My husband has developed severe insomnia over the past 6 months, and recently he was prescribed stillnox. He took 2 tablets in a desperate bid to get some sleep, and sleep walked out into the garage, into my car, drove to Macdonalds in the middle of the night and thankfully made it home in one piece. The only downside is that he had a punctured tyre and his spare tyre was missing! He could not remember a thing, blanked out. The next morning I went to get in my car to find it was undrivable. He is very shaken by it and has said he will never take that medication again.
Can anyone with insomnia please help with suggestions on how to sleep better???
Insomnia
Insomnia
Posted in:
Health & Wellbeing
9 Replies
Melatonin can be helpful!
Oh all the negative affects known about stillnox I can’t believe there are GPs still prescribing it!!
Terrifying!
Light therapy in the morning, exercise early in the day (not at night). Avoid screen time especially in the evening and night (the light from the screen tricks the brain into thinking it’s daytime). Dark room. Meditation before bed and Melatonin.
You need to find the reason for the insomnia. Weather it be mental/physical/emotional.
Find the reason, find the solution !!
Stillnox is notorious for sleep walking.
My husband sleep walks too, it's my biggest fear that he'll do something like this as well. So far his worst incident was running full pelt down the hallway and nearly knocking himself out on one of the door frames - he also had no recollection of it. Unfortunately mine thinks it's amusing 🤦♀️🤦♀️
To get to the insomnia aspect. I've always had trouble sleeping, my insomnia is almost directly a result of my anxiety. It angers me that doctors prescribe all these sleeping meds without really investigating (or caring about) the root cause. My advice would be for him to see a different doctor and be firm about wanting to get to the bottom of the insomnia not just having pills chucked his way. A referral for a sleep study and for a psychologist would be ideal.
In the mean time, a healthy bed time routine is helpful.
My routine for example - no screen time for at least an hour before bed, reduce caffeinated drinks, i don't ever have serious conversations before bed, I shower before bed to relax my body then I do something to relax my mind (that's usually some drawing, doodling or colouring).
Some meditation or herbal tea may also be something he finds helpful.
Frightening!
Stillnox isn't even prescribed any more in the State where I live, it's been linked to far too many situations like your husbands. . My ex lost individual visitation rights of our kids for being on this drug, and it was prescribed to him for insomnia too because he could have killed them when on stillnox and driving as he clipped a pole. Because if this frightening drug, he could only have supervised visits for years after that episode, and that wasn't the only time.
Can he be prescribed a very low dose valium? Even that's better than Stillnox, that medication should be banned from ever being allowed to be consumed.
I've tried a few things. Melatonin for a month to reset, no screens after 7pm (I stretched this out to 7:30 as I couldn't watch Spicks and Specks), a water soluable lavender solution dabbed on my temples and on my chest, sleep stones tucked inside my pillow case, no spicy food for dinner, no coffee or tea after 11am, added a salt lamp to the bedroom which I ran for a few hours before bedtime. I shit you not, I was so bad I was desperate to try everything! Dr wouldn't prescribe anything other than Melatonin so the others were just to help.
Natural therapies and psychology techniques could help.
Some that could help are things like counting backwards from 100 with each deep breath. Counting your breathing (in-2-3, out-2-3). Using medic room spray can help, too. No sugar after 3pm. No caffeine after 1pm.
I realised my insomnia stemmed from an overactive mind and started using education to sleep. I'd play an educational video in the background that held my interest and now I can't sleep without it.
Hope that helps!
I have sleep driven. I stopped driving when I had insomnia. I didnt take meds but drove from work home and had no memory of drive.