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Another question for the HT brethren - how much do you sleep?

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Posted 8/14/2014 11:14 AM (GMT 0)
This seems like a relatively trivial question, given the challenges many here are facing.

If you're on hormone therapy, how much do you find yourself sleeping? Is it enough so that you can wake and feel fresh and rested?

This hormone therapy, ADT2 Lupron+Casodex, is known for its fatigue side effect. After about 15 months on it now, I find that 8 or 9 hours of (fairly fitful) sleep leaves me still pretty tired in the morning. Last night I conked out about 8:30, and didn't get up until 6, and still not feeling very alert. I get 2-4 hot flashes a night that wake me up so I know my sleep is not in a good pattern.

At work, I have a private office so can get about a 1/2 hour nap in at lunch. Even then, by 6pm or so when I'm leaving I'm pretty tired and could easily nap again right then.

Working out helps some, I know. But just curious about other's experience and maybe how you're coping.

Thanks, y'all (yawn....)
Posted 8/14/2014 12:32 PM (GMT 0)
Like you my HT consists of bicalutimide and lupron (three month dose). The fatigue comes and goes but I notice that if I can sleep my usual 7 hours without too many interruptions that my energy levels are good that day. However, I also take BP medication and it causes me to wake two or three time a night to urinate. The urge to urinate seems to accompany the hot flash and night sweats. I can control the urge to urinate a bit by taking the BP med just prior to bed time. If I have a fitful night I find myself napping all day which leads to another night of fitful sleep. (Viscious circle) Just last Saturday I slept almost all day and woke at 2 am the next morning.

Sometimes I just skip all of the meds for a day and I seem to sleep much better. I only do this on rare occasion when my sleep pattern gets really messed up. I am retired but still try to maintain my schedule of early to bed early to rise. Just do not like getting off to a late start even if it is to do nothing. :-)
Posted 8/14/2014 1:41 PM (GMT 0)
I found myself waking up numerous times at night. Sometimes to get up to pee, but mostly a very restless sleep. That could have been due to the surgery which removed a third of my bladder, or possibly the SE's of the Hormone Therapy. I have been of Casodex since June 7th, and my last Lupron injection was June 19th. Doctor has ordered me to stop so I won't be getting the next injection. Since July 11th, when I found a part time job, I have been able to sleep for longer periods of time. As much as 6 hours before waking up. I still stir during the night with an urge to get up and pee, but I have been able to stay in bed and not get up until my regular waking schedule. So it's hard to say if its because the Casodex is wearing off, my bladder is finally recovering from surgery, or the new job that makes me so tired that I can finally sleep at night.
Posted 8/14/2014 7:31 PM (GMT 0)
Sounds like me, I'm retired so I have no schedule and I find myself sleeping too much. Also, night sweats wake me about twice a night which, as you say, ruins your sleep pattern.
I went to a sleep therapy clinic but they turned out to be rather bogus. They were looking for sleep apnea Aand SA-C which is when your central nerve system stops your breathing, something associated with taking opioids. They really like to find the sleep apnea-C cause then they can sell you a machine guaranteed to ruin your wife's sleep and I'm sure is expensive. So yeah, my sleep is screwy due to ADT.
Posted 8/14/2014 7:59 PM (GMT 0)
Redwing57,
I had the same problem sleeping when I was on the same protocol. I'd fall asleep and have a hot flash that would wake me up. I eventually purchased a portable AC unit and set it up in our spare bedroom and turned it up making the room cold. I believe that solved most of my issue with flashes causing my unrest. The sound of the AC unit may have helped as well. The white noise factor.

Once I started sleeping better my fatigue also trended down. Fatigue did not go completely away though. I had low T levels even after stopping HT. After many years, in fact this last February, I start testosterone replacement therapy. I notice an increase in energy that I had not felt in years.
Posted 8/14/2014 11:25 PM (GMT 0)
I tend to be a night person, and HT accentuated that.

I would also wake up a few times to urinate. I think the quality of sleep was lessened somewhat. Some of this could just be the aging process

Mel
Posted 8/15/2014 6:37 AM (GMT 0)
I find I go to sleep around 8.30pm (much to my wife's frustration), get up 2 x for a toilet break and get up at 6am but then find at about 8.30am at work I am struggling for an hour or so if I am confined to my desk. If I can be up and around there is not a real problem. The night sleep is often very broken and can often watch a TV show at midnight and then go back to bed or sleep on the couch. If we go out to a restaurant for dinner no problems but it is a waste of time and money going to the movies because I will see the first 1/2 hour and then the credits at the end.
But I am grateful to be still around to enjoy life.
Posted 8/15/2014 9:46 AM (GMT 0)
@redwing being on HT has pretty much wiped me out. Getting to sleep and staying asleep is a real problem. When I do finely get to sleep Im out for 12 hours easy. I find 100 mgs of benadryl and melatonin really help but no matter how much sleep I get i always feel wasted. I live for modafinil really helps with the fatigue .By the way really love your photos do you shoot professionally or is it a hobby. What model of camera do you use. Picked up an older nikon d50 looking forward to getting in into it. With out T fatigue can be a real b$?:h. Hope you find a solution. I've been on Zoladex. For the same amount time you have Hang in there. Looking forward to having my last shot in Feb. Not sure if and when I would again go on it ,my PSA is going to have to pretty high for me to consider it. Hang in bud, another med I heard Works well for the fatigue is gabapentin.

Post Edited (gearloose) : 8/15/2014 3:56:16 AM (GMT-6)

Posted 8/15/2014 11:13 AM (GMT 0)
It's 5:00 AM went to sleep at 12, now will sleep till 8:00, take meds and sleep till 10. Probably looking at a groggy day. Been on Lupron for 7.4 years. . .Q
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