does lithium cause insomnia?

Question

anyone out there taking this med? im on 900 mg at night and cant sleep more than 4 hours or so even on sleep meds. any other side effects i should know about that they didnt tell me?

just started 5 days ago. havent had levels checked yet. but this not sleeping thing is killing me. any suggestions?

Answer 1

talk to your doctor. doctor will say that usually lithium makes you sleepy, but this is not true for everyone. the first thing to try is to take the lithium in the morning instead of at night. or dont take all 900 mgs at once, take two doses, each one at different times. doctor will have a strategy. not being able to sleep is hell. ask doc right away if you can take them in the morning. it might solve the issue right away

Answer 2

Keeping it short... Talk to your pdoc. Lithium is all about serum levels, not dosage. You may not be high enough in the effective range to quell the hypomania for sleep to come naturally. If so, it's up to you and your pdoc to figure out whether increasing Li or adding something else is the best answer. It's also common for ppl with bipolar to be nocturnal and somewhat insomniacs. There are sleeping pills, but personally, a small dose of Seroquel works better for me. It usually helps me sleep while adding a little stability. It's also doesn't have the issues that sleeping pills have, like not working after a while. So, get exercise in the morning, eat healthy w/o sweets or caffeine after noon, and talk to you pdoc about the details even if you may think they aren't always relavent. Sometimes they are. ~I take Lithium and a couple other meds.

Answer 3

I've been on lithium for a few years now, and I've experienced a lot of the side-effects as well. During manias, even at the beginning of lithium treatment, I often had a great deal of trouble sleeping. But I've had many fewer problems since going on it, and things seem to be getting better with time.

Actually, given the antimanic function of lithium, you are more likely to sleep better on a higher dose. 900 mg/day is a smaller dose for lithium. How long haev you been on it? Lithium takes a long time to show any real theraputic effect, even at the right blood levels.

Lithium can be behind a lot of side effects, but these are all usually quite manageable. Almost all of the side-effects occur the closer you get to the theraputic level of lithium, which may seem uncomfortably close to toxicity.

Typical side effects of lithium include nausea, dry mouthe, diarrhea, and thirst. Lithium carbonate is a salt, and like sodium it will cause you to be thirsty. Make sure that, given your added lithium levels, you drink plenty of water and have plenty of salt in your system.

Normally, drowsiness is a side-effect of lithium usage. Lithium can cause hypotension and throws your salt balances off, this may contribute to that. Muscular weakness has been known to occur. Mild hand tremors often appear as well. If you get an upped dosage and feel like you have parkinson's, don't worry too much. It usually goes away in time as your body adjusts. Some weight gain is possible as well.

Some weight gain is common, although much if it is due to the fact that the added salt in your body causes water retention. You may also experience a metallic taste, a heacache, swelling of the wrists of ankles (again, due to water retention), and it can worsen existing cases of psoriasis.

One thing that you should be aware of (and be sure your doctor checks once in a while) is yout thyroid gland. Lithium at any dosage has a small possibility to throwing thyroid function off. That doesn't mean necessarily that you can't work with lithium, but your doctor will discuss options with you.
Lithium toxicity is a real issue on higher doses, but much less a problem on 900 mg unless you really work at changing your body. It's fairly easy to identify. The more common side effects (nausea, headache,, and tremors, to naame a few) can appear rather suddenly.

When I went up to higher doses, I spent a while getting used to my doses. I wasn't a very consistent person at that time, so I often did things that threw my balance off. I spent every morning for a month sick, not having realized that any drug that thinned my blood was probably a bad idea to take for my headache. In time, I realized that ibuprofen and asprin were basically off-limits.

After a few months, almost every side effect completely. Everyone is different, and my lively gi tract doesn't get along when lithium and certain foods meet up.

The symptom you complained of definitely sounds manic. Feel free to contact me if you'd like to talk more about lithium, mania, or whatever else. I can probably answer more specific questions about lithium than a general question, if you have any. I've spent a while trying to maintain balance in my life, and there are other things you can do besides merely rely on the drugs.

Answer 4

Don't ever take the sleeping pills route!!

1. They will damage your liver big time and you can get into serious health problems.

2. You will get hooked up on them and you won't be able to have a normal life any more if you don't take your pills everyday.

The sleeping pills industry is damaging our health by capitalizing on our ignorance, and by distracting people from effective and natural ways to deal with this problem. I had been taking prescription sleep medications [Ambien] for over 5 years. It stopped working and I simply took more. Still did not work. Nights were very difficult - medication put me to sleep but I would wake up after 2–3 hours with a strong sympathetic response (fast pulse, pounding heartbeat, wide awake alert). It was a very difficult cycle to break. I was really in bad shape due to lack of sleep.

After years of struggling I was able to cure my insomnia naturally and pretty fast. I followed the Sleep Tracks sleep optimization program, here is their official web -site if you want to take a look: http://www.insomniacure.net

Ohhh..and Good Luck!

Answer 5

3 Steps to Cure Insomnia Forever!

Answer 6

Call your doctor. Let him know what's up. Maybe they'll give you some Trazedone to go with it. I'm starting lithium tomorrow. I have to take a blood test and pick up my perscription like scheduled. I'm a bit nervous. I told my doctor I wasn't a battery. He seems to think it will work.

Answer 7

lithium of nirvana can definitely cause insomnia

Answer 8

Yeah, that would do it. Codeine (Tylenol-3)'s also cause insomnia.