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Opioids anyone here on methadone have sleep apnea(or just extremely tired all the time also)

A

affasd

Bluelighter
Joined
Aug 20, 2008
Messages
260
First off my apologies if this should be in the megathread or something its been forever since I have been on here so I forgot all the rules and stuff.

I'm mostly wanting to hear from anyone who was diagnosed after getting on the methadone, like if it was caused by the methadone. I am soo tired all the time, I know methadone can make you tired but this is just excessive, like being in bed for 18 hours straight and stuff, and I only sleep for like 20-45 min at a time, never longer than that, then I wake up for like 5 min and go back to bed, and I am always waking up snoring and choking and stuff(this all started after getting on methadone, and gaining like 30lbs) I am wondering if anyone here also felt similarly, and got treatment for the sleep apnea(cpap or surgery or anything), if you felt better after, and weren't so tired all the time after you got treated for it?

I would also like to hear if you don't have sleep apnea, but the methadone causes extreme fatigue for you also, where you don't want to do anything or get out of bed, in bed for 12-18 hours a day,etc, and if you ever figured out how to counteract this. I lowered my dose from 160 to 75 and it still hasn't helped. My testosterone is also low, I made a thread in steroid forum about that, but I really don't want to take that stuff if I don't have to.

thanks
 
In cases of some methadone OD, the deceased was documented as "snoring loudly" prior to death. This is the documented cases of people who took methadone without any other medications.

What is your dosing schedule? Mornings? That's a high amount of methadone you were on. Even at the dose now, perhaps it may be causing issues.


Do you wear a monitor/breathing mask? You should.
 
yea mornings

I'm in the process of trying to go to the doctor to get a cpap machine right now(the breathing mask), the problem is I just had a sleep study and didn't sleep at all(they data apparently said I did, but I didn't) so I know they are gonna try to say there was no problem since the data said I slept, but I know I didn't(frustrating since I sleep soo much, but all the wires and just being in the unfamiliar setting made my brain refuse to turn off).

So now its gonna take another few weeks to figure it out for sure because my next appointment is in a couple weeks so when I talk to him I'm gonna have to ask him to schedule another sleep study with a sleeping pill or at home study or something. It sucks cause I am almost positive I have it but they make you jump through these hoops just to try the machine(the studies cost like 4 grand each, so they want the money), when they could easily just let me try the machine and see if it helps, I mean there would be no harm letting me just try it, if it helps then that's great and if it doesn't well then at least Ill know that it doesn't.

I'm considering just buying a machine myself and trying it, one of computer controlled ones that can monitor/record the data and automatically adjust for that, I have found a few sites that sell them without prescription, so it might be faster to just do that.

So what I am wondering is if anyone here got treated for the sleep apnea after getting on methadone and if it even helped the fatigue that much, or is this just an unavoidable side effect of the methadone that can't be helped, or if anyone found some otherway to fix the fatigue on methadone(if you went on testosterone therapy for low test too you can post in my thread in steroid forum to let me know if that helped.)
 
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Are you stating that methadone might have caused apnea?

I've taken methadone for my pain & found that it lasts for a long time but my back hurt more after it wore off......IMO, morphine is the best for my back pain.

As for sleep, methadone actually gives me energy a bit, but I never took more than 5mgs at one time & no more than 10mgs in one day.

Towards the end of the night, I get really tired & sleep pretty good at night.

Methadone ime has some side effects that drives me away from taking it.
 
I had a roomate that had it while on methadone and once he got off didn't need the machine.

I had myoclonic seizures that started while on high dose methadone that ruined getting high from there onward.
Even after methadone every time I would start to nod, BAM, felt like someone tasering me, or hitting me in the back of the head.
 
If methadone is messing with your sleep and inducing apnea you may be better suited on something like buprenorphine... methadone is a very potent depressant of breathing centres and in combination with apnea it can be fatal if left unchecked.

You may not necessarily want CPAP (its uncomfortable as hell), so stick to reducing your dose as far as possible and if possible, sleeping with someone else checking on you.

Do get your testosterone levels fixed regardless, low testosterone can definitely cause lack of energy and sluggishness that methadone will exacerbate.
 
I was on subs for a while. but it didn't work for me cause I could just sell them and only take them when I needed, and with a small dose still get high a few hours later.

I do plan on tapering more and then switching to sub before getting off completely, but the main thing is I am 3 semesters away from getting my degree and I can't be dealing with trying to get completely off the methadone or switching to subs because I know if I get any withdrawals or anything I will end up fucking up at school. So i need to stay on it for like a year or year and a half, but at the same time the extreme fatigue is also causing me to fuck up at school as well(why not just taper then I know, but after going below 80 im starting to notice it not lasting me through the whole day, and dealing with withdrawals would fuck my school up even more). I am starting the testosterone now so hopefully that will give me enough energy to start giving more effort to school, but I also wouldn't mind trying a cpap for the year and a half if it made a big difference.

The problem is I never(and i mean literally never) have slept more then 20-45 min before waking up in like 2+ years, so my body never actually reaches the deeper stages of sleep, which is really fucking with me, even if I get 12 or more hours of sleep with these 20-45 min increments. I'm just hoping when I talk to my doctor we can get another study where I can actually sleep so they can hopefully let me try out the cpap.

But yea if anyone else had apnea/sleep problems/fatigue on methadone I would still like to hear if cpap helped or anythign else helped
 
Not a doctor, and you should try and have an at home sleep test, or another one in the hospital if you are worried.

I'm not sure if what you're describing is sleep apnea, it could just be due to the methadone.

First few years I could sleep all day if I wanted, then it was the opposite. Waking up gasping for air, myoclonic seizures, massive weight gain.

I too could not get a nights rest to save my life. I was so irritable and had no focus, only felt better after I took more opiates.

The only thing that helped was lots of benzo's, this probably wouldn't help with trying to focus in school, but it let me sleep.
 
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