One of the things that I have noticed from the
RA is my inability to get a good night sleep, no matter what I do. I have
been on Lunesta for 3 months and I think I"m building up a tolerance and
refuse to get more of a dose. Anbien gave me daily headaches. I have used
benedryl, flexeril, and phenergan to boost the Lunesta. My doc says this is
very common in my age (46) so I don't know. anyone have any thought and
advice for us night owls?
I do know that even when I am not in a lot of pain...because I am always at a certain level of discomfort..that taking something for pain and a muscle relaxer do help. They do not, by any means put me to sleep but they do make it easier to get comfortable.
One other thing...sometimes if I write down what I need to do the next day...or come here or sushi or my blog and vent...I feel like I have done something with my worries...
ever hear of worrie dolls? that is what yall are like for me..but the concept has actually been proven to work..the journaling and listing at bedtime.
If I am hungry I have a little something and a glass of milk..brush my teeth..take my pills...and make a commitment to watch maybe one 30 min show on tv and then go to sleep. sometimes giving myself the rules of bedtime...helps my brain to slow down...
some nights though...it is a battle...
I dont sleep that well due to pain and discomfort but for some reason I slept very deep last night and didnt wake up at all. The down side is that I woke up this morning and felt worse than I normally do. I am shuffling around like a 90 year old and I have been up for nearly 2 1/2 hours. I remember when I used to bounce out of bed and look forward to my day, it all seems so long ago. i too have a terrible time sleeping....alwasys always keep waking up because i hurt and try and change positions to not hurt most times I sleep for maybe 30 mintes then start all over again....I still work...which makes it really rough....gets depressing.....i do not sleep well either, and havent for years now.Yeah, lots of trouble sleeping.
Being in the over 40 age group does make sleep problems common. I think it's mostly related to changing hormones. But I think that's just a small part of the picture when we have RA. Obviously the pain makes it hard to go to sleep or stay asleep. And even when the pain isn't awful, apparently sleep disturbances are very common with RA. I just read something about that recently.
Sometimes eating something helps. Cheese and crackers or a soy bar will help me if any food will, either before bed or in the middle of the night.
I don't use caffeine ever and avoid more than a small bit of chocolate in the evenings. I can't take benadryl or sleeping pills.
I make sure to time my meds to have the best effect at bedtime (celebrex + tylenol + lyrica). Then I use my asprin cream on all my sore places.
Before that I'll do any hot/cold thing that I think might give me extra relief or relax me--heating pad, foot spa, microwaved hot booties, parafin on the hands, a cold pack, whatever sounds good. I sleep flat on my back so I don't get so much neck pain, but I use one or two little pillows between knees and/or ankles, to relieve pressure on the joints. So many little rituals!
I rely a whole lot on my walkman cd or cassette player. It has helped me more than any other trick. I read for a little while first, if I feel up to it, before turning out the light. That takes my mind off things and may be enough to send me off to sleep. Otherwise, I slip the headphones on and click on either a relaxation tape, some music, or usually a book on tape.
I avoid thrillers or other intense stories for my bedtime story, but otherwise it doesn't matter much what it is. Being read to will put me to sleep if anything will. I fall asleep with the headphones on. Almost always have to skip back and repeat what I slept through later on or the next night, but that doesn't bother me.
If I wake up in the night, which I usually do, I'll turn the player back on, and often the story will put me to sleep again. If it doesn't, I know there's no hope for it and I get up. I've learned it's worse for me to stay in bed getting more and more stressed about sleeping than it is to get up and do something or maybe, luckily, fall asleep for a nap in my chair.
But I've had far more decent nights, or at least extra hours, of sleep since starting to use my walkman as a bed buddy. I started it last year after I had surgery, because I used relaxation tapes to help with pain management (still do) and audio books to distract from bad recovery pain. I didn't know I was practicing for RA.
Still, not sleeping stinks, as I can attest tonight.
I sleep for Britain
sorry
my prednisone keeps me up... however -- it doesnt bother me, I dont end up tired (surprisingly)If I want a good night's sleep I either take a 1/2 dose of benedryl or drink a small glass of white wine. That knocks me out within a half hour and I sleep all night.
I also have trouble sleeping. I have had horrible, terrible insomnia off and on since I was about 10 years old. Now its exacerbated by pain. last night I woke up around 12:30 in a lot of pain with what felt like shin splints and I'm still very swollen at the tops of my shins.
I take my meds including trazadone at bedtime. No coffee late in the evening, make sure the room is the right temperature. Usually I can FALL asleep, I just can't STAY asleep.
Since we got a tempupedic mattress 2 years ago I sleep MUCH better.
I have a movie that I turn on nearly every night...believe it or not most nights I don't stay awake through the first 5 minutes.
If its really bad I go into the study and play on the computer til I feel like its worth trying to sleep again.
The thing that has helped me most was a heated mattress pad...makes the bed nice and warm without the weight of alot of blankets. Of course taking two vicadin at bedtime doesn't hurt either...
Laura T
I can't sleep either.
Racing mind will not allow me to sleep. (20 minutes of rotten racing is enough - I go bead or read, try again in 40 min)
Was asleep but:
hot flash drenched me in sweat but now I'm freezing
huge pain when trying to toss or turn woke me up
acid reflux is real eye opener
Dear Husbands SNORTS
Lumpy, the cat, tickles my eyelid with whiskers to 'see if I'm in there'
Pongo, the destructo cat has smashed something else
Neighbors dog has a barking fit
Police helicoptors is circling and circling - should be illegal
Neighbors rooster is screwed up and is crowing at a full moon
A nightingale is feeling operatic and is doing his thing in my tree
YES I HAVE TROUBLE SLEEPING. No I don't know how to fix it. Do you think shooting the cop helicopter, the dog and the rooster would get me in trouble?
