Tried melatonin? It can be useful, especially when the hits are hardest at night and circadian cycles are messed up.

I haven't heard of melatonin making it worse for anyone. I'd start at about 6-9 mg, 30 minutes before you go to bed. It may take a couple of days. Helps a lot of people avoid the nite hits.

Are you on any preventative medications yet? Verapamil, Lithium, there are many to read about on the meds board. Lithium, at 1200 mg a day, blocks 70-80% of my attacks and eliminates most of the night hits for me.

Joe

Im not a fan of topomax.

Melatonin made it worse for me for ht efirst 2 days I took it and then it got better and was helpful.  I dont think I;m alone in the regard that it DID get worse but then ended up being a big benefit.

Have you tried a prednizone taper....... they always seemed to work for a few days for me and let me get much needed sleep.

It does sound as if you need to get ma new "cocktail".

PFDA!!!!

monty wrote on Feb 15^th, 2009 at 9:04pm:


yep that works for me as well. give it a couple days to work. heres a few suggestions.

use a vaporizer or a humidifier in the roam your sleeping in. moisture is the key.

open a window in your bedroom. the colder the better. i've actually gone so far as sleeping on the porch in a lawn chair.  sounds crazy doesn't it

keep your o2 handy for when you wake up. DON'T WAIT!. as soon as you wake up crank it up and suck it in. don't kid yourself. once it wakes you up it's going to get worse.

use  those breathrite strips that go over your nose.

be sure to elevate your head. try sleeping in a recliner.

keep this in mind. theres going to be nights when your not going to get sleep no matter what you do. you have to except the fact that sleep is a trigger. what ever you do try to keep your sanity. you'll be alright

Before I discovered Melatonin, my neurologist prescribed naratriptan (Amerge) at bedtime. No insurance company in their right mind will pay for a triptan used as a preventative, so my neurologist supplemented my script with samples. Worked great for a couple of months to get me through that particular cycle.

I recommend you to try Promethazine before sleeping, while I recommend Prednisolone for preventive medication for attacks

I tried Promethazine (Phenergan) 20 mg before sleeping and slept deep and good enough.

the difficulty in sleeping is coming from problems in hypothalamus in brain that controls the auto system of the body and timings. i think maybe promethazine ahs some efffects on hypothalamus also.
I didnt tried the melatonine but i used crude Olive oil also that has some melathonine.

wish you good sleeping

Farzad

On the other side of the coin with topamax. I've taken it since 99 and swear by it. It's been my magic bullet. I take 100mg at night along with melatonin (15-18mg) and sleep at night.

This has worked for me for years. I get thru the nights and am rested to fight during the days. It took a while for the melatonin to start working but when it did it worked, so give it a fair shot before you say it won't work.

As far as the topamax goes. I've been on some high doses - for years I was on 300mg at night, but am down to 100mg (maintenance dose) right now. It depends on the level of the CH (that's what my neuro says).

I use O2 for aborts and very occasionally cafergot.

The thing is you have to give things a fair shot to see if they work. A month or so at least. You can't tell after a day or two. Some of these meds take a while to get in your system. A lot of docs will give a pred taper while the other meds are getting in your system.

Hope you're pain free soon.

Hugs BD