For months and months and months now I've been having a terrible time getting to sleep, and now that I have three step-children living with me I really need to be on my game...
When I first started taking nortriptyline, it made me sleepy. This was PERFECT. I would take it at night and voila, in bed by like 11 instead of like 3. Over time it's evened out so that I can get to sleep by like 1...but that's way too late for my current lifestyle. And I've been exhausted...and when I'm exhausted it makes me have cool problems like VERTIGO.
Yeah...well who's a fucking genius? I AM! I AM SUCH A FUCKING GENIUS!
Strangely, I think it's a poor choice to take your psych meds with alcohol...and I don't really metabolize things in a super duper way so I try to space things out, drink lots of water...so I had fallen into a pattern of having a beer around dinner time...and then taking the nortriptyline RIGHT before bed. And for months I haven't been able to get enough sleep.
Are you thinking what I just figured out?
Last week I stopped drinking the nightly alcohol because I felt it was becoming too much of a habit and it clearly wasn't helping me sleep...and I had finally gotten to a point of being so fatigued that I thought the vertigo was going to catch up with me...so for three nights, I took an ativan at bedtime and got a good night's sleep. Then, two nights ago, I skipped the ativan and took my nortriptyline at about 8:00. By 10-ish I was totally ready for bed. Last night, I took it at about 8:30...totally ready for bed by 10-ish again.
Um...for months I have been complaining that it was taking me like, two hours to be ready to sleep. You know, when I was taking my meds RIGHT at bed time.
APPARENTLY it takes about TWO HOURS for the NORTRIPTYLINE to hit me.
I'm going to try it again tonight to see how it goes.
I feel like an idiot.
are you a real person? or are you a staff of writers paid to follow me around and write down what is inside of my brain?
ReplyDeleteI just started taking my xanex about two hours before bedtime instead of raising the dose. It's extended release and I'm noticing the full impact doesn't hit for a while. I never noticed before because I was so anxious to calm down RIGHT as I was getting into bed, now I'm not as anxious when it's time to start thinking about bed.
And I'm skipping the wine as well, I'm on day 5 and I am feeling more rested in the morning. Probably. I have kids so it's hard to tell sometimes :)
We are everywhere! (Er, actually no, I'm just me. Which is to say, I am a real person.)
ReplyDeleteGood for you for figuring out this silly sleep equation! I am relieved to report that last night was another decent night's sleep for me. Let's keep this up girl, let's keep this up...
kr