sleeping pill question - Sleep Disorders Message Board

RCquit · 04-25-2007, 07:29 PM

I take restoril every now and then and I seem to wake up in the middle of the night with the hiccups when I take them, I have looked all over the internet to see if anyone else has this happen, I talked to my pharmacist and she said she has never heard of that. It is not listed as a side effect. I have no other side effects from them except these darn 3 am hiccup sessions. Has anyone heard of this before?

ILiveForMyKIDS · 04-30-2007, 11:24 PM

No but makes sense. Restoril is a muscle relaxer with a shorthalf life. Perhaps the medicine is wearing off and cause the hiccups. You could try a higher dose, or a different medication. I know that when someone has the hicupps they have to use muscle relaxers or sedatives so even though it isn't a listed side effect, I do believe that to be the cause.

J

mkgbrook · 05-01-2007, 08:08 AM

Hiccups are a spasm of the diaphram due to oxygen deprived blood in the area.. the hiccup or gasp for breath is your bodies need to reoxygenate the blood. I hiccup every hour on the hour.. funny actually because of a heart defect that is annoying but not life threatening in anyway. The cardiologist carefully explain this too me and did an blood oxygenation study showing how my oxygen rate would fall steadily until the hiccups were incited. It was neat to watch.

Back to your case: Your sleeping pill may be depressing your breathing in your sleep and causing it to enter an oxygen deprived sleep state. WHY? Well you need to ask your self something..

Why do you take the sleeping pill? That is the question of the day you should be asking yourself.. Go to a sleep MD. The sleeping pill may be showing you that you have hyponea a sleep apnea that results from too shallow breathing at night...snoring is not necessary. It and obstructive sleep apnea are aggravated by sleeping pills. You should consult an ABSM certified sleep specialist.. pulmonologist/cardiologist ABSM should do well by you. They would also be best suited for prescribing a sleeping pill if one is needed.

Respectfully Yours,
MG

mewhoknew · 07-19-2007, 01:54 PM

I have also started to notice this problem at night... only when they upped my dosage to 30 mg at nights.... Why is this? Should I be concerned? Other than it is annoying.