Nm190: Intro: No sleep with myclonus

[Nm190]

Hello here is a short summary of my symptoms and story:

May 2019 Started fainting and feeling dizzy with neck pain

July 2019 Collapse and spams in my neck weird twitching, started investigating. Two MRIs two short EEGS

only minor finds. No epilepsy.

Sept 2019 Sometime in the first week. 2 day EEG, this is where everything went wrong. Awoke a sleep myclonus strongly after first night with panic attacks. Didnt sleep for 3-4 days after. Collapsed.

September 2019:Lorazempam given IV 4mg, for colapse and seizure like spams.

Started panic attacks the same day later in the evening.
Oxazempam started 15mg, 7,5 mg twice daily with quick taper quit after one week.

Didnt return to normal sleep. A few days later.
Quentiapine 50mg 2x daily for about 2 weeks.  Then lessened once daily started breaking sleep again felt bad myclonus returned heavy. Quit after about 5 weeks. CT no nurse or doctor said to taper. A few days later still no sleep

Mirtzapine was given 15mg once a day. Felt better slept again was ok for about two weeks. Third week started feeling sick, restless, sleep broke Myclonus returned.(day 26 of meds) 6 days of almost no sleep what so ever went to ER. Doctor wanted to increase dose to 30mg mirtzapine + 100mg quentiapine, I feel i was showing sertonin syndrome. I refused. I was saved by a psyc. nurse who told me to lower my dose to mirtzapine 7.5mg once a day. Felt better immediately next day. Continued 1 week slowly lost sleep again so quit CT. Felt great for about 9 days. Withdrawl hit.  Sleep disappeared, tried to slowly get back to sleep with infrequent zyrtec 10mg tablet, tried once dose of 5mg then 2,5mg a few days after stressed about heartbeat. Sleep slowly returned.

Felt sick on Dec 17th woke up all night abdomen hurt couldnt pee,

Seeked doctor help, urinary blockage minor and infection in uterus.

December 20th couldnt sleep still, Myclonus returned. Talked with Doctor in ER and psych nurse given one dose oxazempam 1/4 tablet (3,75mg) wanted to try clonazepam, suppliments started. 150mg magnesium, 10ug d3, 1 mg b12 once daily.

Clonazepam 0,25mg started in evening, felt drowsy passed out not breathing well, husband startled me awake into breathing after he paniced.

Was extremely restless and aggitated after so much so went to cold shower to calm down then fell asleep a little later.

Took a break for two and half days still slept without meds,

Then started lower dose 0,125mg once in morning ok

Two and half days later lower dose 0,06mg once in evening ok

Two days later same dose 0,06mg once in evening ok Myclonus returning lightly

4 day break, myclonus returns heavy.

Reinstated  2.1 0,125mg Didnt feeling good was aggitated and restless. got some sleep but poor.

3.1 0.06mg was hoping to feel less aggitated I did but still some, slept very little.  Myclonus returned at 5 am. 4.1

 

[Gridley]

Welcome to SA, Nm190.  I'm sorry you're having these problems.

 

We are a site for tapering off psychiatric drugs and helping members with withdrawal from these drugs.  We don't make suggestions of drugs to deal with medical problems.  That would need to be between you and your doctor.

 

Can you let me know how we might help you?

 

Were you on the Quetiapine for two weeks or five weeks?  If for 5 weeks, that is long enough to cause withdrawal symptoms after your CT, in addition to your other problems.  What dates were you on the Quetiapine?

 

What is withdrawal syndrome.

 

 

Some members have found Melatonin helpful with insomnia.   

 

 Melatonin for sleep   

 

It's best to start at a very low dosage, such as .25mg, and gradually increase if needed to the lowest effective dose.  

 

This is your Introduction topic, where you can answer questions and ask you own, as well as connect with other members.  Again, welcome.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nm190]

Hey gridley, how can I add a signature? Yes I was on quentiapine for 5 weeks. I realized I mistyped the dose the tablets were 25mg not 50mg. I am sure I did go through withdrawl with it, I havent been on quentiapine since october. There after it was mirtazapine till the end of november and that I definitely am still having withdrawl from. My current meds are only Clonazepam 0,06 mg one every two days and I take 0.5 mg of melatonin,  1mg of b12, 150mg magnesium complex with b6, 10ug of d3.

