Does Morphine make you sleepy?:yawn:

Porter107 · 11-23-2006, 09:48 AM

Well- I have dealing with back pain off and on for 12 years now. For the past 5 years it has been chronic and has gotten steadily worse. For pain I have been taking percocet 10mg. And have done pretty well with controlling my pain with percs. But recently my pain has increased 10 fold and the percocets aren't doing the trick and I have not been able to sleep very much. So I asked my Doc if there was something I could take that would help with my pain and aid in helping me sleep. I was prescribed Morphine 30mg twice a day. I took my first one yesterday about 5:30PM thinking that I would soon be asleep. But I did not fall asleep. I was up until 1:30AM or so and woke up about 4:30AM. As far as my pain was concerned, I think it had about the same effect as the percs. I guess I was expecting instant relief. I thought morphine was the #1 pain reliever available and thought It would make me very sleepy, but so far it hasn't. I guess I am basing these thoughts on my previous experience with morphine with my first surgery. Of course morphine was through the IV and was instantly placed in my blood stream.
Any advice on sleep aids? I have already tried the OTC drugs. They do not help at all. It may be that I am destine to stay awake.

I know I will be on a morphine pump after surgery and hopefully it will have the effect it had on my first surgery. Sorry for rambling, I guess it is from lack of sleep.
Porter

babs17 · 11-23-2006, 10:42 AM

porter
I was having major trouble sleeping, and being that I am on pain meds, I did not want to engorge my system with any other med that might affect my respirations (they slow down with narcs). So, I started a routine. It sounds like a big scoop of BS, but I was so sleep deprived that I just went with it and gave it a whack. Desperation calls for alternative methods.

First of all, I turned off the TV. (more negative than I EVER thought)
Then I tried to read....(if the pain is that bad then I cannot read so I listen to some tunes in the dark)
My bedsheets are sprayed with Lavender.
I have earplugs for the no distractions rule...and something to cover my eyes (I mean buisness...lol)
Anyway...it did not work at first , but within a couple weeks, the routine kicked in, my body got used to it, and my internal clock finally shut down when I wanted in order to get a few winks in.

I know this is not ideal...but now that its working for me...I am thankful that I am doing at least one thing naturally....I dont feel so groggy in the AM like some of the sleep aids make ya feel. As for sleeping thru the night....have not figured that one out yet.

Morphine?? Umm, is it extended release?? what does it say on the bottle?

Good luck darling. be well.

babs

erfan · 11-23-2006, 01:35 PM

Morphine is the gold standard but is far from the most powerful med available. Far from it.

The Fentanyl in my Duragesic oatch is 80 times as strong as morphine.

In fact, I started on morphine and switched to oxycodone which is 1.5 times as strong as morphine.

The most powerful med used by pain management docs is probably the Actiq pops whic contain Fentanyl.

the strongest single pill rx'ed is the 30 mg Roxicodone (Oxycodone) which I use for b/t pain.

So, don't consider morphine as the strongest med-far from it.

Alan

BlueAtlas · 11-23-2006, 02:38 PM

Hi Porter,
The morphine did make me drowsy. When I used Oxycodone (generic for Percocet), one didn't make me drowsy, but two often put me right out. Sometimes, though, especially before my surgery when I was feeling a bit anxious, two Percocets relaxed me but I would lay awake all night. At least I wasn't in pain. Why don't you call your doctor and tell him you're having trouble sleeping. He can prescribe you something stronger than the OTC's for a while. Hopefully once your surgery is over, things will be different and you won't have so much trouble. You wouldn't want to be on sleep meds for long term, as they change the amount of sleep you get of the different levels of sleep. In the short term, they'll help you not feel so sleep deprived, but in the long term, they'll end up disrupting your normal sleep cycles. Your circumstances, though, are very appropriate for some short term help.

If you'd rather not use stronger meds for sleep, you can try the old warm milk routine. It actually does work, if you can get past the nasty taste. The warm milk releases a chemical in your body that helps you sleep, much like tryptophan in turkey. Hey, you could have some leftover turkey with some warm milk tonight and see if it makes a difference in your sleep tonight.

Hope you can get the rest you need.

Blessings,
Emily

Porter107 · 11-24-2006, 06:52 AM

Hello everyone, I hope everyone had a Happy Turkey Day!. Went to the in laws as we do every year. The wife has 11 siblings, so there is always quite a feast! They actually have to rent the community building to handle the entire family. Anyway, my wife told one of her sisters about my upcoming back surgery so it didn't take long before I was the subject of conversation and everyone wanted to ask me "Hows your back?", "How did you hurt it?", "When did you hurt it?"

. I am grateful that they are concerned, don't get me wrong, but does anyone else get tired telling your troubles over and over and over again? And then everyone wanted to make a big fuss about me. I really did not want that, I just wanted to have Thanksgiving dinner, watch football, and fall asleep in the recliner (which my mother in-law made an announcement that "The recliner belongs to Porter, nobody sits in it but him!"). Anyway, all in all not too terrible of day.
OK, as far as the Morphine, it really has not made me sleepy, so I took 1 10mg percocet which seemed to do the trick. In no time I was finding myself becoming sleepy and eventually drifted off. It felt good to take a nap. And although there were probably 60 people there, I managed to fall asleep watching football.
To answer the question about whether my morphine was time released, I don't know for sure, the bottle says "Morphine sulf 30 mg tab SA" so maybe one of you know?. I stayed awake till about 1:00AM last night so I took another percocet, and pretty soon I was out. I woke up about 4:00AM, but feel more rested then I have for awhile. I will continue this regimen as it seems to work fairly well.
Hope you all had a good day! Enjoy those left overs! I know I will! It seems because I have a bad back, that means I get a lot of left overs!

Take care.
Porter