Tapering below 1mg – please HELP! Insomnia is bad.

Thank you so much for reading and taking time to reply. 

Last night I couldn't sleep again at all on 0.6mg – second night in a row. So at around 2 am I decided to take a little extra, and went up to 1.5mg. I'm not sure if it did the tirck, but I fell asllep around 4am, I think. What freacked me out last night was that I'm getting these waves that keep me awake: poindig heart and hot flashes. Some chest burning. I'm not anxious per se, but my body seems "freaked out". I think I want to stay on this higher dose now for a few week to stabilize. And do a slower taper from there. 

Did you have any rebound insomnia when you did you 0.1 drops?

What about when skipping a day/2 days etc? A couple success stories I've read were actually done by skipping a dose, even from as high as 7.5 mg. Other people say it's not good. 

Were you taking any other medications during this taper? 

Are you off now? How has the sleep been since you stopped alltogether?

Sorry, a lot of questions! 

It's very hard to stay positive and think I can ever sleep on my own again indeed  

Hi

Yes it's easy to get upset in the middle of the night when insomnia strikes. I think you're right to stabilise & try to slow it down again, I'll bet you will settle with a few days.

I got the odd night when sleep was poor whilst tapering when in the noughts.

I got the hot flashes occasionally, and I did get some rebound insomnia about 3 months out !! but was fine until then - ok now. I stopped in January. I think 1 mg served my insomnia (reason I took Mirt in the first place) well, just as well as 15 mg !

I wouldn't recommend the alternating doses in the higher doses, only at the very end.

No I didn't take any other meds, occasionally Phenergen as sleep aid? or Benalyn / but the body gets used to them so best to use just occasionally.

Yes I'm sleeping great now (touch wood). You'll get there, sometimes it takes awhile to stabilise at the end, but have faith, Rudd the waves x

Thanks again for replying. This is the most helpful info I've found so far!

I agree about lower doses working well: I slept great on 1 mg. I guess I thought it wasn't doing anything at such a low dose and I was just sleeping great on my own, ha.

When your rebound insomnia hit you at 3 month out, how long did it last? Days, weeks? How bad was it (how many hours would you get on average)?

I'm tryinng to get an idea of what I'm in for, cause then it's easier to cope. I know everyone is different, but just to have a general sense.

Have you tried any natural supplements with success for your insomnia?

Thank you for your support!

Start again ...

you sound like me Maria, trying to prepare and look at it from every angel.

I guess the sleep problems lasted 2-3 weeks (on 2 occasions).  Its easy to get spooked in the middle of the night when unwanted thoughts come rushing in whilst tossing and turning.  I tried so hard to remain positive (!!)  I took the advice of the sleep program the NHS use for insomnia, to get up and distract yourself with some quiet occupation, like reading, knitting, drawing, colouring ... its a hard thing to do but it helped in the long run ~ now I remind myself if doubts about sleep creep in that I got through it, it didn't harm me at all ~ OK it was difficult and my eyes were sore, but I managed on 4 hours broken sleep.  No I didn't really take supplements, they can't cover Mirt' discontinuation in my humble opinion.

Also worth a mention, what helped me was cutting out all stimulants, including chilli, sugar, chocolate of course, coffee and any caffeine.  I felt better mentally with this and still do.  I practice and read around yoga and they call stiumulating foods "Rajasic" - also included in this are onions, garlic, white flour including pasta & pastry, so refined foods - they are said to bring a restless state of mind and make the person over-active.

Hope they allow this post this time  

Yeah, I'm trying to gather as much information about this as possible, since my doctor – even though good an knowledgable – is of no help when it came down to withdrawal symptoms. He said most people don't have those symptoms, and if they do, those are ususally mild and go away quickly. 

Last night I got about 3-4h again and I'm on 1.5mg now. Starting to get a bit worried that the Mirt doesn't work as well anymore after all the dose jumping,

I do try to stay calm and positive. I manage on 3-4 hours of sleep quite ok, even though I'm exhausted. It's the 0 hours nights that I can't handle. I'm actually ok during the night, telling myself I will just  "rest" and if I don't sleep tonight I will sleep better tomorrow. But come morning and my calm is out the window cause now I have to function (I have a small child to take care of and I also work part-time). I also wonder if some of the next day aniety is a WD sympton. 

Regarding supplements: 

I did find L-theanine helpful for night awakening. Even when I was still on higher Mirt doses I would fall asleep ok, but wake up 2-4 times during the night (would fall asleep rather fast usually). After I added 200mg L-theanine before bed I sleep through the night (if I manage to fall asleep that is .

I also take Magnesium, fish oil and vit D. I also heard great things about accupuncture and will give it a try. 

Probably a good idea to try and cut down sugar and carbs (I don't eat too much, but I do have cravings sometimes for both). 

Thanks again!

Hi Christine,

Yes, it's a little bit calming to know this is "normal". 3 month does sound like a very long time indeed. At least you are almost half ways there! I think it also depends on how long your were on the drug. 5 months is not a long time, you should some improvement sooner. 

What I don't undesrtand is why I got hit with insomnia even though I tapered, and quite slow from what I gatherd. You quit CD, I tapered, yet we are in the same boat right now. May be I would have been hit even harder if I didn't, who knows. I've never taken any "mind" meds before, may be I'm too sensitive to them. 

Are you taking anything else for sleep at the moment?

Or found something that helps a little?

Last night I downloaded MySleepButton app and tried it for the first time: I think it is a very good concept and would definenetly help if you not in WD. But it helped a lot to take the mind off now sleeping and zone out even though I didn't fall asleep for at least another hour while listening to it. Give it a try! Good luck.

Hi henrich,

thank you for sharing! 

I really don't want to take any other meds right now, especially benzos: I believe they've contribudet greatly to my terrible insmnia back in January. I was taking Ambien for about 2 weeks, and couldn't sleep after stopping it. I tried alternating similar to what you are doing, and then take breaks and take nothing – this only made things worst. Long story short after about 3 weeks I started getting terrible anxiety and some depressive symptoms, I think due to interdose withdrawals from benzos. I never had such problems in my life, was never on any meds, so I totally freaked out. Luckly I found a good doctor quickly, who carefully took me off all the other meds and stabilized me with Mirt. I am not touching benzos or Ambien ever again. I think once I'll taper down Mirt one more time now, I'll be taking some OTC antihistamines to help on occasion (since Mirt work for sleep in a similar way). 

I really hope tapering slowly + taking supplements + alternative treatments like accupuncture + LOTS of patience will get me through.

Good luck to you!