Synthroid and sleep

Thank you, Jesus! I am so glad I googled this am. I have gained about 10 pounds since I started taking this -about 3 months ago. I feel anxious, sleep like crap, and I am just as lethargic as before!!!!!!- Anyhow, I want to know if most of you went off of the synthroid cold turkey or weaned off over a couple of weeks time? I am going to checkout this armour supplement. Thanks to all who shared- rn in az

Reading this has been really comforting. I am extremely sensitive to medication. I went in to see my doctor and even though my blood tests were normal, he believed I had hypothyroidism and put me on 25 mcg of the generic version of Synthroid. In the first 5 days I developed feelings of "dread" and I was afraid to go to sleep at night. Right afterward I got hit with some really stressful stuff and I went into full anxiety attacks (something I hadn't experienced in 15 years). Now, after about a week I'm a little better than I was before but I still cannot eat much and scary thoughts race through my mind...I also feel detached from everyone, like I'm in a bubble or something. I emailed a therapist yesterday, but now that I know the synthroid is probably still in my system, I feel a lot better. Thanks to everyone for sharing.

I am extremely sensitive to medications. That being said, even though my thyroid levels were normal, my doctor believed I had hypothyroidism. He put me on .25 mcg of the generic brand of synthroid. I could only take it for 5 days because during that time I developed feelings of "dread" and I was afraid to go to sleep at night. When I stopped the pills, I started to feel better but I believe the stuff was still in my system. Some stressful things happened right after, and it threw me into panic attacks with scary, racing thoughts, trembling, insomnia, etc. I'm slowly getting better. But after reading this, I feel even better now knowing that I'm not losing it and chances are great that it's the synthroid that's causing it.

Where to start!! I was also put on Synthroid and have been on it now for 6 months, before that I could hardly get around and thought I was lazy. It has been changed 4 times and now I am on 88. My legs ache all the time, cant sit for long periods of time, they drive me nuts. I take Xanax at night so I can sleep but I wake up 3-4 times a night and cannot hardly walk they are so stiff. Does anyone know what the heck is wrong? I am on 12 different meds for COPD and an aspirin every day from a Heart Attack and Bypass, truly a bummer. I was so active before all this and could think on my feet, now I am just completely forgetting everything.

Since on 0.175mcg of synthyroid after thyroidectomy and neck dissection two years ago, I have started to feel great fatigue? I can go to sleep at anytime during the afternoon. I also have a lethargy and malaise of the mind! If you mention this to the G.P., nurse or consultant you get vague looks!! Can anyone help?

Does anyone here ever had any tingling issues? I had total thyroidectomy in Feb. 2009. Felt good the first month or two and have gone down from there! Some days are good, some are bad. Never know from day to day how Im going to feel! I started out for about a month and a 1/2 on 125 levothyroxin.....then my doc lowered it to 100.......as of July 14th, Im now taking .88. The tingling Im getting is all over my body, different places, here and there. Ive had some heart rate issues for a couple of months now too and finally had my regular doc send to me see a heart doctor.
Thought maybe the tingling could be from low calcium.....it was normal, CBC was normal, ECHO was normal.....waiting on the holter test results right now. The heart doc gave me a prescription for Toprol. I told him I wasn't going to take it cuz sometimes my heart feels like its barely beating and Im afraid it will make it worse. Im glad I didn't get it! Ive read of too many side effects.
Palpitations, kinda fast heart beat with pounding.....sometimes it feels likes its barely beating! Most of this occurs when first laying down......every now and then while sitting, etc. I do not exercise.....and should but just don't find the time. I switched jobs around the time I found out I had several nodes on each side of my thyroid. I was getting tired a lot and just thought i worked too much. I went from a physical job to a sit down, 12 hour, graveyard shift. Since the surgery, Ive felt it more. Im tired of feeling like crap all the time......I was already going thru some perimenopause stuff before all of this! Before I ever found out about my thyroid, I did have real light pounding of heart when laying down and tingling every blue moon, but very mild as well.
Now with no thyroid.......and medicines with all the side effects......IM GOING NUTS!!! Right now the moodiness and tingling are whats bothering me the most. Some days Im really tired, others Im ok. My body gets hot off and on, no fever. The past 3 days my calves, feet, and ankles have started to swell........never before! Plus I get some throbs and pains in my legs and arms and under my arms here and there. I probably need a new doc and I change of medicine......but Im afraid.
For one, Ive decided to go back to a physical job........and hopefully it wont screw with my heart rate even more. Ive read up on tingling........Im guessing maybe its from all the damn stress since my calcium was normal. Does anyone here have any suggestions?????

