Insomnia is horrible and it can wreak havoc on all areas of your life. If you can’t sleep, you can’t think, and if you can’t think, you can’t do your job well. It puts your emotions on edge and relationships suffer. It can affect your appetite and sleep-deprived people will either eat too much or too little. Prolonged insomnia can have seriously detrimental effects on mental health, and after a while of not sleeping, people start to hallucinate.

Unfortunately, insomnia is something that many “floxies” suffer from. Fluoroquinolones inhibit the neurotransmitter GABA-A, “the chief inhibitory neurotransmitter in the mammalian central nervous system. It plays the principal role in reducing neuronal excitability throughout the nervous system.” Fluoroquinolones have similar effects on neurotransmitters to what happens when people go through benzodiazepine withdrawal–antagonism of the GABA-A receptors which leads to anxiety, psychosis, paranoia, paraesthesia, tinnitus, hypersensitivity to light and sound, tremors, suicidal ideation and tendencies, and INSOMNIA.

There is a vicious cycle when it comes to insomnia–if you can’t sleep, your anxiety and paranoia increase, which can make you even less able to sleep, and the cycle goes on.

Fortunately, many people have found relief from their insomnia. Here are some tips that people have provided for things that have helped them to sleep, and have relieved the cycle of fluoroquinolone-induced insomnia:

  1. Eliminate all sources of caffeine from your diet.
  2. Sleep in a completely dark room–either black-out your windows or set up a cot in a closet.
  3. Use ear-plugs.
  4. Melatonin.
  5. Visualize sleeping soundly in a peaceful place.
  6. Eat a banana before bed.
  7. EHT from Nerium.
  8. Cannabis.
  9. Eliminate alcohol from your diet.
  10. Calm Spirit Pills (Chinese Medicine).
  11. Meditation.
  12. Epsom salt baths.
  13. Borax baths.
  14. Baking soda baths.
  15. Prayer.
  16. A few spritz of magnesium oil spray and a couple of drops of Frankincense oil on a piece of cloth under a pillowcase.
  17. Kavinace PM.
  18. Benadryl.
  19. Tylenol PM.
  20. Herbal/Supplement sleep aids
  21. Honey with sea salt under the tongue.
  22. Valerian root.
  23. Low-dose naltrexone.
  24. EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique).
  25. Acupuncture.
  26. Zinc monomethionine.
  27. Magnesium.
  28. Tart cherry juice.
  29. Exercise 4+ hours before bedtime.
  30. Cut down on salt intake.
  31. Hydrochloric Acid (HCL) supplement.
  32. No screens (computer, phone, t.v.) before bed.
  33. Gaia Sound Sleep.
  34. Natural Calm Magnesium.
  35. 5HTP.
  36. Emperor’s Tea Pills (Chinese Medicine).
  37. Hypnotization (through an app).
  38. Bioidentical progesterone.
  39. Ambien.
  40. Benzodiazepines.
  41. Turn off wi-fi.
  42. Avoid soy.
  43. Sleep-restriction therapy.
  44. Listen to the radio on a foreign station or a boring station.
  45. Relaxing music.
  46. Silva Meditation For Deep Relaxation.
  47. Breathing Exercises.
  48. Don’t eat red-meat for dinner.

I hope that these tips help you! Insomnia can be debilitating and tortuous. I hope that you find some relief from your insomnia through using some of the methods mentioned above!

Sources:

  1. Toxicology Mechanisms and Methods, “Ciprofloxacin-induced neurotoxicity: evaluation of possible underlying mechanisms.”
  2. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, “Neurotoxic effects associated with antibiotic use: management considerations”

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