Hi,
I just had my second Docetaxel drip. I'm on 5mg Prednisone for breakfast and lunch. I know that Docetaxel causes fatigue but I suffer from the opposite. Does Prednisone keep you from sleeping? Last night I got maybe 3 hours sleep. I'm not stressed, just laying in bed daydreaming waiting to for sleep to come but I really don't feel sleepy. Anybody else have trouble sleeping?
Thanks as usual,
kcamh
Insomnia is a well known side effect of Prednisone. It's best to take the full dose of 10mg in the early A.M. That's how my doctor prescribed it. Something to discuss with your doctor.
Prednisone is terrible for sleep. Try to take the second dose around 4 in the afternoon or talk to your doc about going down to once a day.
Most definitely, prednisone can keep you ‘up’ and finding sleep hard to come by. It may get somewhat better the longer you are on it , but if the dosage is increased it will make it even more difficult to sleep. And be aware that despite all the good prednisone can do for us, it can and often does cause other critical health issues if on too high a dosage for too long. All Best Wishes, judg69
Hi,
My husband had the same the first few nights until we twigged the reason why. We asked the GP and it was fine taking 10mg in the morning, kept energy during the day and slept at night
My MIL had to take steroids for chemo and she had the cleanest closets in town. Stayed up all night organizing.
Did you also get dexamethasone with the infusion? It may have been part of a pretreatment (in other words, you get one IV bag of meds prior to the main docetaxel bag). Dexamethasone is very strong and makes prednisone look like candy. I felt like superman for a couple days after the infusion, then the dexamethasone wore off and the side effects started.
At first was taking 10mg Prednisone, while doing the intermittent daily fasting thing. Had to hit the gym hard for some sleep.
Now, taking 5mg Prednisone with Zytiga in the morning, much improved, but now have intermittent insomnia - back to the drawing board.
Oh, but wait a minute, next week will start Docetaxel!
"Screw you guys, I’m going home." -- Eric Cartman
Did they give you a little cup of pre-drip meds ?? Tom is right, if DEX was part of the mix, you will feel like Superman until it wears off and the side-effects start..They love that stuff in the Chemo Lounge..Makes their job so much easier..
I'm on Docetaxel, cycle 4 tomorrow. Dex for three days (breakfast and lunch) then back to prednisone for these rest of the cycle (Two 5mg with breakfast).
I agree with Tom67inMA. Man, I felt like Superman after an infusion. I was laser-focused and got so much work done after an infusion that I didn't feel one bit guilty about sleeping the weekend! (I'd get infused Wednesday afternoon and be up most of the night Wednesday and finally crashed in the Friday PM. I felt great for 48 hours!)
My husband had the same experience. I don't think it is related to Prednisolone since the dose you are taking (and my husband used to take) is quite small and you are taking it in the morning and at lunchtime but not before going to bed. I think it is the Docetaxol doing this. But for my husband it got a little better after a couple of nights. Hopefully it will be the same for you.
It's really common and yes it's highly likely that this is due to the steroids. I am sure you will have had two types of steroid, prednisone and dexamethasone, the latter is probably 10x or more stronger than the former. I found that I was supercharged on the day of chemo and the day after and then I landed with a bang, still had sleep problems but massive fatigue for 2-3 more days and then everything improved so that by the time the next treatment was due I was back to the start again.
If you talk with your medical team they will be able to help you with this. I still work and so what I did was set myself up with a huge task list and rode the energy burst, on the basis that I would soon flip the other way. But it sure is a bit of a shock to the system if you were not expecting it.
Good luck
I am on chemo as well. Dr. Drake has me taking only 5 mg of prednisone every morning. I do not have the sleep disturbance that I had when I was taking it Twice daily.
if you are "prednisone naive" you can expect some stimulation and hyper-ness at higher dosages. Best taken in the morning, as others have pointed out. That is more consistent with your body's own release of corticosteroids.
Took dexamethasone tablets day before and day of chemo. Caused insomnia for about 3 days. Was a real zombie. If I took my partial out, could have easily landed a role on The Walking Dead.
Prednisone does inhibit sleep
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