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Posted 3/25/2009 12:27 PM (GMT 0)
What are some of the things you do to help you sleep? I am at a loss. I can't take sleeping pills, they make me hallucinate. I just don't like having little green men follow me to the bathroom,lol
Posted 3/25/2009 4:33 PM (GMT 0)
stillrecovering
Have you tried listening to Cd's that promote sleep? I often listen to my MP3 player that I have coppied some CD's to and I listen to it when I have a hard time sleeping! One that I like especially well is called Music to Promote Sleep it is New Age music 2004 and it really helps me go to sleep, also there one called Deep Peace New Age music 1996, but there are all sort of CD's made to help promote sleep. So you might want to look into maybe trying something like that to help you get to sleep!

Do you have problems just getting to sleep or also staying asleep and are you sleepy during the day? Have you talked to your Doctor about any of this? Also do you drink coffee? and if so when? You might try avoiding having any thing with caffeine in it after 1 or 2 in the afternoon. Also pain meds, this might sound strange but for me, some pain meds keep me awake, Vicodin is one of them, if I take a Vicodin before I go to bed I will be wide awake for hours and hours!
Anyway I do wish you well!
Good Luck

White Beard
Posted 3/25/2009 8:13 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks for some great advice. I literally live on my couch. I lay here, eat here, sleep here, pretty much everything right here on my couch. I have a really awesome setup going here. I have one of those L shaped desks that is at the foot of my couch and wraps around to the top of it. On the end closest to my head is my computer monitor. The other end has a nice TV (thanks to my awesome son) where I can pay video games,lol I had never even thought about listening to some music while I tried to go to sleep. I am going to give that a go tonight though!

As fro my sleep patterns, I have what they delayed sleep phase disorder. If left alone to go to sleep on my own I can usually get there around 5-6 am and sleep for 6-7 hours unless the pain is really bad. When the pain is going, there is nothing that I've found that will help me sleep longer than a couple of hours. Today is one of those days.

I don't have any kind of caffeine in my system right now. I am having some pretty serious problems with my heart. I take a pretty high dose of Coreg (the generic but I have no idea how to spell it,lol) twice a day and still have a BP that runs 160's/120's with a heart rate that will more often than not exceed 120 bpm so I have cut out all caffeine and have even managed to cut my smoking to just a couple of cigs a day which will soon be down to none at all. I have lost weight in an attempt to help control my BP some but that hasn't worked either. Eh, if I can hold out for that golden prize they call Insurance I'll be alright. I just really hate being awake all the time.
Posted 3/25/2009 9:01 PM (GMT 0)
Hi!

Sounds like you have a great idea for tonight. I too need noise to get to sleep. I love quiet but when it comes to sleep I often can't shut my brain off and just lay there and worry. Plus the pain is so much worse just laying there in the dark. I often have TV on something nondescript and non-commercial just as background noise when I need to sleep in the recliner. Get sleep when and where you can.

Hugs,
Chutzie
Posted 3/25/2009 9:33 PM (GMT 0)
I had totally forgotten about this site http://www.iserenity.com/environments.htm I used to use it all the time and for some reason got away from it and forgot about it. I think I will use it when I next try to sleep.
Posted 3/25/2009 9:57 PM (GMT 0)
Chutz I alway have a difficult time getting to sleep, I have found some of that New Age stuff is the absolute best for soft back ground music to fall asleep by.

stillrecovering pain is always an issue when trying to sleep, and it is difficult if not impossible to get to sleep when you are really hurting. I really hate it when the pain gets so bad that it wakes me up from a sound sleep! Trying to find a new position or anything to try and ease the pain is nearly impossible!. If I take a percocet I will usually get up and walk the floor or get in the rocking chair and rock like crazy for a half hour to 45 minutes till the pain pill starts to take the edge off a little. It is is kind of sad, to have to live like that I guess, but it does just seem to become a part of your life style I also have complex sleep apnea so I have to sleep with a mask on with oxygen and a VPAP machine with a seemingly thousand mile an hour wind blowing into my nose and mouth all night long! Now that is real sleeping! (NOT!!)!

White Beard
Posted 3/25/2009 9:57 PM (GMT 0)

When my pain is bad I read ALOT.  It helps my brain stay occupied.  I have to have back ground noise also thank god my hubby doesn't mind it.  I also do a form of meditation.  I put my mind in a place, I think they call it Imagery.  Something I love to do that is relaxing I focus on.  I will fall asleep for a few hours until the pain meds wear off.  Then I have to start all over again.

I have also done the CD's but have to wear head phones I think my hubby would draw the line at having to listen to that.  But it does work.

I hope you get some sleep

Laurie

Posted 3/26/2009 3:36 AM (GMT 0)
Hi stillrecovering,

If you do a search of HW, you will find many old posts on this subject, as it seems to come up every once & a while. I too have major sleep issues & no medication has yet seemed to help me. I try to relax the best I can before heading off to bed. One thing that I love is lavender. I find it really relaxing & usually burn aromatherapy, spray my bed with a lavender "soul support" spray, and occasionally even drink lavender tea. I do find that it helps somewhat.