I've had my thyroid removed in 2006 and since then I've been on medication, i was ok first and i thought i was ok until now. i had leg pains that woke me up from my sleep and i went to doctor and couldn't figure out why i was having this pain, i thought i had restless leg syndrome or sciatic but doctor said no. now i'm reading all your side effects and I'm in shock, i had no idea that it can cause to leg pain. also I've change my medication to generic (because of insurance issues) since then i guess my itching started. i thought i had allergic reaction to food or bugs or something and i went to allergist of course nothing came out. now I'm reading the side effects of this medication, it can cause hives, rashes, itching and even urticaria which i have right now. i went crazy to find anything in my house to find a bed bug, spider, flea or anything that can make me itch like this. the other side effects that I'm having are hair loss, red/hot face. i can not believe all these symptoms are actually side effects to a medication supposed to make me feel better. whoever says that's they find it weird that this medication has this many side effects, we are not crazy. this effects are real and so many of us has them.

I have been on synthyroid for at least 7 years, and I still constantly battle fatigue and mood swings. All the doctors thought it was in my head and the last one suggested anti-depressants which I wouldn't go for. I feel depressed because I wake up tired almost every day or at least after 2 hours of being awake I can still just lie down and sleep! It's awful when just the thought of having to walk a block takes huge effort. I used to go to the gym every day but now it takes so much effort to do the smallest thing. I finally have a new doctor who has started to additionally give me Liothyronine (T3) which has given me new hope. I seem to feel better. We are still tweaking the dosage, first it was too low, now too high, but I am hopeful with the right "combo" we can get it right, if not I am considering going to a homeopathic doctor or just going off the stuff entirely, except I am not sure whether that will be worse.....If anyone has any advice or comments, please reply!!!!

I have always had and currently have the side of effect of extreme fatigue associated with the use of synthroid and now Armour thyroid replacement as well.
Whenever my tsh reaches normal levels I become increasingly fatigued. Now I an hardly stay out of the bed and yet my levels are normal.
I have Hashimoto's Disease and am menopausal with severe insomnia to cloud the issue. But the fatigue associated with thyroid replacement is longstanding and has occurred for about 15 yrs. For many years, I would stop taking the medication because of it. My doctors do not believe that the fatigue is related to Synthroid which I find utterly frustrating. Will be looking for another endocrinologist soon. Has anyone out there experienced this side effect of extreme fatigue?
Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Hello, I have been on synthroid since 1999. I am hypothyroid with hashimotos. Endr. docs couldn't seem to get any levels right so I went to my Intergretted doctor . and he put me on 1/4 grain armour so I took anywhere from 50mcg to 100mcg of synthroid in the AM and 1 armour at night. It worked but after a short while I felt terrible. Then I had to start taking high blood pressure presc., it was about 170/116 after I had some shots in my back for pain, never had hp. before these shots. In Sept. of this year I stopped the Topralxl because I felt my heart was pounding out of my chest which I was in hospital for they said I was having a heart attack, had anigram, but I didn't have a heart attack and and angigram came out good. Then this summer they put me on 2 Topralxl. My heart was pounding with 4 extra beats so with a ultra sound{echo]of my heart and 24 hour halter it was all good, so I figured it had to be something I am taking. So that lead up to the stop of Topralxl which I researched and took a few things from Health Food store and got my pressure down to 140/80. My heart quit racing and beating so hard, but still felt depressed, puffed up, confused, teeth felt loose, urinated a lot, gained weight, rashy on my neck, tired all day, did not sleep good, eyes were always red and watery, skin and hair dry, blemishes on my face{ I am'56 yrs. old] just didn't feel good and the list goes on. Came across this site and read them all. Realized so much from you all. Sythroid only has T4 which your cells should be able to covert T3 out of that. T4 stores in your body and T3 is used up as the day goes on. But some peoples bodies don't convert the T3. Several people have talked about TSH which is your thyroid stimulating hormone which comes from your Pituitary Gland. When you thyroid or your meds. don't give you enough thyroid of what you need the Pituitary kicks in there to tell your thyroid gland to to produce more. It's not good for your TSH to be high so Docs. put you on a higher dose of Sythroid or whatever you take for the pituitary to stop producing TSH. So I want to say I am not a doc. but have felt so terrible and researching what I could I quit my Synthroid on the 29 of Dec. and started taking my armour thyroid 1 AM, 1 late afternoon and 1 PM on my own cause I figured I am still getting my T4 and T3. I went to my Endr. Doc. yesterday and told him I went off my Synthroid and just taking Armour. and told him I felt so terrible, after stopping the Topral heart felt great but the rest of me felt drugged, I just felt desperate and horrible. So again it had to be something I was taking. Well I have to say that I feel 100% better than I was. I am much more alert with my surroundings and whatever i am doing, sleep so good, teeth feel good, no rash, urinate normal, not confused, face cleared up, eyes not red or watery, pretty much I already feel normal again. Working at my job is not exhausting, my neck, which I didn't mention before quit hurting. In a whole it was the right thing for me but maybe not for everyone. I just felt that it was slowing taking me out. Blood Pressure, Thyroid issues are to be concerned about but seems like a person should feel better not worse with the meds. So this is the information I have learned and I'm sure there is much more. So good luck to you all and listen to your body and talk to your doc.about how you feel. It can be very scary when you are diagnosed with something but we are all different in what our body needs and our side effects.

