Hello, My names Michael and I've been on Suboxone for about 6 months now. I've remained clean off of everything but the sub, and am currently taking 2-4 mgs a day. I had first started with 8MG of the film, but quickly reduced my dosage to 4 mg and then lowered it to 2mg within the first couple months. Now, depending on the day (and how I feel) I bounce back and forth between 2-4 mgs. For some reason I just don't feel healthy. My sleeping pattern is strange, I either stay up litereally all night till 5-6 am or I'll fall asleep by 9 and sleep 10-12 hours. After sleeping for however long, (i've even tried 6-9 hours) I wake up feeling extremely fatigued. It's a weird sensation that is over my body that litereally feels so heavy that it's trying to tackle me and pull me down. My heart rate is always very fast and I can feel a pulse sometimes in my head. Sometimes I have to hold onto the railing in my shower to prevent myself from falling down... After I take my morning dose, again 2-4 mgs and eat After about an hour I feel perfectly fine. I'm energized, social, and ready to work! I just dread this morning feeling and am worrying that it is causing me health problems, and not letting my body properly recover while in my deep sleep stages (rem). Another weird side effect I have is no weight gain, I eat soo much but I've only gained 15 pounds and that's when I first got clean within my first two months. And one last side effect i'm having is after I eat or about mid day I'm overcome by a strange sensation that makes it extremely hard to concentrate and it feels my mind is lost in a fog, and i have to lay down because I am so fatigued/sleepy. Please can someone help me with this problem! It's been continuing to progress and get worse and it's really starting to freak me out! I just want to be healthy again and start to look better/feel better about myself but this is really holding me back I feel. Thanks again, and any input would be greatly appreciated!
How come keep waking up feeling HORRIBLE while on suboxone?
Question posted by MichaelHowardExDopey on 3 Jan 2012
Last updated on 5 October 2020 by Kathyblankrobbins
6 Answers
I also experience these symptoms. I don't fall asleep until 5 or 6 in morning and sleep really deep for like 12 hours when I wake up I feel groggy and my head feels like it's in a cloud even fell a little dizzy. My anxiety is so out of control because of this.
I've been off and on Bupe for several years and have very similar symptoms. The disruption with my sleep cycle was so bad I considered stopping at one point. If I take my medicine too late in the day there will be no sleep that night and even if I take it early my sleep is disrupted every hour sometimes every thirty minutes. I just continously wake up all night every night. When I first got on it and everytime I've had to get back on the first week or two are spent sleeping. I absolutely cannot hold my eyes open. Once it's in my system good I guess that goes away but is replaced by the constant waking. I lost my insurance recently and am now about to get back on Bupe and am delaying it cause I don't wanna sleep for a week. And this has happened at every mg I've been prescribed. I'm currently on 24 but it was the exact same at 8.
When I read this I think I am reading my own story. I experience exactly the same symptoms to a tea. Same dose, same taper, everything. I don’t know what to do anymore.
Michael, you are not the only one feeling these symptoms. I woke up at 1:30 today when I set an alarm for 9 because of SUB. I also have horrible times going to sleep. You have to take your last dose before approximately 6-7 at night if you want to go to sleep. But still, you might need something to help you sleep. I’m not sure if there is a way to message people on here. I read threads on this site all the time but I made an account to respond to you. So if you read this, respond back and I hope I get some kind of notification. These are not withdrawals, these are side effects of Sub. I have been on it for many years and I am waiting to start a career before I get off. Let me know what other questions you have if you are still taking it. I know I’m late to the thread. I am 27. So I’m around your age.
Okay, I take the exact same amount of sub as you do, and I also have been having severe sleep problems just like you discribed. I never thought of it as being related to suboxone. I think it might be a cross medication situation. Its seems to be much worse on the days that I need to
take Lyrica too for my nerve pain. I was thinking that this problem was because of the saraquil I take at night, but now that You are experiencing the exact same symptoms, I'm wondering whats going on. May I ask what other medications you take? Maybe together we can figure this out. God bless you, Harmony
I'm not on any other medications but the suboxone. I am a heavy smoker however, smoking about a pack a day and I've noticed when I smoke cigarettes in the evening it keeps me up because the nicotine is actually a stimulant. Thanks and let me know what you think and if we can figure this out. It's definetly not right..
