My doctor has given me guanfacine for sleep, and I have read that it is an ADHD med and am totally freaked out to take it. He said that it will help with restorative sleep and inflammation. Anyone have experience with it?
Have any of your medical providers suggested a sleep clinic? I'd never
heard of one before and my doctor had me go to the one in their clinic.
What it is, is they hook you up with more than 20 wires connected to your body
and then monitor it on a computer while you sleep the night away. There is
also a person watching you (through a one way glass) for the entire night so if
there is any problem they can immediately come in and help you. Anyway,
the computer records your brain waves as well as determines your oxygen levels
(based on your breathing rates) and whether or not you have sleep apnea, which I
learned is what I had.
From my one night sleep clinic (my insurance paid all but $100 of the $2,500
cost) I learned I had sleep apnea (very common) and was given a CPAP device
(also paid by insurance) to wear at night which prevents the breathing
problems. Since doing this I sleep for longer periods of time - 4 or
5 hours or more, and am much more rested in the morning.
Apnea may not be your problem but from a sleep clinic you will learn what
sleep problems you have. At your age I'd sure try that before taking meds.
I posted this in another forum. A neurologist who does sleep studies found that their are vit d receptors on a part of the brain that induces slow wave sleep and sleep paralysis and that by getting vit d levels up to 60 to 80 nanagrams per blood liter that her patients began to sleep normally and also no longer had their daily headaches and other pain .
But I've never heard anyone ever say anything about taking vitamin D at a certain time. That's news to me...although I've always taken mine in the a.m. for the most part.
The recommended variety of vitamin D is D3 by most medical
professionals. (Here's an excellent source on vitamin D research - http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/)
I took 50,000 IU units of vitamin D3 daily for a year trying to prevent/reverse
cancer. It takes time for it to build up in your system so there is no
"better" time of day. I didn't find that it changed my sleep
patterns at all. I was mainly trying to reverse a tumor which was growing
in my lung and it didn't do that either. In fact, my blood tests started
heading in the wrong direction (can't remember which element) and have cut back
to 10,000 IU per day.
Had my tumor removed from my lung three months ago and it was cancer.
I finally came upon something to help me sleep and it works perfectly:
1 Prescripition L-Tryptophan (taken at 9pm),
1/4 teaspoon of L-Glycine and
1 capsule L-Ornithine just before bed
Home
Hi, anyone been given guanfacine for sleep? Afraid of side effects. 