i just started taking synthroid for the first time, i am 54, started me on 25mcg which is a low dose, i noticed after about a month i started getting hot flashes all over again and my appetite was increasing, i am not overweight but i will be soon , I know i gained about 5 pounds in the last month, I do not like this so I decided (forget that) if it going to make gain weight, not sleep, have hot flashes, and i don't have any more energy and even getting more forgetful, it not worth it, I'll see how I feel without it!

I am a female and was diagnosed with Hashimoto's three years ago (looking at old childhood photos I've probably had this all my life) and have taken Levoxyl and Synthroid in escalating doses over time. Initially 25mcg for about a year and that was the endo plan until bloodwork indicated a need for more. I quit taking it after a year as it seemed I was gaining weight. After a few months went to a different endo and he started the treatment again with 25 (I weighed 160 at the time) and now has worked it to 100mcg (I now weigh 178!!!). I thought that with the higher dose I would have more of a weight loss effect (definitely not weight gain) and thought I'd have more energy, better brain function and happier outlook. I am experiencing the complete opposite. The last time I visited the endo and he looked at my weight gain he just said to "stop it". I work out almost every day for 45 minutes to 2 hours, have a job that at times requires arduous work, I eat a very healthy diet full of fiber, low in fat, low in carbs. I'm always hungry and feel like eating to make up for a lack of energy. I come home from work exhausted. This isn't living. I've had it with the Synthroid and any form of T-4 alone. I'm going to see a natural healthcare professional to try Armour because none of the medical doctors I've seen will prescribe it or synthetic T-3.

I've been on synthroid now for about a year. My dosage is VERY little (0.075). My doctor keeps running blood tests every 3 months and assures me I am within the "lower-end" of the norm, but I still feel tired, sleep deprived, wake up with night-sweats and I keep gaining weight...

I am only 24 and have just been told that I need to take this medication for the rest of my life, it\s pretty depressing. I keep asking if there are other ways to lose weight and feel more energized. He tells me that I need to keep taking this medication and has put me on a "sleep hygeine" routine where I go to bed and wake up at the same time every day.

Does this "disease" mean I will always be overweight and tired for the rest of my life? I would like to know if someone else with more experience with this medication can give any sort of advice? Feeling a little hopeless about it and not really interested in complaining to my doctor anymore.

Thanks:)

I have Hashi's and have been on Synthroid for about 2 years. I was recently on 75 mcg and was teetering on the brink of being hypo again so my doctor increased my dosage to 88 mcg last week. Ever since I have been on the new dosage, I have had the worst insomnia. I wake up covered in sweat (in air conditioning) and I feel caffeinated all the time ( I don't consume caffeine). I feel strung out! Is my body just getting used to the new dosage or am I being over medicated? I don't want to complain yet to my doctor if this is just my body getting used to the new dosage but this really is terrible.

Hello To All,

I too am on this med, I have been on it for 1 year as of July 2008-

35 pounds, brain fog, headaches, eye sight for reading, chest pain and fluttering heart beat. My doctor who is my friend has told me that he will up my dose... "Dear God" any more and I will go nuts. Does anyone know of any study done in a medical journal that theu could forward to me so I can show my doctor.

Please email me at ****** I would be so very thankful.

Thanks to all and be healthy.

