Question: I am taking a sleeping pill called Levtiracetam, and I also have diabetes, type 2. Last month my psychiatrist stopped my previous sleeping pill because of this side effect and prescribed this new one. However, I understand that the symptoms I am getting can also occur from my diabetes. I take my sleeping pill and go to bed in about thirty minutes. About twenty minutes after that, I begin to feel Iike I am getting electric shocks which hurt and make me scream. It lasts a few seconds and then re-occurs in one to two minutes. This continues until I give up trying to sleep and get up. I have tried many relaxation coping skills, none of which have worked. It happens again if I lay down again two hours later, and will also happen if I try to take a nap during the day. I have always needed nine to ten hours of sleep since childhood. (I am 69 now.) I take many medications, but only the sleeping pill and adding Invokana to my Januvia are recent changes. I do not even know which doctor to call but I am now averaging four to five hours of sleep, sometimes only an hour at a time, in a twenty-four hour period. My mood is now constantly angry and it is effecting my nearly fifty-year marriage because I feel so hostile and fatigued. Can you suggest anything? I have a mental illness (Major Depressing with recurring episodes - non psychotic) and also have dementia (M.C.I.) What other information do you need so you can help me? I have had ETC treatments in the past, and although I received Benadril (sp?) prior to the procedure for a sedative factor, my muscles feel the same way as they did the day after those treatments - like I had been severely beaten up. Please advise. Thank you. Also my cognitive ability is decreasing rapidly.

Thank you for your response. Before the last two months of different sleeping medications, I was on Trazodone for the previous five or six years. We had changed the dosage from time to time, starting with 50, then 100, and then 150 mg. (I am a large person - 5'3 1/2" and was up to 265 lbs but now weigh 237 if that factor weighs into the dosage.) The 50 mg. amount did not help at all, and the 150 had me too sedated the next morning. We finally reached an agreement that I would take 100 mg. at night, and if I had not fallen asleep from my racing thoughts and worries within two hours, I could take an additional 50 mg. All was fine for awhile, until my youngest son became an acoholic and abused his eldest son, and I did not see it over a period of two years even though they lived about a mile from us when they were not evicted and living in our house with us. He has NF 2 and I thought that the problem was an addiction to the pain pills he was on. We contacted DIFUS several times and they did come out to inspect his many rented homes, and did work with for awhile, but they did not solve the problem. Neither did my husband and I even we put every bit of love, effort, and money we could into trying to help with the situation. Then my eldest son, who lives in South XXXXXXX came up and took the two boys to their home for the summer. They took them both on many vacations, doctor consults, sent them to camps and so forth. It was probably the best summer our grandchildren ever had. They elected to keep my eldest grandson, then 14, with them and eventually won gardenship custody and continued to raise him as their own, at least until he graduated high school. However, they returned the 6 year old to his father, our youngest son, thinking he would be just too much to handle since he was at that time diagnosed with A.D.H.D. At the same time, my eldest son and his wife accused my husband and myself of "seeing with a blind eye" and cut us off from any contact with them. They said it was our fault because we had not seen immediately what the problem was and blocked their phone from receiving any phone calls from us. It has now been four years since we have heard from my eldest son and family, and one year ago my youngest son told us to stay out of his life. We have now lost two sons and four grandchildren. I, of course, worked on this problem all through the process with my psychologist. Finally it became evident to him that the situation could not be resolved, and that I must learn to let it go. My husband responded differently, and his hurt turned to hate. But I took the blame on myself as somehow having been a bad parent and either passed bad genes onto my sons, as I was raised and abused by acoholics, and I began going over things over and over in my head in my dreams and having nightmares. Eventually the nightmares became so bad, and nightly, that my psychiatrist took me off of Trazodone saying that nightmares can sometimes be a side affect. Of course I cannot write to you all the details of my last forty-five years of therapy or sixty-nine years of life. That would not be practical. But surfice it to say, (I do apologize for my spelling - it has grown worse with my dimensia (M.C.I.)), that Trazodone is a good idea, but it has been tried. I guess my main question is whether these electrical shocks I am getting that keep me from sleeping are caused by an incorrect sleeping pill, or by my diabetes. I do not expect anyone to be able to diagnose or treat me on limited information, but I am at a point now where I do not know which doctor to call! I called twice today to schedule an emergency appointment with my family doctor who is now handling my diabetes, but I did not get a response. It usually takes two to three weeks to get an appointment with him unless with an emergency, I can choose to see the P.A. who works in his office. I did that just two weeks ago with a sinus infection, and she was able to help me just fine, but I feel this is a more complicated problem and that I need to see him in person. In fact, I am not sure I made a wise decision in leaving my endocronologist and asking him to handle my diabetes as I had had no complications in the last ten years. Do you think my electrical shocks are more than likely a psychological problem, a problem with my diabetes, or could it be in perhaps another medical direction all together? That is the answer I need. Which specialist to call since I cannot get in touch with my family primary doctor? But thank you for your input and your time. I appreciate the offer of help as I am at my wits in, and am ready to jump out of the second story window, except that we live in a rancher and only have one floor! Thank you for trying to help me. I am so desperate! Sincerely, Pat Katz