How many hrs do you sleep per night? | Arthritis Information

"People with rheumatoid arthritis often need over 10 hours of sleep a night, or eight hours a night and a two-hour nap during the day. "

According to the Johns Hopkins medical site

http://www.johnshopkinshealthalerts.com/symptoms_remedies/rheumatoid_arthritis/94-1.html

I'm wondering how many hours (on average) everyone here sleeps per night. I know many of us also have fibro, which makes things even worse.

When I was working, I only got 6 hours a night during the week, but 10 hours a night on the weekends. Now that I am out on disability, I sleep about 9 hours a night most nights, but I am still having trouble staying awake in the 4-6 pm time slot everyday, and now I'm wondering if I should be taking a nap then. I hate taking naps because I always end up groggy after.

I get 8 hours through the week and usually 9 hours on the weekend. I never take naps through the day though, since it makes it difficult for me to fall asleep at night.I get 6 or 7 during the week and maybe 8 on the weekends. Recently I've been waking up at 6:00am everyday even on the weekends. My little dog is on such a schedule that she gets up when I usually do wheather it's Monday or Saturday. Sometimes I'm able to put her up in the beds with me and we'll sleep another hour or so just depending on what I have to do that day.

If I have time I LOVE a good nap on the weekends. Espeically if it's raining; it wouldn't be unusual for me to take a two hour nap. Sunday's after taking MTX it's often a must.

I'd rather wake up early and then take an afternoon nap than sleep late now. I use to like to sleep really late with no nap....but I've changed as I've gotten older I guess. I kind of love the early mornings when everyone else in the house is still sleeping (Mainly children! LOL)

hi innerglow like yourself when i ws at work about 6hrs i worked mainly 7 days .
i mainly get about 7hrs. but generally this is broken sleep usually woken by
hands or shins.. about 5am for some reason

Ever since college I have never really been able to do with less than 8 hours. I have adjusted to be able to go on 6 or 7 if necessary, but cannot do so for many nights in a row. If I try to nap, I feel horrible afterwards. I never really wake up until the next morning!

5 to 7 hours. On weekends I often take an afternoon nap for an hour or so. If I'm not feeling well during the week, I sometimes take a 20-30 minute nap during my lunch hour.
Alot of times when I lay down for a nap.....I felt horrible anyway; so I figure it can't hurt.

I can't do a little 30 minute nap. I've got to have a good hour and a half to two hours or it's just a waist. I'll wake up grouchy because it wasn't long enough.

Some people can do that 30 minute power nap....but that just makes me want more.

I try not to sleep for too long periods during the night as if i sleep deep and longer than 6 hours in one stretch i wake up so stiff and sore, so i sleep 4 hours, wake up after about half hour i get up and walk around a bit, let the dogs out and then go back to bed for another 4 hours. My body clock has become used to it and it means that my morning stiffness is much better. I do nap for about an hour in the day to compensate.Have to have 9 hours, no less. Sometimes I nap, especially if I'm not feeling well. For me it doesn't have to be a long nap, 1/2 hour can be enough. Lindy

Suzanne -

Shouldn't the question be - how many are sleeping a full eight hours without waking up in the middle of the night?

I usually sleep about 4 hours straight pre-diagnosis and have slowly worked my way up to 6 hours most of the time. I am in bed 8 hours now - but wake at 6 and 7 hours into it.

Pip

I am in bed 9-10 hours a night. Some nights I only wake up to roll over when my hips hurt but other nights I wake up much more often and have a hard time getting back to sleep. I still am always exhausted and try to nap on the weekends. I am a 7-10 hour sleeper. Most nights about 8 hrs but towards the end of my work week I need more.

Also NOT a napper unless I am sick!

I'm usually in bed watching the news by about 8:30 and I shut the tv off around 9. I'm up at 6am on the kids' school days, otherwise on the weekends I'm up around 7am. I don't sleep during the day but I defintely have to have a "down time" where I just zone out on the couch. I feel like such a bump on a log sometimes!I get 8 hrs. during the work week and find myself sleeping 12 hrs. on the weekend. I have been feeling very fatigued. 5-6 hours on a good night. I've had chronic insomnia since I was a teenager.Thru the week... I get about 5-6hours of sleep, some times less. Oh and my sleep thru the week is broken up. I go to sleep around 2-4am, up again at 6am and back to sleep at 7am, and up again at 9-10am, some times 11am.

On the weekends or when hubby is off work... I get anywhere from 10-14 hours of sleep. I have slept a whole entire weekend away. But that is usually when I am flaring and time for my "monthly bill".

[QUOTE=Pip!]

Suzanne -

Shouldn't the question be - how many are sleeping a full eight hours without waking up in the middle of the night?

I usually sleep about 4 hours straight pre-diagnosis and have slowly worked my way up to 6 hours most of the time. I am in bed 8 hours now - but wake at 6 and 7 hours into it.

Pip

[/QUOTE]

Point taken! I am fortunate enough to sleep right through on most nights, so it didn't occur to me to ask it that way. When the pain is extra bad, I can't go to sleep, so I'll stay up later, and then sleep later to make up for it. There are some nights where I am tossing and turning in pain all night, but they're not the average.

But generally, once I am asleep, I stay asleep. Trying to wake up, whether it's after 6 hours or 10 hours, is a difficult task.

I usually get 6-7 hours of sleep a night .Some nights I wake up

with pain in my joints, I just find a more comfortable position to

be in and I am out again. Some times I can flop around for an

hour to find that position.

I noticed this pass month... that I have been awaking up a lot thru the night. Either to go pee or because I just felt the need to wake up. I use to never wake up thru the night just for no reason or to go pee.

I HATE getting OLD! But I am feeling a little better... because hubby just turned 29 and I am still younger than him at 28 LMAO!!! WHHOOOO HOOOO!!! I am "young"!!