A couple of other symptoms I didn't mention before are I still get cold a lot and ibuprofen is my best friend because of all the aches and pains. But running on 3-5 hours of sleep a night with the occasional 7 hours has definitely diminished the quality of my life.

I was diagnosed as having Hypothyroidism in 1-07. My TSH was 83 and I was sleepy all the time, moody and anxious, hair falling out, gaining weight, heavy clotting peiods, etc. I was 51 and it was all blamed for a while in perimenopause. I have been on Synthroid .50 since then and some things are better like hair loss and sleepiness. My last check a few months ago was 1.3. What I hate most of all is waking up after a few hours of sleep and I feeing like I am on some kind of speed. My mind is wide awake and jumping from one thought to another, sometimes sweating heavily with my heart racing. I was diagnosed 10 years ago with Inappropriate Sinus Tachycardia and was on Beta blockers for a while. I have a new doctor now and never discussed this with her. The anxiety is awful sometimes too . I start to get fears of not being able to swallow or breathe but can keep it under control. An average night of sleep is five broken up hours of sleep and every now and then from exhaustion I will get close to seven hours. I am foggy headed a lot but I never hardly yawn or feel sleepy in the daytime.

I just took synthroid for the first time last night, and had some intensely weird nightmare dreams, which is why I am here, googling "synthroid" and "nightmares" - has anyone had this experience and had it subside? Please respond if that's the case, I certainly don't want my sleep to be like this every night.

My thyroid troubles started in 1993. I am not sure how long before the discovery I had the problem. Mine started as a nodule on one side. I was immediately put on Synthroid and had to go see the Endo every 6 months for a biopsy. In 1995 I became pregnant. I had one more biopsy until after the birth of my daughter. The Endo told me he wanted to see me right away after she was born to do another biopsy. I had my suspisions, but didn't think anyhing until after she was born and went for my biopsy. Well, I had cancer. I went through the whole thyroidectomy, the 3 days isolation with radio-iodine, and every year to every few years after I had to go back and get the radio-iodine treatment, while not the high dose as the first time, it went with the complete body scan. In fact, I am due now, but don't have health insurance. My dose has been switched a lot, I have probably been on every dose from the lowest up to .200mcg, which has been the highest for myself.

Symptoms: pre-thyroid disease, I am 5'2. I was always 110-115 lbs, I was 22 yrs old and 120 lbs. when I married in 1993. I did notice gradual weight gain, probably because of my thyroid problems. I am sad to say that now I am around 180 lbs. I cannot seem to lose the weight unless I go on a total starvation diet. I managed to lose 10-15 lbs over the past summer, but unfortunately for me it has come back over the winter. I tried to stay as active as possible by going to stores and malls to walk around. I do for a fact notice that when my dosage for Synthroid goes higher, so does my weight gain. I was on .137mcg over the summer, and I think that was a good dose for me, that was through the regular dr. The Endo is the one who put me back up to .150mcg. My Endo told me the thyroid is a regenerative organ, so it CAN grow back. I guess they don't want that in case of cancer again, and I guess that is why he keeps me on higher doses.

I personally cannot stand it. I feel it is a horrible curse. I feel very robbed of my previous active life. I have been dealing with this now for 12 years not having a thyroid and being on this medication. I feel angry that I do not have the energy to do things with my 12 yr old and 3 yr old. I miss the way I was before having thyroid disease. I feel very sad when they come up to me asking to do certain things and they (nor anyone else I know for that fact) can understand that I just feel so whooped, and no energy. All I ever seem to want to do is take a nap. I have migraine headaches constantly, I am constantly tired. I cannot concentrate, I have some memory loss. My ex-husband, and my current husband too for that fact think I am just being lazy. Well, that is not so. There are moments when I do feel a burst of energy, but then, I have to use that burst to do the things I need to do around the house.

Pre thyroid disease I was always active, never tired, could do anything. After: TIRED, I was 24 in 1996 and felt like an old lady, dry skin, no matter how much lotion I put on. The tub is full of hair, while it doesn't come out in clumps and I still have thick hair, I have hair all over the place. Irritable, mood swings, happy to angry and the snap of a finger. I can have insomnia some nights, constipation, lots of the same stuff others have listed on this forum. Those side affects are the same no matter what dose I am on. And like I said the higher the dose for me, the more weight I pack on. It is instantanious. Over Christmas, and no, it wasn't from eating all the goodies, I gained a lot of the weight I had lost over summer back, and that was because a few weeks before, the Endo had put me on the .150 mcg.

