Sleep currently better, olanzapine

As many of you know I have medication induced insomnia.

Things got substantially better when I switched from generic to original zyprexa.

Lately it seems sleep has improved a notch or two more.

The reasons could be:

  • I have now been over a year consistently on original zyprexa. The brain might have slowly recovered from the generic.

  • I started alternating supplemental sleep formulas taken before bed. I have 4 different formulas that I mix up. I found that if I take the same one each night it would just stop working after a day or two. Alternating several different formulas seems to give a lot better outcomes.

  • I started taking a few new supplements that I expect plays a role in sleep, which are magnesium glycinate and P5P-vitamin B6(taken before bed) glycinate and DL phenylalanine(taken morning).

  • I cut my dose of zyprexa from 7.5mg to 5mg. The logic beeing that more receptors in the brain are able to be influenced from supplements and nutrients. I actually sleep better on 5mg this time around, but in the past I could not get adequate sleep on doses below 7.5mg. So currently I’m getting better sleep on 5mg than I did on 7.5mg.

Hopefully sleep can improve more with time.

A word of caution: If anyone else is tempted to try any of this just remember, let sleep quality be your guiding star. If it doesen’t work for you, go back to where you came from, sleep and regroup.

Isn’t 10mg the minimum dose for schizophrenia?

I’m on Olanzapine too. Lately i’ve been getting about 10 hours of sleep a night.

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I think officially 7.5mg is considered the minimum. But I was at my doctor this week and she is informed that I’m currently taking 5mg. She agreed it was reasonable to take 5mg if sleep was better on this dose, and told me to be careful and monitor myself for symptoms.

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