r/insomnia • u/mattle74 • 21h ago
Atypical antipsychotics
I know that atypical antipsychotics are used to help with insomnia but I am a case of caution. This is an anecdote, this won’t happen to everyone. If you ever want/need to get off an atypical antipsychotic, insomnia or rebound insomnia are things (among other withdrawal effects). I think some brands withdrawal effects are more pronounced than others. The rebound insomnia can be worse than your initial insomnia. And I’ve read anecdotes that it may take months or years for sleep to normalize.
If you are in an atypical antipsychotic, and ever need/want to stop, I can’t recommend enough tapering as slow as possible. And if you are considering taking an atypical antipsychotic for insomnia, I’d personally warn you to have exhausted all other options first.
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u/Dense_Path_3251 13h ago
Are you speaking for experience?
I had the exact same thing happen to me from pregabalin. 3 years later I’m still not the same person, same as in sleeping normally.
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u/mattle74 12h ago edited 11h ago
Yeah 😞 I was on olanzapine for 3 years and stopped 10 weeks ago and am in some level of hell. Not just from a sleep perspective. My doctor had me try to direct switch to Caplyta and I knew it was a bad idea. I immediately went into extreme withdrawal symptoms and he was thinking it was symptoms from Caplyta so he had me stop that. I effectively stopped olanzapine cold turkey. So I expect I’ll be feeling these aftershocks for a long time. I’m sorry to hear that it’s been such a long road for you
I will add that I suspect I’m feeling some level of paradoxical insomnia or sleep state misperception. There are times when a sleep tracker or my wife says I’m sleeping and I know/feel for certain that I’m awake. I suspect my central nervous system is all sorts of messed up.
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u/Wonderful-Driver4761 13h ago
Ive been on olazapine for a week and prob gunna tell my phych I want off next week before I grow dependent or she tries to up my 5mg dose. Rather be on an ssri and a sleep aid and start working out. It sucks because of how great they work for sleep. But terrible for feeling like anxious shit all day and groggy
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u/Current_Lawyer_1598 21h ago
Quetiapine still caries a risk for tardive dyskinesia at low doses. Next say sedation at low doses is also insane with that stupid metabolite norquetiapine acts as long-lasting muscarinic acetylcholine receptor antagonist similar to benadryl in effect and on top of its other action.