taking pred early

[Hugh_Marc]

I noticed recently on a few posts, people mentioned taking Pred at 2am etc.

as a man of a certain age I’m usually visiting the bathroom around 5am.

Is there any advantage to taking Pred this early in the morning?

[PMRpro Ambassador]

It is the ideal time to take pred to minimise morning symptoms. Taking it then means it is at its peak in the blood stream at 4-44.30am which is when the daily shedding of the inflammatory substances takes place. This means they have no chance to get to work in the tissues and reduces the symptoms developing. If you aren't up at 2am, the sooner you take your pred after 4am the less work it has to do and the sooner the morning symptoms go.

[SID3 in reply to PMRpro]

But by definition the effects then wear off earlier in the evening, surely?

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to SID3]

Not necessarily - not everyone finds the symptoms return in under 24 hours. If they do, splitting the dose usually solves that: take about 2/3 of the dose in the morning, whatever time you choose, and the rest later enough to extend the antiinflammatory effect to 24 hours. Correctly timed, such as at breakfast and lunchtime for example, you don't need the middle of the night dose at all.

[Sibelius5 in reply to PMRpro]

The idea of taking a split dose breakfast and then lunch is very interesting PMRpro - it’s not a suggestion I’ve come across so far - so something like 2/3 of dose at 8.00 am then 1/3 at 13.00 pm would be an example worth trying? I guess it would be a matter adjusting that to suit the individual. I suppose taking it at lunchtime avoids the possibility of the pred interfering with sleep as much as it might if the second part were taken in the evening.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Sibelius5]

Yes, something like that and yes, a bit of experimentation may be needed to find the best mix for you. And yes again, the earlier you can take pred in the day the better for sleep in the early days and much later for returning adrenal function - as low a level in the blood as possible at midnight is ideal.

[piglette]

I have always taken the coated variety of pred at 2am and it seems to work fine for me.

[Claremarie83]

I wake up in the middle of the night pretty much every night, go to the bathroom and go downstairs to take 10mg with a glass of milk and some biscuits. It's become my routine and I've noticed that if I do sleep through without waking and taking my mid night prednisolone I feel much much worse! Taking 10mg in the middle of the night then taking the remaining dose (currently on 14mg, so I take the other 4mg) at around 9-10am seems to work quite well for me. I found that taking the full dose when I woke up meant that I was already in pain at the beginning of the day and it wasn't really lasting all day and waiting until lunch time didn't work either. I think a bit of trail and error with different timings might be helpful for you. Goo luck with it all, I'd give it a go and see if it helps

[PMRCanada]

It is an ideal time to take pred but I found it difficult as having to eat something made it more difficult to get back to sleep. Or I’d sleep through and miss my dose. Sometimes I even dropped pred tablets in the dark.

For several years I’ve stuffed uncoated pred into empty enteric capsules. That way I can take my dose at 11pm and then sleep through.

[diana1998]

When I was on a split dose I took some at 2 am. I put the alarm on, took a few spoons of natural yoghurt in a ramekin in the bathroom, then the pred with water and went straight back to sleep. Hardly disturbed me. Woke up pain free and took the rest after breakfast.

[ImC_]

2am disturbed my sleep too much but 4am yoghurt and pills in bed then back to sleep works for me! And lasts until next dose.

[Aqua47]

In my experience, having PMR since last December, I found taking prednisone at 2 am worked really well for me. But after doing that for a few weeks, I found I was getting stomach irritation. That’s when I started putting my prednisone in empty acid resistant capsules. I take it at 10 pm, and it works the same way-very little pain when I awake in the morning. I take about 2/3 of my dose at night, and 1/3 with breakfast. Hope this helps you.

[Bcol]

Although I've been off Pred for a few weeks now, I had many years taking it around 02:00ish with a pot of yogurt and often a banana, beware of the banana if you have weight issues though, and it worked well for me and lasted the full twenty four hours.

[CarolF1312]

I started taking my Pred around 4am from 7mg until I got down to a very low dose. It really helped me through the early morning stiffness.

[Angelsmummy]

I take mine at 2 am ,have a pot of yoghourt inside a large glass of water on bedside cabinet.Keeps it cool. I take a large “ glug” ,then straight back to sleep,no need to get out of bed!Find my sleep is not disturbed too much at all.Feel better taking it at that time than previously with breakfast.x😜