Sweet, Sweet Sleep

It's been 3 nights is a row now that I've gotten 6-8 hours of sleep. And, wow - is it sweet!

Previously, and for the last 4 or 5 weeks, since taking Prednisone, I had only been getting about 4 hours of sleep. And I didn't feel too bad. In fact, quite the opposite. I've had a sort of manic drive to get things done - particularly at night, say between the hours of 11pm and 2am, when a sane person would be fast asleep.

Try as I might - Sleepy time tea, calming lavender scented lotion, high protein bedtime snack, even warm milk - I remained WIDE AWAKE late into the night.

At the hospital, the doctor had given me a prescription for Ambien. It didn't work for me there, or at home. I even tried doubling the dose. Nothing. Not even the slightest drowsiness. Hmmfff....

My mom-in-law recommended I try Melatonin, which I did, at only a small dose of 0.75 mg. It worked great! I was so happy! Until...

It occurred to me that it may be prudent to check if there are any drug interaction warnings for melatonin. (Yes, you should always do this before taking something - oops, brain freeze I guess!)within about 2 seconds of looking it up on Google, I found out you should not take melatonin while taking prednisone, as they counteract each other. Oops, again - so no more melatonin (though I will keep it in mind for later).

That was a few weeks ago. And now, finally, it seems things may be improving. I am tapering down the Prednisone dosage (right now at 25mg per day, tomorrow I go down to 20mg), so maybe its reached a low enough level to allow me to sleep - and of course, will only get better as the dosage gets lower.

I dare to hope that 3 nights in a row establishes a pattern, not merely a coincidence, and that the sleep is here to stay.

Again, this is all a new experience for me. Likely there are many of you out there who have been there, done that - perhaps several times. Does anyone have any gems of advice on battling prednisone sleep deprivation? If so, please share...