Soberish, titrating up baclofen insomnia. Help!

[Samandkatharine]

Ugh, if this is only on 45mg I'm screwed.

Started at 5mg for 2 wks
Went to 10 for 1 wk
30 for 2 wks
Now at 45

When I started at 40mg my sleep caved. I take a small amount of diazepam before bed and I think the lack of AL and the Bac counteracting the benzo is screwing up the sleep. Although I'm only at 45mg, I can see a big difference in cravings. Last night my husband and son and I went out to dinner and I only had 3/4 of a beer.

I took my last dose at 5pm. Was super tired and went to bed at 9:30, fell asleep but was up at 1am. Tossed and turned till 7:30. Had a great Bac dream about a baby cow:shocked:

Any advise? I'm know I'm bad for being on the benzo crap when I was pregnant with my third I had debilitating insomnia after he was born. That and menopause took my nights away.

Sam

[kronkcarr]

Soberish, titrating up baclofen insomnia. Help!

Sam,

I had the weird sleep SEs too. I didn't take anything to help me sleep. I just went with my sleep patterns. If I could I slept when I was tired. I got up and did stuff when I woke up. At a few months on baclofen I did get sick of it--up late, up early was my pattern. The good news is that it does go away. Taking my last dose early, like you're doing, did make a difference.

[StuckinLA]

Soberish, titrating up baclofen insomnia. Help!

I'm not sure if I ever got used to the sleeping-thing on bac, honestly. I'd have a terrible time falling asleep and, once I did, I'd wake up in panic about 15 minutes to 1/2 an hour later and be up for a while. I'm AF now for almost 4 months (and not taking bac anymore), and it took over 2 months for me to be able to fall asleep. I'm out like a light now, except for a few occasions. There've been nights when it felt like that same old thing, trouble falling asleep, immediate panic, including last night. But I think that has more to do with alcohol withdrawal and post-acute withdrawal, which are both real motherf**kers.

I've tried benadryl, OTC sleep aids, melatonin, neurontin (gabapentin), and ativan. Of those, the ativan is the only one that noticeably helped but obviously it's not the best idea even for short periods.

EDIT: oh, but don't think that the SEs are going to incrementally get worse as your dose increases. It doesn't work like that. Some doses seem to have more SEs than others, and who the F knows how/why that works out the way it does. In other words, some doses are just more comfortable than others...

[skullbabyland]

Soberish, titrating up baclofen insomnia. Help!

I too had the sleep SE's and they do seem to have largely gone away once I got to my steady dose (100mg in my case).

Most everyone I've read about this issue have said the same thing, that the SE's go away with time, you just have to hang on and get through it however you can, and have faith that it'll get better.

It sucks, I know. But it's worth getting there-- I'm new to sobriety but not drinking alcoholically is so amazing.