Woke up in the middle of the night with complete amnesia. Scared to go back to sleep.
 

This is probably the scariest thing that has ever happened to me. I took 200mg of Gabapentin around 6pm and then another 200mg at about 10pm. After the second dosage I took, I was feeling very drowsy and out of it. So I layed down and went to sleep. I posted before about having mini-panic attacks while falling asleep, and how Gaba was helping with those. Well..this time it didn't. I had about 3 of them before I finally fell asleep. About an hour or two in to my sleep, I wake up and I have complete amnesia. Didn't know my name, where I was, my son's name or anything. I started to panic and I struggled to remember things...slowly things started coming back. Then I became really confused...really confused. Now I'm laying here in my bed completely terrified to go back to sleep. I'm afraid I'm going to wake up and not have my memory for good.

Is it the Gabapentin doing this, or could it be from PCS? Is it possible to develop amnesia this far after a brain injury?

Nick,

It sounds like you may have sleep apnea. If you stop breathing while you sleep, you brain gets deprived of oxygen and many functions become problematic.

You need someone to watch you sleep and see how you are breathing. Sleep apnea could easily be a big part of your current symptoms. Central apnea can be the result of an upper neck/brain stem injury that gets inflamed from time to time causing your intermittent problems.

I know the terror from sleep apnea.

My best to you.

Sleep apnea is one of the things I came across last night while frantically searching the internet for answers. I was up until 5am after I was rudely waken up with no memory. I'm going to ask my fiance to monitor my breathing while I sleep tonight.

I'm still shaken up and very groggy after waking up this morning. I can hardly talk and still having memory issues. Wonder if its a hangover from taking a larger dose of Gabapentin?

Thanks again, Mark.

Question for you, Mark. If there was some damage done to my brain stem, wouldn't that show up on the MRI?

Tomorrow I have an appointment with a chiropractor for an evaluation.

I'm determined to get to the bottom of all this. I still need to get treatment for my acute sinusitis, as I've read that can cause some pretty strange symptoms.

An MRI can only see items the size of a BB or a bit smaller, maybe down to a millimeter if the MRI is high power. They can not see the microscopic damage to cells.

Brain stem injuries are often not a severe damage but rather a dysfunction that arises from inflammation in the area. If a brain stem injury was more than that, you would be permanently disabled by it.

The inflammation that can arise from cervical vertebra and the associated connective tissue can come and go with posture and other factors. be very careful with chiropractors. Some are overly aggressive with the neck and like to twist and pop more violently that an injured neck may tolerate. That is why some of us have turned to Upper Cervical Chiropractors and their much more gentle and focused techniques.

I doubt your gabapentin dose has any effect on your memory. Your breathing will have a very big impact on your memory. Your brain needs to sleep with a good supply of oxygen to properly reformat the events of the previous day. Without this good oxygenated brain functioning, you brain acts like a desk covered with scrap paper notes all mixed up.

The key function of your brain during sleep is to clean up the previous days desk top of scrap paper with memories written on it and file them away in an organized fashion so there is room on the desk for a next day's worth of memories.

Anxiety makes that heap of scrap paper even more chaotic to sort out. The brain wants to get things sorted out or it will just continue to overload.

Very well put, thanks.

All day I've been concerned with what happened last night. My memory has been really off all day, I even tried taking 2 naps during the day to see if it would help. I woke up from both the naps with mild amnesia, feeling very lost. I'm starting to think I'm developing Alzheimer's. I know that sounds crazy to throw that out there and it could just be my anxiety, but something really feels wrong to me. I think its time to schedule another appointment with the neurologist.

I've been in bed for the past 2 hours trying to fall asleep but the fear that last night and todays incidents put in me won't let me. Ugh. I was going to take my last Ativan but that stuff does a number on the memory. Don't want to make the situation worse.

Cognitive side effects are common to benzos like Ativan. Did you take your gabapentin?

I know the fear because I lived with a similar fear of going to sleep because of the nightmares and other stressful sleep I would have if I stopped breathing due to my sleep apnea. It has taken me years to get over some of those fears.

I often go to sleep in a recliner while watching TV. I use a boring TV show to allow me to focus on something besides my sleep issues and let myself drift off to sleep. I have become quite good at avoiding the anxiety for the past few years.

