# Gabapentin for Sleep



## BlueTank (Jun 2, 2010)

New Psychiatrist wants to try Gabapentin for sleep. I'm guessing this is related to telling him that I wake up early and that sometimes there is a lot of CNS activity including feeling like somebody is grinding a screwdriver in to my spine or spine pain and stuff.

I don't really expect this to fix or be a DP/DR thing (outside of how sleep helps). But more to help me fall asleep and stay asleep.

I expected to see more stuff on the internet but not seeing too much, including for sleep. I do see a lot about needing to taper slow and problems people have, but also reddit posts about it really helping for sleep.

Wish me luck. Its 600mg. Take 1-3 about 2-3 hours before bed. Kinda odd. I'll start by taking 1 and see how it goes.

The 2-3 hours before bed thing is crazy. Everything else I've taken is like a 30m 1 hour at most.

Any experience is appriciated - *Also if you guys know of other forums than DPSELFHELP* that are good for Panic Disorder or Insomnia that are active. DPSELFHELP is awesome but also i'm often just focused on Anxiety, Insomnia, and the CNS stuff.


----------



## BlueTank (Jun 2, 2010)

600mg 2-3 hours before. ~.6mg Clonezepam. ~12mg seroquel. Advil PM. Melatonin.

I think I slept good. I know I had some dreams and sorta nightmares. I woke up and was super tired and drowsy. It was super relaxed and I just didn't/couldn't get up. I would get up and be drowsy and kinda stumbly. It faded over the day but just overall feel out of it. It had that feeling like I stayed up all night actually heh.

Later in the day I think there are some twitches going on. Little jerks and twitches which is largely new.

Gonna cut to 300. Take it earlier. .5 Clonezepam. no seroquel.

From what I can tell docs don't want to prescribe benzos and i'm guessing Gabapentin is this alternative.

I hope to get sleep going better but overall the anxiety and agoraphobia stuff is not good and don't want to add drowsy to it too. It really did feel like I didn't sleep but to my recolection I did. That or I was just so out of it I didn't know what was goin' on.


----------



## forestx5 (Aug 29, 2008)

My depressive episodes occur on intervals of about 8 years. They usually begin with early waking. I had a significant stressor in early December.

By February, I was waking up after 2 hours of sleep, and the rest of the night was filled with anxious thoughts. This is a recipe for disaster, so I had my doctor prescribe me 100 mg

of Seroquel. I immediately began to get 6+ hours a night. After a couple weeks, I switched to 20mg of Tamazepam and last night I slept

6 hours, and fell back to sleep for 3 more. No anxious thinking. My appetite is good and I'm walking 3 miles a day. I think I dodged a bullet.

I have had severe insomnia with depressive episodes in the past, and found elavil (amitriptyline) was also able to open that elusive sleep window.

Good luck.


----------



## neutralmilkdissociation (Feb 26, 2021)

I did not find Gabapentin to really help much with sleep. I think I was at 900mg at the most (long time ago so i dont remember). If I were you, I would try to simplify your list of meds for sleep. The benzo will of course help a ton, but that opens pandora's box of problems. Melatonin is always a decent thing, but no more than 1mg. No Advil PM. I can't comment on the Seroquel because I don't know if you are using it for other things.

IMO the best sleeping drug on the market is Trazodone. It's the only med that I've ever taken that replicates a natural sleep. You don't feel drugged or anything, but rather you just drift and stay asleep.


----------



## BlueTank (Jun 2, 2010)

Thanks. Yeah I'm no longer taking Seroquel. I actually started with Trazodone but it made my nose close up really bad. Like it just about defeated the purpose. I have some still here and was thinking I might try it again. one night when i took 100mg It really made me drowsy going to the bathroom. I about fell.

Really wish it didn't clog my nose up. I had nights of waking up with really dry mouth and drink a little water and try to fall asleep again.

Thing is docs don't want to prescribe Clonezepam anymore. The GP really doesn't like to and then i got a new Psychiatrist and he's like "Gabapentin" and I said i can't just stop Clonezepam so he prescribed these 25mg Oral dissolvable ones.

I think I've gotten used to a lot of the meds I'm taking. I'm tapering on the Clonezepam and then the other stuff I take is pretty much not as effective I think.

Perhaps when I taper some of these down I can try the trazodone again. But even after a while of taking 50 it was still clogging my nose up.


----------

