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re: What times of day do people take their Pred? Jan. 11th, 2007 9:03am
This is a subject that is still gray, as far as I'm concerned. Most people here take dex, which is only once a day. My daughter takes prednisone only once a day, in the morning. I don't know if that's the best for her or not. Most people will take pred in the morning and afternoon because that most closely mimics the body's natural surges of cortisol (usually around 4 am and 4 pm, I believe). If my daughter takes it too late, it will keep her up at night and others have mentioned the same experience. She should probably take it early afternoon, but that is inconvenient with her school schedule. A pharmacist suggested that if you don't take the afternoon dose, then your adrenals will be forced to produce steroid in the afternoon, which can keep you from being steroid dependent. That seemed like a good idea to me.
As far as whether to take it in the morning or at bedtime, I've heard that it's best to take it at bedtime because that will be before the early morning surge and will better suppress that. However, that works for dex, which has a long half life and not for hydrocortisone, which can be out of your system before the surge. With pred, I'm not sure. My daughter takes it in the morning because she gets up at 6 am, which is closer to the surge than when she goes to bed. During the summer, I had her take it at bedtime because she stayed up later and slept later. I'm sure this is clear as mud now! I hope some other people will have some input.
