Connect
Sleeping problems with Atorvastatin and Bystolic
It’s probably no surprise to people in this group that taking statins and blood pressures medications can have a side effect of insomnia, which I have. It’s really bad, bad enough to where I take something to sleep, but this is yet just another drug. This drug, alprazolam, has started to not work for my insomnia now. So here is my question/dilemma….really can’t stop taking my blood pressure or statin drugs, so then I don’t sleep. One or the other is eventually going to kill me. No sleep, or not taking the statins and blood pressure meds. Yes, I have tried many different BP and statin drugs and this has not helped. are there people out there with this dilemma. I am at wits end not being able to sleep more than 3-4 hours a night, sometimes not at all, but I also have to take care of my blood pressure and high cholesterol.
Like
Helpful
HugInterested in more discussions like this? Go to the Sleep Health Support Group.
Connect
Some of what you are experiencing might be a generalized anxiety due to your new awareness that things are not going so well as you age. It happens to all of us, but the awareness (just in a routine medical exam if we're lucky, and not due to some crisis) and the drug reactions can gang up on us and remove our feelings of security.
It has been widely reported that statins can lead to problems, not least of which is achy muscles. I don't feel I have any adverse reactions to statins, but I did have a reaction to metoprolol, the heart-easing drug for people with atrial arrhythmias and/or incipient hypertension, which I sort of had when diagnosed with atrial fibrillation. Over time, the metoprolol left me feeling a bit 'gassed', unable to have the same output in physical work. Eventually, as I needed more and more of it to keep my disordered heart from beating too quickly when I had the odd run of AF, it would bump my heart into severe bradycardia, where the heart slows below 50 BPM. In my case, it went all the way down to 30 BPM which is the point where the AV node was keeping me alive. When all else fails, the AV node is supposed to sustain you at about 30 BPM. At that rate, even your intestines shut down.
I counsel people to do all the reading they can about a condition they have and how it can be treated....ALL treatments. Find out what works for you, and be an advocate for yourself with your care providers. Let them know you're doing poorly and they should....SHOULD...offer you some remedial help or alternative treatments. Sometimes learning about treatments allays fears about what could go wrong, or gives you ideas about alternatives that you can explore.
If one form of sleep aid declines in efficacy over time, change to another. Try CBD oils, zopiclone, and any number of other options. Naturally, this would only be with consultation of a professional.
Did u stop meterplol? What did they switch you to?
I did stop metoprolol, but that direction came when I was flat on my back in an ER six days after my first ablation. I had started AF again earlier that day and was ordered to go get an ECG by my family physician to whom I had gone to see per the post-catheter ablation instructions (See your family doctor in approximately one week to ensure you are doing well). He detected AF right away and said to drive myself to the local ER. It was there that the internist and nurses found me in severe bradycardia, but with atrial fibrillation. I was instructed to cease metoprolol immediately and to begin a new prescription called amiodarone. I won't go into further details, but amiodarone keep me in sinus rhythm for the time of the prescription, which was eight weeks.
I switched to taking my statin in the morning
I, too, suffer with insomnia and my depression seems to have worsen. Am going to stop the atorvastatin for a month to see if any changes.