Welcome @charlesp, For both of my occurrences of PMR I was started at 20 mg prednisone and it kept the pain symptoms at bay until I took my next mornings dose. I would have stiffness in the morning until I got up and moving. I would also do some mild exercise in the morning which seemed to help.

You might consider keeping a daily log of your pain level when you get up in the morning along with the dosage of prednisone you take that day. It helped me when tapering and knowing when I shouldn't taper. For me, if my pain level was above a 2, I generally did not taper to my next lower dose of prednisone.

I know it's early in your PMR journey since you were just diagnosed a month ago. Does your doctor or rheumatologist have you on a tapering schedule?

Hi
I found that taking Prednisone in the am didn’t last 24 hours but more like you 20 hours. I divided the dosage in half and take am and pm. After a day or so there you are getting effectively the total dosage and there was no gap of 4 hours of pain.