going to bed for the night consistently

There is a version of SleepyHead that's compiled for Mac. You can find it here.

Thank you, I hope I can help!

Went to bed at 10PM sharp last night.

I'm glad you're meeting your goal of a regular bedtime!

This morning, I took my first dose of amphetamine prescribed yesterday by my psychiatrist to help me deal with excessive sleep requirement. So, basically the indication is akin to narcolepsy as a I do not suffer from ADHD.

I took at at 10AM. Later, at about 4PM, I still took a nap but it was a short nap. My amphetamine pill is short-acting and by 4PM was probably out of my system. Also, I took the smallest dose. Now I am going to bed for the night. It is 10:25PM. Tomorrow I will take amphetamine at 7AM when my first alarm rings. Usually, that alarm rings and I turn it off and set another, later alarm. Tomorrow I hope to actually get up with the help of the amphetamine. We will see if that hope materializes.

Clobetasol is working to control eczema. I no longer itch and scratch at night. I will be on it for 6 weeks. It is the strongest anti-eczema topical.

Good night!

I am recording my first experiences taking prescription amphetamine.

I was prescribed Dextroamphetamine Sulfate TABLET 5 MG

This medication is prescribed for ADHD and narcolepsy. I do not have ADHD. My indication is to help counteract excessive daytime sleepiness. So it was basically the psychiatrist giving me the dx of narcolepsy although I had not been properly tested for it and in March 2023 one sleep medicine doctor told me that he could not test me for it unless I went free of all psych meds for three weeks which is impossible. I am thinking of going to talk to my neurologist about all of this; narcolepsy is, after all, a neurological disorder. In me, it started immediately after I contracted COVID in August 2022. I wonder if this might be Long COVID but of course no one knows about about Long Covid to advise me.

So last night I went to bed at 10:30 PM. Before I went to bed, my blood pressure was high, a known side effect of amphetamine. It was 128/89. Earlier yesterday, it had been even higher, 132/88. My baseline is normal to low so for me these numbers are very high. I hoped last night that overnight the blood pressure would go back to baseline.

I felt asleep around midnight and slept for a stretch until 3:11 AM without waking up to pee. For me, it is a long stretch to sleep uninterrupted.

Then I woke up with severe hunger pangs. I got up, drank kefir and ate farmers' cheese with dried fruit. Luckily that quickly quelled the hunger pangs and I was able to go back to sleep.

I then woke up at 6:34 AM from a very vivid and insightful dream which was almost like being awake. I did not need to be up to early and I was astonished that I woke up and seemed well slept. I wanted to sleep more, though, and turned off my 7AM alarm and instead set an alarm for 8AM and put on Yoga Nidra on YouTube. I was able to fall asleep. When the alarm went off at 8AM, I did not feel rested, but I made myself get out of bed. It took me some time, though.

I measured my blood pressure. It was normal, 103/73. I was glad.

I then took another dose of amphetamine. It slowly started working. Initially, I felt like going back to sleep, but the need was not overwhelming and was able to pull through. But 30 minutes later, I no longer felt sleepy. I looked forward to going into the office. I applied clobetasol, sunscreen, and even brow and lash mascara which I do not do often.

At work, initially I felt that it was nothing short of a miracle, how alert and perky I felt and now not at all sleepy or tired. But in the late afternoon and evening I started feeling wired in the heart area and still do, even though the short-acting medication is by now out of my system. I do not like this feeling and I do not know how I will be able to put in hours of focused work while having this feeling.

My blood pressure now at 7PM is 132/82, pulse 78. I hope it goes back to normal overnight again.

I hope that I will be able to fall asleep tonight. I have a meeting at 9PM with a colleague who is in India and I plan to go to bed at 10PM sharp. I also hope that I won't wake up before 7AM.

My Oura ring showed for last night a total of 5 hours 50 minutes of net sleep and a low sleep score but I was able to have a productive day. Before amphetamine, there was no way I could be functioning without a least 7 hours of net sleep and usually more. But I do not know if this will last. Time will tell.

