Sleep deprived from Prednisone?

[arvine]

Well I have reduced from the 40 mgs my rheumy prescribed on Jan 6th, to30 mgs for last 6 days now as he instructed, seems since reduced, have had very poor sleep, waking very early, cant go back to sleep, usually go to bed at 12, and waking now at 5 am,? Had the MRI he requested 2 days ago, for suspected GCA, haven,t gotten result from him yet, wondering if big drop causin g sleep deprivation, also after reduced to 30 couple days ago, was feeling woozy, jelly legs, and of course fatigue, could this be possible side affects of big drop of pred, even though only on 40 mgs for a week? Hoping to hear from rheumy with results soon, has told me to get bloodwork done 2 weeks after dropping to 30 , and then drop to 20 mgs, but right now am feeling so very tired, fatigue, weird on and off, and didn,t even have these symptons when first started on 40 mgs, back in Oct 2016, of course a lot has transpired in last over 6 years, and am 6 years older

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Unfortunately a common side effect of Pred... for most it does improve - oodles of related posts - and this -

healthunlocked.com/pmrgcauk...

[Seacat30]

15mg prednisolone was sufficient to ruin my sleep which began to improve a bit below about 7mg.

[arvine in reply to Seacat30]

oh gosh, I was doing fine at that dose last year, and even after tapering to 4 mgs, except for intermittent stiffness and some pain, but fine it odd while on the 40 mgs for a week ,don,t think had the same sleep problems then, and wondering if Im still having left over weakness and fatigue from violent gasteritis attack, vomit etc from 12 midnight New years eve to about 11am New years day, spent in hospital all day, severely dehydrated,

[Seacat30 in reply to arvine]

Oh dear that sounds horrid. It might well throw your body out of it's normal rhythm?

[Purpleazalia]

I started on 40mg/day, reducing by 5mg /day each week until I reached 15mg. I managed between 2 and 5 hours sleep per night during those weeks. It gradually improved once below 15mg, usually 5-6 hours per night, which is still the case now. I feel like I've had a real treat if I don't wake for 7 hours!

[arvine in reply to Purpleazalia]

well I find what,s happening to me strange, having been on 4 mgs for over 4 mos, then new symptons, re temporal ateritis, boosted me up to 40 for week, now 30 for 2 weeks, looked back on my records from oct 2016, and rheumy back then(have different one now), reduced me from 40 PMR diagnosis, to think 30 then 25 , then only reduce on dead slow method, by 2.5 there after for many years, but don,t remember sleep problem back then

[Sharitone]

My sleep was terrible on moderate and high doses of pred. Luckily my GP gave me a mild sleeping tablet, Zopiclone, which improved things enormously. I was able to reduce the Zopiclone in tandem with the pred, getting off it entirely at about 5mg of pred. I do recommend it - surviving on a couple of hours' sleep a night is miserable and does nothing for your health.

[arvine in reply to Sharitone]

thanks Sharitone, well Im in Ontario, and not familiar with zopiclone, my gp has given me lorezapam, 0.5 for last number of mos, but that was to help my anxiety stress etc, thru my son,s leukemia diagnosis, and subseqent bone marrow transplant, and truthfully don,t seem to help too much, see how it goes as I reduce down, hopefully will improve, and won,t need sleeping pill,

[micpenn222 in reply to arvine]

I also live in Ontario Canada, and am happy to find someone else from Ontario on this site. The problem with Lorazepam is that you develop a tolerance to it, where in time the same dose doesn't work anymore, and .5 mgs is the lowest dose possible. My doctor initially prescribed that for the prednisone induced insomnia, but has switched me to another class of drugs that have the sedative effect, along with an anti depressant component that doesn't have the tolerance factor that Lorazepam does.

[arvine in reply to micpenn222]

heelo micpenn, where in Ontario are you located , well I will talk to my dr re med you talk about, Im hoping this insomnia will not last too long, it,s only since I started this high dose about 3 weeks ago Ive had this trouble, and thinking back over 6 yrs ago whenstarted at 40 at that time, I really don,t remember experiencing this same trouble, but im guessing we change over time, aging etc ,

[micpenn222 in reply to arvine]

Arvine, I live in Niagara, in southern Ontario. Initially on 20 mgs of Pred it didn't bother me either, it was only after having weaned down then having to go back up to 20 mgs due to some major flaring that it began to bother me; that and a lot of the other side effects of Prednisone. It was really quite strange how that played out.

[Iamfedup]

Amytriptaline works well, Just half a milligram allows me to sleep to a normal time

[arvine in reply to Iamfedup]

ok thank you , I will ask about that med, just hoping this doesn,t last where I have to take more med,s , very strange, maybe cause sharp drop from 40 to 30, but ??