is this normal or not? help?
 

Hi there

I have a question. I'm on Risperidone 1mg every night and that's all i use. I go to bed at about 9pm every night and fall asleep around 10pm. In the mornings I struggle to get out of bed before 9am. that means I sleep on average ten hours a night, sometimes eleven. Is it normal to struggle so much to get up in the morning after that much sleep?
I'm seeing my doc tomorrow and there is the possibility that he might add another med for me to help with this (as oversleeping is usually a symptom of depression). I'm not happy with the idea of possibly taking more meds, but I don't know what else to do. I eat well, so lack of energy is not due to lack of good food intake.

does anyone know what antidepressant works well with risperidone? (Effexor stopped working, prozac and zoloft made me sick, cypramil (citalopram) did nothing for me.)

Help?

Risperidone is a pretty sedating drug even at low doses, so it's normal to feel tired/ struggle to get out of bed. But as you said, it might also be a symptom of your depression.

Current research shows that risperidone works best with venlafaxine (Effexor) and fluoxetine (Prozac)...but you said you had bad side effects? Maybe you can try mirtazapine? It might work well with risperidone but it is again a sedating drug.

Speak to your doctor if you have any concerns about your medication.

Could be the risperidone making you tired. I've taken meds before (olanzapine for example) where I slept 13 hours a night because it was so sedating. If you add in an antidepressant, make sure it's not another sedating one!

It's probably the Risperidone making it difficult to get up the morning, most atypical antipsychotics are sedating. They're sometimes used to treat insomnia in drug addicts due to the low abuse potential. I found olanzapine and quetiapine to be quite sedating in the mornings, I'd sleep through the alarm clock going off.

Thanks everyone, I went to see doc today, he's not adding to my meds atm. We're going to just wait and see what happens. I tried tapering off my meds about two weeks ago and got a little destabilized, but am back on normal dose and okay again. so hopefully i'll be able to get up better soon!!!

anyone got any other ideas on how to get up early better?