# Is seroquel safe for sleep at 25-100mg/night??



## hanzsolo (Jan 2, 2011)

Hi all,

I was wondering if taking 25-100mg of seroquel to sleep is safe.. I read that there is a risk of movement disorders, but was wondering if it applies to this dosage. If it does then obviously I won't take the risk, not worth it. 

I haven't even tried it yet so am not even sure I'd like it, but wanted to check in before even starting. 

Also could it interfere with my other meds and make them less effective due to dopamine shutdown etc ??

Any feedback is much appreciated
Thanks


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## newboki (Sep 13, 2009)

hanzsolo said:


> Hi all,
> 
> I was wondering if taking 25-100mg of seroquel to sleep is safe.. I read that there is a high risk of movement disorders, but was wondering if it applies to this dosage. If it does then obviously I won't take the risk, not worth it.
> 
> ...


Hey man stay away from those stuff even if you just touch seroquel with a finger you could get permament movement disorder. So watch out man. Why don't you take buspar it is the most effective and good for sleep better than dangerous antipsychotic.


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## Takerofsouls (Oct 20, 2010)

I took serequel for quite some time as a sleep aid. It worked great, but before i got to sleep I would see spiders everywhere, covering the walls and everything so I stopped taking it and switched to Imovane. By the way I dont have a movement disorder.


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## jim_morrison (Aug 17, 2008)

I take it Trazodone and Zopiclone have failed? As I would certainly consider those first, however personally I think 25-100 mg is safe, as Seroquel does not significantly occupy the Dopamine receptors below >250 mg/day.

http://www.europeanneuropsychopharmacology.com/article/S0924-977X%2800%2900133-4/abstract



> _Results:_ Mean D2 receptor occupancies of 41 and 30% were observed at quetiapine doses of 750 and 450 mg/day. At lower dose levels no occupancy could be determined


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## Medline (Sep 23, 2008)

In doses used for sleep Seroquel mainly acts as a strong antihistamine and is very likely safe.

Benadryl, Trazodone, Mirtazapine and sedating TCAs are good first options IMHO. And of course zolpidem & zopiclone are very effective in general.


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## Arisa1536 (Dec 8, 2009)

i am back on them, but only 25 -50 mg and yeah that is a safe amount for sleep
when i was on 150 mg for a month i did not get a movement disorder, they do not guarantee you will get one and at 25 mg i doubt it. Buspar was terrible for sleep and the headache and nausea was atrocious, stay away from that. 

I agree zopiclone is good  but harder to get prescribed as apposed to seroquel or mirtazapine which prove to be very easy


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## Briisthebest (Apr 1, 2011)

Seroquel is actually different in many ways than other AP's and the less amount you take the more sedating it is. That is why you see people who use it and want to function take high amounts which has an adverse relationship with most other drugs and the more you take the mor sedating it is.


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## jim_morrison (Aug 17, 2008)

Medline said:


> In doses used for sleep Seroquel mainly acts as a strong antihistamine and is very likely safe.
> 
> Benadryl, Trazodone, Mirtazapine and sedating TCAs are good first options IMHO. And of course zolpidem & zopiclone are very effective in general.


+ 1

Doxepin and Trimipramine in low doses are likely the best Tricylic options for insomnia, ie; higher affinity (as an antagonist) for sleep-enhancing receptors (H1, 5-HT2A, α_1_) and lower affinity for monoamine reuptake and cholinergic receptors than Amitriptyline at low doses.

Antidepressants for the Treatment of Insomnia;
http://www.scribd.com/doc/23423209/Antidepressants-for-the-Treatment-of-Insomnia


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## Arisa1536 (Dec 8, 2009)

jim_morrison said:


> + 1
> 
> Doxepin and Trimipramine in low doses are likely the best Tricylic options for insomnia, ie; higher affinity (as an antagonist) for sleep-enhancing receptors (H1, 5-HT2A, α_1_) and lower affinity for monoamine reuptake and cholinergic receptors than Amitriptyline at low doses.
> 
> ...


