Insomnia

[TheWelshBoyo]

:grumpy:

I'm struggling with insomnia. I'm not managing to get to sleep until about 2:30am, waking up at various points throughout the night before being woken up at 7am to get up for school. Yesterday and today though, I've not gone to school.
As you can see in my sig, I'm on 30mg of prednisolone a day.
It's also really affecting me mentally. The insomnia is causing me to get all stressed which is just exacerbating the psychological side-effects of prednisolone.
Does anyone have any advice on how to deal with it for now? I'm going to see my GE on Monday, so I'm gonna let him know. I'll hopefully get him to prescribe me some sleeping pills if I'm still struggling by then.
Thanks everyone,
Rhys

 

[Dexky]

I've seen this theme on cf before. Most advise taking the pred as early in the day as possible. I'm a lousy person to advise anyone on their sleeping habits as mine are all over the map with no meds whatsoever. I'll get 3-4 hrs per night for several days then I'll sleep 7-8 for a day or two then back to 3-4. I've finally stopped fighting it. I know it's not the same thing as you're going through, just giving you some jibberish to read until someone who can actually help posts on your thread. Good luck Rhys.

 

[TheWelshBoyo]

Thing is, I've been having my prednisolone at 7/8am, and yet I'm still all screwed up with my sleeping.

 

[ukstephieandcolette]

Rhys - I too cannot sleep when on Prednisone, and 30 mg. is alot to take per day. My suggestion was going to be a medicine we have in the U.S. called "Zyprexa" - the other generic name is Olanzapine. It DEFINITELY helps sleep and keeps your sleep patterns consistant - and moods! I take Xanax when on prednisone so I don't go CRAZY!! As with anything, ask your doctor first, but you may be able to take one of these med.'s. the Zyprexa comes in 2.5 mg., 5 mg., and you can even get 10 mg. This really helped my moods and sleep. It's only one pill a day (at nite) about 2 hrs. before going to sleep. You get very restful sleep on that.

Hope this helps you out!

Colette the crohny... 24 yrs. and counting...
Stephanie the caregiver

 

[Astra]

Hi Rhys

when I was on Pred I had shocking insomnia too, but it does subside eventually.
I took Herbal Nytol, it was brill, makes you really drowsy.

 

[Mike]

I had the same issues, the doc put me on Seroquel and it would make me feel like I was drunk then an hour later I was passed out until whenever. I would be really groggy in the morning and in a fog the next day. So I started taking half a pill. Still would keep my asleep but no fog the next day.

 

[Jeff D.]

When I was on pred I wouldn't get to sleep until 6-8am and then sleep an hour or two and be up the rest of the day. I used to do pushups to try and get sleepy enough to sleep. I don't think anything really helped. I'm sorry you are having insomnia. It really sucks. I've only had two nights this past month where I have slept more than 4 hours in a night. I told you that to let you know you aren't alone.

 

[woops!]

Pred is crazy. I have had bad insomnia while on it, and now that I haven't had any pred in over a year I still suffer with it. (frustrating!) When I was on Pred, I would go to the 24 hr gym and bust my tail for about an hr or so usually at 2am (who does that?). I realy had to just push myself to the point where I would fall into the bed. wish I was more help, Sorry

 

[Vivvian's Mommy]

I had that problem where I would stay up from 5am til 3am.Myhubby then fiancee was in WA. so that was 3hour time difference then he deployed to Iraq which made it and 8 hour time difference so for me I was thinking no big deal.When my brother was home on leave he caught me staying up late.He didn't know though until a few after I was only getting 2hours of sleep.So he took me to the doctor and they put me on Amtriptalyne.I may have misspelled that but it was a combo of an antidepressant but helped slow my bowels so I wasn't up all night and it had me sleeping a full 8hours.