 

I am looking for support and hopefully find a solution to this myclonus movement that is causing me insomnia. If I find that the clonazepam isn't working for me, I would like to taper off it for final.  Since it's only been about two weeks I am still in the guarded area of dependancy.

[Gridley]

Thanks for the clarification.

 

Here is a thread from SA on hyping jerks, a form of myclonus.  

Hypnic jerks - Surviving Antidepressants

If you will Google survivingantidepressant.org hypnic jerks you will find several more threads.

 

To give members the best information, we ask them to summarize their medication history in a signature -- drugs, doses, dates, and discontinuations & reinstatements, in the last 12-24 months particularly.

 

Account Settings – Create or Edit a signature.

 

Benzo dependency can begin at 2 to 4 weeks of regular use and can also result from intermittent use.  We recommend tapering no faster that 10% of your current dose every four weeks.

 

Why taper by 10% of my dosage?

 

Regarding the myclonus we need to know details for this. What time do you go to sleep? Is the myclonus hyping jerks?  What time does the myclonus occur? When do you get up in the morning? How do you feel then? Do you feel better or worse after you take your drugs? Please keep daily notes on paper about your symptoms, when you take your drugs, and their dosages. Use a simple list format with time of day on the left and notation (symptom, drug and dosage) on the right.

 

 

 

 

 

[Nm190]

The myclonus is hypnic jerks/sleep myclonus

I go to sleep at regular times about 10 pm locally after I take my magnesium and melatonin. The jerks currently will happen at the start of sleep and continue the whole night maybe till about 4 am or 5 am. Then usually I can get 1-2 hours before I wake up at 7 and walk my dogs. Previously i had been napping after this time on my couch and gaining another hour of sleep even thought its very light. (This was in December) Currently I am unable to nap at any time of the day because the jerks start as soon as my body starts to sleep.

The jerks had returned on the evening of December 18th after I had went to the hospital with the abdominal pain, the only other meds that were given to me then were Litigin 150mg x 2 for pain and Yeast treatment in a suppository.

The myclonus originates from my neck at the base of my spine. Most of the time if i am not stiff it rests on my right shoulder jerking or my legs jerking. Bad days will be my neck and head jerking and rarely I have had my mouth palette spasm or my jaw.  Some bad days i have briefly felt light twitching in same areas while awake, though this is extremely rare.

[Nm190]

After reading the posts you linked, it seems others have had this same issue. My last day of Mirtzapine was I believe November 30th.

The jerks appeared December 18th. This gives me some hope :). I saw at least two people that had jerks say they were gone about 1 month later.

Here is todays diary

Previous night went to sleep 10pm after taking 150mg magnesium +b6 and melatonin 0.5mg restless twitching decided to take clonazepam close to midnight 0,06mg Became restless didnt really fall asleep till super late and even then only remember because i dreamed a little I think it was close to 3 or 4 am but I didnt check the clock.

5:45am woke up twitching

7:35 am stayed in bed, trying to rest possibly fall asleep again but got up

7:45 am Walked dogs

7:50 am ate oat cereal and juice

8:00 am had a panic attack but my husband helped me through

9:45 went for a walk outside about 1 km took my b12 and d3 tablet when i got home

12:00 ate lunch a salmon salad

2:30 walked dogs a longer walk almost 1km

4:30 ate dinner chicken pasta

Ill edit and add to this later tonight or tomorrow.

[Gridley]

28 minutes ago, Nm190 said:

This gives me some hope :). I saw at least two people that had jerks say they were gone about 1 month later.

That is definitely good news.

 

If you can find a form of magnesium that doesn't have any B vitamins in it, that might be a good idea. B vitamins tend to be too stimulating to those of us in withdrawal.

[Nm190]

I will consider it gridley, I am going to skip the magnesium tonight because a few in that thread felt magnesium was bad for the jerks twitches.

