My experience of zopiclone (down the rabbit hole)

hi all. i have cut down my zopiclone 7.5 to 3/4 of a pill in January, and then in February to 1/2 a pill, and last night i went to 1/4 pill.

I honestly feel like i'm off it now, i don't think it's doing anything to me. It's just a head trip, i think, that i don't just stop taking it, because i am taking the zolpidem too and it gets me to sleep.

It's fascinating to me why don't just stop the zopiclone, i could have done it last night. But i usually sleep good if i take enough meds, and i feel very protective of my sleep--and i hate that. Why such a big deal? I understand that it's better to have the good feeling that comes with a lot of sleep, but not having that feeling and being tired isn't the end of the world, and the price i pay to avoid that unpleasantness is so high.

But i am working on it. Although i still took 1/4 tablet last night, i do feel that i'm off zopiclone as of today. I called to make an appointment with my doctor to renew my zolpidem prescriptions. The office woman said "let me see what prescriptions you are getting," and i said "I am not getting the zopiclone, just the zolpidem," and it felt so good to say that. Getting them both was kind of over the line, well, more than kind of. The physician's assistant who i sometimes see and who sometimes writes my prescriptions, told me "This makes me uncomfortable," writing me three different prescriptions for sleeping medication. They always had to write on it, "not to be taken with zolpidem."

And the pharmacy employees have expressed misgivings about providing all those medications too. The head pharmacist had to tell the staff who was questioning it, "Whatever the doctor writes." Sigh. No more, i will not have that embarrassment at the pharmacy anymore. I am done, even though it's still 1/4 last night, and if i wasn't taking the zolpidem, i would feel differently about it, but the zolpidem puts me to sleep just fine if i take enough, and i have plenty of that, big supply. And i am there.

i am finally going to be on just one sleeping medication, and that one is NEXT. i am going be cutting down and adapting to less. i don't know how long it will take, but anything less is good.

Hi Wendl

Thanks for sharing your experiences with Zimovane. Please God, one day we will find a way to come off this medication and rediscover 'restorative sleep'!

Am I the only one that is happy with Zopiclone? I've been taking 3.75mg per night for around 15 years and sleep very well mostly. No nasty side effects at all apart from a dry mouth in the mornings. I get on average 1 cold per winter, get lots of exercise and feel mostly great! Trouble is my new doctor wants me to stop

taking them. Don't want go back to the zombie land of no sleep.

Have found a very good self help book called The Effortless Sleep Method by Sasha Stephens, which is

helping me but trying to convince my doc to just leave me be....

What made you look the forum up Steve?

Just trying to find out about long term risks of taking Zopiclone, there only seems to be anecdotal evidence

in the main.

Not anecdotal at all Steve. Any doctor will tell you how addictive Zopiclone is but when I was first prescribed Zopiclone it was marketed as being a non addictive alternative to sleeping pills such as Nitrazepam. As well as this being incorrect Zopiclone is also now being investigated for its carcinogenic properties. If you've been on it 15 years try going without for a few days, you'll climb up the wall.

I have had some success in trying. Over a 6 week period I did 14 nights on a half a 3.75mg pill with varying results. Had about 3 days where I felt 100%, and most of the others when I just felt tired due to lack of sleep.

The tiredness and anxiety then got the better of me and I had to revert to the whole pill again. I'm being messed around by my doctor, I'd just like to stay on the pills otherwise my life is not worth living. What is your advice?

I went down to 1/4 of a 3.5mg for quite a long time. Soon as a problem occurred I stopped sleeping and like you took the Zopiclone in order to get some kip or else I'd feel like crap. I went up to 8 pills a night and have now got it down to 2 pills. I feel like crap the next day! I.e the Zopiclone might put things off for a while and make you forget the problems around you but no way is it the answer.

Given the whole lot all over again I think I'd go down the pub for a few days and get p*ssed as an alternative to coping with problems. I've given up hard drinking and cigarettes in my life and none have been as hard to do without as Zopiclone.

Thanks Dave, so is your doctor still happy to carry on prescribing Zopiclone then?

my doctor has been prescribing regularly monthly supplies of zopiclone 7.5mg, zolpidem extended release 12.5mg and zolpidem 10mg. I don't think he's happy about it, but he prescribes it. I also get butalbital for headaches but not monthly, more like every 2 months or more. I told my doctor last month that i had decided zopiclone doesn't work as well as zolpdem extended release, so he said "then let's not do that one this time," but i told him i wanted to taper off of it so he wrote the prescription. I will not be getting another prescription, i'm happy to say, not for the zopliclone. i will still get both zolpidem prescriptions, and i also buy another 28 tablets of zolpidem from an overseas pharmacy, which i am not discussing with my doctor. If you have the money, you can get zopiclone from overseas pharmacies without prescription. I'm not advocating it, but i've been doing it for many years, to be sure to have enough, what i get from my doctor hasn't been enough. i've never had a doctor give me anywhere near as much as i'm getting from my doctor now. I think he will be glad as i get off these medications, but he has prescribed what i've asked for. btw, he never prescribed these medications without me asking for them, it's not like it was his idea. But when i asked, he wrote the prescriptions.

