Does anyone else suffer fro Insomnia after taking biological injection Simphoni?

[poppykhanom]

I have RA and Im having a lot of interrupted sleep i fall asleep ok but always wake up in the middle of the night usually to go to the bathroom and i find it very hard to fall back into a deep sleep and keep waking up 2 or 3 times. I take simphoni once a month and i think this is causing it as I read one of the side effects is insomnia. I have tried herbal teas for sleep to herbal sleeping pills. I´ve reduced my hours of tv and try to read and meditate before bed to calm my mind. I find it helps me to fall asleep but then I wake up again. Usually in the night i get up and go into the living room and try to listen to meditation music or guided meditation sometimes it works and other times it doesnt not. Can anyone help please running out of ideas...and very exhausted im a Primary School Teacher and its very difficult to function withut any sleep. I find that at the Weekends I sleep better because i know I dont have to get up for work.

[hatshepsut]

I take amitriptylin 10 mg at night, helps the joints and muscles to relax. It did help for a while.

Eventually lack of sleep really was dragging me down. Now I take zopiclone, a hypnotic. I still wake up but it's easier to go back to sleep! You just need to ensure you have at least 7 hrs for sleeping!

Hope you find something to help.

[Rosie_rabbit]

Hi Poppy, I'm sorry you're having a bad time with sleep which is really miserable, as if we aren't tired enough!!

I don't know whether it's the drug causing the insomnia but I do think that just having RA can really affect your sleep. I've never had any problems sleeping until I got RA, and within months of my first symptoms I started to get poor sleep patterns. Whether that was because of drugs or the disease or both I'm not sure. Like you, I can usually get to sleep but will have trouble staying asleep.

What I do know if that for me, lack of sleep will make me flare and flare badly so it's the single thing I work the hardest at keeping on track. You do sound like you're doing all the right things though but once you're in a poor sleep cycle it's the cycle that's hard to break.

Like you, I've tried lots of different sorts of mind games/meditation to try and make me switch off with some effect. I've taken amitryptoline too but I found that it made me dream a lot and although I was asleep I don't think it was a really deep sleep and I'd wake groggy and tired. I've tried rescue remedy sleep stuff. The thing that works for me is actually Nytol!, all the drugs we are given, and that really does keep me asleep, and at its lowest dose! If I do start to wake in the night, I now actually just stay in bed and don't try to go to sleep. I just think how nice it is to be in bed and to be resting and just enjoy the rest. I think because I'm not trying, I end up drifting off. I also get a bit selfish about it, and if my husband has had a beer he knows now to sleep in the spare room as he will snore badly and wake me.

Sorry I'm rambling now, but it is miserable. Are you on half term now and would this make it easier to try and break the cycle? Best of luck, I'm sure you've probably tried all my little ideas and I hope you find something that works for you. Take care Rx.