Yeah i agree  well i am a bit of a TCA bias but :lol i found nortriptyline was great not only for sleep without grogginess in the morning, pamelor does not sedate you to the point u cant think properly, and they dont make u insanely hungry and for me i have not personally found any change in weight and its been well over a good month since starting them 

i would not usually ever take seroquel, but i have no option right now and it is working for the horrendous effexor withdrawals, i mean its worth being sleepy and eating more if its only a few days because i would not wish the effects of withdrawing and wash out from effexor :afr

There are much better medications that work on depression and anxiety
like jim and medline have both mentioned and they are not "Addictive" in the sense that the doctors classify so they are relatively easy to get prescribed


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## hanzsolo (Jan 2, 2011)

Thanks so much for the replies everyone 

Would TCAs aggravate my RLS? Because most SSRIs have ( so that rules out mirtazapine I guess, which I have here in stock lol) and I'm pretty sure that I remember reading that TCA and others do also. 
EDIT - medline replied in another thread that low dose doxepim should not cause serotonin to go up much, so that may be a good solution and not aggravate my RLS. Sorry there are 2 threads on this topic now, this one started with seroquel 

Also isn't Zopiclone very addictive ?? I read that it's similar to a benzo and there are tolerance issues, withdrawal, etc.. Also am not sure I even got much benefit at 7.5mg, possibly need a higher dose ??

Trazodone left me feeling very strange after 3-4 days, some paranoia, not much benefit sleeping, no idea why. So had to stop it. It DID get me in the mood with my wife though, so she loves it now :boogie

So in summary - I guess it will be doxepim, nortriptyline or trimipramine first, then maybe a higher dose of Zopiclone, and then seroquel if those dont work.. 

Have a great day and thanks again


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## jim_morrison (Aug 17, 2008)

Cool, yeah I think your best first option is to try 10 mg Doxepin (even half that amount is enough to put some people to sleep apparently).


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## Arisa1536 (Dec 8, 2009)

hey hanz
yeah zopiclone can be addictive because its also a potent anxiolytic so the feeling of slight euphoria can decrease over time and you find that you need more than 7.5 mg to do the job but when mixed with a TCA, its very good at 7.5 mg because the TCAs seem to enhance the potency of nonbenzodiazepine and benzodiazepine drugs

As jim said, starting with doxepin is a good idea and the safest choice because its a low dose and over time u could increase it and it would work as an antidepressant quite well too


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## hanzsolo (Jan 2, 2011)

Thanks 

I will give doxepim a try and see how that goes..

I have to admit that i tried seroquel 25mg the last couple of nights (just for a trial) and slept like a baby - I normally wake up 10x per night and didn't wake up once. Plus I wasn't all groggy the next morning either. 

That being said, I rather use a TCA if possible...


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## jim_morrison (Aug 17, 2008)

25 mg of Seroquel is a really low dose, if that dose can work well for your sleep without side effects such as grogginess then maybe just go with that.

I'm trying out a sedating TCA myself tonight, I'll let you know how it goes.


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## hanzsolo (Jan 2, 2011)

Thanks jim pls keep me posted on your experience 

Come to think of it - the first night I took it around 11pm and was very groggy the next morning for a couple of hours.

So instead last night (my 2nd night) i took it at 9pm, was asleep by 930pm, and then woke up at 6am (like usual).. 8.5 hours = pretty amazing for me, I usually sleep 5-6 hours at best.. I was a little groggy upon waking up but was fine once I got out of bed and ate...

Will keep u posted

Thanks


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## jim_morrison (Aug 17, 2008)

That's cool, when I tried seroquel briefly for insomnia, I found that 25 mg wasn't quite enough for me, it kind of made me feel half asleep, but half awake. But when I raised the dose to 50 mg it seemed to work a bit better. I only trialed it for about a week though.

But anyway I'm trialling trimipramine tonight, so we'll see how that goes.

I used to take 7.5 - 15 mg of mirtazapine for insomnia which worked really well, but the side effects were a bit too crazy, I do miss the sleep it gave me though.


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