On Wednesday, i will have my first appointment with my new psychotherapist who is advertised as providing cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and who lists sleep disorders and chemical dependency among his areas of experience and expertise. CBT has a track record in treating insomnia and related drug dependence. It's a resource i'm going to try, to see if it helps. Basically what it involves is examine beliefs that underlie feelings and looking at whatever factual basis they have or don't have. I've used this before on my own, not with a therapist but with a book and an interactive website (Australian National University, Mood Gym). It's been helpful but it takes persistence which i haven't followed through on, so i'm hoping having the support and supervision of a therapist can help me with my tapering. I have so much fear about going without the meds, and i'm not sure how fact based these fears are, but they seem very real and threatening.

^ Good luck with your CBT, I'm hoping to have some more of that soon. The fears about not sleeping are just in our heads. Us long term insomniacs have lost our safety nets. Most people that sleep fine have a safety net which is that when they lay down to sleep, they KNOW they will go to sleep. What we need to do is to build up our confidence and belief that we can sleep naturally again, when you can do that you are more than halfway there. Easy to say I know, but I have had some success with this and am trying to get my head back into that zone again.

Again, I would highly recommend this book: The Effortless Sleep Method by Sasha Stephens, look it up on Amazon, it is helping me.

I wonder if anyone has tried the Buteyko Breathing Method to help their insomnia. The author of the book

Alexander Stalmatski (Freedom from Insomnia') promotes this natural way to solve sleep problems. He

claims that 99% of Insomniac's could be cured by following this programme. He studied in Russia under

Professor Buteyko and was the first person to teach this method in the west. His first book, 'Freedom from Asthma' was reprinted 4 times and the Buteyko method was hailed as a new day of Hope for Asthma sufferers.

This method has apparently helped lots of asthmatic sufferers. It all sounds good when I read what he says

but you need a lot of commitment to learn the Buteyko way of breathing and I just don't have the energy to

commit. I've tried to attend classes a couple of times but had to pull out. I'd be interested to know if anyone

else has read this book or used this method to help them.

i've had a productive week, meeting with my new therapist to work on getting off my sleeping meds, focusing on that, and As of today, i am OFF ZOPICLONE !!! Last night i took my last quarter tablet. No zopiclone tonight. no more in the future. i went to my doctor today and got my new prescriptions for Zolpidem 10mg and Zolpidem extended release. This is a new world for me now, having one medication instead of two seems much simpler.

I've been trying to figure out half life elimination tonight, i want to figure out when the zopiclone will be out of my system completely and is no longer clouding the clinical picture.

Half life is about 6 hours for zopiclone.. i took the last dose around 11:15 last night. After 6 hours, when it was 5am, if i understand this right, there was 3 mg left in my plasma, and after another 6 hours, 11am, there was half of those 3 mg left, or 1.5 mg by 11am this morning. In 6 more hours, 5pm, there was .75 mg left. 6 hours later, at 11pm, there was about .37mg left. A happy progression in the direction i want to go. I am now in the process of eliminating half of .37mg, and at 5am, i will be eliminating half of that. Nice that it's thinning out, don't let the door hit you on the way out. To me, a big difference between that chemical in my blood, however small the amount, and not there at all, so my body can begin to adjust to its absence--for all the help it gives me with sleep, in so many ways it hurts, it hurts sleep and it hurts other parts of life. It's like lifting a heavy shroud from my being.

So, i guess in a couple of days or something, it will be eliminated from my blood. i believe it's still in body tissue to different degrees, up to weeks, but it keeps going down.

And now i turn to the Zolpidem--the Ambien. And i feel confident about getting off it. i think it will be easier than zopiclone. At the same time, i fee respectful of my need for sleep and the role that the Ambien plays in that. i am beginning a process now of finding other ways of managing and encouraging sleep, starting with reducing the amount of Ambien. There was a time when i took a lot less of it, including skipping days, taking none at all. The side effects were a lot less.

This forum has helped me so much, mostly in ways that are obvious, and in others that aren't as obvious. Its so helpful when people share their experiences dealing with similar challenges, and to have back and forth conversation about it.

i feel like i have a long way to go, as i'm still taking about 10 to 20mg of regular Ambien a night and about 7mg of Ambien CR a night. The prescribed dose would be more like either 10mg of Ambien or 12.5 of Ambien CR a night. So i need to taper down. But i learned a lot about tapering from doing it with the zopiclone (brand name Lunesta 3mg). I feel confident that i can begin tapering and reduce how much i'm taking, and as that happens, tolerance will decrease and less will affect me more, for sleep purposes, but will not have as much side effects. As the drug has less of an effect on my life, i want to work in the non-drug approaches to sleep.

There is a medication that some report as helpful called Rozerem. It's supposed to be *really* nonaddictive and works on melatonin receptors, and is helpful for getting to sleep at night, and there is no next day grogginess. That's all i know. if i were to consider it, i would study it more. I am looking forward to trying the Alpha Stim i got and to trying neurofeedback which is the one i have the most long term hope in. i'm not expecting miracles, but believe there can be change.

I hope you guys are doing ok.

I haven't had any Zopiclone for two days. What I did was take 10mg of Diazepam instead for the first night and 6mg Diazepam for the second night and have had two good nights Zopiclone free kip. I am working on the theory that I am not addicted to Diazepam (Valium) but I am addicted to Zopiclone so it should be much easier to leave the Diazepam after a couple of weeks of Zopiclone free sleep. That's the theory anyway. My GP calls it jumping into the frying pan from the fire but he hasn't got any better ideas so we'll see.