Soooooooooooo I have *NO* idea how to word this question....so how's this:
I *think* when I take a sleep aid, my morning stiffness is generally MUCH MUCH lighter, and fades faster. It lasts for maybe 30 minutes. When I DON'T take anything, my morning stiffness lasts anywhere from and hour to 2 or 3.
I say *think* because it only just dawned on me this AM. I'll do some experimenting over the next week. Hehe
Has anyone else noticed anything like this? And I wonder if it has anything to do with WHAT you take for sleep? Crunchy got me to try Melatonin pills, and I did some looking up about it.....seems like an interesting little "chemical" in general. What I thought was weird is that it talks about SOME studies that tried to show melatonin helping immune diseases - and others that said the exact opposite. They basically gave up and said that it doesn't do anything at all.
So is the morning stiffness related to poor sleep, or the RA? Some of it HAS to be the RA, or I would think that I would be M.S. free after taking sleeping pills. Right???? Anyone??
Thanks :)
Maybe it is going away faster because you are sleeping better. Sleeping without so pain etc. Getting into that relaxing deep r.e.m. sleep we all need and sometimes with the RA do not get. Let me know how the experiment works out. Altho I am scared of your experiments lol.
Actually it is true, I think it has to do with the fibro as well. THe better the sleep you get the less stiffness you should have in the A/M. It has to do with your REM sleep and the CNS...at least that is what ""they""used to say.
jode
About 7 years ago, my rheumy prescribed amitriptyline, a mild antidepressant, to help me sleep through the night. She told me that at low doses, amitriptyline helps patients to reach REM sleep. During this stage of deep sleep, the brain produces seratonin, a chemical essential in helping the body to rejeuvenate and heal itself. My rheumy said that when a patient has difficulty sleeping through the night, he/she is not entering REM sleep and will feel more fatigue and pain because of low seratonin levels.
So Katie, I think you are on the right track about sleep helping you to feel better. But you do need to be careful what sleep aides you use. Be sure that whatever you're using clears your system quickly. Amitriptyline give me a good 8 hour sleep and it won't leave me feeling muzzy headed in the morning.
When I remember to take the med about a 1/2 - 1 hour before bedtime, I do sleep through the night and feel less pain and stiffness in the morning... that's provided I'm not in a flare. I also find that staying up late kicks my brain into overdrive and the med doesn't work as well. As you can see from my post, I forgot to take my amitriptyline on time.
Now isnt this weird ( or is it just me).
The deeper and better I sleep the worse I feel in the morning.If I am awake 5-6 tmes in the night I dont get morning stiffness for as long and as bad as the moving around in the night stops me seizing up so much.
The more that I get up at night the less stiffness in the am. Maybe getting up keeps the synovial fluid from being able to gel.I have been taking amitriptyline since 1991 when I was diagnosed with fibro. Pre-RA I slept fairly well most nights. Since RA I rarely get the deep, restful sleep needed to feel, well, rested. I, too, have less stiffness the more I wake up and change positions.
Maybe it is something in the supplement itself that you are taking that is helping with the morning stiffness. I take Simply Sleep, asked for something stonger, but my Dr said I might not wake up if I had low blood sugar, so he wouldn't do it, but I can't stay asleep. I toss & turn all night. After I got the flare calmed down, I started dreaming again, the first morning I woke up and thought, whoa, how long haven't I been dreaming? I think it'd been a couple of years.
Deidre
Well I have an idea as to why I didn't get the same results last night -
I didn't go to bed right away like I should have. I took the pill, then was up for another couple of hours. That's not how you're supposed to do it. So, from now on, within 30-45mins of taking it, I'm gonna make sure I'm IN THE BED. And we'll try it from there.
Starting with tonight. LoL
I still have horrid nightmares...some are not as bad as others. I typically sleep all through the night cept when the weather changes then I am up several times. My joints will stiffen up adn I think my cirrcadium rythm is still on my duaghters' schedule when I had to pick her up around 2A/M or 3 A/M. SOmetimes I hear a loud noise........it all depends.
When I do sleep I am out, rarely hear the thunderstorms anymore. Must be under toooooooo much stress.
I am really getting sick of the dream where I have to drive this big van in a building and have to park it in between folding chairs without scooching them along the cement floor and people are all getting annoyed at me cause I am taking too long and there is a line of vans behind me waiting to do the same thing! lol sounds nutz I know! Then it will flip to finding a different pair of shoes with the matching purse,and of course, I cannot find them...............I am so very nutz! My dreams are so very weird!
lol
jode
Ive found that my RA is like rigor mortis or something during the evenings. If I get a full nights rest, then my RA is not as bad in the morning.. if i get a short night of sleep then its terrible