I went to my Doctor for a regular check up, and I happened to mention that I had trouble sleeping. I wasn’t having trouble falling asleep but staying asleep. I am a nurse that works strange hours, and truthfully, I haven’t had a good nights sleep in over 20 years. Weird, that's when I started having weight gain, when I started getting insomnia. Melatonin, Benadryl, you name it…. I’ve tried it all. I felt it was something that I would have to live with for the rest of my life. At that appointment, my Dr. prescribed Trazodone 50 mg. every night at bedtime. I filled the RX but told myself there’s no way in Hell I’m taking that “stuff.” A two months supply was $1.40. How cheap! I’m not one to take meds. though. I have to have an extremely bad headache to even take an Advil or Ibuprofen. (I do take bioidentical hormones because I'm over 50.) I decided to go home and research Trazodone. I saw a lot of bad reviews out there; then I found some research done by a Dr. that’s an endocrinologist, Dr. Calvin Ezrin. He talks about the relationship between serotonin, insomnia and obesity. I had gained weight over the years, so I decided if Trazodone would help me sleep AND lose weight, I was willing to give it a chance. I found from my research, that anything less than 50 mg. is usually used for insomnia, and anything over 50 mg. is used for depression. This is how I feel about Trazodone so far, and this is just my opinion, from my own experience. Again, I’ve only been taking it for a week. Things COULD change. Those patients that experience bad side effects are taking too much, if they are taking it for insomnia. I first tried 10 mg, but I didn’t sleep all through the night. Then, I slowly upped the dose to 50mg. as prescribed. You have to experiment with the dose to see what works for you. In my opinion, (check with your Dr.) do not go over 50 mg. if you are taking Trazodone for insomnia. Even though I’ve only been on Trazodone for a short period of time, so far, my life has changed dramatically, and as an added bonus, I’ve lost 8 pounds. The secret to not gaining weight and retaining water on Trazodone? Low carb/Paleo/Atkins diets. I DO NOT get hungry on Trazodone. Dr. Ezrin stated that it is important to follow a low carb diet while taking Trazodone. I think I read somewhere that people that eat carbs with Trazodone get puffy and retain water. Apparently, once you’ve been on Trazodone and built up the levels of serotonin in your brain and you’ve lost the weight...... then you stop taking Trazodone, and your sleep patterns return to normal. He says, once you lose the weight, you wean yourself slowly off of Trazodone. Some of his patients didn’t even have to wean themselves, being on such a low dose, they stopped cold turkey. Here’s a link I found about Dr. Ezrin, and he also wrote a book called, “Your Fat Can Make You Thin.”
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life...or/lhdoc224.htm
(I bought his book. I don't agree with low carb low fat and eating only 1000 calories like he says. I'm doing fine on Atkins with Trazodone.)
The only side effect I’ve experienced so far, is feeling sleepier in the morning when I wake up. That brought me back to the years that I didn’t suffer from insomnia. That’s normal to wake up groggy, because you’ve been asleep for 8 hours. After I make my morning coffee and feed my dogs, I feel great! Dr. Ezrin also said that we must have at least 7 to 8 hours of sleep every night. I thank God that I’m able to sleep again. I say give Trazodone a chance. Talk to your Doctor. Don’t jump to conclusions or make judgement about Trazodone until you try it. I’m so glad I gave Trazodone a chance.
(p.s. take it at bedtime with food to be more effective. Also, Trazodone is not in the same category as Prozac, Lexapro etc. Those will not have the same effect as Trazodone. It's complicated, but he discusses that in his book.)
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The connection between insomnia, serotonin and weight gain.
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