Lamictal and Sleep Disturbance

I am on my 2nd round with Lamictal [25mg] as it takes care of 90% of my issues (yay!)...

However, while I can get to sleep ok, I wake up around usually 1 to 2 AM, and it takes me a little while to get back to sleep.

Also, I have had some rather lucid but morbid dreams in the past week since going back on the meds and also had issues previously with lucid but morbid dreams.

Any ideas would be welcome! Thanks

BTW, I also have OSA so this does not help my already bad sleep problems!

I take Lamictal, and I don't have sleep issues from it. As a matter of fact I take 200 once a day and feel sleepy right after I take it. I do take Ambian XR to sleep as well though.

[quote=1D10T;1934370]I am on my 2nd round with Lamictal [25mg] as it takes care of 90% of my issues (yay!)...

However, while I can get to sleep ok, I wake up around usually 1 to 2 AM, and it takes me a little while to get back to sleep.

Also, I have had some rather lucid but morbid dreams in the past week since going back on the meds and also had issues previously with lucid but morbid dreams.

Any ideas would be welcome! Thanks

BTW, I also have OSA so this does not help my already bad sleep problems!

I have the same issues with waking up at 2 or 3 am in the morning also! I had some mysterious dreams also, but lately I have not had any dreams. I already had sleeping issues, & I use to take trazadone a few years ago. Might I suggest purchasing some quick dissolving melatonin & take some magnesium capsules, tablets or powder daily in the evening. I am trying the melatonin quick dissolving right now cuz I don't want 2 depend on another drug to help me sleep. I feel that I take enough meds already! Anyhoo, please try the melatonin 3mg tablets, it does help my sister & her kids, cuz they all have insomnia issues & has had them for several years! Why don't you google he melatonin & try it & keep me posted on how it helps! Good luck to you!

What time of day do you take the meds? I was originally told to take it in the evening because it can make some people drowsy, but it has the opposite effect for me, so now I take it in the morning and it works out fine.

I have also had fairly lucid dreams on Lamictal, but that only started after I stopped self-medicating with alcohol and cannabis.

Melatonin works well for me - have you tried it? There are no weird side effects because it's a natural hormone. It also doesn't make you groggy, so it's something you could take in the middle of the night without having it mess you up in the morning. Its window of active benefit is approximately a half hour, so you'd need to take it and then try to sleep immediately.

If Lamictal takes care of 90% of the issues, is the wake-up something you can tolerate? Sometimes it's a trade-off worth making. I'm getting a bit of aphasia from Lamictal, but it's still worth it to me.

Also, how long have you been on the Lamictal this round? It might be a side effect that fades away after awhile. I've found that as I was working up, any "activation" that it was causing faded away after a week or so, up until I got to the right dose. So that could also be in play.

I also get horribly lucid and sometimes quite vile dreams. Had one last night which has bothered me for the rest of the day. Never got them before anti psychotics and lamactil... not sure whether it's seroquel or lamactil causing the nightmares. All in all it is better than it was. At least I don't get these experiences when I'm awake, so much.

[quote=hope31;2201338]I have the melatonin strips and they don't do anything for me. I have the same sleep patterns of falling asleep then waking up between 1:30 and 3:00 am. Then I doze in and out of sleep until I finally get up. Even one pill of zopiclone doesn't help me. I wish they did work for me. I wouldn't mind getting off of the zopiclone.

Zopiclone makes me viciously bad tempered the next day. I had six on a strip given to me about eight months ago, I've still got two left. I have to be really desperate to take one, like if I haven't slept for three days straight.

Lamictal did that to me when I first started taking it, but I have been taking the same dosage for about a month now and it is going away.

I suffer from insomnia anyway that is completely unrelated to being Bi-Polar so I don't expect it to fix that. It is not unusual for me to be awake at 3 am or to wake up constantly throughout the night.

Thank you for this thread. I just started Lamictal last week I was looking for opinions on this med. Good, bad, or indifferent.