Doxepin - low dose, used for insomnia

I've had chronic insomnia my whole life and now it's worse because I have adrenal fatigue in which my body pumps out cortisol in the middle of the night but puts out very low amounts in the morning and afternoon when its supposed to be awake and functioning the most. I'm working on curing the adrenal fatigue, but in the meantime I need to work, and for that I need to sleep.

My doctor gave me a prescription for 10 mg doxepin, which is working very well for me. It's a tricyclic antidepressant at higher doses, but at a low dose it functions as a sleep aid, specifically for people like me who can get to sleep but wake up many times per night and are unable to get back to sleep.

The first few days it gave me a horrible sleep hangover that lasted six hours after I got out of bed, but my doctor told me to stick with it and assured me I would develop a tolerance. He was right, and now I'm sleeping more deeply than I ever have in the past, and the sleep hangover effect is growing progressively shorter.

However, the instructions say you should take the pill on an empty stomach, and not within 3 hours of a meal. I am subject to hypoglycemia, and it wakes me up in the middle of the night. I have to eat a late dinner and a snack before bed or I get very low blood Sugar in the middle of the night, and wake up having a panic attack, despite the doxepin.

Also, doxepin takes about 3 hours to reach its peak plasma concentration (meaning, to work at its full capacity in the body) so I've been taking it at 6pm, then I eat dinner at 7:30 (only 1.5 hours after taking the pill, but I can't help it! I have to eat dinner.) I still take melatonin, tryptophan, lemon balm, gaba, etc, once before bed, and again when I wake at 2am. I used to take all these natural supplements alone and they didn't work. With the doxepin alone I don't sleep as well, but when I combine doxepin with two rounds of these natural supplements, I find my sleep quality is the best. So, I take the supplements around 9pm, get into bed around 9:30 and fall asleep around 10:30. It still takes that long to calm my racing mind.

Does anyone else take this prescription and have advice for me? When do you take it and when do you eat dinner?

Also, doxepin is famous for making people gain 10 pounds or more and I really don't want this to happen to me. Usually people gain the weight at doses of 50mg and above, and I'm only on 10mg, but still, I really, really don't want to gain weight. Is anyone else on a low dose like me, and have you gained weight from it?

Thank you for any information you may have! Tweet