What happens if you take sertraline at night?
If it makes you feel drowsy, try taking it just before you go to bed. Some people find that sertraline causes insomnia (difficulty getting to sleep), and disturbing dreams or nightmares. If this happens, try taking the sertraline first thing in the morning. Key takeways. If you’re taking zoloft (sertraline) and feeling unusually tired or unmotivated, you’re not alone. Fatigue is one of the documented side effects of this commonly prescribed antidepressant, affecting how you feel throughout the day and potentially impacting your quality of life.In addition to reducing your dosage of Zoloft, you may also want to try taking a melatonin supplement. You can purchase melatonin over the counter, and it’s relatively inexpensive. Melatonin is not addictive or habit-forming like other sleep aids, although its long-term use has yet to be studied in humans.If it makes you feel drowsy, try taking it just before you go to bed. Some people find that sertraline causes insomnia (difficulty getting to sleep), and disturbing dreams or nightmares. If this happens, try taking the sertraline first thing in the morning.Sertraline is a medication used to manage and treat the major depressive disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, premenstrual dysphoric disorder, and social anxiety disorder.Summary. The combination of sertraline (an SSRI) and amitriptyline (a tricyclic antidepressant) can increase the risk of serotonin syndrome and may affect amitriptyline metabolism. This interaction requires careful monitoring and potential dose adjustments when used together.
What happens if you take sertraline in the morning?
Zoloft Recommended Dosage Doctors often recommend taking Zoloft in the morning to reduce sleep issues. However, if drowsiness becomes a problem, it may be more appropriate to take the medication in the evening. Zoloft can be taken with or without food, but consistency is important — take it at the same time each day. Sertraline is a prescription antidepressant human medication sometimes used in veterinary medicine to help modify certain behaviors associated with fear, anxiety, stress, obsessive-compulsive disorders, and aggression in dogs and cats, as well as house-soiling (inappropriate elimination) in cats.Sertraline use is associated with a higher prevalence of anxiety, agitation, insomnia, and restlessness than other selective SSRIs, with the exception of fluoxetine. Given these activating properties, it is usually administered in the morning to prevent insomnia.
Does sertraline wake you up or make you sleepy?
Last updated on Dec 3, 2025. Sertraline can make some people feel sleepy due to its effects on chemicals in the brain, especially in the first days to weeks of treatment. Others experience the opposite problem and develop insomnia instead. According to the FDA, a small percentage of people who use sertraline may also experience severe dizziness and lightheadedness. If you feel faint, weak, or severely dizzy or feel changes in your heart rate after taking sertraline, you should seek medical attention as soon as possible.The use of sertraline has been linked to a distressing restlessness and need to move, often being unable to sit or stand still (akathisia). This is most likely to occur during the first few weeks of treatment. Increasing the dose may be harmful so if you develop such symptoms you should talk to your doctor.Medications such as sertraline may increase the risk of suicidal thoughts and actions. This increase was found in children, teenagers, and young adults (less than 24 years of age). The risk may be more likely with the first few months of treatment and when the dose is increased.Talk to your GP before you start to take sertraline if you: have ever taken any other medicines for depression – some rarely used antidepressants can interfere with sertraline to cause very high blood pressure.Interpretation. Sertraline is unlikely to reduce depressive symptoms within 6 weeks in primary care but we observed improvements in anxiety, quality of life, and self-rated mental health, which are likely to be clinically important.
Is it safe to take sertraline while pregnant?
Conclusion. Sertraline use during the first trimester of pregnancy was associated with an increased risk of atrial/ventricular defects and craniosynostosis above and beyond the effect of maternal depression. Nonsertraline SSRIs were associated with an increased risk of craniosynostosis and musculoskeletal defects. Effects reported by human studies: Sertraline has been associated with sexual disorders. Effects reported by studies on rats: Sertraline has been associated with hormonal abnormalities and decreased fertility, as it decreases the levels of testosterone, LH and FSH, and increases prolactin in male rats.It is not known if sertraline can make it harder to get pregnant. One study found that women who take sertraline or some other SSRIs have a slightly lower chance of getting pregnant. However, some of the conditions that sertraline is used for, including depression, can make it harder to get pregnant.Sertraline requires special attention to the risks associated with neurologic, psychiatric, and congenital disorders in clinical use. In addition to common AEs such as nausea, and tremor, newly identified adverse reactions such as genital anaesthesia, bruxism, and microscopic colitis should be guarded against.Sertraline may increase your risk for bleeding problems. Make sure your doctor knows if you or your child are also using other medicines that thin the blood, including NSAIDs (eg, aspirin, diclofenac, ibuprofen, naproxen, Advil®, Aleve®, Celebrex®, Voltaren®) or warfarin (Coumadin®, Jantoven®).
Why do I feel weird on sertraline?
Jitteriness/anxiety syndrome may develop immediately following oral administration of even low doses of sertraline, and improvement can be expected if sertraline is promptly discontinued. Sertraline, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), is one of the most common drugs used to treat symptoms of depression and anxiety.In addition, studies have shown that nefazodone, trazodone, or mirtazapine (Remeron) also can improve subjective sleep ratings compared with placebo, SSRIs, or TCAs in patients with depression.
Why can’t you sleep on sertraline?
Understanding Sertraline and Its Uses Serotonin is one of the chemical messengers, or neurotransmitters, that carry signals between brain nerve cells, and SSRIs work by blocking the reabsorption of serotonin into these nerve cells. SSRIs can initially disrupt sleep for some individuals. These drugs target serotonin, a chemical that carries messages between nerve cells in the brain and has been dubbed the ‘pleasure chemical’. One of the widely-reported side effects of SSRIs is ‘blunting’, where patients report feeling emotionally dull and no longer finding things as pleasurable as they used to.