Seroquel for sleep

I used my seroquel the other night to stop the sleep shortage that I was having as my pdoc said I should. Well I went a lot longer than I was supposed to but she told me to take it on a day when some exhaustion the next morning wouldnt be a big deal plus I just really didnt want to take it.

She had to convince me to even accept the prescription because seroquel made me constantly tired when i took it for a month straight a year or so ago. They tried to get me to take it in hospital on the medical ward too because I wasn't sleeping and was having angry outbursts towards the staff but i refused it then too and even got mad that they "offered" it to help me calm down.

So I hate the stuff but they dont want to give me sleeping pills and I know(when im stable) that they are an issue because i simply stay up for the feeling I get and mix them with alcohol.

So I took the stuff but slept 12hrs. That was really bad, my kids got ready and walked to school alone. Thats not usually a big deal, we are right across the road but usually my oldest is with them and he wasnt that morning. So the oldest kid was my 8yr old, he got them both ready and walked the 6yr old to school.

By 6pm I was so tired I went back to bed until 8 when I could put them to sleep and went right to sleep. I got up this morning for just long enough to actually take them to school and went back to sleep, 16hrs total. Finally feel quite a bit better today but its 7 and I just woke up at noon and did nothing all day

Anyone else use it PRN for sleep? Any ideas on if it will get better or I will have to devote 2 days to sleep with no responsibility every time I use it. I hate this stuff.

I take 200mg every night for sleep, I think at first it made me sleep a very long time but now I get a normal amount of sleep each night

I won't take Seroquel because of the sedation effect. I can't handle it. My doctor has made the unpopular choice of prescribing klonopin (a benzo) which works like a charm for me.

I think what you experienced was normal for the first dose.

It will reduce some after even just a couple doses, but expect huge sedation regardless, you will just be awake for more of it vs. in a full-blown coma lol.

It is a great pill to stomp out mania stuff as far as inducing sleep.

JMHO, but should not be routinely taken for sleep and it's not meant for that.

Too many other side effect problems even at low dose. It hits histamine receptors hard, so you basically took a large dose of benadryl. Not exactly but in general.

It's a great medication in some ways, in other ways imo it's very dangerous.

Everyone's metabolic processing is different. again, jmho, but I would discourage taking it for sleep and if a pill is necessary for that, find something more benign.

Having said that, I'm glad u did get some sleep!!!

I take 25mg for sleep. If I take it 10-12 hours before I want to get up I fall asleep in 2-3 hours and get up around the 10-12 hours after I took it. I have little to no sedation in the am and can get up earlier if need be. It is a very low dose. Some people sleep much less on it as I do when hypomanic or just excited about my day.

What dose are you on? Maybe you could lower it if your pdoc approves.

I take 550 mg of Seroquel XR at night along with Tegretol XR. That dose is just as much for moodstabilization as sleep, but believe it or not, sometimes I don't get tired enough even from the 550 mg at night and have to take regular Seroquel "as needed" for either help getting to sleep or calming oncoming hypo/manic symptoms. In those cases, I usually take 50 mg Seroquel on top of my Seroquel XR. That usually works. Occasionally, I take Ativan instead, but I know that's not the better choice.

I almost always take my 550 mg Seroquel XR at 7 pm. That usually makes me tired by 9 to 11 pm, depending on various factors. I usually wake up around 6:45 am. Sometimes that's easy, other times a little hard. Once I'm up, I'm not tired enough to sleep anymore, but also very far from jumping on a bike. My "normal" energy kucks in around 9:30/10:00 am.

If I don't fall asleep until after 2 am, I know my morning will be rough. In those cases, getting up at 6:45 am is often not possible, but I only sleep about 5 or 6 hours, but wake up groggy. On weekends I sleep a bit more, but not much more.

If I'm taking "as needed" extra Seroquel for developing mania, my sleep is more normalized than anything else. Only if my mood/energy dips do I have hypersomnia. Then my base Seroquel XR dose goes down.

I complained a lot about Seroquel/Seroquel XR sedation in the beginning. It took time, but I've adjusted. I have to keep a rigid schedule, though. Late nights out can make me suffer, especially if I take my evening meds late.

I was finding myself sleeping less and less, asleep at between 1 and 4 and having to get up with kids or working at 7am. She said I should take it if I get less than 7.5hrs for more then 3 nights in a row. When im doing well 9hrs is perfect for me so she said anything under that could lead to an issue and I lose any interest in stopping the ride to mania as soon as hypomania truly starts so I want to make sure that doesnt happen. I seem to get smarter every time I get manic and so Im not sure how many more I could survive if any which is a little scary.

Sounds like I took it too late and didnt give the first pill enough time to work either. I took 25mg and that didnt seem to work so i took another after an hour and then went to sleep about 45min after that.

I would certainly prefer not to take it. As stated above I really dislike the stuff. Im just not sure what other options could work for me. Maybe I will ask pdoc about something more natural. I dont think benzos are an option with my addictive personality. If nothing else I guess I will devote a couple days to sleep when needed and hope the sedation settles down. It never got better in the month i took it before though so I dony have much hope for that

Are you drinking with the Seroquel? Speaking from experience it’s a bad idea.

No I only drank one night last week and took the seroquel 2 nights ago. Im trying not to drink at all, thats the only time I have drank since I got home a month ago.

Thank you for letting me know Pookyl I try my best to listen to the advice from you all

I’ve taken 800 mg and been so used to it that it didn’t even sedate me anymore. We are currently messing with my meds so I just backed down to 500 mg a few days ago but I have to have a sleeping pill for sleep.

I totally agree. I know that it can be a miracle drug for someone in psychosis and I am not trying to say you shouldnt take it but IMO I think its overprescribed and given out all too often for sleep without considering the ramifications like sedation, weight gain and blood sugar issues. I know years ago there was a big to-do about how frequently it was given to children. I also know that in lower doses it works for sleep but higher doses (in the area of 300mg+) it works better for mood stabilization and psychosis.

For me I am kinda stuck at 25mg a night, and have been since my hell on earth episode begun late September last year. If I don't take it, even for a few nights in a row I get zero sleep. I would rather Sroquel in tiny dose than Stilnox or Benz's. Melatonin is like candy to me. All the CBT sleep routine does nothing. For now my brain is ***ked. However, in the past this has happened and suddenly, for no reasons I can explain, bam, I need no sleep aid. Our brains are all different.

Sweet, 3am dancing and cleaning the kitchen. I tried to sleep but I just layed there bouncing my feet. That gets old fast. So much for the idea that a good seroquel coma would put me back on track for good sleep. Two nights at 12+hrs then one 8hr sleep and now Im not f***ing sleeping again.

This sucks, if I wasnt alone with the kids I would be out for a walk and preferably pouring whiskey down my throat.

Nothing is working, Im so tired of trying. What am I supposed to do. Im so lost, I just want to let whatever is gonna happen, happen, it will end eventually.

I take 600mg of Seroquel xr every evening to keep my moods stable. At first it felt very sedating but most of the tiredness went away after my body got used to the medication.
If I don't take it I get sleep problems which triggers (hypo)manic behavior.

Maybe you'll get used to it too, but it can take few weeks.

And drinking alcoholic while on Seroquel isn't a good idea, it made me almost fall asleep at a bar once. And once I actually fell asleep after a few sips of wine.