I suffer from chronic insomnia and was just prescribed 100mg by the Nurse Practitioner at my doctor's office. As I work with law enforcement, I wanted to research possible side effects and to my surprise, I haven't found anyone in a similar situation. I have seen several accounts from people who say this actually it causes insomnia! At this point, I am totally confused and my doctor is still on vacation. Has anyone else been prescribed Tramadol to help you sleep? Thanks in advance.
Hi. Iknow this is not the answer you are looking for but if possible try & avoid sleep aids as they are rarely the answer. I do understand that we all need a helping hand with our sleep but they can't be taken long term. ALL sleep aids have the ability to cause insomnia if taken long enough. It's called rebound insomnia. This is advice only. Ditch the tramadol & try to get to the root cause of your insomnia. The results will be much better for you in the long term. Good luck.
Tramadol does not help me sleep and, in fact, I feel worse the next day. I take Ambien when I have not slept well for a few days and 1/2 pill as needed. It is easy to say sleeping pills do not work but you have a job that requires a rested mind and body. Good luck.
I'm sorry, I'm going to confuse you even more. I'm wondering whether you might be in the US? If so, apologies for sending this very European reaction.
As a former nurse - and indeed a concerned citizen - I'm horrified to hear you were given Tramadol as a sleep aid. For one thing, you're quite right - one of the side-effects can be insomnia!
What concerns me far more is the potential for addiction. Please google this medication. Like Michelle, who's also posted here, I discourage too much googling when people are looking for symptoms to adopt, but I can't encourage it enough when it comes to informing oneself fully about medication.
Tramadol is a strong analgesic (pain-killer) of the opioid class. It was first introduced in the USA as an alternative to slightly stronger opioids like Percocet, Vin cod ine etc. (Reformatted to avoid moderation.) These medications were widely prescribed for many years as being non-addictive, and if you've ever read a news site or watched TV you'll probably know how that one ended! Tramadol is the next generation, aimed at avoiding these risks. Although it's weaker than its more addictive cousins, it's still an opioid and stories of addiction in vulnerable people are already starting to appear on reputable medical sites.
I realise that there are people who've taken this group of medications for years and not become addicted, and that they can be invaluable for severe intractable pain. However, none of us really knows what our own hidden potential for addiction might be until we test it to the limit. This is a risk worth taking if you're suffering from a painful chronic condition, but I'm frankly shocked that a registered nurse practitioner could even contemplate prescribing it for insomnia - though I suspect he/she would have done that under standing instructions from the doctor. (Which is why I suspect you're in the US, but please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.)
Please, please do your own research. Good old Wiki isn't a bad place to start, but there are lots of accessible medical sites that carry patient-oriented info. I'd suggest web md, drugs dot com, med line, health line, r x list consumer for starters. None of the foregoing are in url form as this post would get taken down if they were, but you should be able to work out what it is you're looking for.
I am an RPN andI have no idea why u would be perscribed Tramadol....i can tell you that a pharmacist here in Canada will print you off a copy of all the info on your medication and with a new med they will send you to another counter for councel from a pharmacist. To me...a pharmacist is more knowledgeable than a doctor. If a doctor "promotes" I guess is the word I'm looking for and it's like a product med reps bring in and if a doctor perscribes the med it's a 2 win...cause the med company gains as well as the prescribing doctor. Utilize that great knowledge of a pharmacist. This is the way it is in Canada so I don't know where you are from. That med is habit forming and I would not personally take that. If you have an addictive personality...u are gonna be in trouble cause 1 will lead to 2 and so on and so fourth cause you will become immune and go for more and more...this is just my personal opinion....
Hylandgal,
What do you think of Trazodone? I was prescribed 50mg to help me sleep and I took 1/4 of a pill and felt heavily drugged. Didn't help with sleep at all. Didn't feel good next day. Also considering 5-HTP.
Tom
ambien doesn't work for everyone. i tried the generic brand and it did absolutely nothing.
tom-do you have chronic insomnia or just occasional sleeplessness? do you know he cause of your insomnia?
has anyone ever tried gabapentin for insomnia?
It's crazy any type of nurse or doctor would prescribe/recommend Tramadol as a sleep aid. Firstly it's for pain & secondly it's most likely a poor sleep aid. It wasn't made for use as a sleep aid. In fact I wouldn't recommend any type of tablet for sleep. None are as good as natural sleep - how can they be? Problem is once you start taking pills (especially addictive ones like Z drugs or Benzos) to sleep you can end up on a slippery slope of addiction. Then if you try to stop you can have horrendous withdrawal - not good. The best thing I've done is not fearing insomnia... doing this my insomnia gradually got better. My sleep isn't perfect like it used to be but I'm in a better place than I was a couple of years ago.
