Sleeping 9-10 hours with tapering Prednisone

I have been on and of prednisone (P) for 30 years due to PMR. I did not notice any sleeping problems until my doctor wanted to reduce my P from 10 to 7.5 to 5 mg while I started hydrochloroquine 200mg 2X/d over a period of 3 months. Now I go to sleep easily , but when I get up to urinate after 4-6 hours of good sleep, I find it hard to go back to sleep. Consequently, when I finally go back to sleep, and not very deeply, I end up spending more time in bed to make up for not going back to sleep very easily. I am not complaining since I am amazed at how easily I have been able to reduce my P without the usual PMR pain that I have had off and on for 30 years.

any solutions out there to reducing wakeups for urination calls? how do you get full uninterrupted 8 hrs sleep?

Hi @awilst, I think that as we age it's difficult to get 8 hrs uninterrupted sleep. In my whole life, it's rarely happened. I listened to a sleep specialist say that the body needs to cool to sleep, but after we sleep a few hours, our body temperature rises and we wake up. I always keep a fan on at night to keep the bedroom cool.

Another thing he said is don't look at the clock when you get up, although it's tempting.

Also, I've read that it's helpful to curtail liquids after a certain time, depending on when you go to bed. I don't have a lot of fluid with dinner, then no liquids afterward. I usually wake up twice during sleep.

Good luck!

I haven't had a full uninterrupted sleep for almost 10 years, long before PMR. Part of it for some of us is that we retain fluid during the day which removes itself only once we lay down to sleep. I lose 3-4lb in weight overnight, mostly from the three toilet wake-ups when the excess fluid decides to go. In the mornings I have noticeably less fluid on my legs.

I don't have as much fluid retention since losing weight 6 months ago, but the extra water we're told to consume while taking the steroids seems to work its way out overnight. I generally sleep soundly in between the wake-ups since starting on low dose melatonin (1mg) a few months back.

When I get below 4 a day I sleep 7-8 hours, get up, take pills, drink coffee, and sleep another 3-4 hours. Normal?

Sounds familiar. I am on 2mg, and I sleep 6-7 hours. I have pills with breakfast and sleep another 2-3 hours. Until recently, I also napped. The extra rest seems to be working. After 2.5 years of Polymyalgia, life is almost normal. I am stiff and sore in the morning, but slowly feeling better.

In my mind pushing liquids is good. I exercise and consequently sweat a lot. I feel I am often dehydrated due to sweating. I do not mind getting up usually once each night to urinate. The problem I blogged about is not being able to easily go back to sleep since I have started taking hydrochloroquine 200mg 2x/d so I can reduce my prednisone. It has only been 3 months since starting HCQ so we will see how things transpire. I have been able to reduce prednisone from 10 to 5 mg easily?