Posted by tygereyes on April 12, 2006, at 1:59:06
In reply to Re: Managing with very reduced sleep (from Parnate), posted by JaclinHyde on April 12, 2006, at 1:40:26
My sleep experience:
If I took Parnate after 2:00 p.m. I'd be up all night. One night, I panicked because I had forgotten to take my dose at the proper time so I took 100 mg Topamax, 6.5 mg Ambien CR, 10 mg Ambien, 50 mg Seroquel - and I was STILL awake all night. Drugged and delerious, but awake.
Try to split the doses up 20 mg and 20 mg at a time. I used to take 20 mg at 8 am and 20 mg from 10 am - 12 pm. Unfortunately, you will get the "crash" effect but this becomes less profound as your body becomes accustomed to the medicine.
So that's my first piece of advice.
Then I realized that I had both problems staying AND falling asleep. So I started taking Ambien to fall asleep and Ambien CR to stay asleep. Mostly, this worked. I had to stop taking it when I started binge-eating on Ambien, though.
I was taking 80 mg of Parnate (120 was my absolute highest dose but the side effects were just too profound) and then lowered it to 40 - now I'm trying to get off of it, taking it erratically, and I take 25 mg Seroquel for sleep and 75 mg Topamax. This seems to work some nights but not others. I'm thinking about going back to Ambien CR, which never caused me to binge, as long as I have the other two to help me fall asleep initially.
I've always had problems with insomnia but I never thought all-nighters would become such a regular occurrence.
My advice when you realize it's really late and there's no way you're going to sleep:
Don't panic. This is number one. I used to panic and take as many pills as I could to try and induce sleep. This rarely worked and would leave me drugged and disoriented and sometimes I'd fall asleep six hours later and have to call in sick to work. Not a good idea. Read a good book, watch a movie, stay calm.
Take your next a.m. dose as early as possible. WITH caffeine. (Yes, I know caffeine is contraindicated. But I have always been a heavy caffeine drinker and as long as my last cup was before 2 p.m., it didn't influence my sleep. I have never had a hypertensive crisis due to caffeine and I LOVE my sugar free Red Bulls). Anyway, this will provide the speed-like kick to get you through the morning.
Go to sleep early, but not too early. A few hours earlier than usual, to make up for the sleep you lost the night before. Try to get back on a regular sleep schedule.
And don't ever take Benadryl - Parnate gave me akathisia and Benadryl made it a million and a half times worse. It was practically an out of body experience. I wanted to jump out of my skin.
poster:tygereyes
thread:632009
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060408/msgs/632057.html