Racetams are a bit of an untested territory when it comes to these things... Other than Piracetam, they are all poorly studied, so it's quite hard to say if that's the case.
I'm looking into Nortriptyline and it's actually prescribed for some Parasomnias! But here is some data on its effects on sleep-structure:
http://eprints.bourn...publication.pdf
Nortriptyline
Depressed patients
(Reynolds, III et al.,1997)
demonstrated that nortriptyline (80 -120mg)
was associated with longer sleep latency than placebo.
Nortriptyline also showed initial suppression of REM sleep, with prolonged REM latency and reduced REM proportion, but this rebounded in later REM periods to show greater REM production and density
than placebo.
http://www.bpac.org....arasomnias.aspx
(nifty diagram explaining sleep-architecture)
According to what I've read, Somnambulism occurs in non-REM sleep - so it's not related to when you dream, it's related to deeper sleep, Stage 4. Nortriptyline is a fairly potent 5ht2a-antagonist - and such drugs, have been known to increase time in Stage 4 sleep - ussually, this is BENIGN, since stage 4 sleep is where the body truly repairs itself and refreshes - but it's apparently also the part wherein parasomnias can start messing about.
As such, it's possible that Nortriptyline is behind your symptoms. When do you take it? Perhaps it might be more beneficial to take it during the day, so as to have the blood-levels drop when you're going to sleep.
However, I also found this info:
https://www.ncbi.nlm...les/PMC2917078/
In some cases of nontypical history with very complex stereotypical automatism or unusual behaviors, seizures (especially frontal or temporal lobe epilepsy or partial complex seizures) should be suspected.
The description sounds an awful lot like you... started out late in life, you do complex stuff when you sleep...
As I understand it, antidepressants lower seizure threshold - and TCA's were notorious for lowering this more than SSRI's, one of the reasons why the shift to SSRI's occured. Try and get an EEG and see if there are any abnormalities, a sleep-study would be optimal.
It's mentioned that compounds which increase REM-sleep, while shrinking stage 4 sleep, like the Benzo's, are useful in treating this. Some short-acting Benzo should be ideal, since these episodes only occur during the first stage of sleep, and generally not during the later parts of the night. (the studies mention lorazepam, but that's waay too long-acting for me - 10 hours?? nuh-uh - you only need about 4-5 hours, I say)
Diazepam, the classic Valium, has a duration of action of about 4-5 hours - that should be enough to suppress stage 4 sleep enough to keep you in bed.
Edited by Stinkorninjor, 23 September 2017 - 07:09 AM.