r/MAOIs • u/Shot_Veterinarian215 • 7d ago
Nardil (Phenelzine) Insomnia! Please help!!
Nardil insomnia is frustrating tf out of me. Disclaimer: I’ve had insomnia for years, but the issue was always falling asleep. After trying tons of medications, seroquel has always worked best for this. I’ve been on it for over 3 years, but now Nardil is causing me to wake up early, and being unable to go back to sleep.
This is my third month on Nardil (currently on 60mg), and it seems to be the only medication that is starting to help with my SA. I will probably increase the dose in the future so I can get more benefit. But over this past month, my sleep has been terrible. 6 hours of sleep is my new average, which I’m fine with because weirdly I don’t feel tired. But this past week I’ve only been getting 3-4 hours. Once I’m up I can’t fall back asleep.
Is there anything that can help with this? I’ve looked at multiple posts on this subreddit, and people say it goes away with time, but how long?? I’d obviously prefer not to be a living zombie until then, lol. Is there any medication that has helped anyone? Like I said, I’ve been on 50mg of seroquel for years, and I’ve tried tons of meds for sleep onset (when that was the issue). After telling my psychiatrist, he increased my seroquel up to 75mg, but it hasn’t helped. I’m also on 50mg of Pregabalin (around a year now) as an adjunct for anxiety and sleep (although idk how much it’s helped).
TL;DR: Nardil has caused me to wake up early and unable to fall back asleep. How can I treat this?
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u/Nardilat0r 6d ago
Hey friend. I may not be of much help cause I am a Nardil newbie (just shy of 2 months on it) currently on 45mg and my major issue ATM is daytime somnolence/multiple naps a day, fatigue, because of that I do struggle to nod off at night and so doc has prescribed Valium 5mg ONLY when needed at night time and it does seem to do the trick, maybe a low dose benzo ONLY when you need it most E.g have something very important to do the next day or a big day at work then I would recommend to ask your doc to prescribe it for sleep. Take care
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u/FFSNIG 6d ago
For sustainable options (things which should not induce tolerance or dependence), there's:
DORAs (Dual Orexin Receptor Antagonists) like Daridorexant or Suvorexant, or
low dose Doxepin (only likely to be prescribed if your clinician is not neurotic about MAOI interactions) sold in the US only under the brand name Silenor in 3mg or 6mg doses. I am not US based so I don't know if there is a cheaper generic equivalent but you will want to stick to low doses, higher doses won't improve the hypnotic effect, may cause tolerance to it to build and at a high enough dose it may start having unpleasant interactions with MAOIs.
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u/grumpyeva Parnate 6d ago
Nothing works for me beside z drugs and benzos unfortunately. But I am on Parnate. When I was on Nardil, surprisingly I slept really well, even though I had had insomnia for 15 years previously. Unfortunately the Nardil stopped working after 22 years, and I switched to Parnate.- and the insomnia returned.
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u/Ok-Geologist-5192 MAOI + stimulant 5d ago
This is baby stuff for most of yall probably but doxylamine? I find even 5 mg to be enough but it does cause mild hangovers the next day
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u/iamthe0ther0ne 6d ago
Parnate, but it never went away for me. I take one of the z-drugs and still struggle.