Lunesta

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flutterbee

Guest
Ah, Lunesta. Sleep. I was fantasizing about a decent night's sleep. So when my doctor recommended Lunesta, I was all for it. The Requip made my RLS symptoms worse and melatonin works sometimes, sometimes not but the nights I didn't take it were unbearable.

I was lulled by the butterfly in the commercial. This butterfly floating around just coaxing you to sleep. I mean, a butterfly is harmless right?

So, I take this tiny, innocent looking 2mg pill and imagined butterflies floating around my head.

It's a trick. There is no butterfly. When you swallow that little pill no butterflies come out to lull you to sleep. Instead, that pill releases a man carrying 2 things: a hammer and a bag of sand. The hammer is used, of course, to get you to sleep. Effective, right? Very. The sand is to partially bury you so stay there. So even once you come out of the hammer-induced coma like sleep, you can barely move.

Ugh. I think I'll stick to melatonin.
 

hearts and roses

Mind Reader
:crazy1:Heather - you're too funny! Man carrying sand and a hammer! Baahaaahaa~I know exactly what you mean!

I used to take Ambien and Lunesta (not together, :tongue:) and you know, I just don't enjoy feeling like I was slipped a rufy drug. And in the morning, I felt like I missed out on something. And eventually, I felt like I was forgetting things, which for me, is really bad since I already forget things.

I now take a tiny bit of Xanax is I can't sleep. Melatonin just doesn't cut it and Lunesta/Ambien are just too much, but Xanax is just right (for me).

Also, a calcium/magnesium supplement each day helps me!!
 
Please forgive me, I feel bad for you but your story had me laughing!

I can't even take a Tylenol PM. I wake up feeling drunk, and when I talk, it is like there is kitty litter in my mouth.

Oh wait. Not that I would know what it is like to have kitty litter in my mouth or anything.
 

mrscatinthehat

Seussical
I just don't sleep well. I have ativan. I would use it but by the time I realize I am not sleeping it is too late to get the amount of sleep I need. Not only that but after I took it one night husband gave me the phone so I could talk to easy child's dad. Guess what I don't know what I said. Nope not doing that any more. Sorry it didn't work the way you wanted. I do know that after a few times they do lesson up a bit (sometimes).

Hugs
Beth
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
LOL...the only thing Lunesta ever did for me was give me a metallic taste in my mouth. Icky. I love...LOVE...the regular ambien with sometimes a klonopin kicker if I dont get to sleep within an hour or two on ambien alone. As long as I get 8 hours...ok...sometimes 7 hours of straight sleep Im ok in the mornings. I can wake up in the night if I need to and I have never felt really drugged on ambien or klonopin. I cant speak for the CR version of ambien but you can get the old one cheaper now because its out in generic.
 

Lothlorien

Active Member
I use Ambien at times. It definitely helps me. I can't take the OTC stuff, because I'll fall asleep, but I wake up four hours later and I'm completely wired.

Thing is, now they have the generic version, which does not work as quickly and if I've slept a little and then try to take one, It doesn't work for a good hour or so, which leaves me a bit groggy in the morning.

The other thing is, a bomb could go off near the house and I wouldn't hear it. husband woke up a few weeks ago, because the kids were screaming when the power went off. husband said he heard the Medivac Chopper fly right over the house. I slept through all of it. I woke up quite chipper, too! So, if the kids are sick, I can't take it, because I would sleep right through if they had a problem.
 

TerryJ2

Well-Known Member
Wintersgrace, great description! I won't be trying out THAT one!

JoG, how does calcium and magnesium help with-sleep? I'd think that's a safe bet and would be more than willing to try it.
 

timer lady

Queen of Hearts
Heather,

I personally love those little butterflies; & I don't see any bad men around me when I float away to sleep with the butterflies. Of course, that could be the prednisone &/or methadone blocking any & all coherent thought - I'm probably being beat senseless every night!
:bloodshot::clubbing:



:stopglass::rofl:

Don't you just miss a good night's sleep? What I wouldn't give for a good 8 hours each night. It might be outright illegal. :scared:
 

everywoman

Well-Known Member
I took lunesta and all I saw were stupid fairies playing in the corner and it freaked me out so much that I couldn't sleep at all! Seriously, the hallucinations made me think I was going crazy. And I know I was awake 'cause I called pcdaughter and told her about the stupid fairies....
 
F

flutterbee

Guest
Well, they tell you to take it immediately before going to bed. That's so you won't do something stupid, like try to fly. I was feeling pretty invincible when I got in bed. That's the set up so you won't be able to stop the guy with the hammer from attacking you.

Metallic taste, is that what you call it? I thought it tasted more like a snack from the litter box. BBK knows what that's like. Ask her. :tongue:

Since I'm a glutton for punishment, I'm going to try it again tonight and see if it's any different. I don't have anywhere to be tomorrow so if I get buried in sand again, it's no biggee.