Hello Michael,
You did a good job of explaining how you have been feeling and why you consider it a problem. However, you did not give any history on yourself, especially your drug and medical history. And since you mentioned year heart, I think your age might be important. Without all this info I'm going to take an educated guess. Unless there are other reasons for what you described, I think you are on too low of a dose of Sub. I am wondering why you quickly reduced your dose? Did your Sub doc tell you to do this? No offense Michael, but are you going to a doc? Or are you getting the Sub from other people you know? No one's going to jump down your throat if you are getting it without a doc. If you are, this may be 1 reason you tried to reduce the dose so quickly. I believe experience with many people has now shown a person needs to be on a dose high enough to make you feel alright, and you need to stay on that dose a minimum of 6 months and often longer.
When it is time to stop Sub, if that's what you want to do, you should reduce the dose very slowly and by very small amounts. This isn't what you have done at all. I also think that whatever you were on, how much and for how long, can be useful in determining the proper dose.
I'm going to be interested in what you have to say to this, and what other Sub users think.
Sorry, I forgot to mention that I'm a male who's only 21. All my life I have been pretty healthy as well, except for when I started using drugs heavily. I do indeed see a dr, and told him I wanted to taper down and he had no problem with it at all. He had first started me on 16 mg but i felt it was too much, and i've used subs off and on for years and had never needed to take 2 a day even when I was at my peak in my using days, and so he then reduced me down to 8 mgs. After being on 8 mg's for about a month, he then perscribed me up to 30 a month of the 8 mg's and said if I feel comfortable to start reducing my dose by 2mg every 4-7 days. It seems these doctors are not that educated on the matter though, I have mentioned these side effecs to him and he totally ignores them and thinks it's just a temporary thing that will pass.
Unfortunately I agreed with him and believed this to be true, but now the symptoms i've been describing have been getting worse as time goes on. My last sub dr as well was totally miseducated and made poor choices/suggestions which lead me to see a new doctor. Thanks for the input and I hope this helps..
Michael,
You should get a Blood Pressure Monitor. Get a semi automatic one. You pump it up and then it does the listening. You may need to be on Clonidine. Unless your BP is too low. That's all you can check at home.
Since you did such a radical lowering of dose, and since you're 21 with good health, I'm going to call all this wds. Withdrawal symptoms. These aren't the typical wds. But I still think that's what they are. I wouldn't trust a Sub doc, but I bet even if you went to an ER they will find nothing wrong with you. When you look at a 21 yr old young man if he isn't grossly overweight and if his EKG is normal, we look for what he does. You've been using Sub on and off for years, and other opiates too, I bet. Now you're trying to stop and your body is rebelling. Eventually your body will level off. It won't be the same as what you remember before you ever touched an opiate, but it will level off.
When we abuse drugs many of them change us and we are never quite the same. But I didn't know that at 21, and neither did you. Now you do. Once you're off all opiates, never take any drugs unless you must.
Interesting.. You actually think I'm going into wd's off of suboxone though when I dose daily? It has such a long half life that I just can't believe that to be true.. I also tried splitting my dose into two to take through the day but It didn't seem to help much. I also did not do a radical taper whatsoever, I was On 8 Mg's to start and within a month I gradually dropped down to 4 mgs. Being on it for such a short period of time initially made it so that when I did ineed drop my dose, I experienced little to no withdrawl symptoms at all. I do however believe it could have something to do with my blood pressure, and also maybe a heart condition or possibly sleep apnea? The heart problem could very well be true, as I used to IV Heroin and I know that it isn't easy on the heart to say the least. Anyways I appreciate your time and input and concern. Thank you friend and let me know what you think. *-God bless, Take care, And Stay Healthy-*
-Michael J Howard*
Michael,
You remind me of myself in some ways. I was worried about my heart since I was a young man too. Especially since my father and his brothers died from heart ailments. You need at least an EKG, and a heart sonogram. If they come back normal chances are nothing is wrong. You can even get a heart stress test done. If that too is normal then most likely your heart is fine. You have to play the odds here. At 21, even with IV Heroin, chances are your heart is fine. When I was 21 I was doing, and had done IV crystal Meth. That made my heart rate hit 130 beats per minute just sitting there. Crystal Meth is much worse for the heart than Heroin. Actually, as an older man I find opiates help my heart in a way docs don't understand. So I think you may be wrong about Heroin being so bad for the heart. Alcohol is probably worse. The bad thing is that you banged it and you were probably using a lot. So you were hitting the heart with a lot of opiates at once.
