Pred taper- when will I sleep again

I'm down from a 60mg starting dose to a 17.5. From here I go down 2.5 mg (I think) per week. I was on 10mg of ambien which helped but I feel like that's just adding more fuel to the fire AND I'm eating all the time, especially right before bed. I was taking 10mg of ambien before bed and I heard it can be hard to get off of. Sooo, I went down to 5 mg last week- my doc also gave me 5mg tabs.

I didn't sleep at all when I stopped finally switched them out for melatonin a few days ago. I mean I'm literally looking at the clock every hour. I take the prednisone at 6am when I get up but I don'tfeel like I think kick until afternoon/evening. And by then I'm still bouncing off the walls. I annoy even myself- idk how anyone lives with me.

Anyhow, just wondering when you think the sleep might be back in my future and at what pred dose. I was hoping I could nix the ambien when I got below 20mg pred but now I'm not so sure. Does anyone know how addictive that stuff is? I'm thinking keep doing the ambien and try to go off it on the weekend again (tomorrow is Mon).

Colitis symptoms are doing great Tho!! Other than the excessive weight gain! Argh!

Doggiedo, just happy to hear your colitis is doing so much better!

If I were you, I wouldn't worry about getting off the ambien just yet. Your rest and sleep are more important for your healing.

My prednisone use is not typical for most, I don't think, so I can't be of help. I sleep okay (now on 30 mg -- had to bump back up from 20 after symptoms re-started and while waiting to see if Entyvio works), about 5 hours on average, but that's enough for me. I don't get the fat face or gain weight, either (and I need to gain about 10 pounds back)

Sleeping was only difficult at 20-40mgs of pred for me. Everyone is different though. Your body naturally produces the equivalent of 7-12mgs pred (as cortisol), so the pred symptoms should drop off fast as you get to that and below in dosage.

Doggiedo said...
I kind of feel like an anti anxiety medication would help better than ambien but what do I know! Pred makes me so antsy and jittery and that's why I can't sleep. It's like I just can't shut my brain off. But anything helps! Ambien it is for now I guess.

I use Xanax for my sleep for this reason. Because I'll lay there watching the clock and count how many hours of sleep I'm going to get, and worry and watch for the sleep to come and take me away -- like watching a pot of water boil. It only takes 1/2 of the lowest dosage Xanax available to take that edge off and I always fall asleep soon after and sleep well for 5-6 hrs. I also read for about 30 minutes. And I've developed a psychological dependence on playing the same game on my kindle after that. It's very repetitive and I've played it so long now that the levels repeat, and for some reason it lulls me into sleep, even though you're not supposed to have the light in your face or play games before sleep. I do keep the light turned down to a very low level. ::shrugs:: it works for me.