Wynter was asking me to do something for her earlier and I told her I needed to wait a bit and told her the Lunesta story. She just s-crewed her face up and and asked me, "How does *your* brain work, exactly?!!" :rofl: Poor kid. She missed the humor gene.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
:rofl::rofl:

Heather they ought to put your description in a commercial. I can actually visualize the guy with the hammer and bag of sand. *wiping the tears from my eyes*

Sounds like my seroquel/trazadone combo that I took for 2 yrs for the severe anxiety I was having that made sleep impossible. At the time I was grateful. But you sure didn't take it without immediately going to bed.

Main problem was that while getting used to the combo I also had to take a morning nap and an afternoon nap it made me sooooo very groggy the next day.

Then I got used to it, and it stopped working.

Try as I have, would you believe I've as yet to have a single doctor.... fam or psychiatrist, give me a script for an actual sleeping pill???:slap:

Have you tried that one that's not supposed to be addictive at all? Or is that the lunesta? There are so many commercials for drugs now that I get them mixed up. lol

I hope you get some sleep.

Hugs
 
F

flutterbee

Guest
Lisa, I *think* it's the Lunesta that's supposed to be non-habit forming. That's prolly cause no one takes it long enough for it to become habit forming. They say to take it when you are going to be able to get at least 7-8 hours of sleep. I don't think that's going to be a problem. I'm pretty sure you could have marched a band through my room and I wouldn't have heard it.

I had horrible insomnia for years and this is the first script I've had for a sleep medication, except for one psychiatrist who wrote me a 10 day script for Ambien, but not before letting me know he thought I was drug-seeking. Jerk. I had doctors tell me that I need to get some sleep, but then wouldn't give me anything. Like I forgot to sleep and all they needed to do was remind me. :rolleyes:

Ambien didn't make me feel so out of it the next day, but it was weird how it worked. Sometimes within 20 minutes I was needing help getting into bed (yeah, *that's* not going to put my son into therapy as an adult or anything) and other times it did nothing.

I've taken trazadone for sleep before and it really wasn't much different than the Lunesta in how I felt the next day. By mid-afternoon when someone asked me what I had done that day, I had no idea. I can't imagine how you functioned with seroquel and trazadone together. :faint:
 

hearts and roses

Mind Reader
Terry - I am not exactly sure how or why the cal/mag combo works, but it definitely has a calming effect. My DR recommended it to me a few years ago. At the health food store I buy a product simple called CAL/MAG and it even says something on the bottle about "calming" something or other. The wrap on the bottle is kelly green. It's a powder. I mix 1 heaping tablespoon in 3 ozs of hot water, then add another 3-4 ozs of cold water, hold my nose and drink it down. Followed with another glass of water to get the taste out. It's not that it tastes so bad, it's just got no REAL flavor, almost bittery-bland tasting. But I can notice a difference when I don't take it. Plus, it helps keep other parts of my body 'regular' (sorry, too much information for some, but being perimeno this is an important part of my life now-lol).

I would love to take something like Lunesta at night so I could literally CRASH, but I hate the after effects too much.
 

mom_in_training

New Member
Thanks for that Jog, I have been waiting after I saw the question asking how calcium and Mag helps. I will be checking into that. My difficult child just had a typical teen on the 15th (Total Thyroidectomy) and I have been doing allot of research about the thyroid and the parathyroid. I do know that calcium is derived from the parathyroid and without it you can be in allot of trouble health wise. It helps to promote energy along with the obvious strong bones. And Magnesium aids in relieving leg cramping. (Just read about that)
 

susiestar

Roll With It
I have taken both the lunesta and the ambien (both forms). I wake up with the kids in the night just fine, and am wide awake the next morning. But in about 2-3 months they quit working. I have to rotate them.

Lunesta does drop me into sleep rather abruptly.

I am the strange person who does NOT sleep with-o medication. Just don't, and haven't for years. Drives husband crazy with worry.

We are trying to get a sleep study done, but who knows when.

I am sorry lunesta gave you such a bad reaction. Be careful if you try ambien, you can do very strange things in your sleep and never know (scarily, you look awake to the rest of the world!). So if you try ambien, be sure your husband is on watch in case you have a bad reaction.

Hugs,

Susie
 
I have to do a report on Lunesta.
Does anyone mind giving me information on Lunesta or how they felt when they took it?
Did it work at all? If so, how well?

Any answers would be extremely terrific!
:D:D
 

tiredmommy

Well-Known Member
Hi Projectrunway_958.

Please send an email to our site owner (Cheryl) requesting feedback on our members' Lunesta use. You can contact her via the "contact us" button at the bottom of this page.
 
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