 

[TheWelshBoyo]

Ah...
Last night I went up extra early because I was exhausted from lack of sleep.
I actually managed to drift off to sleep around 10pm and slept through till 7:30am with one interruption in the night. Hopefully this is sign of things going well.
However, today I have been rather... insane. Brain fogginess and everything has stepped up a level. *sigh* Prenisolone... what a wonderful drug!

 

[I Love Lamp]

The joys of pred.

Thankfully im off it now but i used to be all over the place and never slept much.

When the sleeping issues kicked off i found the trick for me was exercise and routine. I tried to do some really heavy exercise around 7:30pm for about half hour - forty five mins. When i got in i would have a hot bath/shower and bed. I used to love having my tv on during the night but that had to go as i was already sleeping so lightly. Finally i made sure i only had small amounts to drink before bed as the pred was making me pee loads anyway.

Once i had done this for a couple of weeks my body seemed to know that it was time for bed and i slept much better.

Worked for me so maybe it can help you.

 

[TheWelshBoyo]

Yeah, definitely.
I've started trying to wind down much earlier. Last night, I actually managed to get some sleep! I mean, I drifted off at 1am, but that's a big improvement. Stayed asleep till Dad woke me up at about 7:20am. Let's hope it carries on like this!

 

[Silvermoon]

YAY! Sleep!! lol

I am not currently on the 'roids, but still have bouts of insomnia...they eventually sort themselves out, but tis difficult to deal with when you have a "life"...lol (ie school, work, kids to get up for, etc.).

I have found a lot of the "natural" sleep aids to be a bit better for me, personally.... help me sleep, but don't leave me so groggy in the morning.... St John's Wort, Valerian root (I think one of those is in the herbal Nytol Astra mentioned)... another one I started trying recently is melatonin...supposed to help "reset" the "sleep clock" rather than just sedate you.... a couple things to try anyway.

For the "grumpies" though, you may want to do a perscription med from the doc. When I WAS on prednisone, the one I used was amitriptyline (Elavil, Tryptizol, Laroxyl)... taken at night, as it has sedative properties. The only down side to this med was, I built up a tolerance to it over time, so as I continued to take it, the dose got higher and higher. However, I was on it for about 5 years - got addicted to it - was in a mess... blah blah blah. However, I was not being monitored properly, and did my own thing with it anyway :redface: so as long as you are monitored by a doctor while you are on it, and pay attention to what you are doing, it can be very beneficial as well.

Anywhos, good luck with everything. I will stop babbling all ovcer your thread now...LOL!
:redface:

 

[TheWelshBoyo]

Haha thanks for that.
I'm definitely gonna be asking my doctor for something. I'm going loopy.
I felt so stoned yesterday, probably why I could get to sleep. However, I've been a little psychotic other days. My head's all over the place.
I'm not really into herbal or alternative stuff. I'll probably end up with zopiclone for the insomnia. Who knows? Maybe I'll get Valium! I'll keep you all posted Going to see my doc on Monday.

 

[Silvermoon]

mmmmmmm Vallium.... LOL!!

Zopiclone is nice for sleeping too...I felt less "drugged out" the next day on that one as well.

 

[TheWelshBoyo]

My dad (an intensive care consultant) was the one who said I might be 'scribed zopiclone.
So, what are your experiences with it? Did you (still?) wake up at night? How long did it take to work? What about zolpidem? Have you tried that?

 

[Silvermoon]

Only time I woke up on it was if I was foolish enough to eat too much before bed, and had to wake up to use the toilet....although...sometimes I kinda slept through that too.... :redface: ... LOL! Oh well, you get used to crappin' yourself with this disease!

Otherwise I quite liked it! No grogginess the next day, no side effects that I remember, and I didn't build up a tolerance to it either.

Edit: Sorry haven't tried any others...so no opinions on anything else....

 

[TheWelshBoyo]

Ah right.
Thanks for that. It's a big help
And yes, I agree. On bad days, I've had to wear pads for the leaking... And I'm a teenage boy xD