*Please feel free to skip my essay** of a life story if you like, my questions are below.
I'm not a huge fan of pills unless they are usually necessary (although I will point out I do take adderall 20mg -- and yes with a prescription and no abuse).
I got pretty sick recently and I've been undergoing a lot of stress in my life for the past year. I know things happen, and its life and you just need to jump one hurdle at a time, and I was slowly but surely trying to jump the hurdles. What I wasn't aware of was how depressed I was getting. To be perfectly honest it just felt like a norm, and just a lack of motivation because I was in a rut. But getting so sick I think was pretty much the 'straw that broke the camels back'. I am in pain all the time, and I mean all the time. So it got hard to get any studying done, to enjoy things, to want to go out with friends and specially to get to sleep. I finally went to go see a doctor about it the being sick bit and he had more concerns about my diet and sleeping habits and social life as side effects of my 'rut'. Which I was pretty honest about, but obviously an answer like I keep myself awake for 3 days at a time so by the time I hit the bed I'm so tired that i can ignore the pain and just pass out. Than I sleep for 2 days and feel groggy.. (Yes yes I know, deliriously unhealthy, and sleeping more makes your more sleepy, so the grogginess made sense, but without the 2 day sleep it was similar because of sleep deficit for staying up for 3 days.. So I was just trying to do the best I could for my situation). By the way, 2 days in bed is killer on your back.. ugh!
Anyways he made me promise no more of these 5 day insane sleep cycles and strongly recommended a sleeping aid. I refused at first, but I couldn't exactly disagree with him about the cons of my situation, and he promised he wouldn't let it get to the addictive point and when the time came he would help me hopefully not require or be dependent on it. But until my life settled down a bit, and my treatment was done so I wouldn't have to deal with the pain anymore,
I need to deal with the things that actually are under my control to help me. So I'm on the 24 sleep cycle like a normal person again, changed my eating habits, 20 mins of yoga or 20 minute workouts a day. I need to get out of my rut. I need to not feel so alone and sad. And the erratic sleeping patterns had to stop. I didn't exactly mention the part about perhaps a small fear of sleeping due to consistent nightmares about failing at life and than waking up depressed thinking about the dreams of failing at life.. and then just laying in bed trying to sleep again in hopes that this life wasn't happening, and maybe better dreams to wake up to and feeling super unaccomplished because by the 3rd day of being awake, I'm hardly mentally awake or capable of doing anything, and sleeping for like 48 hrs, so obviously nothing gets accomplished then. Thats like missing pretty much half a week because you were in a coma or something and again cycling on the fact that you haven't accomplished anything..
I really wanted to give a back story for my situation so it can be understood why I'm on it, and what benefits I hope to obtain from it, and also that historically I have been become dependent on some drugs and my tolerance can increase fairly quickly. But I really need to get out of this depressive, rutty, crap state.
I googled for a while and tired to find these answers on various websites, but with no luck, so who better to ask than people with experience. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
- How long before bed do you generally take the Zolpiclone
- Do you eat, or not when you take it, before or after, and does it effect the drug usage at all? (Any cramps, abdominal pain, constipation etc?)
- I have the bladder the size of a pea.. so I *try not to drink anything for at least an hr or so before bed, but I also get ridiculously dehydrated when I'm sleeping, so I'm sipping (I was trying to make it sound nice, I actually just chug..) on water during my sleep. Should I probably stop that or suffer the excessive dry mouth?
- Has Zopiclone had any effects on your dreams? Do you have more dreams, vivid dreams, nightmares, or dreamless? As I mentioned I've been having a lot of nightmares as of late. I was on Chantix last year and one the side effects of more vivid dreams/nightmares. Honest to God they were terrifying, and felt so real. I pretty much spent 3 months scared sh*tless there was a man under my bed.. I really wanted to quit smoking so I trotted onward, while calling friends at night to come check my room for the scary man. I'd just like to know before hand if I should be expecting this again at all. A warning would really be nice..
- How long before it kicks in for you
- Do you generally feel well rested afterwards
- I was asked to cut down/try and quit the caffeine. I cut down immensely, but I'm a sucker for it while I'm studying, so when you do think would the best time to have my last cup? (its not excessively strong, just mediumish..)
- How do you deal with that god-awful taste in the mouth?
- Was it hard to stop? Did you feel like you became dependent at all?
- Anything else you would recommend for a newbie?
I've got a 2 week prescription for 7.5 mg pills, that are to be broken in half. So far I've taken it 2 nights a row, the first day I spent 2 hrs brushing my teeth, eating various things to get rid of the taste before I gave up hope and figured I'd just be stuck with it. (I was also watching a movie while binge eating for the taste, I felt a lot more relaxed and the movie also seemed a lot funnier. Kinda felt like a very mild cannibus high.. is that normal?) I didn't dream for either of the nights, and I usually take it about an hr before I plan on sleeping. And so far I pretty much wake up 8 hrs later on the dot, and to be honest its been the best sleep I've had in a year. I didn't even know my sleep was as awful as it was (even prior to my sickness).. and I didn't feel groggy in the least and really quite refreshed.
Again, I'd really like this to work, and for me not to be on it long term. So I'd like for the time-being that I'm taking it, it be optimal and appropriately, as well as efficiently utilized. So the advice would be greatly appreciated.
Hope you all have a wonderful day.. and of course a fabulous night =]