In fact, not too long ago, I posted about it here.

I found a decent solution, although I'd talk to your Doc about it as I have no clue what your condition is.

Juicing veggies. Yup. Heard that right. I went, on a hand shake deal with a co-worker, to a website called Join the Reboot .

Now, I didn't do it for my insomnia. We did it after seeing the movie and decided to give it a try. I don't use veggie juice exclusively anymore. Just one (huge) serving a day and healthy meals the rest of the day. But I did do the 10 day "reboot" program. The website asks for no money. They just give you some guidelines and recipes. I paid nothing except the cost of a juicer ($99) and the cost of the veggies themselves. For the 10 days, I spent about $15 a day on veggies. Now it's more like $5.

Here's what I noticed right away.

1. I was not hungry. Ever.
2. I actually like the taste (except celery, it overpowers everything else).
3. I had more energy than I had ever had before. Even back when I was in much better shape and young.
4. I stopped having heartburn issues and was able to get off my medication for that.
5. My allergies, which were all year round, are now just in extremely rare occasion and usually associated with very high pollen count days.

And here it is......
6. I slept better than ever before. More restful, less total hours. No sleepy feeling after waking. And, most importantly, I seem to have no problem falling asleep.

Now, I have been working graves for about 19 years. 4 on, 4 off. When I'm off, I switch back to a day schedule. This really messes with your system. It got to the point that it didn't matter when I was trying to sleep. It would take me a couple hours to fall asleep and most times I'd wake up several times after that. And even when I did sleep, it sucked. Didn't ever feel like I slept. After I started juicing, it's been a whole new world for me. I sleep about 5 to 6 hours tops and feel like I've slept for 10. 10 very restful hours at that.

Now, I don't know if your kidney thing can handle juicing. So that's why I say speak to yer doc about it. But I bet it would be good for you.

There are some down sides. Sometimes it can be pricey with the cost of produce. Shopping every other day for veggies (can't fit a weeks worth in the fridge along with all the normal food). Time consuming, especially in the beginning, with the actual juicing and clean up. And if you eat crappy food (fast food, greasy stuff) along with the juice, you could end up running for the toilet. Doesn't happen if you eat healthy with it.

Good luck. I know what it's like.

couple of Budweisers works for me Mark.

Lunesta is much better than ambian no lingering fog the next day wake up like normal

I seldom have difficulty sleeping, but on the occasions I've found TV, any program, going to church, does not matter the denomination can put me down in 5 minutes or less.
Jim

I will ask for some Lunesta to try. I already do quite a bit of excersizing, as much as I can stand with the joint pain that my disease causes. Been using Melatonin of late and I think it does help to some degree. Maybe I will try upping the dose of Malatonin.

I think the high doeses of Hydrocodone, Tramadol and sometimes Dilauted are part of the insomnia as well as they tend to wire me up, but I do try to quit those early in the day, after I get done what HAS to be done, to minimize that effect.

I have appointments with a NEurologist and a Rheumatologist comeing up in the next few days and am anxious to see what they
might have to say/offer. I Might even try the juicing. Thanks for the tips.

I have fibromyalgia and the depression effects that go along with it. Have tried about everything but nothing seems to work. Am lucky to get a couple of hours of sleep at night, if that. It sucks.

ambien works well for me. had a side effect once, then cut my dose in half (to .5 mg every night). no problems or side effects in last 3 years.