1. My doctor put me on Elavil for sleep and I had nightmares of being in pain that were so vivid that I can remember them to this day. I used to be extremely quiet and shy and so after several months I finally asked the doctor, IF you're waking up with nightmares, are you having a good nights sleep? He said no.
Now I know that FIbro people do find Elavil useful, but I have talked to plenty of people with Fibromyalgia who have also said Elavil gave them nightmares.

2. Thus began the search for medicine to help me sleep, and that search continued for years. Anything that helped, helped only for an extremely short period of time.

3. I had a friend with a severe, rare arthritis problem and one day she told me about the medicine that helped her sleep. So I asked my doctor if I could try it.

"Trazodone (Desyrel) is a non-addictive calming medication that that helps sleep." This is the title of one online doctor's Health Blog "Addressing Fibromyalgia with Trazodone" One of the conclusions from this article "Trazodone has a beneficial impact in managing fibromyalgia."

I hope this information will help someone who has been looking a long time for help sleeping. It's the only medication that ever helped me long term.

However, we are all unique ... the best medicine to help you sleep, is the one that works for you.

Yes sleep is a big fibro symptom. Sometimes depending on how long I haven't slept I will take a clonazapam but only once in a while because of how addictive they are. You could also ask your Dr for a sleeping pill that might help. Or take a benadryl. These are just a few suggestions. You have to find what works best for you. Hope that this helps some. Hugs

Lynn ... sleep is extremely important. You found something that works for you and that's what matters the most.

WebMD does list difficulty concentrating and confusion under Infrequent side effects from Trazadone. So certainly others can have this problem. I look at my life with Fibro in three parts. 1) The years I could not sleep. 2) Trazadone helping me to finally get quality sleep that I did not have for years and then getting me to a place I no longer needed to use medicine to fall asleep. I never had noticeable side effects from the Trazadone. 3) The auto accident, that drastically increased my Fibro pain.

Doxepin oral solution helps me! Nothing helps perfectly or fully for me, but when I find something helps a little, that is a little better I feel and I’m onboard. My pain doctor started me on this to see if it could take the edge off my fibro and chronic pain symptoms at night to allow me a better sleep. It does. I take it at night (it’s a liquid with a dropper which I mix into a small amount of water) with my other nighttime medications. I experience some benefit most nights. I started at 3mg and over time it has gone up to 5mg with my doctor’s help — it’s a small dose.

It might be something for you to explore with your doctor.

Wishing you all a more comfortable night!

Ask your doctor for a muscle relaxer.
I take melatonin algo with the muscle relaxer. It works most of the time but still have nights that I can’t sleep