New medication question - Trazodone help?

robinm1922

One day at a time
Hello,

My difficult child has been fairly stable since April 2009 (yea!) with the exception of sleep issues. It started off with little issues here and there and we brought Melatonin in. That helped for a while then not so much. Some times it helps sometimes not so much. Then we went to simply sleep psychiatrist said that was fine a couple times a week not too much more than that. The helped but she was needing it more and more. So then comes klonopin .5 mg, that did nothing so we up ed it to 1 mg still nothing. If we add the simply sleep along with the Klonopin it works like a charm but I would rather not have to make a cocktail!
Now she was just given Trazodone 50 mg to take each night (or at least the ones she needs help with). I have read that it works really well for insomnia but I was wondering if anyone here can help me with a couple of questions.
How long does this medication take to "knock" them out? I don't want to give it too late or too early!
The psychiatrist mentioned that sometimes they have a hard time shaking off the sleep has anyone found this to be a big problem?
My difficult child is 5'4 and about 170 if that is important to anyone.

I am starting her on this tonight and would love to have an idea what time she should take it.
Help please.
Thanks!
Robin
 

AnnieO

Shooting from the Hip
Onyxx was on trazodone for a while. In fact she took all of 3 doses before refusing to take it any more. I didn't notice any change in her sleep habits, aka she didn't, so I can't tell you what time.

Onyxx is 5'3 and about 150#, so not sure that has anything at all to do with it.

I would say... An hour before bedtime should be. So if bedtime is 9, dose at 8. I take my ADs an hour before bedtime and they knock me flat. But that is my uneducated guess.
 

timer lady

Queen of Hearts
I take trazadone (100 mg) each night for sleep ~ I generally fall asleep about an hour to an hour & a half after I take it.

My difficult child kt was on it & it took her about an hour.

The hangover in the morning generally lasts only about a week or two. After that I didn't feel much of a sleep jag.
 

crazymama30

Active Member
I too take Trazodone for sleep. Originally started with 50mg--that worked for a week or two then quit so went to 100mg. It works for me in about an hour or so. I find I do not wake up as much at night when I use it. I get no hangover from it at all. When I was first prescribed it I tried 100mg right away and that was too much at first, I had a vicious hang over the next day. Now that I went from 50mg to 100mg I do not get that.
 

Josie

Active Member
My daughter takes it for sleep. I have found that she needs to be getting ready for bed when she takes it. It still takes her a while to go to sleep, 30 - 60 minutes, but if we let her stay up and wait to get sleepy before going to bed, it doesn't work. The psychiatrist told me there is a window of opportunity for it.

She takes 100 mg now and I am not aware of a hangover effect.
 

neednewtechnique

New Member
difficult child 1 used this medication for a while, as a help for falling asleep, but we did not leave her on it very long. She used that "sleeping medicine" as an excuse to stay in bed all day, and refuse to wake up for school, and sleep during class...I do not believe that it really caused her many problems, I think she honestly just wanted an excuse to be disagreeable and since the doctor warned us also that she may be groggy for a while after she wakes up until her body gets used to it, she decided to make the most of that warning. :) But...needless to say, we did not want to give her any excuse to act this way, so I called psychiatrist and he stopped the Rx for it.
One good thing about Trazadone is that it is on the $9.99 list at the pharmacy, so if your insurance doesn't want to cover it, you can get it pretty cheap!
 
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