Nuvigil anyone?

Anyone on this med or has taken it in the past?

I have psychiatric issues so my psychiatrist prescribed me this to help me focus and not be as tired during the day. I take a med that basically causes my sleep apnea so we are going to try taking this in the morning instead of at night, and then also taking the Nuvigil. This medication is Saphris and makes me very tired after I take it so I am hoping the Nuvigil helps.

I am taking half of a 250mg pill right now and so far I feel more focused and everything but a little irritable. Many doctors prescribe Nuvigil for people who have sleep apnea so I was wondering if anyone else has taken it and it went.

Joel

I used Provogil, which is a close relative or a name brand of Nuvigil (just not sure), before I started CPAP. It was to keep me awake during the day long enough to work. I had not gone for a sleep study or been diagnosed with sleep apnea yet when I used Provogil. I don't recall having headaches or being particularly irritable on it. It gave me about 8 hours of wakefulness, if I recall correctly, so got me through most of the day. I think I was mostly working from home and often worked longer than 8 hours, but at least it gave me some core waking time. I was not able to stay awake during the day at all before Provogil, and that has not particularly improved with CPAP therapy without Provogil.

If I don't get on a better sleep schedule soon (after getting a new CPAP/APAP machine after 5.5 years), I may ask the dr. about Provogil or Nuvigil. Thanks for reminding me of their existence.

Good luck, and let us know what works or if you have any more specific questions. Hopefully others can help you better than I can with this.

joeljjk11 wrote:Anyone on this med or has taken it in the past?

I have psychiatric issues so my psychiatrist prescribed me this to help me focus and not be as tired during the day. I take a med that basically causes my sleep apnea so we are going to try taking this in the morning instead of at night, and then also taking the Nuvigil. This medication is Saphris and makes me very tired after I take it so I am hoping the Nuvigil helps.

I am taking half of a 250mg pill right now and so far I feel more focused and everything but a little irritable. Many doctors prescribe Nuvigil for people who have sleep apnea so I was wondering if anyone else has taken it and it went.

Joel

Joel,

To be honest, I am concerned you are getting on a med merry go around you may find hard to get off of. If a med is making you tired, using another med to counter side effects may eventually bite you big time. I speak from experience in spending 15 years on psych meds.

For what it is worth, my current sleep doctor gave me samples of nuvigil because I have mysterious narcoleptic like issues that I am looking to address along with other problems with a future sleep doctor. I actually fell asleep while testing the drug.

I hope you understand I realize you are in a very tough position and I am not trying to be judgmental. I just get very concerned when someone writes adding another drug to counteract the effects of the first one.

49er

49er wrote:To be honest, I am concerned you are getting on a med merry go around you may find hard to get off of. If a med is making you tired, using another med to counter side effects may eventually bite you big time.

True and scary.

BTW, I hope you mean "to be frank".

"To be honest" means you have been lying before.

Nuvigil can cause headaches. In my case they went away in a few weeks. I also had to cut back on caffeine to avoid jitters and irritability. Is your sleep apnea fully treated? Poor sleep can make psych symptoms worse and increase daytime sleepiness. Hope this helps.

Provigil didn't work for me; even almost doubling the standard dose didn't help.

FYI I stopped taking the Nuvigil. It was making me very irritable and I just did not feel like myself on it. It's like my brain was in overdrive mode and I could not stop it. It was very hard to relax, I just didn't like it.