Exstacy and sleep

[suckerlove55]

I used to do alot of exstacy and I had an occurance of insomnia a year before i started taking MDMA but it went away after a month or so. I was sleeping fine even during the period of time where i would do alot of E ( at least twice a week).. of course i didnt sleep the nights i was On the drug though. But about a month after i quit my insomnia has returned... worse than before. Do you think it might be because i totally screwed up my sleeping cycles by doing so much exstacy and not getting enough sleep (yet functioning fine without sleep) for about 3 months? and now my body doesn't know how to just crash? I know it might be kinda silly.. and i dont want to be lectured about how the drug is bad and such.. cause that was my choice and im totally done with it. I just am wondering if anyone knows the affect E can have on your sleep.

[panta-rei]

I do not know for certain the effects of the drug on sleep. I would guess, that it does not have that much of an effect. You say that after a month of being off the drug, the insomnia returns? I doubt it is because of the lack of sleep you got before... Otherwise, it probably would have happened the day after you stopped taking it. What could be the cause is some sort of dependancy... I'm not sure if the body needs ecstasy after taking it for a while, but I would assume so. As it does this with many other drugs. That could probably cause insomnia

[GySi]

I do not know for certain the effects of the drug on sleep. I would guess, that it does not have that much of an effect. You say that after a month of being off the drug, the insomnia returns? I doubt it is because of the lack of sleep you got before... Otherwise, it probably would have happened the day after you stopped taking it. What could be the cause is some sort of dependancy... I'm not sure if the body needs ecstasy after taking it for a while, but I would assume so. As it does this with many other drugs. That could probably cause insomnia My own understanding of MDMA is that it doesn't have a strong dependency like other drugs such as heroin, ice, or nicotine. The "come-down" is where the user generally has the biggest urge to take more, but the days, weeks, and months following usage there is little to none.

[panta-rei]

Ah, okay. Well, then, I highly doubt the ex had an effect on your sleep.

[blahaha]

E is an upper so I doubt that quitting would give you insomnia, if anything you'd sleep a lot. At least that what happens with meth, and they're closely related. I've never done E for prolonged periods of time so I don't have experience with that. I've only done it several times with weeks or months in between. It's probably something else, it's hard to say but it could be depression. My insomnia is always worse when I'm depressed and the E could have made your depression go away for awhile. Of course you might not be depressed at all but that's just a theory, I don't know enough to make a real guess. Good luck with that.

[Bayside]

I think blahaha may be on to something. I highly doubt that the insomnia is caused by the ecstasy. From my knowledge of it's biological workings, it shouldn't have any affect on your sleeping patterns, especially after a prolonged period of non-usage. Ecstasy doesn't develop any sort of dependency in your body, in fact, the more you use it, the more inclined you will eventually be to stop it, because the comedowns will soon start to outweigh the high. Generally, if you use more than once every month to two months, without neuroprotective agents, meaning anti-oxidation supplements (vitamin C, green tea extract, vitamin B) to stop neurotoxicity in the brain, you will eventually burn out your serotonin axons in your brain, and the roll will soon become less fun, and you'll experience more depression, as your axons have been destroyed past the point of repair. Since you have less axons to take in serotonin, which is the hormone that causes happiness and feelings like that in your body, you have generally less happiness, and this leads to depression. So, after extended periods of abuse, it's likely that you've done some damage to your system. The best thing I can recommend for you, is stay off all drugs for awhile if you haven't already, eat healthy, and exercise. As well as this, you may want to consider taking 5-HTP and a dopamine supplement. 5-HTP is a precursor to serotonin, so it can help replenish the serotonin in your brain that you may be suffering from a lack of after extended ecstasy use. A dopamine supplement would also be necessary, because if you have an imbalance of the two, it will generally wear the other one out, or so is my understanding. Eating well and exercising should help with depression, if that is what you're suffering from. As well as that, it should help your body to function better overall. Generally, our sleeping patterns stay pretty steady as humans, we have internal body clocks that tell us when to get up and when to go to bed. The lack of light exposure causes the release of melatonin in your body, which helps sedate you for the night, which is why humans sleep at nighttime instead of day. As well as this, our bodies use internal clocks as I mentioned above, that are regulated by our core body temperatures. When your core body temperature starts rising for the day, your body tells you it's time to wake up. At nighttime, it begins to fall, which tells you it's time to go to sleep. Exercise can help stimulate your core body temperature to get you feeling awake early in the morning, so that by the time night comes around, you should be good and tired. Follow a schedule of early morning exercise, and this should eventually help you to begin to be able to get to sleep at nighttime. That is, assuming that your sleeping difficulties aren't caused by something else in your life, like high caffeine/sugar intake, or stress, or depression. Hope this helps. Good luck.