My wife is in her late 50s and she was using ambien for a long time for sleep. Not every night, but a couple of times a week when she needed it. She tried lots of different herbs from the health store and melatonin but she said they didn't help her. Now they won't give her ambien any more because of some law about side effects and they want to put her on antidepressants. They said they help with sleep too. They gave her a prescription for trazadone and said it was safe to use for insomnia. They wouldn't give her any other regular sleeping pills like lunesta. I told her not to take them because I read stuff on this forum that they really bad for you. Is it okay for her to take the new pills, she might even if I tell her no. thanks

Dr Brownstein recommends that folks try a different brand of melatonin if the one they're taking doesn't seem to work. The Trader Joe's brand doesn't work for me.

Ted Hutchinson has posted a wealth of information on melatonin. Try doing a search.

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I'd rather meander for the prevention than race for the cure.

your wife how much mg Ambien Tablets have taken ! you have write they taken alternative day. You should recommend low 0.5mg Ambien Tablets and helps and Yoga Exercises also. helps us ! Drinks lot of water after taken the Ambien tablets

Solaray sells a sleep blend with a combination of herbs that works very well, if she hasn't tried that yet. Source Naturals is a good brand of Melatonin also. If she must take a prescription drug for sleep, I would advise to try and get something else. Antidepressants are very harmful to use, and have severe side-effects. She should also try the over-the counter product Unisom, it's an antihistamine, and it's very effective. 1/2 tablet will work, a whole on may give her a hangover.

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"Don't regret growing older, it's a privilege denied to many"

80% of insomniacs have low Nitric Oxide

Try the following...

Huge bowl of Kale/Swiss Chard/Arugula (popcorn bowl, not cereal) and chew it slowly.
Also add Pomegranate Juice.

If you do that giant bowl just once, then eat normal amounts regularly thereafter, the levels will be maintained. Sincerely it's the best thing for sleep that I have found personally.

Another thing to think of, before anti-depressants or other things, is get cortisol checked. If cortisol is too low, you get adrenal fatigue. I wrote an article about that here if youre interested: About Cortisol

A quick checklist if it is adrenal fatigue:

Light or sound is really bothersome... you may notice she flips the alarmclock around because the digital light bothers her.

Exhausted during the day, but cannot sleep at night.

Emotional instability, poor tolerance to stress.

Addictive tendency.


The short of it is, Cortisol is required for free fatty acid absorption, and if it's low, all kinds of symptoms crop up. Most people think of it as a hormone that causes stress, but this isn't true. It's the body's response to stress so that it's protected and when it's low, the body doesn't deal with stress very well at all, because Adrenaline ends up doing cortisol's job. This means during stress we over react, and also adrenaline constantly has to trickle out to keep the body alive at that point, making it hard to sleep..and making us tired during the day.

1) Melatonin: Make your own. How?

Go to bed early and keep your bedroom dark, and your body will make plenty for you. Consider lining or doubling your curtains or drapes, adding blinds or a dark-colored window shade, and getting rid of light-up digital clocks. Keep a nightlight in your hallway for those ever-popular trips to the salle de bain, but keep your bedroom door closed. These steps, and others that you think of, will keep your sleeping environment darker, and your melatonin (sleep hormone) production will go up.

Lots of other good ideas here; https://www.doctoryourself.com/sleep.html

2) Fascinating info, thanks.

what would you see as better (prescription) alternatives?

I think when 'something else' was mentioned, is was something non-prescription.

that is not what the quoted sentence said.

Well, perhaps I'm wrong, which is why I said 'I think...'.

Anything but anti-depressants, something that just relaxes instead. I don't know what they have available, as I don't take prescription drugs and can't keep up with all the trash they try to push on TV ads.

Get a pill called restoril (Temazepam). It gets in, puts u to sleep and is metabolized quickly: no hangover effect.