Amitriptyline, any success with sleep?

[jamsconeandtea]

Hello just looking for advice really, have tried many Ad's since DS birth 2 years ago for problems with anxiety and sleeping. Trazodone was the most succesful but wore off after a few months and now I have been prescribed amitriptyline 20mg. Has anyone else had success with this? I would love to hear your positiv stories please! am going to take the first one tonight.

[buckinghamshiredreamer]

Hi Jamsconeandtea

Sorry to hear of the problems that you are experiencing if this helps I have been taking Escitalopram a SRRI antidepressant for the last 5 years and also Amitriptyline 50mg at night to help with sleep problems with anxiety and I can honestly say I sleep like a dream. Amitriptyline is a very gentle medication and relaxes muscles and helps you to drift into a lovely sleep. It is not addictive as it is an antidepressant. It is also used widely for many health problems which cause pain for help with sleep. You may feel a bit dozzy in the mornings to start with and dry mouthed but this will wear off so stick with it you may also need to increase it with you Dr's advice. I also know people who take it for migraine and at 50mg it helps them sleep well as. Good luck to you.

[jamsconeandtea]

Hi there, that is just the kind of reassurance I was looking for, thanks for taking the time to reply. I have been going round in circles trying to find the right medication then trying to go without and deal with things myself but am keeping my fingers crossed that this one will do the trick!

[jamsconeandtea]

Hi again has anyone noticed an increased heart rate on this medication and does it calm down eventually?

[orangeandlemons]

I was on it for ages, had terrible insomnia. It made me sleep really well, every night.

if you are worried about heart rate try 7.5 mg Mirtazapine which is very similar and works just as well. After 20 years of tortuous insomnia, thse tablets changed my life.

hth

[Nipitinthebud]

Yes, I took it for a while for insomnia - not able to sleep and not able to get back to sleep if I woke up. It was really good. Initially I found 1 tablet (20mg) knocked me out the next day too - felt very drowsy. I used to only take half or a quarter for a whlile, but after a good six months 1 tablet was fine. Brilliant for getting off to sleep and I was able to drift off to sleep very easily after waking up. Didn't knock me out so much that I couldn't wake up with the DC though so was very good.

[jamsconeandtea]

Thanks for the replies, it's so good to hear you both had positive experiences on it. I have taken 10mg for a week now and slept really well except for last night, hoping it was just a blip and trying not to panic about it! Does it build up in your system over time or do you think I should go up to 20mg? Also did it cause you any weight gain? Any problems coming of it? Thanks for your help.

[Nipitinthebud]

I think it'll probably just be a blip tbh. I did notice that if I had something out of the ordinary on the next day, then the amytrip. didn't work quite as well. Possibly the fact that you felt panicky about the blip shows that you're still not confident that it will work (understandable), which could be why it didn't work as well the night before iyswim, because you're still worried about it not working? I think the longer you take them, the more confidence you'll have with them. But if its happening regularly then possibly talk to your Dr about upping the dose. No weight gain for me. No problems coming off it - just stopped. Think the thing with amytrip is that you don't have to take it daily for it to work -you can just take it occasionally. So after taking it regularly daily, I think I only took it every now and again. And the knowledge that I could take something that reliably helped was enough to stop severe insomnia taking such a firm grip in the future. No physical issues with stopping suddenly though.

[jamsconeandtea]

That's brilliant to hear thanks! I am hoping that will happen to me then I can just use them as and when I need them! Fingers crossed about not gaining weight too. Glad you had success with them and it's been long term too.

[orangeandlemons]

I used to have the odd blip of no sleep too, but it always came back. I couldn't sleep on less than 50mg though

[fuzzpig]

I have been taking it for about 6 months now and am now on 40mg.

I take it at about 5pm because I get a bit of a 'hangover' feeling in the morning if I take it late at night.