But I did that with Crystal, and it's worse. But my heart was fine. I think yours is too.
You don't seem to know much about Buprenorphine, the opiate in Sub. The doc's don't neither. But me and some of the docs know more than you. Michael you did reduce the dose drastically. A Sub dose should be reduced only once every 4 weeks. From 8 mg you should reduce it by 1 or 2 mg every 4 weeks. It takes at least 4 weeks to get used to the lower dose.
But try and get other opinions. I'm no genius. I can be wrong.
I didn't know it takes that long to adjust to the buprenorphine half life. But do you think my body is still getting used to it even after being on it for 6 months? I just woke up actually an hour ago at 10:00 am and woke up feeling horrible. Heart felt like it was gonna burst threw my chest, i hopped in the shower and thought it would help but I had to hold myself up, I started to become very lightheaded and weak. I placed my hand over my chest area and could feel my rapid heart beat and started to get some anxiety so I took some deep breaths and got out of the shower right after to go lay down. Now im on my computer typing this. I got up and smoked a cigarette about 5 minutes ago and it too made me feel very strange. Heart rate picked back up, I started getting lightheaded and felt very weak and fatigued. I put it out after taking just a couple drags. What's going on.. =(
I wanted to also add that after about 2 hours of waking up I'm totally fine. I had mentioned this to my doctor so he did hook me up to the ekg. The only thing he said is he gave me a chart to look at and said I have some minor heart palpitations... I think? Where my heart flutters and does double beats but he said it was nothing really to worry about unless it continued. This was mid day though, after I had already felt fine. Could that make a difference on how the tests results were?
Hi Michael,
Real heart problems are rare at your age, but they are not unheard of. You are getting me worried. Did you buy the Blood Pressure monitor I asked you to get? Please go buy it. I know they are $50 or more, but you need it. Get the kind that you inflate and the device does the listening. I think it's called a semi automatic one. You should pump it up to 220 lbs pressure and then let it take over. If your pressure goes too high you need an ER. The BP monitor also counts your heart beats. The most common thing to happen after opiate use is Atrial Fibrillations with Tachycardia. This isn't something you can die from, but it can cause problems. A-Fibs can only be seen on an EKG. You need to see a serious doc about this. I think you need a heart doc. They are called cardiologists. They can put a 24 hour heart monitor on you which takes an EKG reading all day and night. I think you better do that. The cardio doc may also want to do a stress test.
Most likely he will also do an Ultrasound. Go get these tests done Michael. You are too young to be playing around with this.
Never smoke a cigarette when you have heart palpitations or arrythmia. Nicotine is BAD bad news for the heart. Do you not know this? At 21 maybe you don't. Nicotine or caffeine speeds the heart up and makes BP go up. Alcohol is also Bad news for the heart. Don't forget caffeine is in coffee, tea, cola sodas, and I think Root Beer sodas, most soda has caffeine in it. Not 7up. Chocolate also has caffeine. Go to your family doc on Mon or call a cardio doc and get an appointment Monday. We can't know what's wrong without tests.
Btw, are you over weight, how much, if you are? Does heart disease run in your family, I mean uncles, aunts, cousins, etc. as well as Mother Father Bros and Sis, and grand parents?
I'll be back tomorrow. I have to run. Take care.
No, I haven't gone and gotten the blood pressure monitor yet. And I'm not overweight, im about 5'8 140 lbs.. I rarely drink soda's or Coffee but the cigarettes in the morning make me feel really weird.
Are you a person with a lot of anxiety? Anxiety can cause heart arrythmia too.
Do the doctors tell you things are psychosomatic with you? Do you know what I mean? Do they say you worry too much about being sick and there is never anything wrong with you that they can find? Because I have no way of knowing all this. I am seeing that you keep complaining about your heart but you didn't buy the BP monitor. Are you totally flat broke, or you just don't feel it's necessary? But you still may be wrong.
All I can say at this point is see a cardio doc and get checked out. No one can help you online. You have to be seen by a doc in person.
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- Suboxone uses and safety info
- Suboxone prescribing info & package insert (for Health Professionals)
- Side effects of Suboxone (detailed)
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