After a week of excellent numbers for deep sleep, the data has reverted to a few minutes' deep sleep each night. I've noticed that sometimes my headphones aren't on my ears but have moved slightly; I have no way of discovering whether this is important. I've also noticed that frequently I wake up at around 11:30 pm with reflux arising from GERD, which I handle with omeprazole (a wonder drug). The reflux may arise from my evening medication, two of which can cause reflux. So yesterday I took the medication at 6 pm, a few hours earlier than my usual time.
This morning I read that amitriptyline, a medication that I take in a very low dose to prevent migraines might be causing sleep problems, as well as reflux. According to this site, Amitriptyline also reduces the amount of deep, slow-wave sleep (SWS), also referred to as ‘deep sleep’. During SWS our bodies are in housekeeping mode: our muscles repair themselves and new tissue is grown.
Like many of my medical problems, it all seems like a problem in balance, where one medication improves something but causes something else. I'll try taking amitriptyline once every other day; I doubt that this will cause the migraines to reappear, but it might increase the amount of deep sleep. I wonder how long it takes the body to metabolise the drug: if I don't take it tonight, will last night's dose still remain in my body?
I have an appointment with a sleep doctor next Thursday; I intended to bring up the subject of increasing the amount of deep sleep even before I read the information about amitriptyline. Maybe she'll reduce the dosage (I see that there are pills with 10 mg - I take 25 mg pills, where 250 mg is the dosage for depression).
No comments:
Post a Comment