I a 49 year old male. A little while ago I was diagnosed with Hypothyroidism. My TSH was at 43. I have been taken Synthroid for a little over 3 months. I started with 25mcg and was recently increased to 50mcg since my TSH was still at a high 15. I also thought it prudent, since I had gained a lot of weight over the last year and a half, to also diet and exercise a little. In the last 5 weeks I have lost 32 pounds. (I was about 80 pounds more than I liked). I have more energy, have not lost anymore hair than normal, and my hair is not brittle. I have episodes of Atrial Fibrillation since I was 30 and occasional "heart flips" ever since. Since taking the Synthroid I have not experienced these "flips" at all. I sleep well. My blood pressure was High in the past and was taking two meds for it. Since taking the Synthroid (I'm also guessing the weight loss, diet and exercise has also helped) I am down to one med and I now have a BP of 110/65 with a resting heart rate of 64. By the way..I am taking the generic form of Synthroid.

I have no bad side effects on Synthroid, unless I am overmedicated. I get burning feelings on my shoulders, back, arms, and nape. I can't sleep, or wake for no reason during the night. I get very nervous, and have a jittery feeling all through my body. Has this ever happened to anyone?

I have been on synthroid for about 6 months now. Some of the side effects I have been experiencing are numerous.I have hair loss, sometimes I get so ill that no one can stand to be around me, my weight has gone up about 30 pounds, my cholesterol levels went sky high so now I'm taking Crestor, I'm bloated most times, I have episodes where my face flushes and gets so red that it feels like its on fire, and now I've just started experiencing burning and aching of the legs, I'm tired a lot too! My doctor said I would lose the weight but every time I go for check ups and get on the scale it just keeps going up. I would like to know if anyone else out there is experiencing the burning and achy legs because I have been tested for everything and they can't find out what is going on. They of course say it's not the medication.It seems to never be. Does anyone feel me??

hello everyone
i am a full time college student and I believe that i have some side effects from synthroid. As i was reading everyones blog i notice that some people feel the same way that i do. At times i feel that i'm normal but if something upsetting happens i get really tired, depress, and I have a never time concentrating at school and home. My body hurts all the time. especially my joints and i feel that i don't want to do anything. I have about a year left until i graduate and its the going to be hard. I cry sometimes for no reason. help! i'm going to talk to my doctor but if any body else feels the same way please reply.

I was born without a thyroid gland so I can't compare the way I feel now to the way I would've felt with a thyroid. I've been on Synthroid my entire life (22 years), and I'm up to 112 mcg now. I am very skinny (5'5", 104 lbs) and feel constantly fatigued no matter how many hours I sleep, what I eat, and how much exercise I get. I periodically get pain in my hip joints, heart palpitations, and intense mood swings. My thoughts race but I have very little physical energy. I feel restless and gloomy almost all the time for absolutely no good reason. My doctor tells me I'm depressed but I honestly have no reason to be depressed and I wish she would see it as a symptom instead of a diagnosis. I graduated from a good college, I've got a job I like, I have friends, I enjoy life and my hobbies, yet I feel overwhelmingly sad. This does not seem like depression to me.

I find that after I do aerobics I get a tightness in my chest, which makes me worry about my heart, but again my doctor doesn't seem to think this is cause for concern. I have been irritable/fatigued for YEARS and I suspect I'll feel this way for the rest of my life. The worst of it started when I hit 16 years old and started the 112 mcg. My tests are always normal and it frustrates me that my doctor disregards my symptoms. I've tried other doctors, but they always send me away with my 'normal' test results. Can anybody help?

Been taken synthroid for 2.5 years. I am 30 old male, Really athletic.
I notice that I get fatique very easly and memmory and concentration problems. But the most noticable is shortness of Breath, and I have very high anxiety. I lost wait since being on synthroid.

Had total thyroidectomy 9 months ago and started taking Synthroid immediately thereafter. For the last 4 months I have noticed significant hair thinning. I have always had very thick, healthly looking hair but now it's just dry and brittle all of the time. I always feel tired and bloated around my stomach area in particular. I have always been a size 4-6 but have inexplicably gained 6 pounds in the last month. Is there an alternative to snythroid without these side effects?

what are the side affects if your dictor feels your level is a litlle on the high side from taking this medicine? i will be having it re-checked in 3 weeks