Insomnia

[lstrl]

I don't see it listed as one of the side effects, but every Friday night, I have the most trouble falling asleep and staying asleep. I usually wake up at least once (or 3-4 times right now due to a uti) every night to use the restroom, and I normally drift off to sleep very easily. Friday night it probably takes me close to an hour each time I wake up. Then, I can't make it through Saturday without taking a nap.

I don't have a big problem with side effects like a lot of people do, so the insomnia is not coming from something that's making me feel bad. I occasionally will get a mild headache when I wake up in the middle of the night, but it's definitely nowhere near bad enough to keep me from sleeping, and if I redose with Aleve, it completely disappears anyway. Aside from that, my only other effect is that my injection site is sore for a couple days, and that does nothing to keep me up either. Does the insomnia ever hit anyone else or am I alone yet again with the weird things that happen to me? Every time I call MS Active Source to inquire about some weird effect, they always tell me they've never heard of it before.

[akafearless]

How long have you been taking Avonex? I had trouble sleeping at first. Say maybe the first 6 months or so.

[lstrl]

I've only been taking it for about 2 1/2 months now. It's funny, I posted that and last night actually wasn't as bad as it normally is, although I did have a little trouble falling back to sleep at 4:30 am. I also haven't tried taking anything for it because when I have before, it didn't help. Plus, I don't want to take too many pills. I'm already adding 2 Aleve on injection day on top of everything else I'm taking and I hate taking meds.

[Nanobaby]

Me! You're definitely not alone.

[CNDGirl]

I noticed when I first started taking Avonex I had a horrible time sleeping on shot nights. I was getting crazy, and I mean crazy vivid dreams. I firgured it had to do with the fever and chills I was getting. My routine became either taking the shot earlier in the day, which is hard because I'm at work, or if I took the shot at 6pm on friday I would take one or two tylonol with the shot and then 4 hours later take a night time advil. It helped keep me asleep. I stoped this routine about 9 months in, although I have found recently that I've been waking up a lot at night again.


I've been on Avonex for just over a year now and I recently noticed that I am having problems sleeping all the time. I don't know if this is a medication thing, and MS thing, or just another life issue. It's brutal though because I find not getting the right sleep at night is really slowing down my days and making me feel weak.

[Justsayyes]

I usually take a generic benedryl on shot night, which helps very much to get thru the night. Several Avonex'ers over the years have agreed it can help calm side effects and help you sleep.

I realize that taking alot of meds is a concern, I do try to take the lowest doses that do the job of all my meds. On the plus side, Avonex has done a good job for me. I have very little disability. Lots of annoying symptoms, but I'm in pretty good shape.

[BigA]

I can't sleep through an Avonex headache. If I could wake up, take an aleve and go back to sleep, I'd be fine. But what happens is that I only partially wake up in pain, but not wake enough to take something. I've tried a shot at night 3 times.

That's why I take my shots at 8am. Then I can take my aleve at all the right moments.

[Nanobaby]

Tonight is my injection night. Insomnia starts...now

It's not so bad, I can try to get some reading done

[Nanobaby]

And again, injection night insomnia!

Buuuuut I get to read a new eBook that I bought today Winning!