YOU ARE NOT ALONE - A companion online community discussion board for The Mental Illness Happy Hour podcast with Paul Gilmartin

hi guys! I'm on a combination of medications to help me sleep. For some weeks I've been having bad sleep problems accompanied by heart palpitations. The sleep disruptions range from inability to sleep at all to an interruption at 4-5am and inability to get back to sleep. The palpitations have definitely not helped. At first when I'd been without sleep for days, Xanax, Ambien, Benadryl, Trazodone, melatonin, and anything else (except codeine) I could get my hands on wouldn't work. Then my primary doctor prescribed a low dose (10mg) of propranolol (a beta blocker) and I got my first night of sleep in days. About a week later, propranolol stopped working and the doctor upped the dose to 60mg. I'm not sure if it's really working at all, even though apparently it's usually prescribed for things like stage fright.

My neurologist added Ambien and psychiatrist tripled my dose of Xanax, which I worried about getting hooked on. I was able to sleep at night but the palpitations were still pretty bad and every night I'm cowering in fear over some nameless dread (which was numbed by Xanax). So the psychiatrist changed it to Clonazepam and I needed less of it than Xanax after a few days' transition. However, after another night of waking at 4-5am and not getting back to sleep, I put myself back on Trazodone.

My other medications are Latuda (60mg at night) and Lamictal (150mg mornings).

The problem now is that even though I get up, naturally, at 7am, I'm woozy and tired throughout the day. I try taking naps but can't get more than 10-15 minutes in. I go to the gym in the morning to try to stave this off, and take walks during the day, but I can't really stave this off.

No one here is a physician, I'm sure, but does anyone have any experience with these medications and decreased one of the meds, having any good luck?

Thanks!

I'm definitely no expert, and I have mostly different problems than you have (mine sound less extensive), but the heart palpitations I know well. I take Propranolol (20mg twice a day) for it and have rotated on light doses of antidepressants/anxiety meds (currently on Buspirone, 30mg a day, divided up, but previously tried 20mg of Citalopram). I get chest pains and palpitations due to my anxiety, my doctor said I have an overactive heart (170 bpm resting was when they noticed something was up). I'm not sure if that's the technical term, but that's how my doctor described it. When I'd have the bad palpitations and chest pains I literally felt like I was going to die, this was the end, I'm going to have a heart attack at 25 (29 now). The medication has helped a lot, especially Propranolol, but on bad days I don't think anything short of knocking me out with a hammer will keep my heart rate down and the pain away.

What I do know about Propranolol is that it will lower your blood pressure. It always depends on the person and how their blood pressure is. Mine is low to begin with, so the only reason my doctor didn't increase my dosage was because he knew it would lower it too much. I constantly feel fatigued and have to be careful when getting up so I don't black out. I've never passed out from it, but it is embarrassing when I walk a few steps after getting up and then have to hold on to something so I don't fall over while my vision fades for a few seconds. I do seem to be tired all the time, and my sleep schedule is not the most consistent, but this is not abnormal for me so I don't know if the medicine has any effect. I'm typing this after falling asleep around 7:30pm and waking up at 1am, exhausted from the lack of sleep I've been getting lately. No palpitations or anything, so I'm not sure if any of that info helps. I DO know that it is incredibly hard to sleep when your heart is racing and/or have palpitations. If I'm having palpitations at night, I am completely filled with dread. Well, anytime I have palpitations I'm filled with dread, but at night when you're trying to sleep it's worse because then you can REALLY dwell on it. Then it adds to my heart racing because I start getting worried, which makes the palpitations worse. It becomes this big cycle. Luckily the Propranolol has mostly helped that.

I haven't taken any of the other combinations of medicine you have, or have the same sleeping problems you have, so I don't know how much this info will help. But I was browsing and saw there were no replies and I have at least some experience with one of the meds you listed. I hope there is something useful in the info I gave, or at least I hope hearing someone else's experience with one of the meds you take can help. Honestly, hearing someone else talk about heart palpitations and taking propranolol makes me feel less alone, so I hope it does the same to you.