I have never realy been a good sleeper but lately it has been even worse often waking up very early for the toilet and not getting back to sleep and sometimes not getting to sleep at all.
I saw my GP today and he gave me a course of Zopiclone, I have never heard of this drug and was just wondering if any body else had sleep problems or have heard of this drug or even tried it?
Raggamuffin I too have sleep problems and end up downstairs at least a couple of times in the night 
my doctor dosen’t want to give me anything as I’m home alone most nights with two children (hubby works abroad a lot) I go back to bed once the children have gone - is this something you are able to do? Have to say that is the better sleep of the two for me, maybe because I know there is nothing to disturb me, other than the phone/door and I usually ignore them as both children have a key and can get in if needs be. Sue x
Hi,
It’s quite a commonly prescribed sleeping tablet. I’ve had it before, but not in connection with MS. Be careful after taking it - especially if you don’t go straight to bed - as although you might not feel intoxicated (I didn’t, anyway), it can have strange effects on memory, so you cann’t remember things you did between taking it and falling asleep.
I once reconfigured the computer, and although I was sober enough (apparently!) to complete it without messing up, I had absolutely no recollection of it the next day, to the point I believed I’d been “hacked” - except that it must have been by a very benign hacker, who’d done things I’d been meaning to do anyway. After discussing it with people, I was reluctantly persuaded it must have been my own work - but I had absolutely no recollection of it.
I also had apparently quite lucid and sensible conversations with people, that afterwards I couldn’t recall at all.
Seems as if rational functioning was unimpaired, but events didn’t get stored to memory, so I would feel quite paranoid that things had happened I didn’t know about. It wasn’t a general problem - only if I took it, but didn’t go straight to bed. In the hour or so before retiring, I’d do stuff I wouldn’t remember. It’s nice if it happens to be stuff like housework: either I’d had the world’s most kindhearted burglar, or pixies had visited. Still a bit unnerving if there’s only you in the house, though.
The only other thing I have to say about it is it leaves a very bitter, metallic aftertaste in the mornings. It’s actually expressed in saliva, which makes the taste quite hard to get rid of.
Overall, I didn’t really like the drug. It did make me sleep, but I never really felt as if it had been good quality, natural sleep.
The solution for me turned out to be to discontinue another drug which had been causing the insomnia, and then I didn’t need the Z any more either. Obviously, if your insomnia is NOT drug-related, then fiddling about with your other meds won’t be the answer for you.
Tina
I can only speak from the experience of a carer/partner who had to deal with the effects of this drug on my husband…weird behaviour, aggressive behaviour, ringing people up throughout the night with as reported previously no memory of doing so, and on one occassion freaking out and trashing most of the living room whilst I hid in the bedroom and called an ambulance.
He has been switched to Nytol and that seems to be fine.
I have no idea if it is an MS thing but hubby seems to have a bad reaction to several drugs which seem to trigger aggressive responses…IV Steroids and Zopliclone and Citralapram (anti depressent) which triggered a psychotic episode and suicidal ideation …this all within a few months of meeting him… we got through it though and I married him a few years later…
i used to work in health care and zopiclone from my experiance works well for most. It can be intense but your body can build a resistance to it i used to work with a little lady who was 4ft tall and 6stn and a full dose didnt touch her and then a 21stn 6ft3 bloke who was knocked out by half a tablet you will just have to give it a go and see how it works for you as all people are diffrent and are effected differntly by diffrent meds. If it dosent work properly or causes other problems go back to your gp as there are other drugs that can be tryed with you. James