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Sleep Problems, and Solutions
Thursday, April 6, 2017 7:03
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I might have mentioned before that I have problems sleeping. This isn't new. I have had problems sleeping since my 30s. But its only recently that it has gotten much more complicated than just a bit of insomnia. Add in things like:
- Back pain so it can be really hard to get comfortable to sleep at all.
- Fibromyalgia which causes both fatigue and insomnia
- Rheumatoid pain
- Sleep apnea and an evil CPAP machine which keeps me awake
- Should I go on? I can….
In the past, I have been known to get up and wash the dishes and clean the kitchen in the middle of the night because I couldn't sleep. Trust me, I have been all over the house doing things because I was wide awake.
In recent years, I have been offered medications to help me sleep. When diagnosed with breast cancer, as most other patients, I was given ativan/lorazepam for anxiety which helps sleep as well as anxiety. More recently I was given trazadone which has helped. But not as much.
My new pain management doctor gave me a new sleep medication which he says promotes more natural sleep. It is tizanidine which is also a muscle relaxant. So far it seems to help with sleep and some other issues. (He felt that too many of my meds were in the SSRI family and when he started changing around my meds, I ended up with too much SSRI going on and my pulse and BP were way too high.)
Anyway, I digress. I have lots of sleep problems. In addition to medications, we have a new bed where we can raise and lower the head and the foot.
So where are we?
With a new bed and lots of pillows I can get comfortable more easily. Pain management has helped control pain. I have given up on the CPAP machine because I can't sleep with it for more than an hour. (I know this will disappoint my doctors but I am okay with it and understand the ramifications.) My new meds help a lot.
Currently I wake up once at night between 230-330 am to pee and then go back to sleep pretty quickly. This works for me. I feel rested for the most part.
My message is if you have problems sleeping, keep trying to figure out why you can't sleep and don't give up. It may take a while but there should be a solution somewhere.
Source: http://carolinemfr.blogspot.com/2017/04/sleep-problems-and-solutions.html
