With gabapentin’s calming and anti-anxiety effects, it’s not surprising that studies have found it to be helpful in treating insomnia and sleep disorders.

Many anti-anxiety medications, particularly those with sedative-like effects, can help users fall asleep more easily.

One interesting aspect of gabapentin’s effect on sleep (in the limited research available) is its impact on quality of sleep.

In one 2010 study, gabapentin not only helped to treat study participants’ insomnia symptoms by decreasing spontaneous arousal — like waking up in the middle of the night — but it also improved their sleep quality by enhancing slow-wave sleep.

Slow-wave sleep, also known as deep sleep, is the type of sleep that makes individuals feel rested in the morning.

During this important stage of sleep, the pituitary gland secretes much-needed hormones, like the human growth hormone, which is essential to the repair and development of the cells in the body. During deep sleep, glucose metabolism in the brain also increases, supporting memory and learning.

Gabapentin was shown to increase sleep efficiency and allow for longer, deeper sleep.

How Does Gabapentin Affect Dreams?

There is limited research available on gabapentin’s effect on dreams, but many online reports and comments in online forums indicate users may experience especially vivid dreams, especially when they first begin taking the drug.
If users begin to experience problematic dreams or night terrors, they should immediately consult their doctor.

Why Is Gabapentin Used?

Gabapentin is a prescription drug most commonly used to treat seizures and postherpetic neuralgia (pain from nerve damage caused by shingles).

It also prescribed by psychiatrists to treat anxiety.

Gabapentin is taken orally, as a capsule, and it is available under the brand name Neurontin. Before choosing gabapentin as a medication option, it’s helpful to understand more about the drug, including how it actually affects sleep and sleep quality.

How Does Gabapentin Work?

Gabapentin is classified as an anticonvulsant drug.

Because of its name, many think gabapentin works by interacting with GABA (gamma-Aminobutyric acid) receptors in the central nervous system, as many other sedative-type medications do. This is not the case.

It’s not fully understood how gabapentin works, although there are indications it affects calcium levels to treat different disorders.

For postherpetic neuralgia, it is thought to prevent the increase in sensitivity that occurs as a result of the pain the condition causes. Thus, users feel less pain and reduced sensitivity.

This soothing of nerve sensitivity, and the relaxing effect it can produce, is also why gabapentin is prescribed by psychiatrists to treat anxiety.In its treatment of seizures, gabapentin seems to manipulate the effect and levels of calcium. Low levels of calcium may cause seizures.

Withdrawal and Sleep

While gabapentin may be considered a safer alternative to other sedative-like medications, like benzodiazepines, it has many side effects, including sleepiness, trouble speaking, hostility, and viral infections. Side effects may also include increased pain sensitivity and irritability.

More serious side effects include allergic reactions, dangerous drug interactions, and changes in mood or behavior. If it appears that a user is experiencing suicidal thoughts, emergency medical help should be sought after immediately. Gabapentin can increase the risk of suicide.

Users of gabapentin can become dependent on the drug, and withdrawal symptoms can be severe, including sweating, gastrointestinal problems, tremors, and increased heart rate. Reports indicate that users may begin to experience their worst withdrawal symptoms about three days after stopping the drug. Some of the most common withdrawal symptoms of gabapentin are sleeplessness and sleep problems.

Individuals with a history of mental problems or substance abuse problems may be at more risk for experiencing severe withdrawal symptoms from gabapentin and should not attempt to quit gabapentin “cold turkey” or without the supervision of a medical professional. Those with a history of epilepsy, bipolar disorder, psychosis, and depression should only undergo gabapentin withdrawal and detox in a medically supervised setting. Users should consult with a medical professional to determine a withdrawal plan for tapering off the drug rather than abruptly discontinuing use.

Conclusion

Gabapentin is considered a safe and effective treatment for seizures, nerve pain, and anxiety. It has also shown promise as a sleep aid and possible treatment for insomnia. It may even increase sleep quality and efficiency.
More evidence-based research is needed to conclude that gabapentin is safe for long-term use as a sleep medication, however, especially since it has shown some potential for abuse and the withdrawal symptoms may be severe, negatively impacting sleep.

Gabapentin users with a history of mental illness, substance abuse, or epilepsy should only attempt detox and withdrawal from gabapentin in a medically supervised setting.

Gabapentin reviews for treating Insomnia

Gabapentin is quite popular with physicians for numerous off-label uses. It is considered to be relatively safe to administer (has few side effects and few dangerous interactions with other drugs). Because it mimics the actions of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA, it can be used in many situations where other medicines that could potentially have serious side effects might present a potential issue; for example, benzodiazepines might not the best course of action due to their highly addictive nature.

Gabapentin is frequently used in the treatment of anxiety disorders. However, there are no randomized controlled trials on the effectiveness of this medication in generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and there are only a few case reports. We present a case of a 59-year-old female with a psychiatric history of GAD.

The patient discontinued benzodiazepines after more than 7 years of daily treatment which led to rebound anxiety, benzodiazepine withdrawal symptoms, and suicidal ideation. She was psychiatrically hospitalized and started on gabapentin. Over the next 10 months of outpatient follow-up, she attempted to taper off gabapentin due to personal preference to limit medications. During this time, we observed a clear dose-response pattern of gabapentin on GAD symptoms.

In the absence of controlled studies, these findings may offer important information about the effectiveness of gabapentin in GAD.

While gabapentin is increasingly being used to treat generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), little is known about its effectiveness on GAD symptoms. The patient presented here has a relatively straightforward psychiatric history, with GAD playing a prominent role.

Her repeated attempts to discontinue gabapentin offer a rare opportunity to observe its effect on her symptoms at different doses. A clear pattern of remission or mild anxiety on total daily doses of gabapentin ≥ 900 mg/day and severe anxiety at doses < 600 mg/day was observed.

In the absence of randomized controlled trials, these findings may offer clinically important clues about dosing and effectiveness of gabapentin in GAD.

For more information, please check https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5745655/

There have been numerous research studies that have investigated the hypothesis that gabapentin may be useful in the treatment of anxiety. A 1998 review published in the American Journal of Psychiatry reviewed several case studies and concluded that gabapentin may be useful as an additive medication for people with anxiety disorders or as a standalone treatment for certain anxiety disorders, typically for panic disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. However, case studies do not provide sufficient empirical evidence for the use of any medication, but they can encourage further research.

Several follow-up research studies included one study that looked at gabapentin’s utility in treating social phobia and panic disorder. Gabapentin performed better than a placebo, but worse than standard treatments for social phobia. It was not more efficacious than placebo for panic disorder symptoms, except for very severe symptoms. It was not as effective for panic disorder compared to standard treatments (benzodiazepines and/or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors).

However, if the drug is not as effective in treating anxiety disorders as standard treatments, these benefits have little clinical utility.

In cases where gabapentin demonstrated some effect in treating anxiety, the effects of gabapentin apparently take a week or more to present, if it results in any anxiety reduction at all. In some cases, the effects may not be apparent until a month after the person is taking gabapentin. Doses used in these studies were relatively high (up to 3600 mg per day).

Research continues to investigate its effectiveness in the treatment of anxiety, and as mentioned in the above initial studies, it appears that gabapentin is not as effective as standard treatments for anxiety disorders. Gabapentin may have more utility as an adjunctive medication to assist standard treatments or to treat the lower-level anxiety that occurs in other types of disorders than it does as a standalone treatment for addressing the severe anxiety that occurs in anxiety disorders.

Gabapentin reviews for anxiety from drugs.com

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