[Nm190]

Last night went much better than expected

6pm went to sauna

7pm ate late snack of bread

8pm walked dogs

9pm got settled for the night and took melatonin 0,5mg didn''t take the magnesium b6 this evening This was a med free night.

10pm was in bed had some anxiety and heart palpatations and was extremely restless but twitches were mild, not quite sure when I fell asleep completely but probably after at least 1 am

7:30 woke up

8:00 out of bed to walk dogs

[Nm190]

Yesterday was pretty good,

anxiety was better but felt nausea in the evening.

I skipped the clonezapam again, sleep is still bad but twitches are still minimal.

Maybe 2-3 hours of sleep.

[Nm190]

Small update:

I quit the clonezapam completely on January 3rd and haven't redosed since. Been dealing with the minor anxiety and headaches and brain fog (This is a lot less than when CTed off Mirt), sleep has been steady since last week was something like january 3rd 2h, 2h, 4h, 7h, 5h,7h,5h,7h,7h, unsure about last night but had sleeping issues due to a surge in anxiety and digestion problems. At least 2h though, I think it was probably more like 4h though. The twitching and such has had massive improvements since quitting but I keep having weird muscle spasms in my neck still. Some minor twitching today but I don't think its going to rise again. I'm going to take a small dose of magnesium and deal with it. Probably just approaching a wave.

[Nm190]

Is it normal to have bad sleep after quitting magnesium? I know it works on GABA like the benzo, and I believe I might have ruined the good sleep pattern i got last week by taking it again. I feel it kindled new anxiety.

 

 

 

I started taking magnesium again after the 14th of january(I think i had stopped about a week prior because i was feeling better) to help me calm down and sleep at night, it started with a half tablet of magnesium citrate approx. 600 mg then i lessened it to app 300 mg. During this time I seemed to get an increased amount of anxiety during the day and started experiencing increased blood pressure and heart palpitations at night. Sleep stayed constant until the 18th when then it took a turn down. This was 15 days after my last dose of Klonopin.

 

The anxiety seemed to get worse at this point,  On the 19th i slept not great but probably around 5 hours.

The night of the 20th was the worst, 1-2 hours of sleep massive palpitations super bad anxiety. I had taken an extra 600mg of magnesium at around 1-2 am and there after was hell at around 3 or 4 am.

On the 21st we decided to try something different, I took 0.25mg melatonin around 8:30 and passed out on the couch till about 11 pm then went to normal bed after. I slept most of the night no issues possibly even 6 or 7 hours. 

On the 22nd I went to bed much later around 11 pm and took melatonin 0,25mg later than the previous night at 9:45. I was pretty anxious in the middle of the night so I gave in and took 300mg of magnesium, blood pressure again raised and woke up at 4 am with palpitations.  Maybe 3 hours of sleep

At this point in time it seemed like the magnesium was no longer agreeing with me.  My husband and I agreed to remove it from the situation.

On the 23rd again  0,25mg melatonin, had some okay sleep, maybe 4-5 hours. Felt better less anxious. We decided to let me sleep on the couch when i am restless to get a little more comfort it seemed to help.

24th Not great sleep I always seem to fall asleep from the melatonin within 30 mins then sleep 1-2 hours and wake up. Not sure why.

25th I believe I slept again with the melatonin good at the start on the couch, woke up around 1:30 am, went to sleep in bed normally. 5-6 hours of sleep?

26th Fell asleep fast again with the melatonin, woke up at 10:30 pm tried to go to bed normally was restless and woke myself up after falling asleep at least twice. Went back into the living room to the couch after 1:30 am  softly listened to music on the couch till about 4 am then fell asleep around 4:30 and woke up at 6 am.

 

Over all in a wave, anxiety was bad last week it is now feeling better, but I fall asleep slowly and poorly.

 

 

 

[Nm190]

I updated my signature, also I am experiencing little to no twitching(hypnic jerks) now after I stopped the magnesium.

[Nm190]

Its been a little while since I posted because I only tend to come around when I am feeling bad, I wanted to say I am feeling a lot better and now sleeping an almost normal schedule. :) I am currently taking nothing not even melatonin and believe I feel about an 8/10 of myself.  I probably won't be coming back, but if I remember I will try to make at least one more post.