Gabapentin and waking early

[healthrls]

Hi.....I take 900mg of gabapentin at 7.30pm and a further 900mg on retiring around 10.30pm. I find this controls my RLS early evening and I sleep reasonably well, however, I am waking early, around 5.30am with severe RLS in my legs and then cannot get back to sleep. Is there a solution to this to enable me to sleep longer?

[SueJohnson]

First off you are taking your gabapentin wrong. Any dose above 600 mg is not fully absorbed. I would suggest 600 mg at 10:30, 600 mg at 8:30, 600 mg at 6:30 and assuming you get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, 600 mg then. But you are getting 7 hours of sleep. Most people on this site would love it if they got that much. If you live in the US you could switch to Horizant which lasts 24 hours. If you do post back here because there is a way to get it much cheaper as it is very expensive.

[healthrls in reply to SueJohnson]

Hi Sue.....thank you for this reply. You've suggested 2400mg spread throughout the evening. is this OK? I've been pescribed 1800mg per day. I am in the UK. I do realise I'm lucky to get 7 hours sleep most nights but I'm glad to get the dosage correct. So grateful to this site as I was on pramipexole and was suffering augmentation until going on here when I switched to gabapentin.

[SueJohnson in reply to healthrls]

Whoops - I added up 900 + 900 and got 2100. It's obviously was too early in the morning when I replied after getting only 5-1/2 hours sleep - not because of RLS. OK so let's try again. Take 600 at 10:30, 600 at 8:30, 300 at 6:30 leaving 300 for waking up in the night.

[healthrls in reply to SueJohnson]

Great- will give that a go, thank you

[Bajatom in reply to SueJohnson]

AM or PM on times if possible or 24 hour clock.

[SueJohnson in reply to Bajatom]

Most people suffer from RLS at night so PM is assumed, and the context of the question also suggests whether it is AM or PM.

[ChrisColumbus]

So the problem is really that severe RLS symptoms are waking you early and/or stopping you getting back to sleep. Hopefully Sue's suggested change to your Gabapentin regime will sort the RLS, and hopefully that will help you stay asleep or get back to sleep.

However, whether you'll still wake up early can depend on various factors including age, stress levels etc...

I have my RLS pretty much under control at present (looking around desperately for some wood to touch!) but rarely get to sleep in: 5:30 this morning, 3:30 yesterday (although I did then get back to sleep for an hour at 6) etc etc.

[Amrob]

When I dropped from 300mg of pregabalin to 250mg, my legs would wake me around 6am. On the slightly higher dose of pregabalin, I'd sleep an hour or two longer and not experience any (discernible) leg movement.So it may also be to do with dose as well as timing.

[healthrls in reply to Amrob]

Thank you

[healthrls in reply to Amrob]

Thank you

[Linnnie]

I take my gabapentin 3-4 hrs before bed, sometimes 2 hrs. But any later than that I was plagued with “restlessness”. My doctor also prescribed trazodone 50 mg right at bedtime. That is supposed to keep you asleep vs helping to fall asleep and it has successfully kept me asleep through the night.