new medication

[vicman]

Hi to everybody, I’m new to this forum and I’d like some advice from those who may have been on medication for awhile then changed to, or added a new medication. I have been taking medication for about 10 years now and I find sleep difficult. I was getting to sleep easy enough but staying asleep was impossible. I’d wake 3 - 4 times a night and eventually get up at around 5AM after about 6 hours of broken sleep. My doctor has put me on a second type of medication (now I take two types) to  help with my sleep; it has helped as now as I get 7 hours of sleep a night but I feel lethargic for much of the next day. Has anybody have any advice as to how long this may last?

[white knight]

Hi Vicman welocme

I have a long history of taking the wrong medication (due to the wrong diagnosis) for 5 years then the correct medication and tweeking same to get it where it is today- ideal.

When I was like yourself, lethargic the next day I changed to take my medication a few hours earlier. It worked. Instead of taking them at 10pm I'd take them at 7pm. The bulk of my medication's effect was during the middle of my sleeping period. It meant that after about 2 hours from wakening the next morning my head was clear of side effect.

Obviously consult your doctor about this if you feel it a good idea.

Tony WK

[vicman]

Thanks WK (tony) for your reply. I would never recommend to anybody to do what I’ve done without consulting their doctor first but I stopped taking the second medication. I was on it for just 3 weeks and I still take the original medication as prescribed so it’s not like I stopping all meds. The second medication was to help with sleep, it was doing that okay. The problem was I felt lethargic and a bit angry most of the next day. I seemed to me I was swapping tiredness through lack of sleep for tiredness as a medical hangover. I had little to no enthusiasm for anything, I would look at things I wanted to do then think to myself “buggar it I’ll do it later”. To make matters worse I was still having an afternoon sleep just like I sometimes had before. I stopped taking the medication two nights ago and I feel better for it, I even managed to go for a 2 Km walk this morning.

[geoff]

dear Vicman, I believe that we have already spoken, never the less this is another new post and what you have asked is what concerns people so much.

Can I give you a funny answer, no, not funny, but the medication that you maybe taking and certainly many of us also take, do make us tired, but what happens is that we become climatised to them as they wear into our system, that is we get used to them, which is what happens with myself, and I love having a cat-nap.

We then learn to work around them, change the times we take them, and then adjust the times that may suit us. Geoff.