Prednisone Insomnia - Any Quick Helpful Ideas?

If you're taking it all in the early am, I'm not sure what else could help you sleep at night, that alone always helped me sleep, taking it later in the day would cause me serious sleep issues...only thing I could suggest is trying an antihistamine that causes drowsiness rather than Tylenol pm cuz eventually the Tylenol will stop aiding with any actual pain that you would need it for...and it can cause constipation issues as any pain medication can.

Melatonin, maybe?

now y'all getting my drift regards to starting at as LOW a dose as possible - WELCOME NO SLEEP !!

don't fight it T man - you will not win this battle - ever - just make good use of the extra time you have on the earth - you won't never get it back -

seriously tho, sorry buddy - it sucks big time - but at least your responsibilities are less these days, so getting up for work, well it not happening so that is a big plus -

Have any of you tried melatonin while on pred, as fruitgirl is saying? Just taking it at bedtime?

I take Melatonin every night - a 5 mg extended release tablet. I take it about a half an hour before bedtime to give it time to kick in. When I was using pred enemas last year, I upped my dose, because I was struggling with insomnia.

Why have you been on Tylenol PM for years? You can take Benadryl, as it's the same active ingredient (diphenhydramine) as the "PM" portion of Tylenol PM. It's also sold as "simply sleep" and other such names. My guess is it's cheapest to buy generic benadryl.

I always eat extra bananas and drink coconut milk for potassium.

That time should be fine to exercise. Just try to make sure it's at least four hours before bedtime.

I find that my body is tired and my mind won't stop and I can't get into a solid sleep on prednisone. Maybe an audiobook or reading can pass time too.

I make certain to never take it early in the morning. I wait 1-2 hours for the adrenals to sense the absence of any cortisol natural or synthetic and do their job secreting cortisol to help later when tapering off.

But I don't wait any longer then I either take it all or I take 50% and taper with a bit after 8 hours and a smidgen late night to prevent urgency and promote sleep.

I also take Restoril to get to sleep quickly. SOMA works all night and is helpful. I try to not take SOMA very often. Restoril nightly.

Inability to sleep was from too much prednisone. Just enough seems to vanish by bedtime and I think the half-life is 4 hours which is why I boost 8 hours later if doing daily tapers.

I use Kava to knock me out when I wake up too early, I'm on Prednisone now and it wakes me up after only 3hrs of sleep and I can never go back to sleep no matter what I try. Kava does the trick for me!

Or peppermint tea...

Hey everyone. Thank you for all the replies. I got slammed with some work around my place and my rentals by mid-week and am just now slowly catching up. I read every one of your replies on Wednesday night... but I didn't have time to hardly think until now.

So, I have done a couple things:
-I'm taking my pain medicine 2x daily instead of 3... and taking the second dose at 3 pm or before which gives that medicine time to wear off before I sleep. (It also keeps me up, so that coupled with pred is just no good at all, haha).
-I found Kate's suggestion of Kava a cool idea. I don't know if it will help or not, but I ordered some that should have come in to my parent's mailbox yesterday. Have to run over there and pick them up.


Judging from all the things you guys have said about the prescription sleep meds I think I'm better off toughing this out for a bit longer and seeing if I can sustain myself on the 5-7 hours of sleep a night I'm getting now.

I did get bananas too like UCandMe suggested. I will start eating one a day at least starting tomorrow.

I wanted to respond to each of you individually, but that hasn't seemed in the cards. By the time I've sat down at night my mind is just kinda awake but unable to focus. Thanks for bearing with me and shooting me some great ideas!

I take ambien and try to get a good amount of exercise. I didn't have as tough of a time sleeping this time as i did last time but I think that's because I was on a higher dose at the time. I think any time I was on 20mg or more, I need a sleeping pill. I know it's not ideal, the last thing we want is to take another pill, but without sleep, I don't heal and I feel like hell so it's the better option for me.

juststud said...
hey T man - working out in the evening is typically not the best time if you're having sleep issues - it can tire you out, but at the same time it gets your body fired up -

i would try getting your workouts done earlier in the day - my preferred time is first thing in the am, like 5-6

Yes, this. Before we joined the Y and I started swimming, I was trying to do an aerobics DVD in the evenings after the kids went to bed, so around 8 pm, and it definitely messed with my sleep. I really like working out early in the morning, because of a lot of reasons:
1. I sleep better.
2. I'm much more likely to exercise early in the morning than I am any other time of day, especially than in the evening.
3. I make better food choices throughout the day - don't want to "ruin" the workout.
4. I feel really energized (especially after swimming).

Have you tried any homeopathic type remedies? Like chamomile tea or lavender essential oil? No harm in trying. If it works great, if not then you haven't done any harm.