Trazodone-please help - Sleep Disorders Message Board

snooter76 · 10-23-2003, 04:36 PM

Is there anyone out there that sleeps 8 hours or less during the night and wakes up feeling like they haven't sleep at all. This is the way I have been feeling the last several weeks. I had a Dr. apt today (10-23-03)and I told her what had been going on. So she wrote me a prescribition for Trazodone 50mgs and told me to take it a half an hour before I go to bed. But when I got home and looked up the info all I could find was information telling me this medication was for depression, not for sleeplessness. And I am already on medication for depression. So what I want to know is, Is there anyone out there taking this medication for sleeplessness and does it work? Also am I going to have to take this medication every night in order to sleep or is my sleeping pattern going to go back to normal?

danmc15 · 10-24-2003, 05:00 AM

I have been taking Trazadone for insomnia for about 6 months. (I also have the same symptoms as you, i.e. "sleeping" for 8 hours and waking up feeling terrible.)
Trazadone is one of the earliest anti-depressants, called tricyclics, and other drugs in this class include Elavil and Remeron, which are also prescribed for sleep. These drugs have largely been replaced by the SSRI's (Prozac, Paxil, Celexa, Zoloft, etc.) in treating depression, so they are usually only prescribed for depression as a last resort after the SSRIs have failed.
But, because these tricyclics have such strong sedating qualities, they are now used to treat insomnia. They are not addicting and have very low side-effect profiles, which could include dizziness or a hang-over effect the next morning.
My own experience is that I started taking 25mg about 1-2 hours before bedtime and, miracle of miracles, for the first time in my life (I'm 38) I fell asleep quickly and had a full night of restful sleep, waking up a full hour before my alarm and feeling great.
Now the bad news, in my case I found that after taking 25mg for a few weeks the effects started to wear off, so I'm still experimenting with dosages and may even try either Elavil or Remeron for comparison.
Keep in mind, with this post and others, these are only my experiences and you may have a completely different reaction, but in my research I have found that Trazadone seems to be one of the most effective long-term insomnia treatments.

danmc15 · 10-24-2003, 05:08 AM

Also, some other comments:

Did your doctor recommend a sleep study? The symptoms that you described could be caused by sleep apnea, which Trazadone will not alleviate. If you sleep is disturbed as bad as you describe, you should have a sleep study done to rule out apnea as the cause. Then the tricyclics may help.

As far as your normal sleep pattern re-emerging, that seems to be the big question...Do I have to take meds the rest of my life? I am not qualified to answer this, and only time will tell, but Trazadone is not something that you would generally have to worry about for long term physicial effects (as opposed to using drugs such as benzodiazapems or hypnotics as sleep aids.)

snooter76 · 10-24-2003, 02:54 PM

My dr told me to take the Trazodone a half hour before I go to bed. Well last night I took it and went right to bed, but I wasn't thinking. I woke up this morning just like I hadn't had 8 hours of sleep. I guess I should have taken it a half hour before I went to bed and maybe it would have worked. I am going to try taking it a half hour before bed tonight and see what happens. Does anyone know if Trazodone is addictive?

cloverberry · 10-27-2003, 02:01 PM

I've been taking Trazodone for around 6 years now and I'm very happy with it.