Lamictal 300 mgs: Side Effect #1 -- Disturbed Sleep

A lot of people find my blog by searching on specific side effects of lamictal (or lamotrigine). This is nothing of a surprise.  On the one hand, doctors (and patients) like lamictal because for most people, the side effect profile is pretty low.  On the other hand, the side effects people do experience can be pretty weird.  These range from the deadly Stevens-Johnson rash to insomnia to weird muscle changes.  I can only tell you that lamictal, more than any other brain drug I've been on (and believe me I've been on plenty, feels like its rewired my whole nervous system.

To help out the the folks who are looking for side effect information, I've decided to do a series about the ones that have have been the most significant for me as I've titrated up from 25 mgs to 300 mgs of this medication.  I'll be working my way from the most troublesome and persistent side effects to to those that have been less difficult.  I'll note which ones the side effects were temporary or seem to be permanent.  I'll also note the dosages at which the side effects appeared or abated.

For today's post, we'll talk about the side effect that tops my tag cloud:

Side Effect #1 (Temporary): Lamictal and Disturbed Sleep

The most common sleep disturbance with lamictal is insomnia, but I experienced delayed sleep phase instead.  I could get my eight hours in, as long as I was wiling to get them in between the hours of 3 am and 11 pm.

For several months, there was absolutely nothing I could do to change this. It didn't matter if  I'd gotten only 5 hours of sleep the night before.  It didn't matter how much exercise I'd had that day.  I tried going to bed at midnight, turning off all the lights, taking deep breaths to relax ... and the weird thing is, I was relaxed.  No racing, niggling, anxious thoughts.  I was very tired and completely relaxed -- I just couldn't sleep.  I've read that this is somewhat uncommon, but can be characteristic of "lamictal insomnia".

When I started using my sunlamp in the fall the delayed sleep phase started to abate (which makes sense once I thought about it).  I can now usually fall asleep around 1 am and wake up easily -- without my alarm clock -- at 9:16.  Why 9:16?  I have no idea.  But I set my alarm clock anyway just to be safe.  When Spring comes and I don't use my lamp anymore ... who knows.

This was a pretty obnoxious side effect, because it meant my schedule was completely different from that of the normal, grown-up world.  On the plus side, I had no trouble waking up at 9 or 10 when I had to -- on the negative, I was not getting anywhere near enough sleep on these nights.  Lack of sleep is bad for mood disorders.  My mood was much, much better than it would have been without the lamictal, but I still hope this one is temporary.

For the next post in my Lamictal Side Effects series, read Post #2: Decreased Appetite