Sleepy on pentasa

I’m taking prednisone, salafalk suppositories and on day three of pentasa.

Pentasa makes me drowsy. I slept through the night last night and then had a 3 hour nap this afternoon. I was hoping that I’d get used to the medicine by this week so that I feel alert driving and working.

Anyone have experience with this?

Beave is correct. The flare itself, or the prednisone is the most likely culprit on sleepyness.

Why? Prednisone is a synthetic version of your body's natural Cortisol hormone. Cortisol regulates your sleep and awake cycles. Highest cortisol concentration in the early am, which is an alarm clock which awakens you. Lowest cortisol levels when going to bed and asleep. As you taper down the prednisone, you do not have enough cortisol within your system and if you have very low levels of cortisol/pred then you are crohnically fatigued.

The flare itself causes a lot of fatigue. It is a lot of work both when your immune system is attacking you, and you are healing simultaneously. It takes a lot of energy out of us. We return to normal energy levels as you heal.

Prednisone is a 100% systematic medication. The systematic component is where the side effects come from. Nearly everyone gets side effects from pred. I got tons.

Pentasa is a 90% topical and 10% systematic medication. The vast majority of people who take pentasa have no side effects. I've been on similar Lialda for about 7-years, and have yet to have a single side effect from it.