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Zopiclone (Imovane) is a Z-drug. A safer zopiclone taper cuts a small percentage of the current dose — the dose you are on at the time of each cut, not the original one — so the cuts shrink as the dose gets lower. Build a sketch below, then read why a sketch is not enough.
Enter your current daily dose, choose a percentage per cut (5% is a common conservative default, 10% a faster one), and set how many days between cuts. Every cut removes a percentage of your current dose at the time of that cut — never a fixed slice of your original dose. That is why the cuts shrink in milligrams as you go down: an exponential (“hyperbolic”) curve, not a staircase.
The pre-filled jump dose (0.075 mg) is 1% of a typical zopiclone dose (7.5 mg/day) — a deliberately low target. For benzodiazepines like zopiclone, the Ashton Manual suggests jumping from about 0.5 mg diazepam-equivalent, roughly 0.75 mg of zopiclone. There is no single right answer: lower is generally gentler. Decide your real jump dose with your prescriber.
Here is the uncomfortable truth: the table above is a sketch, not your taper. The numbers that actually matter — the percentage you can tolerate, how long to hold after a rough cut, when to slow down near the bottom — are discovered only after you start, from how your body responds. Anyone selling you a fixed schedule upfront is guessing.
A real taper needs three things a static printout cannot give you: a daily symptom diary, the ability to recalculate the plan on the fly when life happens, and a documented history you can put in front of your prescriber. That is exactly what I built Guy’s Tapering Tool (GTT) to do — a Windows/Mac app with dynamic schedules, a built-in diary, and clean printable reports.
The best way to get it: book an intake session with me. You get a personalised taper protocol built around your drug, your history and your life — and GTT Full is included FREE, set up together in the session.
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Looking for a different medication? See the full list of taper calculators.
Most modern deprescribing guidance suggests cutting roughly 5–10% of your CURRENT dose — the dose you are on at the time of each cut, not your original dose — with 1–4 weeks between cuts, and going slower near the end. The right pace for zopiclone is the one your body tolerates: agree it with your prescriber and adjust to symptoms.
Because drug effects on the brain don’t scale in a straight line. At lower doses, each milligram occupies proportionally more receptors, so an even-sized cut hits harder the lower you go. Cutting a fixed percentage of your current dose — hyperbolic or exponential tapering — keeps each step’s impact roughly even.
The jump dose is the low dose you finally stop from. For benzodiazepines, the Ashton Manual suggests jumping from about 0.5 mg diazepam-equivalent. For antidepressants and most other psychiatric drugs there is no universal jump dose — the practical rule is to get as low as you reasonably can before stopping, because the last milligrams have an outsized effect on the brain. Decide the jump with your prescriber.
Hold. Staying at your current dose until you stabilise is not failure — it is how patient-led tapering works. If symptoms are severe, talk to your prescriber about returning to the last dose where you were stable before continuing more slowly.
No. This is a planning tool, not medical advice — and a pre-computed table cannot know how your body will respond. Do not use it without fully understanding how tapering works. Print the schedule, take it to your prescriber, and treat it as the start of a conversation.
→ Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal — Symptoms, Causes & What Helps
→ Crossing Zero: The Tail and the Jump — how to finish a taper
I went through this myself and now help others do it with a plan, not guesswork. The first 20-minute call is free — no obligation.
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