My friend who liked prescription amphetamine when he took it in the past but ultimately did not need it because Modafanil, a milder stimulant, worked just fine for him, hopes it will work for me but reminds me that often medications start working for me but then stop. True. Even Modafanil worked wonders for two days in October 2022 and then stopped. Now I can take Modafanil in the morning and go back to sleep right away. It does nothing at all to promote wakefulness. It is like a sugar pill.

The leaflet accompanying Dextroamphetamine warns of new or worse bipolar illness and mania. I will be watchful.

For now, I just hope to survive next week. I am organizing and event at work and will need to be in the office early in the morning. With this medication, this finally seems possible.

ETA: while amphetamine is working, one does not feel hunger and forgets to eat, but then hunger comes back with a vengeance.

The hunger this evening was relentless. I ate marinated herring, small potatoes with butter, farmers' cheese with whey protein powder and dried fruit and labne, and still could not overcome the feeling of hunger pangs with all the chewing. Then I finally gave up trying to quell the pangs with solid food and started drinking kefir. It is often easier with liquids, fills me up faster and less painfully. It worked.

I am very tired now. I hope it means I will be able to fall asleep and that I am not developing bipolar mania and insomnia as a side effect of taking amphetamine.

I have messaged to the sleep medicine doctor to let her know that the psychiatrist has started me on amphetamine for narcolepsy, to help with excessive daytime sleepiness. I am not sure she will write back. Usually she does not. I am only scheduled to see her in July.

Also wrote to the endocrinologist about the hunger pangs, making sure to let her know I do not have abnormal thirst. Asked her if she would like to order any tests.

I think I am out of ideas now.

going to bed. Very tired and sleepy and no wonder, up non-stop since 8AM.

good night at 10PM sharp

I fell asleep almost instantly last night: I know because I was listening to a familiar story and I remember that it barely started.

I then woke up at 2:25 AM to go to the bathroom and, alas, to eat. I had crackers, kefir, some nuts, some dried fruit. Went back to bed, put on the Nutcracker story audiobook by E.T.A. Hoffman and listened to it for a long time. Could not fall asleep. Considered getting up and taking extra Seroquel but decided to wait a little bit and did fall asleep.

Then woke up at 6:08 AM. Took Levoxyl which requires waiting for 30 minutes before eating. Wanted to go back to sleep. Put on Yoga Nidra. Could not go back to sleep because I was hungry. Still waited 30 minutes. Realized that yesterday night I had forgotten to take Seroquel!

Now I have had breakfast and will try to sleep listening to yoga nidra for an hour before my first meeting.

Unfortunately I forgot to charge my Oura ring yesterday so I do not know how much net sleep I got. That is a shame as it would be interesting to learn the number, off Seroquel.

this morning, amphetamine took more than 2 hours to work. I was on video off during my 9-10AM meeting and I actually fell asleep. I woke up when I was startled at the end of the meeting when a different person started talking in an unexpected voice. And then after the meeting I stayed in bed, unable to get up. Only now, at 11AM, am I slowly ramping up.

I am starting to think that I need a short term disability leave to figure out these meds. It is very stressful to work against a deadline while never being guaranteed a reasonable wake-up routine.

My psychiatrist suggests I double the dose of Dextroamphetamine Sulfate tomorrow. Right now I am at the lowest dose.

I experience a similar sleep pattern, where I wake up after about 3 hours to pee, then two more times 90 minutes apart (also to pee) after dreams. After six hours, I feel the most rested and alert. But it's only about 4:30am. I'm warm under the covers and it's cold in the house, so I do deep breathing and breath counting. After a while I wake up again a bit groggy, but I can't delay, so I force myself out of bed.

I might start the day at 4:30am If I had something really fun to look forward to and if I didn't have a dog with separation anxiety issues.

I've been taking Nuvigil (Armodafinil) for several months and just added Effexor (Venlafaxine). The latter makes me want to eat a lot at night.

