escitalopram-not sleeping

[scampi]

Hi all, can anyone tell me if they are having problems sleeping while taking escitalopram. I have only been taking them for 5 days, and i am having terrible problems with getting to sleep, and staying asleep. I't is taking me forever to fall asleep and when i do, it feels like i am only half asleep, and keep waking up during the night. I have never had this problem before. Is it the medication, and will it improve. It's ok at the moment, but i start back to work on tuesday,and i work in a doctor's surgery, so need to be on the ball. Any advice would be good. thanks

[BexieB]

Hi scampi

Sorry to hear about your sleeping trouble. I've been taking cipralex for 4 weeks now and had this trouble at the start. Things got really bad around day 5. It was around that time that I had about 4 hours sleep in the the course of 72hours. I thought I was going mad and was very tempted to stop taking the meds.

The meds worked very slowly. I know you're worried about returning to work but you need to give yourself and the meds time. My sleeping and eating gradually improved. There is a lot of talk about the two week mark, and that there will be improvement by then. But for me it is only now that I feel a sense of normality.

Hang in there, It might be a rough ride for the next few weeks, but it will get better. Don't push yourself, take more time off work if you can. Meds are great, but time is a powerful healer.

[jon211]

I've been in Cipralex for four months now. It is a great medication in my opinion, it is the only one that has ever worked for me.

But as you are now experiencing, it does come with a few side effects.

It does make getting a full nights sleep hard for me, I do wake up a few times in the night, even now, and it can make you drowsy yet unable to sleep.

There is a couple of things you can do to relieve these side effects though...

Split your daily dose into two part, take one half of your dose when you get up in the morning, and one half when you get home from work. This stops the drug from making you drowsy at work, and also makes sure your dose isn't too close to bed time.

Don't drink too much caffeine, try not to drink any at all.

Go for a walk, or do some exercise a couple of hours before bed, it will help you get a better quality of sleep. Doing this really does help with Cipralex.

If you are on a 10mg dose, and you or the doctor think you could be better off with a 20mg dose, don't worry because the side effects don't seem to get any worse with a higher dose.

Eat as healthy as possible because weight gain can happen, and weight gain can further disturb your sleep. Eating healthy and getting exercise do halt any weight gain from taking the drug, but weight loss is extremely hard.

ALL of the side effects do get easier to cope with, but if you are like me, you may have the odd day when you feel a bit run down and tired.

It's all worth while though, because Cipralex can really make things a lot better whilst still allowing you to be, and feel, yourself.

Good luck and stick with it.

[scampi]

hi robert, thanks for your reply, i am now on 10mg, and i feel alot better,i hardly shake anymore, and the doc said that i look a lot better. Im sleeping better now, and life seems that it could get better. I hope your still feeling good to xx

[scampi]

hi jon, thanks for your answer. I am hoping that i will put on weight, as i have a small appetite, and am underweight, but not by choice. I am feeling alot better, the shaking has stopped. I can also handle the awkward customers better at work. I even managed to get rid of a spider without crying shaking and panicing, and that is a big achievement. I hope you are well xx

[bab]

Hiya ive been on this about 2 months now and i sleeping hard in the beginning but the effetcs do wear off xx

[stringbean]

I have just read some side effects with cipralex. In the past this drug has worked for me but the side effects at first made me feel a lot worse, therefore when i came off them and then after a further relapse with obsessive thinking decided to retake them but was terrified therefore started on 2.5mg for two weeks then 5mg for a week then 10mg for a month! i thought i had cracked it and felt good but then felt bad so went up to 20mg for a week but there was a lot of effect so dropped to 15mg and have been on that for a couple of weeks, i still feel ill and unable to cope and frightened that i will not get better - can anyone advise me if this is whow they felt???

[lifegoeson]

I have been taking Escitalopram for about 9 months. I initially found it difficult to fall asleep, but nowadays I sleep like a log! I don't get nervous about falling asleep, I don't wake early, I don't wake during the night; the only time I wake is when my alarm goes off, it's great!

[Cocomademoiselle]

In reply to stringbean. The first time I took them started on 10mg by the doctor initially broke in half took 5,mg for about 3 days then went up to 10mg I did not have ANY side effects other than at one point I noticed my pupils were bigger and a dry mouth for 2 days. I felt they worked quickly and felt a bit euphoric. Second time around im at week 6. The doc said to start 20mg staight away I did because I wanted to get them in my system as quickly as possible as I felt so low. Well I experienced what people say all the time about anti d "you get worse before you get better" I felt heightened anxiety, crying, scared, panic attacks, I think about week 5 I was having more good hours than bad hours in the day. I feel "ok" today week 6-7 but not euphoric like the first time I took the meds. I feel better than I did was in a dark dark place. Maybe the meds take longer to work second time around ??