Prednisone-sleeplessness-help please!

How long have you been on prednisone and at what dose did you start?

I was on it for four months last fall and started at 60 mg and stayed there for almost two months. I was WIDE awake at 2 am every night. If I recall correctly, I believe I started sleeping through the night again around 15-20 mgs. At this point I was not flaring at all and my UC was really under control. I did a very slow taper once I got to 15 mgs and tapered at 2.5 mgs every 5 days. If I noticed any flare than I stayed at my current dosage until everything stablized. Even though I started sleeping better before I was fully off the prednisone it took much longer for all the other side effects to go away. I'm still dealing with some of them.

Also, at what time are you taking the prednisone? I assume if you are not doing this already that taking it in the morning should help.

Thanks for the advice and replies. I am taking it in the morning, though I wasn't when I first started, wish my doc had given me this advice earlier! I started at 40 mg and have been on since the middle of June. I was originally tapering by 10 and then by 5, but both were too fast. Tapering by 2.5 seems to be working for me (fingers crossed). I have Ambien, but I am afraid to take it for more than a few nights in a row, I worry about dependency. Maybe now is the time to give in and just take it until I'm off the Pred. I hate the other side effects, but the lack of sleep just intensifies all of them and makes it really difficult to concentrate at work.

a zanex before bed will do the trick.