Hello,
I am new here and could really use some help. I have search google with my problem endlessly with no answers, so I decided hopefully this site can help me.

I have been taking suboxone for 10 months now for years of perc abuse. I was originally prescribed 10mg. I have been slowly taping myself and I am now down to 6mg daily.

My problem is that I sleep for about 36 hours once a week. This happens every week like timework. This is the reason I have been taping myself down because I believe it’s contributed to the suboxone. My sub doctor is no help as she says she has never heard of this, which I agree everyone I see says they CANNOT sleep. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, I am really concerned and it’s just a matter of time before I lose my job from calling out once a week. Thanks in advance.

Suboxone makes me sleep wonderful.... I COULD sleep for days if i wanted to.
Of course i never do because of my work schedule... I usually only get to sleep for about 6 hours a night. But when I do get to sleep i sleep wonderful.
Its funny, because Suboxone helps me stay awake when i need to stay awake and helps me sleep when i need to sleep... works both ways for me.
All i can say is... use self control.. its not that hard to make yourself get out of bed.... just think "if I dont get out of bed, Ill lose my job"
To me that would be a major motivation.

Hello substation and welcome to the forum. You said you're sleeping 36 hours, once a week? I guess I'm not clear on your meaning. I'm thinking you just mean you're sleeping way too much since you've been on the sub. (Correct me if I'm wrong.) Often, people are very sleepy on sub if they are on too high of a dose, although 6 mg for a years-long habit doesn't on the surface seem like it would be too much. But everyone is different. Perhaps when you continue to taper down you'll start to feel better. I'm sorry I don't have any better answers for you.

_________________
-As I have grown older, I've learned that pleasing everyone is impossible, but pissing everyone off is a piece of cake.

-I'm only responsible for what I say, not for what you understand.

36 consecutive hours of sleep? wow!

Yes guys/gals I sleep for 36-48 hours once a week, it’s really starting to become a major problem. I am out of commission for at least one full day once a week like clockwork. I’m not totally sure I should blame the subs, but it started happening about 3 months after I was prescribed them (originally prescribed 12mg daily) Do you think maybe it’s just a coincidence and I should go to a doctor or sleep specialist and see if something else is wrong with me? I am 30 years old male, in pretty good shape. I am big boned lol meaning slightly overweight, have acute asthma, but nothing else. I no longer touch any perc/hydro so I am clean other than some weed.

Thanks for your response SUBPAR…..I agree with everything you just said. Subs do keep me up when I need to be up and also make me sleep very well when needed, just a little too good. I also think maybe I’m taking my night dose too late. I am currently taking the night dose @9pm. I think I’m going to bring that down an hour to 8pm. Also, I had a serious talk with my gf and she is going to start helping me more. If she sees me oversleeping, she is going to bring me my morning dose in hopes that will spark some energy and get me out of bed. She will also tell me things like “get out of bed or you will lose your job” I always liked to sleep a lot and always believed it is self control to get out of bed, but on these subs it’s just way harder. I really need to keep my job as I have a mortgage and other financial responsibilities. Hopefully doing these little things will help me out and I can final stop missing work. Again, thanks I really appreciate it…..looks like a lot of useful info here.

And yes just to clear things up I am talking 36-48 hours of consecutive sleep…..for example I went to bed this Thursday @11pm and didn’t wake up until Saturday 4pm. It’s really bad. It’s not only killing my career, but I wake up depressed as all HELL.

Heres what i think is happening now. Im not sure how it started but here is what i think. Your staying awake all that time and when you go an sleep for those 36-48 hrs your crashing from being awake so long. Thats why your sleeping over a day possibly 2. Its become a routine your body has adjusted to some way somehow. However you got into this patter beats anything i've ever heard of but i do believe this is whats occuring. I use to stay awake for days on coke, then crash for like 2 days straight sleepin the whole time except to go to the bathroom. I would possibly see a sleep specialist because i've never heard of anything other than speed or amphetamines doing something like this. Do you take any kind of adhd medication? Ritalin or adderal? That would cause you to stay awake. Also, i think if i were you i would try to take that nightime dose a bit earlier like maybe between 5-7 oclock instead of 9. Either way, if your staying up for that many days, once you sleep no matter what time you take the med your gonna crash hard an sleep for days. Thats your body recooperating from being awake. Anyways, thats my thoughts!! Hope this helps!!

Thanks lifesaver….

So yes I do stay up pretty late and I think I can contribute this to the 9pm dosing. I am going to start shooting for 7:30 pm dosing. I usually get about 6 hours of sleep. I guess the way I look at this is you should be getting 8 hours. So for six days I am losing 12 hours of sleep, so I should only be oversleeping 12 hours, but I am no doctor and I guess that’s not how your body works. I guess my body is so exhausted that it needs to catch up on those 12 hours and then some…

No, I am not taking any kind of adhd meds. I only take suboxone, nexium (heartburn meds) and pristiq (depression meds) I am going to start my night dose around 7:30, start getting some exercise so hopefully I can get past this. I agree it sounds like my body is in a routine. I just need to break the routine maybe even once, force myself out of bed no matter how hard it may be and hopefully this will work! I am really praying this will work. I don’t know how many more times I can call out of work until I am called into the boss’s office and that is it for me. I’m just hoping they will at least talk to me about why I have been calling out so much instead of just firing me. I’m not sure what the laws are in NJ, but I’m hoping there is some kind of law to protect me. I have called out once a week for the last 8 weeks and not one person has said anything to me. Anyway, I really really appreciate the responses. I finally feel like someone is on my side!

