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DJK100
Guest
First, who is prescribing your medication. Is it a psychiatrist or a general practioner. Judging from your dosage of Effexor of 37.5 once per night you are on the extended release form. A well known side effect of venlefaxine is insomina. So first change I would recommend is switching your effexor from night to day. This should hopefully allow you to wake up in the morning and at the same time “wear off” enough by the time it night to help you sleep. As your doctor about the changing to morning dosage before you switch as they know you well and will tell you if it is appropriate for you. For instance, more info is need about what happens to you at night in terms of thoughts, are you anxious at night etc… etc…
It sound like you already practice pretty good sleep hygene patterns but I would add, you must get into a rythem. Get into bed everynight at the same time. I would suggest taking a hot shower before you go to sleep. this has the added benefit of vasodilation (from the heat of the shower) and then a slow relaxing cooling off when you go to sleep. To help you jump start this process, choose a weekend where you can pull an “all nighter.” (As long as you don’t have a history of psychosis) For instance pick a friday or a saturday where you don’t have anything to do the next day. Stay awake the whole night and into the next night (have your husband help you) – do this without stimulants (caffenine etc…) This should help you be so tired that when you do get into bed your body is craving sleep. Then when your appointed bed time approaches the next night, take a hot shower and attempt to go to sleep. The next night go to bed at the same time. Establish that pattern of sleep time and stick to it.
Someone else mentioned a sleep study and that may be appropriate. Does your husband notice any signs of apnea when you sleep? Essesive snoring or a chocking like sounds in the middle of the night? Lots of tossing and turning? Maybe a restless leg syndrome?
The other things I would discuss with your doctor if the medication switch to AM instead of PM doesn’t work is try adding something like Trazodone. It is an antidepressant that can be used in anxiety cases but really is very sedating and helps you sleep. Someone mentioned Seroquel earlier which you can use but Seroquel can cause a lot of wieght gain. Trazodone is relatively gentle so you don’t have to worry about much in terms of drug drug interactions and the like. IF you do go on Trazodone you may experience what is called Orhtostatic hypotension (your BP drops when going from laying to sitting and sitting to standing) until you body gets used to the medication. So the first couple of days sit up slowly and rest then stand slowly and rest until you don’t feel dizzy. This should go away after a couple of days if it happens.
You could also try taking the supplement Melationin at night. 2-4mg QHS
Also, why gensing. Gensing is an “energy” herbal supplement so you might want to try stopping that.
Bottom line talk to your doctor about medication changes as this might help you especially taking venlafacine in the nigthtime and switching it to day time.
Hope this helps. Please excuse any mispellings, I was typing really fast.