Before I started these meds, I'd be nearly falling asleep at work at 4:30pm. I'd even manage to drag myself to work in the morning while longing for the day to be over so I can go back to bed. So it's definitely an improvement.

My sleep cycle seems to be about 90 minutes, so I should adjust my bedtime so that the last 90 minute cycle ends when I need to wake up. I wonder if I should go to bed at midnight, then. Maybe I'll try it sometime.

It is worth trying!

I have Armodafinil but it does not work for me. Modafanil, the older version, worked wonders for two days and then stopped working and has not worked since. I occasionally restart it but no, nil.

Almost 11pm. I will explain tomorrow what has kept me up. And I am not sure I will be able to fall asleep. I am excited. Fun times, suddenly. This might mean I am developing hypomania, a known side effect of amphetamine. If I cannot fall asleep tonight, I won't take more amphetamine tomorrow morning. We will see how the situation develops.

I cannot believe my luck. Slept through the night
Woke up several minutes before the 7am alarm. Took just one dose of amphetamine. Going to the office now.

I had a wonderful day. Productive at work and then a good workout at the gym.

No hunger pangs today, knock on wood.

No daytime sleepiness.

Need to change the BiPAP filter now, pour the distilled water, take nighttime meds, put on my audiobook and go to bed. It is already 11:04 PM. Will I sleep through the night AGAIN? Or will I revert to my old ways of poor sleep?

Almost slept through the night: woke up once to pee.

Did not wake up hungry in the middle of the night. Ate breakfast at 8AM. Considering that my dinner was light, it was a good span of time between feedings.

A confession: I kept checking this forum after I wrote my last message on this thread here. And then I had to apply clobetasol, take off brow and lash mascara, change the BiPAP filter, pour distilled water into the humidifier reservoir, put on an audiobook, straighten my two comforters. I went to bed at, gasp, midnight. Because of this, this morning I was catching up on sleep. It was not fun but I am completely OK now and greatly enjoyed my first work meeting at 10 which I took from home. One dose of amphetamine was enough. I am going to the office now. I should not go to bed at midnight but then this forum is addictive to me and I should be honest about it.

Interesting datapoints from Oura today:

Lowest HR only 61 bpm. This is very low for me. Usually it is 68-72 bpm. I wonder whether that is a positive effect of HIITs done last evening. It is known that after the heart rate increased during exercises, it decreases afterwards. I measured my blood pressure late last night to make sure it was not elevated from the amphetamine (it wasn't) and noticed that my pulse was 68 and usually it is in the low 80s and attributed it to exercise. Maybe lower nighttime HR is for the same reason. I will keep monitoring Oura data and correlating it to evening exercise to see if a clear pattern emerges.

Average HRV 16. This is very low by population standards but high for me. I often get only 8-9. Likewise could be positive aftereffects of the cardio workout.

Total time asleep 7 hrs 39 minutes

Sleep efficiency 79%, sleep score 70 (lowest of what is considered Good), timing "pay attention" meaning do not go to bed at midnight and I know that

deep sleep only 20 mins

readiness 80 mins, quite good

@SquarePegGuy I wanted to thank you and update you. I have not yet downloaded the software for Mac because I am waiting for my techie friend to help me. Next week I will be busy with work, but the week of Jan 22 we will figure something out.

In the meantime, it occurred to me to ask the Durable Medical Equipment (DME) provider whether they can download data from the SD card for me. It turns out that they can. They are within a 20 minute drive, so it is not too bad and I can listen to a podcast on my way. I am very curious to learn what the data will show. I have an appointment for the data download for Monday Jan 22 and I will post once I have my printout.

I had a good day today. No sleepiness and no hunger pangs. Cannot complain.

10:12PM

- took the meds
- poured the distilled water
- straightened the comforters
- starters the white noise machine, not that I think it adds much but I am experimenting with it
- applied clobetasol
- took off mascara

Now, putting on an audiobook and going to bed. Have to be at work by 9 sharp tomorrow!