I too feel sleepy on Sub. I've been on it since first of May '10. Started with 24mgs, and knew right off it was too much but they based it on my large amount of opiates and Soma I was taking. Roughly 12-15 Norco's, 12-15 Tramadol, and 8-10 Soma's daily. So doesn't 24mg's sound about right? A month later I dropped it down myself to 16mgs and then last month to 12 and I still feel scary sleepy. It's a deep wave of exhaustion that hits him periodically through the day. Hopefully I can reduce it enough to stop that side effect.

Went to my doctor yesterday and both he and his nurse said they've never heard of this. She said most patients feel full of energy.

So is it the Sub or could it be something else? The only other drugs I take are Cataflam and Tylenol for pain. Those two can't be the problem. I never felt it while taking my opiates so I can only assume it's the Sub.

Sorry, I haven't read all the side effect posts yet. I'll do that right after posting this.

Thanks Everyone!

Tom

From the experiences on this forum, it seems that the sleepiness you're experiencing isn't all that uncommon. It could also be related to your dose. I think you're smart to try to drop your dose a little to see if it subsides. Do you dose once a day in the morning? Are you're most tired shortly after taking it? If so you could try dosing at night instead of in the morning. Let us know if your dosage drop does the trick.

_________________
-As I have grown older, I've learned that pleasing everyone is impossible, but pissing everyone off is a piece of cake.

-I'm only responsible for what I say, not for what you understand.

I too suffer from being constantly sleepy on suboxone, I feel fine for about 2 hours after taking it and then boom Im tired as hell like I have to drag myself around. Its not a "drugged" tired feeling its the exhausted type of tired that I would feel when in withdrawal, like taking a shower seems to big of a task and I can barely bring myself to get up off the couch to make something to eat etc. Its realy unnerving to me I hate that feeling so much and its affecting my quality of life. Im not gonna blame it all on the sub because there possibly could be some other variables but I dont see what else it could be.

Sleepiness has been my most challenging side effect from Sub, and I could easily sleep 12 hours a day, which is a problem. But I think sleeping for 36-48 hours straight is way over the top, unless you've been awake for days on end. I would try putting yourself on a strict sleep schedule, like 10pm to 7am every day if you can - and don't allow yourself to sleep throughout an entire day. That being said, I would definately speak to a doctor. If you're missing work over this I'd consider it a serious problem. Also, I agree with others that you should try to find the best time of day for you and dose once a day.
Good luck,
Lilly

Unless Im ever put back on to a high dose of suboxone I dont see how I could ever dose once a day. 2 times a day works fine for me and I dont see anything wrong with it. I know the whole theory is that when you feel shitty you dont want to rely on running to your pills to take them to feel better but as all of us on suboxone know we dont feel any type of escape when we take suboxone, whether we take 2mgs or 24mgs the feeling is the same aside from suppressing cravings, there is no type of buzz so I dont see the problem. I mean in theory we are all 'running to our pills" even when we dose once a day so we can escape the bad feelings of cravings and withdrawal so I just dont understand it. 2 times a day works better for me but Im on a low dose so if I was on a higher dose maybe once a day could work who knows.

Lower doses don't abate the cravings for as long as higher doses do. That's probably why you prefer to dose twice daily - you might very well have less cravings that way.

_________________
-As I have grown older, I've learned that pleasing everyone is impossible, but pissing everyone off is a piece of cake.

-I'm only responsible for what I say, not for what you understand.

When I was on 24mg per day I didn't sleep through work (although was prone to short naps mid day) but on the weekends I would sleep them away. I couldn't stay awake in the car. I couldn't stay awake to watch tv. Now that I am down to 10mg per day, I am fine. If I am extremely sedentary and lay down, I will fall asleep but I just sit up and watch movies instead.

In terms of sleeping 36 hours straight........I think the night dose you are taking may be keeping you AWAKE and you should highly consider dosing once per day. I think you should focus more on what is happening when you are NOT sleeping than when you ARE and you will find the key to your problem. If you get yourself sleeping each night, you likely won't sleep 36 hours straight.

Also, contrary to popular belief, the body doesn't need EXTRA sleep to make up for lost sleep. It still only need 8 hours. So you can't really add up missed hours of sleep and then add them all together and make it up in one day. So I do think motivation is a factor here to some extent. I do believe you should be able to get your sleep schedule back on track. If not, head to a sleep specialist and at least you will be able to give them a list of things you have tried.

Cherie

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Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.

- Winston Churchill

I am very pleased to read that I'm not the only one feeling tired on Sub. And I also agree with suboxOWNED when he stated it was about two hours after dosing that he felt tired. It takes about that long to feel the Sub with me.

But I don't sleep any longer at night. It's only a day thing. Tried dosing twice a day instead of once and it helped a little. But as suggested by others here I'm slowly tapering down and hope to get to the point of not feeling sleepy at all anymore.

Now I need to get my doctor and his wife nurse to believe me. Maybe I should print all of these and show 'em.

Tom

Ok. This is kind of bizarre, but hear me out. The Pristiq could be contributing to this. If you don't know, Pristiq is just the active metabolite of Effexor XR, so it is basically the exact same drug. This is what is called "evergreening" by a drug manufacturer when the patent on the older drug is about to expire.

So, If I missed one dose of Effexor I would sleep for 2 or even 3 days. What would happen to me was I would take my daily dose, and go to bed that night normally. THEN I would decide (or just do it) to sleep in a little the next morning, delaying my next dose of Effexor. If I didn't get up and take that Effexor right on schedule, I would sleep until my parents would literally drag me out of bed. Then, taking my dose of Effexor, I would go right back on track to regular sleep.

Worth a thought if for some reason you are missing your regular dose of Pristiq when you sleep in.

J

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"Never tease a weasel/The weasel will not like it/ And teasing isn’t nice!”