I've been taking 50 mg of Sertraline in the morning. But I recently upped my dose to 75 mg and it's going up again to 100 mg in two weeks. When I took 75 mg for the first time yesterday I got a terrible headache, dizziness, and heart burn. I had to go lay down for three hours. My psychiatrist said I could take it either in the morning or at night. Would it make any difference if I switched it to night? I figure that way I can just sleep off any side effects. Thanks.

Hello Alli77

It's really all up to you when you feel would be the best time to take it. If your psychiatrist said they were okay to take either night or day, then whatever you decide should be just fine. I hope your side effects go away soon. Take care

Hey, i started zoloft in the mornings and had sum effects i couldnt deal w/ during the day so my dr said go to nites and i feel so much better so maybe u can give it a try everyones different.....

HI ALLI77,

Those are all temporary SE's of uping your mgs. I promise they will all go away. Its best though to take it in the morning. Its a time release capsule so youll feel the best during the day.

Hope everything works out for you.

Oh, one more thing: Don't switch back and forth. I did that thinking it would be best but you can't do that. It will mess you up.

I would try to wait it out. Like havefaith said, its prob. just the effects of upping the dosage. If you start taking it in the evening, you may get sideeffects that impact your sleeping, and in turn, we all obviously know what a sleep deprived anxiety/depressed person is like. lol. (only jk). I have severe night sweats (i totally blame the meds) and i take mine in the morning. And in the beginning, i was waking up multiple times in the night and couldnt go back to sleep for the life of me!! Id wait a few more days and see where it gets you..



(ok, so this post is kind of old... for a "few more days" advice... what did you end up doing?)

I have to take my dose at night, otherwise I get incredibly nauseous and dizzy.
It also helps if I take my meds with food.

Good luck!

I just started back on Zoloft (50 mg). I had used it back in 2000-2001 and had some success, but my PCP took me off of it when I complained about feeling tired. Since then I've tried 6-7 other ADs of various types (most recently Wellbutrin, which I did not like - I felt constantly dizzy and in a fog).

I took the first dose yesterday after supper. At 1 am, I woke up and barely fell asleep again the rest of the night. I don't remember having this problem the first time, but I also don't remember when I took it. I'm going to skip tonight and try taking it in the morning (after I get to work, in case it makes me dizzy).
--
John

My wife took her Zoloft in the AM due to insomnia at night. Even taking it in the AM it still caused her to have a irregular sleep cycle. She's since changed to Lexapro because the Zoloft wasn't working for her. However, I take Zoloft and really like it. It works well to control my anxiety. I take it in the AM (50mg) and I do notice that I wake up more frequently through the night. Usually once or twice now, but when I first started taking it, I was up 5 or 6 times a night. Sometimes I could fall back asleep, others times not. I know Zoloft is known for causing sleep problems, so if the SE doesn't go away it's up to the person taking to decide the benefits vs. the SE's and determine if it's worth it to them or not.

I think it's better for most people to take it in the morning to lessen to risk of insomnia that SSRIs often cause.

I get a lot of nightmares now while I'm on sertraline, and I could only imagine that they'd be even worse if i'd take it in the evening instead.

I take mine in the am. It sits right next to the coffee pot. I do that so 1 I don't forget to take it and 2 I seem to sleep better if I take it in the am

Sertraline can make some people really drowsy(I don't know if you get this, but my pharmacist always put a make cause drowsiness sticker on the bottles), while for others it can have the opposite effect...For me it was the opposite, so I took it in the mornings...My doctor suggested evenings, but said if I had trouble sleeping to take it in the morning, from previous experiences with antidepressants, I just started with mornings. You can ask your pharmacist if it matters when you take it and discuss the side effects. Pharmacists are generally very knowledgable about medications, their effects and their side effects, sometimes more so than your doctor because their educations were based entirely on drugs, not necessarily our overall or mental health. I'd say talk to them, but switching sounds fine and hey, if you can't sleep...go back to mornings. Side effects often pass, but it might be a few weeks.