Antidepressants and Sleep Questions

Mollete wrote in another thread: Venlafaxine is a notorious sleep disruptor (it's manufacturer admits to an incidence of insomnia of 18%) and "IMHO" may end up generating additional spontaneous arousals.

I take 75 mgs of Venlafaxine (Effexor) and 40 mgs of Viibryd per day in AM. I have taken the Venlafaxine for about 3 years, and the Viibryd for about a year. I have been on CPAP for about a month.

I do have insomnia, which is getting better as of this week, because my RLS is treated now (thanks to the sleep study), but up until this week, I have been laying awake two hours each night trying to get to sleep .

I am very aware of good sleep hygiene practices, and have worked hard to overcome my insomnia over the last few years, with limited success.

I did some reading and Mollete appears to be "right on" about Venlafexine (Effexor) and insomnia. I cant tell with Viibryd as it is too new to have much anecdotal information. I did discuss sleep issues and antidepressants briefly with my primary doc (not psychiatrist) at the last appt and she said one must weight the side effects against the benefits, etc. She deferred to my psychiatrist.

What I am wondering is: are there other "notorious sleep disruptor" anti-depressants out there? if so, which ones?

I want to discuss at my next psychiatrist appt. I am feeling so much better with CPAP I dont think I am going to need antidepressant medication much longer anyway, but in case he recommends a change instead of a reduction, I want to stay away from any which are known to cause insomnia or sleep disruption. Any opinions out there on various antidepressants and their effect on sleep?

I removed from here the data on sleep medication and other sleep aids for Insomniacs. It was "Best medications for Insomnia by the Consumer Repots on Health", and based on a survey from about 10,000 responders with sleep problems. The Consumer Reports would not let me copy it here b/c the owners of this website are using it for profits. It's a "commercial website".

This 2012 issue includes lots of other treatments for Insomnia than Rx . You can check it in a library.

With due respect, I am not looking for sleep aids. I dont want to add any more medications. I have taken sleep aids before including several on your post and I dont want to go down that path. I am looking at the effect of antidepressants upon sleep so that I can avoid more medications. Thanks. Oak

Hi Oak,

You might find this article helpful by someone who is a pharmacist and a social worker. Interesting combination of qualifications.

http://www.pharmatherapist.com/antidepr ... s-on-sleep

The ones that are commonly prescribed as main ADs

SSRIs. When it comes to sleep, the regulation of serotonin is complicated due to the quantity and quality of serotonin receptor activity. Prozac and Paxil have been studied the most, but as a class the SSRIs appear to slow the onset of sleep and increase the number of awakenings leading to an overall poor sleep cycle. Again as a class, the SSRIs suppress REM sleep and are linked to intense and vivid dreams.

Many people have suffered insomnia taking SSRIs and have been commonly prescribed Trazadone as additional sleep med to take.

SNRIs. Not surprisingly, this group, which includes the agents Effexor, Cymbalta and Pristiq is reported to have effects on sleep that are similar to the SSRIs. Sleep continuity and REM are compromised by these antidepressants and their norepinephrine activating effects are also not friendly to sleep initiation and continuation.

I know you are obviously aware of Effexor but I wanted to alert you to Cymbalta and Pristiq doing the same things.

Wellbutrin differs from all of the other agents discussed in that it has no serotonin effects. Wellbutrin can be described as a DNRI – dopamine and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor. Although Wellbutrin does not suppress REM sleep, increased activation of norepinephrine and dopamine often leads to complaints of insomnia, particularly difficulty getti

ng to sleep.

49er

oak wrote:Mollete wrote in another thread: Venlafaxine is a notorious sleep disruptor (it's manufacturer admits to an incidence of insomnia of 18%) and "IMHO" may end up generating additional spontaneous arousals.

I take 75 mgs of Venlafaxine (Effexor) and 40 mgs of Viibryd per day in AM. I have taken the Venlafaxine for about 3 years, and the Viibryd for about a year. I have been on CPAP for about a month.

I do have insomnia, which is getting better as of this week, because my RLS is treated now (thanks to the sleep study), but up until this week, I have been laying awake two hours each night trying to get to sleep .

I am very aware of good sleep hygiene practices, and have worked hard to overcome my insomnia over the last few years, with limited success.

I did some reading and Mollete appears to be "right on" about Venlafexine (Effexor) and insomnia. I cant tell with Viibryd as it is too new to have much anecdotal information. I did discuss sleep issues and antidepressants briefly with my primary doc (not psychiatrist) at the last appt and she said one must weight the side effects against the benefits, etc. She deferred to my psychiatrist.

What I am wondering is: are there other "notorious sleep disruptor" anti-depressants out there? if so, which ones?

I want to discuss at my next psychiatrist appt. I am feeling so much better with CPAP I dont think I am going to need antidepressant medication much longer anyway, but in case he recommends a change instead of a reduction, I want to stay away from any which are known to cause insomnia or sleep disruption. Any opinions out there on various antidepressants and their effect on sleep?

"IMHO", the best drug to TFU your sleep is Lexapro (escitalopram).

mollete wrote:"IMHO", the best drug to TFU your sleep is Lexapro (escitalopram).

TFU??

to F_ _ _K up

"Totally".

mollete wrote:"IMHO", the best drug to TFU your sleep is Lexapro (escitalopram).

Hi mollete, would you elaborate?

mollete wrote:"IMHO", the best drug to TFU your sleep is Lexapro (escitalopram).

why do you say that? Is there data?

what do you think of Remeron?

Aha... thanks folks.

oak wrote:what do you think of Remeron?

Well, for a while, they were looking at Remeron as a treatment for sleep apnea:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17310863

Generally, I believe the TTCs are a little more "sleep friendly" to "sleep-promoting" (perhaps the best example of which is amitriptyline).

oak wrote:what do you think of Remeron?

My neighbor tried Remeron for insomnia... kept him awake all night. Works differently on everyone. In high doses it is a heavy duty AD. Frankly, one of the ones I wouldn't touch.

IMO, Prozac and Wellbutrin are the "easiest" to tolerate of all the ADs. That said, I know people who had problems with Prozac.

what is TTC?