Insomnia

[crackersmonkey]

I just started on ritalin about 2 weeks ago and I am having the worst insomnia. I tried taking it earlier but then the effects wear off to early and I can't get my work done (I'm a student and need to be able to study in the evenings). I take the generic extended release once at 9 am and again at 2ish. I'm down to 3 hours of sleep a night if I am lucky. I've tried drinking lots of water to flush my statem with no luck. All that did is make me have to pee a lot while I stare at the cieling waiting to sleep. I'm not really tired from the lack of sleep, which is probably the most disturbing part. My Doctor is off on vacation for a month so no help there, anyone have any advice?

[Eve]

It should fade, unless there are other reasons you can't sleep. Like, stress, for example. You should deffinatly talk to your doc. It seems like I had trouble sleeping when I first started taking Ritalin. But I can't remember for sure. I know when my stress level was sky high and when I was dealing with post tramatic stress I could not sleep. Also for me sometimes if I know I have to wake up early or at a certain time I can't sleep very well. Since you take it so early in the day you wouldn't think it would cause insomnia, but maybe your body is adjusting to it. Also make sure you eat enough throughout the day.

[crackersmonkey]

Well sadly the insomnia is not fading away and in fact is getting worse. I saw my doctor today. He thinks that since I have allways had trouble sleeping the ritalin is just making it worse. He gave me some ambien for the worst nights and gave me a scrip for regular ritalin to try instead of the extende release. We shall see how it works.

[KMiller]

Try switching off of the SR, like he said. I have noticed that with the SR, the actual ADHD calming effects leave long before the narcolepsy reducing ones do. Then again, the same is true with regular Ritalin. I have noticed that it stops calming my brain and such long before it stops keeping me awake.

I would suggest the Ambien your doctor gave you, the only problem is that sleeping pills tend to reduce the amount of REM sleep you get. Only real tried and true way to keep Ritalin from keeping you up is taking it earlier in the day. If you know the exact time each dose lasts (for me, it's 4 hours), and how long the take-off delay and withdrawal periods are then you can time it so you are medicated when you are doing work, withdrawing just after you're finishing, then being able to sleep...

One word of warning is that with regular Ritalin, you don't get that nice sloping off withdrawal you are probably used to with SR. The dose drops off quite abruptly; takes about 15 minutes for me overall to go from fully medicated to not medicated. During that period, I tend to get very irritable and very, very "ADD"ish, i.e., mentally spastic and hyperactive, heh. So that's your heads up.

[exeter]

Ok, this has nothing to do with insomnia, but when I read who posted this thread, I thought it said "crackmonkey" instead of "crackersmonkey."

[neuroangel]

I've had insomnia since I was 11, but it's been a lot worse the past three weeks. I even switched from the concerta to the ritalin LA so it doesn't last as long. I take it early too. I take it at 6 a.m. and still can't sleep. Since I was on ritalin (concerta) for almost 4 months without my insomnia worsening, and the ritalin LA hasn't helped it, I am thinking this may be stress-related.

Cyndi