Exhausting all my options to treat insomnia...

Honestly wish I could be of help....I read these comments to help me decided how best to use the mirtazapine...right now i'm taking a 1/4 of the 15 mg along with 20

mg of prozac....it's not quite right yet, but i do sleep well....the doctor is leaving it up to me which way to go lower the prozac and increase the mirtazapine to 1/2 of the 15mg...he says it's up to me, but i really dislike trying something new...will spend this week deciding...sorry i could be more helpful....I do get out of breath which

is most annoying, would do anything to get the right dosage under control, best

wishes to you and keep us all posted.

Hi Insomniac - try taking the med an hour or even two hours before you go to bed. Don't eat before bedtime. Reading before bed - a real book, not a digital device - can help, especially if it's not particularly interesting. Try not to get anxious about whether you will sleep or not. I found reciting countries by alphabetical order helped. If you still can't sleep, get up and read some more, don't lay there tossing and turning. If all else fails, talk to the doc about upping the med or changing it. Best of luck to you.

Hi

I think you're in the right place.  Typically, Mirt' can be overly sedating for the first week and then our bodies get used to it a little.  I would agree with you, the lower doses are more sedating and in mho there is no need to go higher for a sleep aid.

One thing its worth mentioning, stopping Mirt' can cause discontinuation symptoms which are very difficuly with anxiety etc ... so if you want to get off it do it sooner rather than later.

I was on Mirt for a year before starting a slow taper off it, I underwent different forms of therapy for insomnia.

What I found helpful was meditation, did you try to practice at all?  

Have you heard of Professor Jason Ellis ?  He has published a book recently called "The One Week Insomnia Cure", is was feathered in the Daily Mail recently.  He is one of the very very few Sleep Specialists, and if I were still suffering with insomnia this is where I would start today, reading his book, and searching to see if there is a way to get an appointment, not sure about the latter.

Best wishes.

I know how you feel, I have suffered with anxiety for over twenty years, and I've tried all the over the counter mess, for sleep, but they don't work, zopiclone only works now and again really, but doctors don't always prescribe it, so I have to ask my brother, who is probably fed up with me borrowing his. My friend told me about mirtazapine, so I asked my doctor back in January, 15 mg, helped for roughly three months but they stopped working, so I've upped my dose as I couldn't get into see my docs , I'm now on 45mg, getting quite a few side effects, pain in my right ear, and the usual groggy feeling, hoping these don't wear off..I saw on here on another comment about using Fluoxetine , maybe you could do some research on that ? Maybe ask your docs ? 

Apologies for being absent for a while, finally finished my final year at Uni.. here is an update:

I've decided to stop taking Mirtazapine as it isn't acting as a sleep aid anymore, so the side effects for me aren't worth it...

One reason that may have affected my sleep was University stress, however, I have handed in my Dissertation last week Monday, and to my disappointment, my sleep still hasn't improved.

I'm currently sleeping with the use of a medication called Xanax which I got prescribed from a doctor abroad. I know this has risks with addiction and such nor is it a healthy medication to be on for something like sleep, but I'm so desperate that I'll take anything to help me sleep.

I guess these are my only option until I run out. I'm on the waiting like for another mental health assessment, so hopefully, that'll provide a means of sorting my sleep.

Thank you