Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) Discussion Board

hi,

Does anyone know of meds rotation for insomnia? What I mean is taking sleeping medications and rotating them so one does not get tolerant
of a sleeping medication. Are there sleep boards/forums where I can try to find information about this?

Thank you

I don't know enough about sleep medications to know if rotating them would help.
I'd imagine that to do so, each one would have to work differently.
For instance, some doctors prescribe an anti histamine to help with sleep (but not good for RLS)
also, a 'normal sleeping medication'
also, the like of amitriptyline which is an old fashioned anti depressant that can help with sleep (but take a chance with RLS)

I've never used a Sleep Forum but I'm sure a Google Search would bring up quite a few.

I don't know anything about it, sorry to say.

I've never tried it. I imagine it would work, as long as the meds were sufficiently different.

There are two main categories of sleep meds that I know of, one being the benzodiazepenes which are heavy-duty (long half life, potential for addiction), the other being the newer "Z-drugs" which don't have much if any potential for addiction and have shorted half-lives (less likely to leave you groggy the next day). The Z-drugs are actually three separate classes of medication, with zopiclone (Imovane) and eszopiclone (Lunesta) in one class, zolpidem (Ambien) in another, and zaleplon (Sonata) in a third class.

You might want to ask your physician or pharmacist if meds in these three classes of Z-drugs are different enough from each other to make rotation among them effective in preventing tolerance.