I have been doing the whole- Any time i cant keep my eyes open, sleep thing. No matter what time it is. I still am tired a lot, and dont get more than 4 hours a day normally, sometimes after a long time with little sleep, ill sleep a whole bunch for a day, that is about it.

I hope you find something that works. Good luck!

Hope for a good night sleep in your near future!

Hi. I was experiencing the same issue. My doctor prescribed Cymbalta and it works for me. I don't wake up as much but I am also groggy sometimes during the day but it's definately worth it! Hope you find something that works for you.

I'm currently on the max doseage for Cymbalta (which is 120mg/day) but I don't feel like it or the Lyrica are helping me to get much sleep or relief anymore. It's been two years that I've been on those, mixed with pain meds and a few odds and ends so I suppose it might be time to try something else. I think sleep may be a commodity that will be in short supply for me this winter unfortunately. But thank you so much for the suggestions, I will try anything!

If you're finding better pain relief during the day, then keep a diary of how you're feeling, and when you're taking your meds. You doc might just need to alter your Rx instructions. Your pain relief will improve if you can get 8 hrs sleep per night!!!

At one point I was prescribed Melatonin as well, and it worked well. You may want to try downloading sleep inducing music as well--it can help.

I might not be the best person to reply since it's 4:30am and I haven't gotten a wink of sleep tonight, but here it goes anyway.

For me, it definitely varies. I'm a college student and I work 20 hours/week on top of homework, so I'm busy as it is. Needless to say, as great as it looks on the resume and prepares me for life after college, it not so great on the rsd. I don't get to my homework until like 9pm on a good night (sometimes as late as like 10 or 11 though...). I am typically "in bed" by around 1am or so. It gets hard though because sometimes, I'm in pain or my body just won't let me go to sleep, despite my tiredness (like now...). I kind of catch flack over it from one of my professors (she and my roommate are the only ones who know I barely sleep, though my roommate thinks it's just because I'm so busy...professor kind of knows the truth...) because she thinks I take the "as long as your body has under 4 hours of sleep, you're okay" rule a little to seriously. I basically abide by this rule when I can't sleep. If I know I'm going to bed past like 1am, I abide by this rule since I know I won't get a full night of sleep anyway. Since they body won't go through a whole REM cycle if you sleep under 4 hours, you're more rested than if you sleep like 5 or 6 (or up to the "normal" amount). When I'm home and not at school with my roommate (love her to death and all, but it's inconvenient having a healthy roommate who goes to bed at a normal time since I don't want to inconvenience her since she didn't ask for all of this), I find that watching a movies that I've seen over and over and over again help me sleep. Since I've seen them a lot, I won't get distracted by wanting to watch it. However, it has a comforting effect on me. I don't know how you are with sleeping to noise and such though.

Medicine-wise, I have a stash of Ambien to use for emergencies only. I try to avoid taking it if at all possible because I find, oddly enough, that it helps a ton with anxiety or when my body's in a haywire-type mode. I'm on muscle relaxer 4x a day, a daily medicine to help with inflammation and chest pain, and lyrica to help with pain. This doesn't necessarily help me sleep sadly, but it does at least minimize the intensity of the "normal" pain levels as well as minimize the intensity and duration of "regular" flares, especially at night.

I know this probably wasn't much help, but yeah.

Keeping a journal of sleep patterns and med times is a great idea, thank you! My family thinks that my body has body has become used to the meds I'm currently on but due to major drug allergies I have problems switching stuff up too much. I've also tried watching movies that I've seen many times, reading a book or even playing a game on the computer but now that it's cold out, I just can't get my pain under control. I understand what you mean about your roommate, my husband didn't exactly picture dealing with all of this either. My PCP gave me a sleep aid (Sonata) and it worked for about a month then it's seems like it stopped making me sleepy.

Be careful with Ambien, I was on it years ago, and I was definitely dependent and did some odd things while it when it was still in my system. I'd never take it again...

Narcotics make me very sleepy so luckily that helps during bedtime. I also often need to elevate my legs up high with pillows, which makes a difference too.

Ambien CR. Sleep like a baby every night.

I wish narcotics made me sleepy. Even after being on them for a long time, they still give me a burst of energy.