[epilepsy] Re: At the end of my rope!!!!!!! Keppra and insomnia...please help!!

 

I don't often post but I am still here - Keppra and insomnia - I have the same problem. I'm on 1000mg a day
I now drink decaffeinated coffee and never after 1800, I take the keppra tablet as early as poss, usually at about 1800, and I read in bed for about 30 mins until midnight to slow my brain down. I know that drinking alcohol during the day will keep me awake tho funnily enough an evening drink doesn't. Being tired makes no difference either as I guess you know, I just try and slow my brain down as bedtime gets nearer. I've tried music, relaxation, lavender the lot and sometimes they do work for a week or so but I find it doesn't last.
Every so often I take a tiny bit of Zolpidem - a mild sleeping tab - just enough to get me to sleep - my threshold, like last night, is 0200. Once I am asleep tho, I usually stay asleep but if I wake up a bit early then I get up.
I know that worrying about going to sleep is probably just as much of a problem but for me Keppra insomnia is a price I pay for 100% control of my seizures for the 1st time in 40 years
And I thought Keppra was supposed to make us sleepy!!

Suzanne

--- In epilepsy@yahoogroups.com, Liz Welker <lizard110366@...> wrote:
>
> Okay, so I started Keppra in July, as some of you probably remember, and I promptly had severe thyroid problems until both my nsg (who prescribed the Keppra) and endo worked with me to get my dose down and calm the thyroid down again. I also started 5-HTP and added B6 (in addition to B-complex) twice a day to help with sleep, and I was doing okay for awhile. Now, it appears I'm back at Square One with my sleep inability. I often wake up in the middle of the night and take more 5-HTP, and sometimes, I go back to sleep, but fairly often, I don't, or I start to and then it's time to get up.
>  
> I'm only on 500 mg of Keppra a day, and my insomnia is this bad!!!!!! I seriously don't know what to do anymore. On a good night, I might get 3-4 hours. Sometimes, I can go back to sleep for a couple of hours after getting my son off to school, but fairly often, I don't have that option. I would have given up on it a long time ago except that it's the ONLY med to ever control my simple partial clusters (which are worse than my GMs, as I will get up to 25 SPs in 18 hours before they stop) and leave me wishing for death--post-ictal fever, nausea, exhaustion, monster headache, pasty/metallic taste in my mouth, no appetite for days. Since the Keppra keeps all of that away, I really want to stick with it, but I don't know what to do about this horrific insomnia.
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> Suggestions??
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> Anything and everything is deeply appreciated!
>  
> Thanks!
>  
> LIZARD
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> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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