Hello all,

It's been a few months that I've been on Dexedrine. I use to take it way back in Elementary school, and I remember having numberous all nighters back then too.

The thing is, I already have a sleep problem. If I get 12 hours of sleep, I feel the same in the morning as 8 hours, which feels the same as 4 hours pretty much. What I'm trying to say is that I don't get quality sleep in the first place. So I find myself cheating with this medication if I have to be up early the next day. Even an 8:00 appointment is hard for me to keep. So I will just stay up all night... and it's easy with the medication. I've done it a few times.

I don't think I have an addiction to the medication. I went off it for over 1 week when I got sick, because I wanted to sleep then. During this time, I had no cravings or anything. I just noticed that in School, I had a tough time concentrating. But I could have stayed off it, and not had any serious side effects other than lack of concentration.

I'm wondering if I should make an appointment to see my doctor early. Right now it's about 4 months away. The sleep thing seems to be a serious side effect that needs fixing. The thing is, my sleep isn't any better, in my opinion, off the medication just different. I'd rather stay up and be able to concentrate then just sleep all day, and not concentrate.

have you ever tried 5-htp? if you take it an hour or so before you need to sleep it boosts your serotonin levels which in turn become melatonin, which is a natural sleeping chemical in your body- you go into an incredibly deep sleep after taking one of these (sometimes its a bit hard to wake up) and it helps you get to sleep too-- once you've woken up and you shake off the sleepyness you feel much more awake than you normally would, 5-htp is available in health shops and I'd definitely recommend picking a bottle of 50mg pills up (100 are too much for me)

it can be a side effect of switching to a different brand, or rebound effect.

just to clarify, are you getting too little sleep or are you getting too much sleep? If it is too little sleep it may be the dexadrine doing this in which you may have to lower the dosage. If it is too much sleep and it is a problem for you, i'd definatly see the doctor early (or at least call him/her) and let the doc know what is going on. This sounds like sleep study material. There is something called delayed sleep phase syndrome in which info can be found at this website:

http://www.sleepdisorderchannel.com/dsps/

I would definatly make a decision as to speak to your doctor. Only a doctor can determine what specific sleep problems you have and how to treat them. Being only a psychologist (in training) I don't know fully how to dx and treat clients as of yet...

just to clarify, are you getting too little sleep or are you getting too much sleep? If it is too little sleep it may be the dexadrine doing this in which you may have to lower the dosage. If it is too much sleep and it is a problem for you, i'd definatly see the doctor early (or at least call him/her) and let the doc know what is going on. This sounds like sleep study material. There is something called delayed sleep phase syndrome in which info can be found at this website:

http://www.sleepdisorderchannel.com/dsps/

I would definatly make a decision as to speak to your doctor. Only a doctor can determine what specific sleep problems you have and how to treat them. Being only a psychologist (in training) I don't know fully how to dx and treat clients as of yet...The thing that gets me about doctors is that I could be in a totally different situation if I went to a different doctor. I don't have a family doctor, so I had to go to Walk-In Clinics.

Anyways, the original reason why I went into a walk-in clinic was about my sleep. I wasn't getting quality sleep. No matter what time I'd go to bed at, I would still be tired in the morning and could not get up. As soon as the doctor heard that I had been on dexedrine before, he refered me to a psychologist. He dismissed sleep apnea, because I was not over-weight and did not have any other physical signs of it.

Anyways, the referal took some time and I had began college, so I went to the doctor at my college about it. She did test me for sleep apnea and I did have a mild case of it. The only thing is, by the time I got the results, I had already seen my psychologist and got a perscription. The psychologist pretty much just signs off on prescriptions at each appointment, and it really doesn't seem like he cares. I told the doctor who tested me for sleep apnea that I would like to go off the Dexedrine while I start my sleep apnea treatment to see how much sleep apnea was contributing to my ADD symptoms. She told me not too... because the psychologist was trained...

Thing is, if I would have just gone to this doctor in the first place... I wouldn't be on dexedrine. And if I would have just visited the first doctor and not gone to another... I would never know I had a mild case of sleep apnea.

I'm very suspicious of doctors now. The pills do work on some of my symptoms but it definatley isn't a fix.. and I don't even know if the positives outweigh the negatives. All I went to the doctor for in the first place was about quality of sleep... which would naturally effect my ability to concentrate..... I'm not doubting the fact that I have ADD, but I think I should deal with the things that could be causing some of my symptoms first, instead of just covering it up with pills.

if you wanna go off the medication why not just stop for a week and see how things go? you dont need your psych/doctor's permissoin to take a break and this way it wouldn't be a hassle to start back up if the sleep apnea has nothing to do with the add.. and you're definitely right about sleep -> concentration, my psych talked a lot about my sleep and eating habits to make sure they were good before diagnosging me

Personally I like the all nighters occassionally, no one here to bother me.