medication

[iterry]

Do any of you take sleeping pills or sedative to help with your CPAP? My doctor perscribed Trazadone for me. I find that if I take too much I have night terrors with the mask on. If I take too little my insomia returns. I'd love to get off the stuff but I'm afraid I'm stuck. Anybody have the same experience? I've only been on this for a month now since starting my APAP treatments.

Another problem I had is claustrophobia while wearing the mask. That seems to be gone now too. The Doc says the Trazadone would help with that. So all in all things are working okay even though I feel like a drug addict.

[Sparticus]

Do any of you take sleeping pills or sedative to help with your CPAP? My doctor perscribed Trazadone for me. I find that if I take too much I have night terrors with the mask on. If I take too little my insomia returns. I'd love to get off the stuff but I'm afraid I'm stuck. Anybody have the same experience? I've only been on this for a month now since starting my APAP treatments.

Another problem I had is claustrophobia while wearing the mask. That seems to be gone now too. The Doc says the Trazadone would help with that. So all in all things are working okay even though I feel like a drug addict.

I took drugs to start with but soon came off them when I got use to wearing my mask

[symmit]

Hi!

If you've only been on it a month and the anxiety and claustrophobia is gone you may want to speak to your doctor about spending a few weeks coming down off the drug.

Obviously we can't make any recommendations but something a little less chemical and more natural may help for the insomni.

Also, with the OSA under control, you'll build up a nice sleep pattern over a few weeks.

Has any investigation into your insomnia been made - do you think it may have been related to your sleep apnoea?

Personally I'd not want to be on the antidepressants for too long, been there done that - don't rush coming off them though, definitely speak to your doctor see if you can back off them slowly.

[iterry]

I don't know what the cause of the insomnia is. I just assumed that it's the sleep apnea. Thanks for the advice though. That helps quite a bit. I'll ask the doc when I see him next time.

I don't want to be on this stuff for too long either. Now that I'm in a pattern of sleeping I think it would be a good idea to talk about getting off the stuff.

[Grumpy]

Trazodone

I was on it for quite a while as an anti-depressant before I was diagnosed with OSA. Trazodone worked much better for me than some of the other anti-depressants I was prescribed which had a tendency to turn me into a bit of a cabbage.

Trazodone is supposed to help stop you worrying about things and so will aid sleep. My (authorised) experimentation showed that the best combination was 1 in a morning, 2 early evening and 1 just before bed.

You do need to come off it slowly though.

[iterry]

I was on it for quite a while as an anti-depressant before I was diagnosed with OSA. Trazodone worked much better for me than some of the other anti-depressants I was prescribed which had a tendency to turn me into a bit of a cabbage.

Trazodone is supposed to help stop you worrying about things and so will aid sleep. My (authorised) experimentation showed that the best combination was 1 in a morning, 2 early evening and 1 just before bed.

You do need to come off it slowly though.

How slowly? I'd like to stop taking this medication if possible. I take just one pill at night. My doc said go to 1/2 for 3 or 4 days then stop. I suspect that it'll take more time. I'm going to try to go to 3/4 in the evening until I feel good then cut down by 1/4 until I can stop. I don't like taking medications if I don't need them. I needed it for the claustrophobia at first but that is gone now. IT

[Sparticus]

Stop!

Quite easy just stop taking them? Change ya routine a bit nice hot drink before bed maybe a nice bath or shower and even partake in a wee dram and then off to noddy land if it works dont take them again but watch the wee drams

[Fredxx]

The usual advice for these type of drugs is to stop taking them one pill at a time, so if you are on 4 a day, go down to 3 for a couple of days, then 2 for a couple more, then 1.

If you are only on one you are almost certainly on a very low dose, so just cutting it out completely shouldn't be a problem, but the advice of the GP is the key.