I wouldn't recommend taking Gabapentin as they are addictive. Whilst they do work for sleep when you try to come off you can get withdrawals if you've taken them for a while.
Tasha,
I have chronic insomnia. I can get to sleep easily, but can only stay asleep for about an hour to hour and a half. Once in a while I can last two hours. For several years I have been having prostate issues, and was up frequently at night. However, I recently had a TURP operation and can now empty my bladder, but, I am still getting up 6-10x per night. So, maybe the short sleep segments are just a very bad habit. I haven't slept all night for years. I never have a good night's sleep. I have been taking a little melatonin and some Tylenon PM, and they help a bit. I don't want to drug myself into a stupor.
Tom
Hi Gareth,
We've crossed paths several times on these boards, going back to the time a few years back when you were an absolute wreck with all kinds of irrational fears about insomnia. (Apologies if that was another Gareth, but I think it was you.)
I'm delighted to see you've overcome your fears and are doing so well now. As you rightly state in your post: "The best thing I've done is not fearing insomnia..." That sums it up neatly. I had poor-to-middling sleep for 40 years, but it never harmed me as far as I'm aware. At age 75, my BP is still more or less normal, I have exemplary cholesterol levels and my GP always says my liver and kidney functions are better than his! I don't think I have any signs of dementia either, apart from the occasional lapse which is normal for someone of my age. In any case, I've always been the absent-minded type.
People get hold of all kinds of ideas about how much sleep they're supposed to be getting - some of them even planted by Government bodies (e.g. recently by the Minister of Health for the UK!) In reality, we're all different, and most of us manage to work around our less-than-ideal sleep patterns.
I hope you'll keep posting on these boards from time to time. It's always good to hear success stories.
tom-i tried trazadone but only for like 2 days. it didn't really do anything for me either. temazepam worked good for 1 month and then it stopped working. melantonin doesn't do anything for me. what brand of melantonin do you take? also-have you ever tried doxepin or mirtazapine-they are sedating anti-depressants used off-label for insomnia. i'm venturing towards trying one of these or either gabapentin.
thank you gareth. gabapentin is usually the go to for extreme cases of insomnia though.
gareth-but how many hours are you sleeping at night?
Tasha,
The melatonin is from Nature's Bounty. Just sent for 5-HTP and GABA. Good reports about these supplements but don't know if they will work for me.
Tom
Hey there Tom86211 I have taken Trazadone for sleep and yes I too felt dragged right out. Then tried me on seroquel and I was even MORE dragged out. I haven't done much research on the 5-HTP. I have been looking into CBD oil for sleep and anxiety. I'm not sure if you are in Ontario. There is an Indian reserve about 50 minutes from where I live and they call it "The Medicine Wheel" and I heard they are super knowledgeable. But I will look up the 5-HTP. I love this blog cause alot of people can give information that can be so helpful and informative.
Hi Tasha,
As a former nurse, I'm a bit concerned about all these highly addictive sleeping meds, tranquillisers etc. you're taking - or at least considering. As Gareth says, they're seldom the answer. The problem is that every one of them has the potential to develop tolerance. Tolerance is when your body requires an ever-increasing dose of the drug to have the same effect, and the drug eventually stops working altogether. I'm also concerned about where you're getting them from. I realise that US doctors are far readier to prescribe drugs of this kind than they are in the rest of the world, but it still sounds to me as if you might be getting them on-line, or even on the street. That's potentially even more dangerous, as you don't really know what you're getting.
In most parts of the world, sleeping drugs are only prescribed long-term for the elderly or those in intractable pain. In other cases, it's usual only to prescribe them in very small quantities, with the instruction to take them occasionally to secure a decent night's sleep once a week or so. Forgive me if you fall into one of the two categories above, but I'm concerned that if you're young you're setting yourself up for a lifetime of dependence on sleeping pills - all of which will eventually stop working.
hi lily- i'm actually not taking these medications i was just offering up suggestions. they are meds that i'm researching in my search for some relief. the drugs i've named are simply anti-depressants. (except temazepam and gabapentin).
people with chronic insomnia need more than just an 'occasional' sleep aide.