Wow, the last couple of weeks have been a blur. 50mg Vyvanse worked fine without the 5mg Dexedrine, except for one thing: I couldn't sleep through the night. I could get to sleep well enough, but I would wake up several times during the night. Each time it would take a long time to get back to sleep.
Most telling of all, for me, was that I couldn't even manage to get a half-hour of sleep at the end of the night, around the time I usually get up. This is also the time I usually take my dose. I was too alert to sleep even 24 hours after taking the Vyvanse, even after barely sleeping that night. It was clear to me then that the Vyvanse must be sticking around in my system for way too long. In retrospect, this fit with my experience on Vyvanse from the very beginning. When I started on 30mg, exactly the same thing happened. I'd sleep for maybe 4 hours, and then pop out of bed effortlessly.
My doctor doesn't have any particular explanation for this. It is possible he thinks I'm just imagining the whole thing. I couldn't find much information on why it might be happening, other than some stuff about acidic diets speeding up the metabolism/elimination process, and basic or acid-neutralizing diets doing the opposite. My diet happens to not include many acidic items, so maybe that is it.
I got fed up with not sleeping on a Friday when I would not have an opportunity to talk to my doctor, so I just dropped down to a left-over 40mg Vyvanse for that day, and then went to 30mg for the weekend. No problems sleeping at all on the 30mg. Felt a little blurry around the edges dropping down to 30 that quickly, but nothing serious.
On Monday my doctor recommended trying Dexedrine Spansules as they are not supposed to last as long as Vyvanse. The mechanism for releasing the drug over time is also less complicated than Vyvanse, so it is less likely that something odd about my metabolism would cause it to last longer than usual. So far this has worked out well. I am not having difficulty sleeping, and I wake up in the morning feeling more like my usual non-medicated self; that is, I don't want to get out of bed.
I think I've been on the meds long enough to say that they are having a positive effect for sure. I think that the Spansules are not quite as potent as the Vyvanse was yet, so I may have to go up to 30mg. We'll see. My experience on Vyvanse indicates that I may have been receiving a higher, longer dose of medicine than most people would on the same intake, so it may take a larger-than-expected dose of Spansules to produce an equivalent positive effect.
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