I took a long time to increase my dosages . I had a bad herx everytime I increased:
Night sweats
Mucus shifting
Feeling bouts of extremely hot or flushed (despite it being actually very cold)
Headache/Migraine the first night
Extreme exhaustion
Fitful sleep
Lead weight feeling
and the herx typically ended up going on for 5 to 7 days or so. I ended up having to increase when I knew I was able to be pretty much bedbound for the recovery period and after that I would feel back to my 'normal'.
I kept/keep a blog about it. This is what I wrote:
Despite knowing that LDN can promote initial herx reactions, I never expected to become completely and utterly incapacitated by it. I thought herx might mean headaches and nausea or something along those lines. This total crash is horrible, as on a normal, good day I usually get up for a bit and get something done, and spend then rest of the time up (as in dressed and downstairs), but either seated or lying down.
I started on 0.75mg and 13 months later I am on 4mg. I have experienced benefits, but have definitely not had a straight and smooth course of improvements... I seem to have ups and downs so sometimes it feels as if it's not doing anything.
As a result, I have tried to look at the overall picture, which shows improvement. This year I have done more than I have managed to do since 2009, so to me that is improvement. I should note here that I also have Auto Immune Thyroid Disease so some of the benefits may be related to that, as some people take it for that alone.
It's hard to quantify, but I noticed overall that I have had an increase in my stamina, a decrease in feelings of apathy (which I developed - the apathy - once I developed the thyroid disease), and when I do manage to get a whole night of sleep, I seem to be sleeping deeper and getting dreams. Before taking it, I could feel I was not getting that deep sleep and I went for years without having any dreams (prior to that state I was having horrid psychedelic ones). I still struggle to actually get to sleep and have to practice sleep hygiene and turn off any wi-fi applicances that are nearish to my room or in my room or I have a terrible night of tossing and turning. Getting a night of sleep definitely makes a big difference!
I think that it really helps to keep some form of record of symptoms/a journal/blog while taking LDN as it helps to measure improvements, if any. I think maybe 6 months to a year is a good amount of time to trial it before giving up.
I accidentally missed 2 doses in the summer and I rued that! I quickly (because it has such a short life) relapsed - as it was obviously doing something!! - and it took me a while to get back to where I was before the missed doses.