Welcome to Living and Learning Together! Thanks to the valued feedback and encouragement from our members and volunteers, we’re excited to pop up in the community this winter to invite you to share about the everyday realities of living with osteoporosis. If there are topics you’d like us to cover, we’d love to hear your suggestions!
This time, we’re thinking about sleep 😴— a topic that can make a big difference to our overall wellbeing. We hope this is a space where we can share ideas on getting a restful night's sleep – something many of us find challenging.
To get us started, here are some of the thoughts our volunteers shared:
💤I use a pregnancy pillow for extra support to find a more comfortable sleeping position.
💤I try to put things away before bed to avoid tripping if I get up during the night.
💤Installing sensor lights in the hall to provide just enough light when moving around at night can help.
💤I make sure to really take my time when getting into the bed and out of it again.
💤I check my rugs are secure to prevent slips or trips – especially in the night.
💤 Finding the right pillow placement is important, such as using a pillow between the knees or a small hand towel for neck support has helped me sleep.
💤There have been times when I have had better rest by sleeping in a recliner and not a bed.
💤Anything that eases pain or adds to comfort is important - and it took me a while to test things out to find what helped.
💤If you can, test mattresses to ensure the right fit. What feels comfortable may change after a fracture.
💤Sometimes I feel anxious about not being able to sleep which then makes it harder to sleep!
✨✨Over to you!✨✨
❓What things do you do to help you sleep?
🙋Or perhaps you’re finding sleep a real challenge, what would you like to ask others in the community?
We warmly invite you to share your thoughts
If you have suggestions for topics you’d like to see brought to our online community or any feedback about these spaces, please drop us some anonymous feedback here: forms.office.com/e/7d5EwCd88R
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I don't have osteoporosis, yet, but I do have osteopenia. Although one doctor will say it's osteopenia and another osteoporosis? I had a T9 fracture in 2022 which I have no idea how it happened.I still get pain and have lost 2 inches in height. I ended up in hospital on boxing day as now and again I get sharp and burning pains in my mid to upper left back. The NHS are finally going to look into why this happens and I've been referred to a neurologist.
For sleep I have a wedge knee pillow
Sometimes I use it for in-between my knees but mostly I have it against my chest, I'm a side sleeper, was a tummy sleeper, and this stops me rolling over to my tummy which make my back pain worse.
When it's really bad I also use a pillow in between my legs with the wedge pillow near my chest.
I can't do soft mattresses as they make turning over very difficult and make me hurt more. I have a medium to firm mattress but also have a panda bamboo topper which gives that little bit more comfort. Recently though my osteoarthritis plays up a lot in bed and I get pain in my hips and knees and shoulders. But I also have RA so it's probably a concoction of all 3 diseases. Maybe it's this cold weather affecting me more.
I have osteoporosis and I´m 68. I never had problems for sleeping , except in occasional times with preocupations. But normally I sleep from 7-8 hs a night. What do interfere in my sleep is exercise. If I dont exercise, I take more time to sleep.
Like Ketchican I use heat - I use an electric heat pad - it's on my pile of three pillows. I tend to wake every 2-3 hours during the night and need to get up and move - to re settle the heat pad is a great comfort (it turns off after anhour and a half and has 10 heat settings I've only used the first one or two). I also have neck pillow for bad nights and silk scarf round my neck for extra warmth. Plus knee and feet pillows as needed.
At first after fractures I found it hard to go back to sleep once I'd woken, but with better pain management I usually sleep again within the half hour - relaxation / meditation helps (I'm not that good at it but it's enough to distrack myself from wake full thoughts!)
Hi I have osteoporosis with 8 spinal fractures, I sleep on my side on a medium firm mattress and use a knee wedge pillow between my legs and a pillow in my back for support. I find I wake up to turn over and have to move the pillow in my back
I've had 10 spinal fractures, 4 spine fusions, 4 more discs going bad, nerve transfer surgery, neuropathy...so many challenges. Over the last ten years, I have gone from a TempurPedic mattress to a Sleep Number split king, hubby and I have very different needs...I am currently at a 50% fill on SN..which is medium I guess, I also have AS, Lupus, and those want a soft mattress, but my neurosurgeon said a medium is better post fractures. I also have a youth size Coop cool pillow between my legs/knees, and two small squishy youth pillows on either side of me, behind me, and in abdominal area, to tightly grip and firm me in not to roll after I'm on my side. I am to sleep on back or side, not stomach. A good night is sleeping 2 hours, then moving, getting up to get feeling back in legs...then repeat...then do again, but most of the time, by 3-4 am, I struggle. Staying warm is also vital...without overheating...a fine line there! I use a cervical pillow, a very small one, low to the mattress...sometimes I find no pillow is best.
I have to use Gabapentin @ bedtime (two 300mg capsules) for sciatica pain down left leg and left side of spine. (Slipped disc, deteriorating disk, budging disk L4, L5). Side effect of the drug for me is sleepy) I too use magnesium drops in 8 oz water to help.
To try help me go to sleep I learn a poem gradually by heart, it helps focus my thoughts, and then on other sleepless nights I recite them (I have learnt five now over a long time) and that helps to send me back to sleep.
Singing a song or a hymn in my mind acts as a lullaby sometimes too.
No rugs or anything I can slip over during the night and slippers with backs so that I don't slip out of them or slide. My husband had a serious leg injury that turned into a DVT because his foot slipped out of backless slippers.
When I get desperate I take Zopiclone as well as all my other meds, although I take Oxycodone, Duloxetine and Amitriptyline some nights I'm literally walking the floor for hours downstairs, until I'm so tired I sleep.I had some injections and for 4 weeks it was bliss, I was comfy in bed, I could lie on my side with a couple of pillows between my legs , without the searing pain down my legs, then last week, I did something to my back again and I'm back to square one
I have to relax my body by deep breathing and focusing from my feet up to my head, relaxing each part of me as I realise when I lay down I hold myself rigid against the pain. Once I've relaxed and gone to sleep I then can't get to in the morning. I have to force myself up to face another day of pain
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