Sleeping

[resaebiunne]

This post is a bit of a rant, so bare with me. It's not so much about the epilepsy related issues I've been having, although it partially is, but more so has to do with my antipsychotic medication that I take. I take a drug called Saphris. It helps me with hallucinations that I used to have. Not sure if I still have hallucinations or not, but I've been on medication for them for about a year now and my psychiatrist told me that I would have to stay on them for about 2 years minimum before I could stop taking them. I recently moved so I have an appointment with a registered nurse practictioner at a local hospital's psychiatry department. Maybe they'll have a different opinion or put me on a different drug.

This is the gist of my rant though. You see, Saphris is a drug which makes one sleepy. Before I took Saphris, I would barely sleep at night, lying awake most of the night tossing and turning. But since I started taking Saphris I sleep like a rock. A bit too much like a rock. If I could sleep the ideal amount, I would probably sleep about 12-15 hours a day, every day. Even though I go to bed around 10 PM, it's really hard to wake up, even at 8:30 am. It's just so hard to wake up. My psychiatrist told me to take the Saphris earlier in the day if it was an issue, and honestly that just might be it. A usual morning for me consists of the alarm going off around 7:00-7:30, and then hitting the snooze button about 5 or 6 times before I get out of bed and rush to get dressed and out the door. Not a very pleasant way to wake up, honestly. I barely have time to take my morning medicine let alone drink any coffee.

Today was a bit of a disappointment. I had a physical therapy appointment and I just couldn't bare to get out of bed and walk my way down to the bus. Enter the second part of my rant. I've had doctor's appointments every day now for the past 4 days (excluding Saturday and Sunday), and not being able to drive, I have to take the bus or walk to the appointment. It's honestly very frustrating and time consuming. Combined with barely being awake this morning when I was supposed to be getting ready, I was too burned out with appointments to bother. So I decided to skip the appointment and I just stayed in bed sleeping. Now I've missed an appointment and a day of work. So I'm disappointed in myself because there really was no need for all of this. I'm wondering if maybe I'm a bit depressed too, which doesn't help with waking up in the morning. But usually after I sleep an adequate amount I'll finally feel refreshed enough that I'll get out of bed and start doing stuff around the apartment. Like I said, if I could sleep the ideal amount I would sleep about 12-15 hours. Today that meant getting out of bed finally around 1 PM. Obviously that doesn't work when I'm supposed to be at work. But even if I wake up at 8 and get out the door like I'm supposed to, I'll feel awake and refreshed as soon as the "grogginess" wears off.

I think I'll start taking the Saphris when I get home from work instead of just before bed. Hopefully it won't make me too tired after work. Ugh.

 

[AlohaBird]

I think I'll start taking the Saphris when I get home from work instead of just before bed. Hopefully it won't make me too tired after work. Ugh.

That sounds like a good idea. It might make you feel like going to sleep a bit earlier but that wouldn't be a bad thing given that you have to be up and at 'em in the morning.

In my struggles with sleep seizures and the meds for them I have realized that, if your sleep is not restful or you don't get enough of it, nothing is going to be right in your day.

 

[Nakamova]

A friend of mine who was on an anti-psychotic for a year or two found that she needed to go to bed at 9pm and sleep until 9am -- like you, 12 hours did the trick. She was able to go off of the med eventually and has much more typical sleep and energy. Hopefully that will be the same for you.

Any chance the hallucinations were seizure-related rather than a form of psychosis? (Apologies if you've already discussed this elsewhere).

 

[resaebiunne]

Well I took my meds early last night at around 8PM instead of around bed time at 10. At first it was okay, but around 9 PM I began to feel tired so I just went to bed. That was a bit of a mistake because I slept for about 4 hours and woke up around 1:45 am and couldn't get back to bed. So I literally laid in bed for about 5 hours tossing and turning until the alarm went off at 7:30. But I was awake for the most part, and felt refreshed. Last night was easy though because I was caught up on sleep. Tonight I'll be sleep deprived from being awake for 5 extra hours.

Any chance the hallucinations were seizure-related rather than a form of psychosis?

Really doubtful. I actually wound up in the ER because of my hallucinations after I went to the health clinic at work complaining of "hearing voices". They basically pulled me into an office and told me I could either have a friend take me to the ER or I would get an ambulance ride to the ER. So needless to say I wound up at the ER. Now it's true that at the time, I wasn't seeing a neurologist for seizures, but I was seeing a neurologist for migraines and headaches prior to that point. The ER diagnosed me as being psychotic, leaning towards bipolar, after running a CT scan, various blood work, an EKG and talking to a psychiatrist. I don't recall the hospital ever asking about a history of seizures. Up to that point, my seizure activity was normal and I was not on any medication for the seizures I had anyway since I had been cleared by a neurologist many years prior. It might be worth mentioning that before July of this year (I was diagnosed with psychosis in 2014) I had never had a tonic clonic or other generalized seizure. With any of the seizures that I ever had, psychosis was not something familiar to me or an issue. That said, when I recently had my tonic clonic seizure that landed me in the hospital, I was very much in psychosis with the hallucinations I was having. I'm not sure if they ever diagnosed me with psychosis, but they did put me on Abilify while I was in the hospital in addition to my normal dosage of Saphris.

Anyway, I tend to agree with my diagnosis of being bipolar or having psychotic disorder. I had very real hallucinations without having any seizure activity. I was convinced that someone had thought I had flicked them off at work (while in a department meeting). I thought my neighbors were following me to work in the morning. I heard people shouting at me while driving even with my windows rolled up. Before I realised what was going on, I wound up following the voices around one night such to the point that I got no sleep at all. I had called the cops at 4 AM because I heard someone (who I thought was my downstairs neighbor) threaten to beat me up. So yeah, I feel comfortable with the diagnosis It was a very strange and surreal experience.

The only other thing that might be worth mentioning is that during my psychosis I never had visual hallucinations (unless you count brief flashes to be a hallucination). After my last tonic clonic seizure I was visually hallucinating to the point I thought I was in someone elses house. The floor, the things around me, everything was different. At one point, I looked at my fingers on my hand and all I saw were nubs...and the screwy part is it was only my left hand that was messed up. I've never had hallucinations like that before. The amazing part is how real it feels, it took a while before I realized that I was lying on my floor in my apartment alone. It took a good two or three more days before I realized that I wound up in the hospital because of a seizure. onder:

 

[resaebiunne]

Well this is exciting. I nearly fainted while in the bath. I'm sure it was because of the Saphris, I haven't yet taken my Keppra or anything else.

 

[gymrat827]

man, ive learned the hard way.......slowly, slowly taper off of keppra. Please bud.