Bonnie,
You may want to check your blood sugar; zyprexa causes insulin resistance
and eventually diabetes, which is why you are gaining weight. My daughter
gained 40 lbs. on that med. She was taking it for bipolar disorder and we
were so relieved that she was no longer trying to kill herself that we left
her on it. Then, losing the weight was very hard and she has had problems
with her weight since. That said, I would not want her to go back on it. At
the time, it was better than the alternative. Have you tried valerian root
for sleep? It seems to work fairly well for some insomnia. Insomnia is very
hard to deal with once it becomes a habit. I have also had problems with it
for years. Weird thing is, once my arthritis went into remission so I wasn't
in pain and I had a stent put in my heart (I don't know the connection, but
they seem to have happened around the same time), then some of the insomnia
went away. Also, are you of the age that you could be going through
perimenopause or menopause? That causes night sweats and problems sleeping.
If so, then maybe if you treat that, the other will improve. You may want to
get the rest of your health checked out. Sleep problems don't usually occur
in isolation.
Darla

On 8/29/05, Bonniect <bonniect@...> wrote:
> I am currently on 5 mg. zyprexa, which is an anti psychotic drug. One of
> it's side effects is sleep and I am on it for that reason, as all other
> sleep medications have failed miserably for me. My biggest concern is that
> the other side effect is severe weight gain. I have put on over 75 lbs in a
> six month period.