Hi all–
I recently went off of Nortriptyline, which seemed to be working, after I developed tachycardia. I’m now on Inderal as of about a week ago. I’ve been having major issues sleeping since then; trouble falling asleep even though I’ve very tired, and waking up many times during the night. Has anyone had experience with this issue and figured out ways to deal? I am contemplating taking melatonin but I’m not sure if that would be useful. Any info appreciated!
I wasn’t sleeping with Nori so I added 5-HTP (100 mg.) taken in the early evening. It has helped me sleep. I wake up feeling rested and I don’t wake up half a dozen times during the night feeling stressed about not sleeping. :o
I have no idea if 5-HTP will cause interactive problems with Inderal as most of the warnings were not to take it with SSRI’s. Good luck! Not sleeping is bad for you in so many ways.
Cat
Hi,
I took beta blockers and had a lot of trouble sleeping to start with, but I am really not sure if it was the tablets or just that I started taking them at the time my MAV was at its worst and therefore I wasn’t sleeping due to a)feeling upset and stressed about it and b) I had a lot of problems with feeling like I was moving when I lay down, so that made it hard to sleep. But after a while I did sleep ok again, and in fact, after a few months on them I was sleeping better than I did before MAV. Oddly enough, now I am cutting down the beta blockers (due to having made a good recovery) I am starting to get very wakeful in the early hours.
Sorry, I can’t really be that helpful as I’m not sure what caused my sleeping problems to start with, but I have a feeling you might find your insomnia settles down if you can stick with the tablets.
I’ve been on Atenolol for almost twenty years and never had a single problem from it. I was originally prescribed it for cluster headaches, but I also have a kind of situational high blood pressure so they kept me on it. In other words, I get up and in the morning I am quite normal 114/72 or so, but after a couple cups of coffee and stress at work, my blood pressure goes up quickly with the stress, then goes back down again when I relax. Beta blockers slightly slow down the heart, which probably is not good for me, since my normal pulse is around 52 and can dip into mid to low 40s at night (I have been running my whole life). Anyway, they figure it helps even out those spikes. No problems on it. I think that most of the problems should go away with time.
All of my doctors have told me that you can take a beta blocker for a long time without any issues. My dad also takes one (he is 77). I think they are generally pretty safe.
Thanks for the input! I’ve slept much better the past few nights because I’ve broken down and taken an Ativan before bed. Not a long-term strategy by any means, but it’s helping for now.
I am on 20mg of Inderal for MAV and I had a huge problem with insomnia when I first started taking it. I was told to take it before bed time and found that I had the hardest time falling asleep and staying asleep. I’d often “find myself awake” in the middle of the night… it was weird. On one point my doc had me on 40mg/day and I had hallucinations at night!!! I now take 20mg when I wake up and don’t seem to have any sleep issues. I should mention it took my body a good 2-3 weeks to get used to the medicine.
I had trouble with Inderal (propranolol). I took it for 3 months. I was fine until I got up to 40 mg then I got bad insomnia and loose bowels. I didnt get used to it after 3 months so I had to stop. Shame as it helped the daily heads.
Christine