It's getting really bad and taking a toll on me physically (mentally I'm doing well, thankfully).
I drink so much caffeine to cope but I am guessing that's just messing me up more later.
I take melatonin but I don't think it's working anymore. Benadryl makes me depressed the next day for some reason? CBD doesn't really work. A hot shower doesn't help. I have a weighted blanket 🧩 and weighted eye mask.
I am thinking of doing CBT for insomnia (really strict rules around sleep hygiene) but am scared bc it does involve a bit of sleep deprivation while adjusting (no naps allowed). I haven't been exercising much lately but maybe that will help.
Does anyone have any advice? Or something that will help me fall asleep tonight? :/ 100dc for each real suggestion.
Edit: wtf
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I'll tell you this much: I have issues with insomnia as well, and I don't have many solutions as I haven't solved it myself yet. Here's some general info though, hope something helps.
Benadryl is a serotonin receptor antagonist, which might explain why it makes you depressed the next day.
Benadryl and Melatonin have a pretty steep tolerance curve where you'll need to take more and more of it the more often you use it. If you're gonna take Benadryl or Melatonin anyway, it's important to get in bed as soon as possible (within 20 mins), and to take as small of a dose as is effective (1mg or less for Melatonin, 25-50mg or less of Benadryl - higher doses can make you more awake)
CBD doesn't necessarily make you tired, you may need more THC in the mix for it to be effective in any form.
Caffeine antagonizes Adenosine which is essentially the chemical that makes you 'feel tired' - you shouldn't drink Caffeine within 6 hours of the time you want to sleep, but taking things like L-Theanine and even potentially THC:
may increase adenosine and make you feel tired despite the caffeine's influence.
Sleep hygiene is a good idea - you should essentially never do anything in your bed except sleep, especially not sitting on your phone, etc. Blue-light filters on your phone and any monitor might help as well.
Here's some other drugs that would make you drowsy too, I guess
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Do you think the dementia risk of remeron/mirtazapine is high or overhyped? I take 7.5 mg daily and never have trouble falling asleep, but if I don't take it I will stay up all night. I'm worried about the dementia risk but I'm also addicted to it because I'm scared what would happen to my sleep if I went off it.
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You should definitely consult a pharmacist if you're concerned, but in my understanding - mirtazapine is an antidepressant (atypical tetracyclic) that also has antihistaminergic properties. Most of the time, the dementia risk spoken about with sleep pills is related to drugs that inhibit choline, not histamine, and I haven't seen anything specifically about mirtazapine or the function of antidepressants in general that would imply they carry a higher dementia risk.
EDIT: Mirtazapine does actually inhibit choline, but has a comparatively small anticholinergic effect compared to something like Benadryl.
You will likely experience withdrawal symptoms if you discontinue mirtazapine, however, so if you decided to stop it, you'd ideally want to taper off of it gradually. It seems like mirtazapine has a uniquely uncomfortable withdrawal snydrome likely due to the histamine inhibition
hope this helps somewhat, but do your own research + talk to a pharmacist before coming to any conclusions obviously
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It's insanely powerful as a sleep aid and it also increases appetite a huge amount. The first week I was on it, I slept 16-20 hours a night.
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Yeah, I've tried it. It's actually got some pretty unique effects other than just the potent histamine antagonism, including an inverse-dose effect on sedation (lower doses are more sedating than higher) and pseudo-psychedelic effects at very high doses.
It definitely made me VERY hungry and I slept for a long time on it, too. I would always wake up in a puddle of sweat. Very interesting chemical.
https://psychonautwiki.org/wiki/Mirtazapine
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Got some L-theanine, thank you!
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The best way to use theanine is taking it soon after you take caffeine - should reduce 'caffeine jitters' and make you calmer. If you're gonna have a lot of caffeine during the day it's very useful. It's also a key component in green tea.
https://psychonautwiki.org/wiki/Theanine
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That's great and all, but I asked for my burger without cheese.
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