Prednisone timing

[Jane424]

I have been taking my prednisone at around 3.00 am, which has worked well for me. Am now at 7mg and reducing to 6.5. It seems sensible to move my first dose to 6 a.m when I naturally wake up. so that my own cortisol can take over. Does this make sense? Thanks, Jane

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Not really - the trigger for your own production of cortisol is a very low level of pred in the blood at about midnight, Taking your pred at 3am won't affect that - in fact it gives longer for the pred to be out of your body. However - if it saves you waking and you are OK for the day, you can move it to then without it making much difference - it takes 16-20 hours for all pred to be out of the body.

[Jane424 in reply to PMRpro]

Thanks, as ever. Feel better with it early. Bless you! Jane

[herdysheep]

If that timing works for you, I would be tempted to leave it. The body has enough to do with changes to dosage etc as it is.

[Jane424 in reply to herdysheep]

Thanks so much. Jane

[PMRCanada]

If getting up at 3am to take your dose is bothersome, you could stuff your uncoated pred into empty enteric capsules and take it around 10pm before bedtime. That way it’s on board around 1-2am without any sleep disruption.

I started doing this over a year ago and it works well for me. I found getting up at 2am every night and eating something while taking my pred dose interruptive. Sometimes I slept through, sometimes I dropped a pill and didn’t discover till later, and I think hubby was appreciative of the change too 😉

[artfingers in reply to PMRCanada]

Where do you get empty enteric capsules? On the internet? (I'm in the U.S.)

[PMRCanada in reply to artfingers]

Yes, I order them online from Capsuline (just make sure you get enteric coated). Mine are size “0” and fit about 9-1mg tablets.