Former hotel manager Paul Stones, 38, strangled accounts clerk Marian Stones, 58, in a fit of rage after they argued at their home in Sharples, near Bolton.
Manchester Crown Court heard he then tucked her body up in bed and told her he was sorry.
Stones told the jury: 'I sat on the bed and talked to her for a while. I said how sorry I was and I didn’t know why I did it and how much I loved her.'
At the time of the killing, the father of one had been prescribed the anti-depressant Sertraline for almost three and a half years to combat his low mood.
During his trial for murder, Stones claimed the medication made him aggressive and hostile.
But in the days before the murder, Stones admitted he had forgotten to take the drug.
The day before his mother’s death he took a triple dose and combined it with a bottle and a half of wine.
Stones denied murder but was convicted by a jury after another medical expert said it was 'extremely unlikely' the drug would have driven him to kill.
Stones showed no emotion as he was ordered him to serve a minimum of 17 years. Judge Michael Henshell told him: 'This was an appalling offence and your harmful use of alcohol was something that you didn’t regard as a problem yourself.
'The underlying cause was that you drank one and a half bottles of wine and I am satisfied by the evidence that when you have been drinking, you lose your temper and you become aggressive.
'I am sure that you are remorseful for what you have done and I am sure that the tears we saw in the witness box were genuine. You will have to live with the fact that you killed your own mother for the rest of your life.'
The court heard that Mrs Stones had brought up her son single handedly after divorcing from her husband in 1977 when he was two years old.
In adult life he was said to have anger management issues with ex-wife Emma Hindsley describing him as having a 'Jekyll and Hyde personality' and would kick doors and pull wallpaper off.
The marriage crumbled in 2005 when he kicked and punched Emma during a row when she was in bed.
He started a relationship with another woman Claire Nichols and they had a baby daughter in 2008 but the romance ended when he assaulted her too.
He also lost his job after being caught drink driving and moved in with his mother and was prescribed Setraline in November 2008 on 50mg a day which increased from time to time as well as decreasing to deal with his condition.
She told the operator she was 'really scared' but did not make a complaint for fear it would jeopardise her relationship with her granddaughter.
Tragedy struck on June 9 last year when Stones drank white wine and following another row knelt on Mrs Stones and strangled her as she lay in her bed.
Research: Paul Stones had looked up the meaning of the word 'garotte' on Wikipedia just three days before he strangled his mother
The following day he walked into a local police station where he told officers he had killed his mother and handed over the keys to their home.
Officers rushed to the 300 year old stone cottage to find Mrs Stones dead in her bed lying on her back underneath the duvet.
In a statement to police Stones said: 'Your main relationship is with your mum, when she is nice and treats you like an adult you feel like you are in the top position but when she is not nice you feel like you are in the bottom position.'
Stones’ laptop was seized and on examination of the hard drive found he had just three days earlier visited the Wikipedia webpage and searched for the definition of garotte and used the word in a posting on Facebook.
He later said a row had erupted between him and his mother after their two Bichon Frise dogs wandered out of the house.
He told the court: 'The memories I’ve got of what happened are almost like still photographs. I am pushing her on to the bed and kneeling on her upper arms and sat on her chest.
'Then I have a picture of strangling, with my hands around her throat. I don’t think she was saying anything.'
He added that he knew from her face that she was dead, but he tried to revive her with mouth-to mouth resuscitation.
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