Now I do a really OCD thing, I count. Over, and over, and over. And backwards. Eventually I wear my mind out and just *poof* pass out. Works for me.
Also have trouble sleeping. I have Restless Leg Syndrome. Getting that treated helped some. Same thing with Sleep Apnea but I have a hard time complying with it because I throw the darn thing off in the middle of the night.
Taking Tylenol helps my body relax from the pain. Vicodin wakes me up and keeps me from sleeping.
I take all kinds of things that make me sleepy at bedtime, but about 1:30, my body wakes up. Also, I have to go pee about 3-4 times a night.
History channel always puts me to sleep (but I do love the history channel). However, then I'm in my chair and not my bed.
Sometimes, I work on my stories in my head and that helps. I imagine different scenarios and it relaxes me. The stories are so removed from my real life that it is a great distraction.
But many nights are just too full of pain to get any relief. And if I get woke up enough to let my problems start ticking way in the middle of night, then I'm sunk for hours trying to get back to sleep.
I want one of those tempupedic beds. They look so comfortable.
I do not want Marion's cat, cops, snoring partner, the dog or the rooster. Marion, where in Phoenix does someone have a rooster? I thought that was illegal.
I do have this persistent cricket and sleeping late is impossible. Someone always calls, the school next to us is doing the announcements (man, how many announcements can they make in a day?), or the trash is being picked up.
Sleep, an elusive dream without a conclusion.
I agree with laurat on the heated mattress pad. I couldn't sleep without mine. It reduces my pain throughout the night and my stiffness in the morning, and I don't have to have heavy blankets on the bed. It's Wonderful!
About how much does a heated mattress pad cost? Just moving the heavy blankets around hurts me.I think a queen size is about . When I was searching for mine, Walmart had the best prices. Love my heated mattress pad!!! Our new one has 2 controls, one for each side, so I can have my side toasty warm & hubby can have little or no heat. I like it so much better than an electric blanket, the warmth from below really helps. I think queen size is about at Bed, Bath & Beyond (and they often have a 20% off coupon in the mail), also about at WalMart. Pat Ok....this is what I do to finally get to sleep. I have sex. I'm not kidding. The endorphins that your body releases is not only a pain killer but will also make you sleepy. Works wonders for me. It drops me into such a deep sleep I don't even hear hubby snore at night. And he can SNORE and right in my ear since we sleep all snuggled up together lol.Sleep, what's sleep? I'm the typical 4 hours a night, tops 6 but that's not straight hours.
I can't shut my head off. I make lists, think of what I have to do, haven't done, etc. etc. My mind whirls around at high speeds thinking over everything.
If it's not my mind, it's the pain from turning or the buzz saw coming from my husbands mouth. The dog does take up more than her share of the bed, my side of course, but she's my baby so that's okay.
Sex wakes me up so that doesn't work and pisses me off when hubby is asleep right after. I find myself poking him so that he can share in my misery of being awake, lol.
I have found that taking a half of a unisom pill works the best for me. A whole one leaves me groggy in the morning, half just gives me that little nudge I need to sleep for 4 straight hours.
I think going on vacation was a huge help in getting me "caught up" on sleep. I couldn't stop sleeping. First night I slept for 14 straight hours. I've never done that. Never. I know I've had a long period of time with very little sleep and being tossed into this wonderful family of auto-immune diseases I haven't had the usual small amount of sleep that I was used to. Perhaps that's the new me...suffering with little sleep until my body just shuts down and I can't wake up? We'll see.....
That's weird aboout the heated mattress. Deanna, I have been using an electric blanket because I have been cold at night and now that all of you mention this, I am thinking yea, I have been sleeeping better. I also take benydrl but it wasnt working as good as it did in the beginning.
Most of the time I can sleep anywhere anytime. My sleep schedule is all messed up right now cause of my daughters' work hours and I have to take her to school and pick her up. Then there are the pain days and nights, so pretty much I fall asleep at the drop of a hat whenever.
Now if by chance the pain is so severe I cannot sleep, I fix either coffee or tea then I can typically fall back asleep.It took me forever...FOREVER! to learn to sleep in a big bed all by myself.
I have tons of pillows, a really soft mattress and a down mattress pad cover so I feel like I am on a big soft pillow. I use a down comforter for a top sheet along with another comforter for a blanket so I am wrapped in poof! Along with my heating pad I keep all warm and snug.
jode
I looked up the heating pads on ebay and they have some really good prices there. But I am going to have to wait to get that because cash is so tight. But it is now on my list. Of course winters here are so short it's not near the problem as other places. Some of you are having some really vicious weather right now.I use prescription sleeping pills. A few years ago I developed insomnia after I had surgery and I hardly slept for months. I was also extremely depressed from living 3,000 miles away from my kids, so after trying Ambien and a few other mild sleeping pills without luck, my pcp gave me restoril. Now, he warned me that they were addictive and I tried to be good and only use them once or twice a week, but damn, I like to sleep. So...I take one every night and have for 4 years or so. With my hot flashes
Oh, and sex has the opposite effect on me. I just want to sit up and talk afterwards. Hubby loves it....
I also have a heated mattress pad and it is wonderful! I got mine 1/2 price at Penney's for 59.99 king size. I also have a down comforter as regular comforters hurt and still wake up about every hour or two in pain needing to move.do they make a half size matress pad?
i know my girlfreind will never need any heat like that.
most of the time she's throwing the blankets off and has a fan running all night.
she's been going through the change for a while now so hot flashes are abundant.
Harold, they do make them with dual controls. She could just keep hers turned off unless she wants it. Thanks all. It is after midnight and I'm wide awake. Got up at 430 this