If possible could you expand a little about your delayed sleep phase syndrome? I had never heard of it before & just googled it. There are definitely some characteristics of this disorder which seem to fit me, especially of late, & I am definitely going to ask my doctor about it! How were you diagnosed? Did you have to have a sleep study done? Thanks!

Skeye
Posted 3/26/2009 5:47 AM (GMT 0)
Skye,

thanks fro the tips. I will do a search and see what I can come up with. I too love lavender! It is wonderful and very soothing. In fact I buy the essential oil to add to my dead sea salt baths and it is an amazing muscle relaxant.

I did have a sleep study but just describing how I slept to the doctor, he was able to pretty much tell what it was. I have had it as long as I can remember. Most people are ready for bed around 10-11 pm and have no problems going to sleep. I just can't do it. Even when I was in school it was a constant fight to sleep. Before I had my accident, if I was left alone to go to sleep when I wanted, which is usually in around 5 or 6 am, I would sleep a good 8 to 9 hours and be refreshed and well rested. I knew I was like this so I worked jobs that would fit this schedule. I am literally a night person. My oldest son has it also and he works 3rd shift too. If I try to make myself go to sleep at a normal time, it just won't happen. Since the wreck I can't get more than 3-4 hours at a time unless I have just gone so long without sleep that I fall asleep out of sheer exhaustion. It has been a long time since I was tested for this, about 15-16 years ago. They gave me sleep exercises which I can't remember what they are now, that did seem to help some with getting to bed at a normal time and it did make working a little easier. I wish I could remember what they were so I could tell you but I just can't, sorry about that. When I was traveling 180 miles each way to see my ortho this was a real drain. I can't take Ambien or other sleeping pills, they make me hallucinate and I am just not into that. Hopefully once I get my insurance and I can to a PM doc I will be able to get some rest.
Posted 3/26/2009 5:56 AM (GMT 0)
Stillrecovering,
I tried to post this info. earlier to you and something went haywire with my response. it started typing itself all over the place! Like being possessed! LOL

Anyway, some of the greatest resources out there are made by Belleruth Naparstek, LISW. She first started developing guided imagery tapes for Cleveland Clinic, and now her work is used all over the world, including in a lot of research. SHe has a CD out called Healthful Sleep that's designed to help put you to sleep. Her website is www.healthjourneys.com and I have no financial connection to her whatsoever, but do use and recommend her material. You can listen to free snippets if you go to the site, and often she has sales.

I love lavendar. Someone in an earlier post grew it at home. I wish I could do that without killing it! I'm great with animals, not so hot with plants! LOL

BTW I'm a night person by nature, too. I've read research that says it's genetic to a large extent whether you're a morning or night person, and while you can change your schedule if you need to for work, your body will always gravitate one way or the other. Left to my own devices (like now - without regular work!) my days and nights almost reverse. Pain doesn't' help either. I do take a muscle relaxant at bedtime with my pain meds. Otherwise what wakes me up are muscle spasms.

Sweet dreams!

PaLady
Posted 3/26/2009 6:03 AM (GMT 0)
Thanks for that info. I will definitely look into it. Anything that can make me sleep right now would be a blessing.

I am like you, I will kill a plant just by looking at it,lol I used to be able to do a great veggie garden but I have never been good with house plants.

Yeah, they told me way back when that the way I sleep is hereditary and my oldest son seems to have gotten the lucky gene for it. That poor kid is so like me it is unreal,lol We get teased and told that he is just what I would be like if I was a male,lol My husband, who is not the father of my children, is the same way so I am not always alone at night. He is a night owl too. My other two kids can sleep at the drop of a hat and can sleep all night long. I am very thankful that they are not like me.

Thanks again for that website!

Jules
Posted 3/27/2009 3:38 AM (GMT 0)
Hi stillrecovering,

Thanks for the info! Some of what you describe sounds like me (at least recently). My pain usually keeps me up until between 3 and 5 am, and then once I fall asleep it constantly wakes me up. I usually end up getting 2 -3 hrs of sleep, and never more than 5, but lately, I've been falling asleep about an hour before I have to get up at 6:45 am & have been oversleeping though up to 6 alarms! I wake up with the alarm, but before I can sit up completely, I'm asleep again. I think some of this has to do with not being able to see well when I get up, but last week I slept until 2pm one day (and I did that several times this winter too)! It's horrifying. I've always had sleep issues, even before my CP (though not as severe), but never anything like this until last couple of months, and really the last several weeks. It is very strange, and no sleeping medications seem to work for me either. At one point I was taking one ambien CR & one regular ambien both at 10 pm, and was still wide awake at 5 am! I did see that one of the treatments for this is melatonin. I have tried that in the past, along with rozerem, a prescription melatonin protagonist, but I've found that I can't take them, as they mess with my vision through the following day. I'll definitely talk more with my doc about this.

Skeye
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