It does take a concerted effort to find the system that works. I also use certain music videos (Celtic Woman) to help me zone out. I can be asleep by the second song with my Celtic Woman DVD's.

I find it help for the visual and auditory stimulation to be very familiar, almost to the point of being memorized. My brain knows what to expect and is not stimulated, just entertained. The term is amusement which properly defined means : to occupy the mind without thought. Try to find that amusement to help you zone out.

My best to you.

Very good advice, once again. I'm about to put on some episodes of an old TV show I used to watch...King of Queens. I've seen just about every episode so it shouldn't be too much work on my brain. Celtic Woman? What is that? Haha ;)...

I took 100mg of Gabapentin about 15 minutes ago. Its amazing what this drug does. Its rid me of most of the anxiety I was having but the memory issues are still present. They just aren't bothering me as much.

So much for my fiance monitoring my sleep, she fell asleep before me.

Well I'm off to sleep...hopefully. Here goes nothing. Thanks for the help and advice. Good to know I'm not alone on this.

Gabapentin will not do anything for your memory. It is an adjunct anti-seizure medicine that helps hour brain work with GABA. Getting your anxiety under control will help with the other issues.

:(...

So its happening again tonight. Soon as i fall asleep, I seem to snap back awake with no memory. Each time I wake up I struggle to remember my son's name. This has happened almost a dozen times since my last post. This is absolutely horrible. What is happening to me? I'm so tired, I just want to go to sleep but I can't. Should I go to the ER?

Even as I lay here completely awake, I'm struggling to remember the simplest things. I went to type in the web address for this forum and was staring at the address bar completely blank. I've never had this trouble before.

You might ask your PCP or neuro about a referral to a sleep medicine specialist? Even if your fiance can't stay awake to monitor you, they can send you for a sleep study. My husband had one and now has a CPAP and we BOTH sleep much better!

I just scheduled an appointment with a new neurologist so I can discuss this with him. Unfortunately he's not available until the 12th.

*sigh*

From afar, it sure sounds like apnea. The lack of oxygen will cause the memory to fail and a confused state of consciousness. What position do you sleep in?

Mark,

I usually only sleep on my sides and occasionally on my stomach. The last 2 nights that its been happening I was sleeping on my side. I tried to prop my pillows up and sleep sitting up but I couldn't fall asleep at all. I remember about a month or so ago I was laying on my back at the ER, waiting to be discharged...and I kept falling asleep. Every time I would wake up I'd have mild amnesia. So this is something that has happened before..I guess its bothering me so much now because its gotten worse (the amnesia part).

I stopped doing research on sleep apnea because reading about it was increasing my anxiety lol.

I want to add that I was so exhausted and out of it this morning that I didn't even go to my chiropractor evaluation appointment. Luckily I was able to have two 2 hour naps that weren't interrupted by these amnesia spells. Not looking forward to bed time tonight. I've got another appointment scheduled for tomorrow morning to talk with the psychiatrist about what Celexa did to me. Hoping I get enough sleep to feel up to it.

I'm having the exact same issues... Did you ever find an answer?

Wovenx,

Welcome to NeuroTalk. SpaceCadet has not been around in a long time. This thread is from 2012.

Please introduce yourself. Did you suffer a head injury ? Feel free to start your own thread.

Thanks
 

I have hashimotos AI, mthfr, was just dx with mild to moderate OSA, igenex lyme test suspicious..ebv igm equivocal.. I've had some facial trauma in the past and many surgeries, but my symptoms started in sep of 2013 and have changed...some gone. Others worse.. The new one is waking with amnesia for a few seconds.. Especially if it's a short nap..

I'll post a new thread soon.

Your conditions and all the abbreviations are a mystery to me. Since you are not suffering from PCS or a TBI, I don't know what help we can be on this forum. The momentary amnesia could likely be better explained by a sleep specialist. Maybe a moderator knows of another forum that will be better able to support your needs.

Check out http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum44.html

Wovenx,
If you aren't sure of your diagnosis yet or what forum fits the best for you feel free to start out on our New Members forum -
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum88.html
Here's the main page of all forum topics here-
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/index.php