SleepEasy Program to Reduce and Eliminate the Need for Sleep Medication—Without Withdrawal
Please read this page well before you are actually going to begin reducing your sleep medication. Midway through this page are descriptions of two small accessoriess to purchase, which are important for your medication reduction.
Overview
Although SleepEasy is about ultimately being able to sleep without medication, it's important to acknowledge that sleep medication is very useful for some people because it’s far better to sleep with medication than to not sleep.
The SleepEasy app gives you guidance about initially continuing to take your medication and adding the SleepEasy method. You'll find yourself falling asleep more quickly and easily than you previously did with just the medication. That's proof you're not just being drugged—your body is learning how to sleep better on its own. Continue taking your sleep medication for however many nights you wish, to build your confidence in your improved ability to sleep. As you gain confidence in that, the need for medication begins to naturally fall away.
Don't just use your mind's determination to decide when to begin medication reduction ("I'm going begin reducing medication soon!"). Instead, using the SleepEasy method plus your medication, wait until you are sleeping well with that combination for a while, so you have confidence in that. Wait until after you've had enough good nights' sleep so your nervous system is calming down. After that, then you can consider beginning to begin reducing your dosage of sleep medication.
Sleep medication reduction should be carried out in consultation with your physician or nurse practitioner. We have created a summary of the SleepEasy Sleep Medication Reduction Program. Please email this URL to your physician's office and ask them to please forward it to your physician or nurse practitioner. Then your physician will be informed for when you have your appointment.
The SleepEasy Sleep Medication Reduction Program provides resources which enable you to reduce 2% per night. That is such a small reduction, your body doesn't notice it, making it even easier to reduce medication without withdrawal. At that gradual rate, complete reduction takes about two months, but you don't need to wait until after you have completed medication reduction to feel relieved. You will feel great relief and encouragement to be in the process of gradually reducing.
If your medication is in pill form, the precise and gradual reduction will involve you crushing your pills. If your pills are time-release, those shouldn't be crushed. Ask your physician to prescribe that medication in regular, not time-release form. sleepeasymethod.com/physician gives your physician a full understanding of this program.
Materials
To follow this gradual reduction process, you will need the following:
Digital milligram scale $24.99 on Amazon. This makes it possible to accurately measure very small amounts of reduction. The use of this is explained below.
Pill crusher $7.49 on Amazon.
Steps
This will involve some preparation steps. However, once you are set, the medication reduction process is easy.. Follow these instructions once you have your scale and pill crusher with you.
The report has 100 rows, corresponding to percentages going from 100% of medication, gradually down to 0.
With the buttons at the bottom of your report, you can:
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I recommend that you reduce 2% per night. That is such a small amount, your body won't even notice that reduction.
Do that for the first 60% of reduction, so that will take 30 days.
Then when you progress from 40% to 0, I recommend you reduce 1% per night.
With that, the complete process will involve about two months total.
While you'll feel very good when you can sleep well without any medication, you don't have to delay until then to feel good, because simply being in the process of gradually reducing will feel very encouraging right away.
Write down what reduction you are using that night, so the next night you know what next reduction to go to.
If you have a challenging night, the next night go back to full dosage for one night. Then return to the dosage you were at before the challenging night. Stay at that dosage for 1-2 nights before going to the next lower dosage.
So, it will be a total of 2-3 nights "pause."
Although that slows your progress, the knowledge that you have the "safety net" of being able to temporarily return to full dose for one night will give you comfort and assurance, and that comfort will help you progress.
When you are progressing well with your sleep medication reduction, you can consider adding natural sleep supplements to give you comfortable support as you further reduce and then your pharmaceutical sleep medication and then want to sleep well without it. For information on effective natural sleep supplements, go to https://www.sleepeasymethod.com/resources