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I have been prescribed 300 mg of gabapentin to help me stay asleep. I have both central and obstructive apnea .
After 1 week of taking this, their was no change so now I take 2 a night and this seems to be helping. I am worried about taking any drugs.
Has anyone experience with this ?

Follow the doctor's directions. If you feel you need a different dosage,
consult him, not strangers on the internet.
http://www.webmd.com/drugs/2/drug-14208 ... de-effects

giseleharney wrote:I have been prescribed 300 mg of gabapentin to help me stay asleep. I have both central and obstructive apnea .
After 1 week of taking this, their was no change so now I take 2 a night and this seems to be helping. I am worried about taking any drugs.
Has anyone experience with this ?

Gabapentine is used for many things.....my wife took it for nerve pain. When I have sleep problems I take amitriptyline. A very small dose puts me out for 7-8 hours. I only use it occasionally.

I take it for nerve pain. It doesn't help me sleep except I sleep better with less pain. It doesn't do a lot for the nerve pain but it is better than nothing I think.

Of course I am following the docs advice he says take 1 for one week and if no results take 2 for one week and if still no results take 3 for one week and if nothing stop
I am scheduled for an MRI to rule out any problems. Too many centrals not enough sleep lol.

Is that one of those drugs you have to taper off? I hope you find a dose that works for you, but I wonder about stopping cold turkey if it doesn't work. The medicine has been offered to me by my doctors for fibromyalgia pain, but after reading the potential side effects, I declined. Please let us know if you reach a dose that works for you and if you experience any side effects.

I was on 600mg a day for about a year because of nerve pain. Got my glucose under control and the nerve pain stopped so I stopped those meds.
Friend is a nurse and lots of people take it for nerve pain
I know I ramped up the dose, but I don't remember if I tapered off, most likely

well gabapentine did not work for me I felt dizzy and not myself during the day I did sleep harder where I would almost wake up but went right back to sleep but the days were not good.When I stopped it took me a week to be able to sleep and fall asleep with AHI above 14 now back to normal whatever that is. Centrals are high and AHI still between 6-10 so back to the doctor for more advice.Will keep you posted

giseleharney wrote:I have been prescribed 300 mg of gabapentin to help me stay asleep.

I did not know gabapentin was prescribed for this. But, according to my doctor, it does help a person "get deeper sleep".

I take 900 mg gabapentin at bedtime for painful RLS and PLMD. It works great for me, and the side effects are mostly worn off by time to get up.

One word of caution, for some people withdrawal can be hell. I was not warned of this. At some point I decided to reduce the dosage to 600 mg from 900 mg. I wanted to see if 600 mg would be sufficient for a restful night's sleep. The second day I was at 600 mg the withdrawal symptoms slammed me. I won't go into details, but by day five, I went back to 900 mg and the withdrawal abruptly ended.

So, it's important to take the same amount every day at approximately the same time. And if you ever decide to discontinue or reduce the dosage, be very careful of withdrawal. If you are sensitive to the drug, you may need to work with your doctor to do a very gradual tapering over a long period of time.

More information is available by searching "gabapentin withdrawal" and looking at some of the forums to see what others have experienced.

giseleharney wrote:I have both central and obstructive apnea .

Which machine are you using? What are the settings? It's best to fill out your Equipment Profile in the User Control Panel section.

Regarding withdrawal, here are some tips for tapering slowly if you run into problems in getting off of the med:

http://survivingantidepressants.org/ind ... n/?p=26292

Of course, run it by your doctor.

49er

I take Gabapentin for my seizures and it has an opposite effect on me when it comes to helping sleep. It makes me feel wired up like I have had a lot of coffee. But better than having seizures.

I have taken Gabapentin for 5yrs and it does help you sleep. I take 600 mg nigjhtly. I have terrible nerve pain from botched varicose vein surgery.

I couldnt live witnout my drugs. It does seem like you take alot. How many mil.igrams?

Brattygirl65 wrote: It does seem like you take alot. How many mil.igrams?

It's unclear whom you are asking.

But, I'll make a comment. When I was trying out drugs for RLS/PLMD, my doctor said to try next 900 mg gabapentin nightly. I told her that sounded like a large dose. Her reply was, "I have little old ladies taking 2700 mg nightly."

I since learned that most sleep doctors consider 2700 mg to be the maximum, yet safe, dosage. Of course they monitor their patients because reactions to and effectiveness of drugs are individualized.

CaptainRaven40 wrote:I take Gabapentin for my seizures and it has an opposite effect on me when it comes to helping sleep. It makes me feel wired up like I have had a lot of coffee. But better than having seizures.

I hope you are taking the same dosage at approximately the same time every day.

One of the withdrawal effects can be feeling wired. It was more like cocaine that caffeine in my case.

Sheffey wrote:

CaptainRaven40 wrote:I take Gabapentin for my seizures and it has an opposite effect on me when it comes to helping sleep. It makes me feel wired up like I have had a lot of coffee. But better than having seizures.

I hope you are taking the same dosage at approximately the same time every day.

One of the withdrawal effects can be feeling wired. It was more like cocaine that caffeine in my case.

I am. 300mgs 3 times a day at the same time every day.