Experiences with taking Levothyroxine at night.

[naturegirl3434]

I was considering taking my 50mcg Levothyroxine at bedtime instead of in the morning. I have heard this might help people with T4 to T3 conversion problems. I have also heard it helps people with insomnia which I am suffering from right now. Please share experiences about how this has helped you, aside from not having to worry about food. Please share good and bad experiences. Thanks in advance.

[humanbean]

A couple of useful links for you to read :

1) jamanetwork.com/journals/ja...

Conclusions from the above paper :

Conclusions Levothyroxine taken at bedtime significantly improved thyroid hormone levels. Quality-of-life variables and plasma lipid levels showed no significant changes with bedtime vs morning intake. Clinicians should consider prescribing levothyroxine intake at bedtime.

2) hindawi.com/journals/jtr/20...

Final paragraph from above paper :

From the study we inferred that there was at least similar bioavailability and metabolism of the drug either given as morning or evening dose. So in a nutshell, we can say that evening dose is as efficacious as morning dose in improvement of thyroid profile, reduction in total cholesterol levels, improvement of clinical signs and symptoms, and improvement in quality of life. In the modern busy life with hectic morning schedule, the results give hope for an alternate dosing regimen.

[naturegirl3434 in reply to humanbean]

Thanks so much.

[ys52]

I have been taking my T4 first thing in the morning on an empty stomach for years and years and years.....Recently i had a consultation with a private Endo and he said to take it at bed time! He didn't explain why, I wish I had asked but I was there for another reason and we were running short of time.

I haven't changed to taking it at bedtime yet I have to confess, old habits are hard to break

[MaisieGray]

I've been taking my T4 at night for 11 or so years, together with my T3 for 9 of them, because I take most of my other meds in the morning; and have never noticed any difference, good or bad. I'm now taking my T3 sometime during the day, after an enforced time without it, courtesy of the CCG, and when I started again, just thought I'd see if daytime dosing of T3 made any difference, and it hasn't. I may revert to taking both T4 and T3 at night, to avoid my 4 x dosing beta blocker, which as my cardiologist said so succinctly "really buggers up your day". I eat my evening meal at whatever time I decide to, more often late, even very late, than early, and am not aware of it interfering with my T4 (for the first 30 years I took it with coffee and breakfast in any case, and never felt more well). I can't say it has helped my T4 to T3 conversion (I tested homozygous positive for a DIO2 gene variant), and has never had any effect on my sleep, good or bad. However, as with everything thyroid, we are each individual in how we react to any aspect of it, and so the only way to know if nighttime dosing benefits you, is to try it.

[helvella Administrator]

I always take my levothyroxine at bed-time.

One of the first improvements I noticed was sleeping better. Prior, I was falling asleep OK but waking around midnight to one o'clock. And unable to get back to sleep for hours.

Of course, we are all different...

[Flipper22 in reply to helvella]

Me too. My GP said the Endo he trained under suggested he advise his future patients to take Levo at bedtime. I'm hypo and have been taking it at 10 or 11pm for about 9 months now. No more setting the alarm early and gasping for a cuppa in the morning. I sleep much better too.

[naturegirl3434 in reply to helvella]

Thanks for the reply. I currently have the same sleep problems you had. Did you notice a difference right away with the sleep or did it take a week or so?

[helvella Administrator in reply to naturegirl3434]

It was several years ago now.

I *think* it was very slow, and slight, and took quite some time. But I noticed the first inklings quite soon - days or weeks - even on quite a low dosage.

[Hashihouseman]

I always split dose levothyroxine to minimise potential for too much at once to actually decrease its conversion to t3 in the cells. This means I take 25-50 at bedtime and 25-50 on waking, or at 4am half asleep! Sleeping is definitely better that way although I also take half a cetirizine anti-histamine with the bedtime levothyroxine because it seems to ameliorate levothyroxine side effects so that stops insomnia if I’m slightly over on a levothyroxine dose which is the only time it can keep me awake.

[milkwoman]

I’m the odd- girl out as I take my Levo at 5 PM, as directed by my endo at the time, Dr. Kenneth Blanchard. It was his experience that his patients who took their Levo at this time had less insomnia and wouldn’t experience weight gain or food cravings. My experience has been in line with this. I also like that I don’t have to worry about interfering with mealtime or other supplements.

[Kimkat in reply to milkwoman]

just come across this post and I was wondering at what time do you have your evening meal?

[milkwoman in reply to Kimkat]

Usually between 6:30 - 7:30pm. I will add that both Dr. Blanchard and my current Endo (Dr. B sadly passed 6 years ago) understood that food may (or may not) interfere with absorption so they simply prescribed according ti blood results. Neither want(ed) their patients to stress over when to eat. As long as we are consistent, dosages are adjusted accordingly. I’m fully aware of how lucky I am to have a doctor who feels this way.

[Kimkat in reply to milkwoman]

That’s another time slot I may try 😄

[MariLiz]

I did try taking my Levothyroxine at night, but it didn’t suit me at all, so I went back to first thing in the morning. I think it’s different for all of us.

[jarock]

I take my levothyroxine / T4 at around midnight give or take 30 minutes which gives me plenty of time before /after meals and other medications. I recently added T3 taken about 1-2 hour before breakfast / other medications and I hr

before / after eating in the afternoon . The instructions on my T3 "Do not take antacid, calcium, iron within 4 hrs of taking the drug". I also try to avoid bulking agents such as psyllium husk, chia seed , flax seed within a few hours of any of the medications. So to avoid absorption issues I do not use the bulking agents as much anymore.

[Kimkat in reply to jarock]

Omg! I take psyllium husk and chia seed, I didn’t realise it interfered with absorption, something else to worry about 😄