[QUOTE=Pip!]

Suzanne -

that this period of nighttime wakefulness, combined with a midday nap, result in greater alertness than a monophasic sleep-wake cycle.^{[citation needed]} The brain exhibits high levels of the pituitary hormone prolactin during the period of nighttime wakefulness, which may contribute to the feeling of peace that many people associate with it. It is in many ways similar to the hypnogogic and hypnopompic states which occur just before falling asleep and upon waking, respectively.

Because members of modern industrialised societies, with late hours facilitated by electric lighting, no longer have this sleep pattern, they may misinterpret and mistranslate references to it in literature. Common interpretations of the term 'first sleep' are 'beauty sleep' and 'early slumber'. A reference to first sleep in the Odyssey was translated as such in the 17th century, but universally mistranslated in the 20th.^[6]

The modern assumption that consolidated sleep with no awakenings is the normal and correct way for human adults to sleep, leads many to approach their doctors with complaints of maintenance insomnia or other sleep disorders. Their concerns might best be addressed by assurance that their sleep conforms to historically natural sleep patterns.^[7]

I have the problem of not having refreshing sleep, after I got mono. Would never wake up in the night though. Informally dx chronic fatigue. Cured by caffeine. Lots. Not super serious, but it was bad when I didn't have somewhere to be at __ am in the morning. Couldn't get going.

Then I had kids. After the first 2-3 months, I almost felt better (fatigue wise) when I would get up several times during the night, I would feel more refreshed. It was exciting to constantly be able to say "yay I get to go back to sleep now" because normally I'd go to sleep, stay asleep, wake up in the morning with my alarm, and not feel like I'd gotten enough sleep. I think I have issues with levels of sleep and all that. I sleep pretty hard, but it's not refreshing.

But now that I am on Lexapro I sleep like a rock, in a good way, much better. That combined with RA keeps me glued to the pillow. Not sure which has contributed the most.

I used to never ever nap because I would get sleep paralysis. Thank god I don't get that anymore. No, I didn't think I was kidnapped by aliens. Just would be awake and couldn't move. God I hated that. But now I know if you move your eyes back and forth quickly (the only part you can move) it helps snap out of it. That hasn't happened badly probably since I was 23 or 24.

Jas, that's really interesting. Maybe that's why I can't wake up in the morning!About 7 hours works for me. It seems that the older I get, the less sleep I need. Now that I'm almost off of Prednisone, I'm sleeping better than I ever have. I rarely have to nap anymore. I take my MTX on Friday, and usually need a little siesta time on Saturday afternoon ... that's about it. I try to sleep about eight hours. But after beginning teaching again I have been crashing around seven sometimes six at night and sleeping until 6 the next morning. I can't help it. I think the pain and the work is wearing me out thin! I can't wait to get my JRA under control! Have apt on the 30th!!!

During the workweek, I try to get at least 7 hours - some days I squeeze in a short nap after work. Most days it doesn't feel like enough. Weekends, probably 9 hours at night + a nap.

Jas, fascinating post. And weirdly, the opposite of what I've been finding in my research to fix my sleep problems.

According to what I've found, AI people don't sleep 'right'. I think I even saw something about how we don't usually fall asleep within 15 minutes like non-AI people. And supposedly, we don't cycle into the right sleep stage that most people do at the right time.

I tried the sleep masks (works when I think of it) to avoid the little lights in the bedroom.

All I know, is for me, sometimes I can lay in bed all night 'stuck' in that first stage of sleep where you know you're not quite asleep. I'm the walking dead the next day. Or, on other nights before I'd started trying to 'fix' this, I'd wake at 4:30 and be up, dead tired, but would lie in bed unable to fall back asleep. So, I'd get up, head pounding with tiredness, and start doing email.

Hugs,

Pip

I hear ya... just as it's not normal to be comatose for 8 hours straight, it's not normal to have a hard time falling asleep or to keep getting fully awakened. I had major issues until last summer. I couldn't fall asleep and I couldn't stay asleep.. 3-4 hours was a good night's rest ... horrible.

Then I was diagnosed w/ RLS... and I take Rquip... it helps me to fall asleep... and if I wake in the night... I can go right back to sleep.

I am getting 8 hours now most nights..sometimes only 7... and on the weekends anywhere between 8 and 12!!! (the 12 is Sunday ...day after MTX) I wish I could sleep like that without the meds... but I really need to sleep.

I usually go to bed around 1am and it takes me a while to fall asleep. I get up a couple of times to use the bathroom then go right back to sleep. I sleep until about 10 or 11. I also get real sleepy and sometimes take a half hour or hour nap about 4 or 5pm. I try not to nap because then I have a harder time getting to sleep that night.I haven't slept right in years. I think I average abour maybe 6 hours on the week days and the same for the weekend. Since I have started on Prednisone I don't get quality sleep. I read a sleep study one time and it said that our bodies healing properties are from 10pm to 2am. I guess I'm getting enough sleep according to the study. My thing is I'm always tired.

RA DX. 1996 living with 12 years.

Orencia, Methox, Fosamax, Folic Acid, Prednisone

4 to 6 hours a night. On weekends I try to nap, not very successful but at least I'm resting. It's the pits. If I take Ambien, sometimes I can get 7 hours, not usually though.Usually about 6 hrs. I end up staying up till about 11 most nights grading papers. With 140 students I have to stay on stop if it or I end up drowing in paperwork.

My pain dr. is stressing the need for more sleep. He says that is how the body heals itself. But, he always knows that I gotta keep a job to pay his copay! I am hoping once summer hits I can get more. I have a second job since I don't get a teaching paycheck once June hits but at least I won't have papers to grade.
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