INSOMNIA

[Queenie49]

Has anyone experienced insomnia post surgery for a Lobectomy

[RoyCastleHelpline Partner Ask the Nurse Roy Castle]

Dear Queenie 49,

Insomnia is not uncommon after any type of surgery, the causes of poor sleep can be varied and complex, it includes anxiety, uncontrolled pain and nausea, sometimes prescribed drugs such as steroids and certain anti sickness drugs can affect sleeping patterns. It is best to talk with your Gp who will be able to get to the root cause and offer the most appropriate treatment.

Lack of sleep can have a huge impact on all aspects of your life as it causes increased irritability, poor concentration, low mood, and gives you the feeling of exhaustion and inability to cope.

The Sleep Charity(Sleep council) have very good information and help, I have added a link to their web site below, there is lots of information here on how to achieve a good nights sleep

thesleepcharity.org.uk/

Cancer research also have a good article here on coping with not sleeping cancerresearchuk.org/about-...

If you would like to discuss anything you can email ask the nurse at [e-mail] or call our free phone nurse led helpline number on 0800 358 7200 Monday to Thursday 0900-1700 and Friday 0900-1600

Kind regards

The Roy Castle Support Team

[JanetteR57]

Often it can be our thoughts that keep us awake and I know I had some strange ones after my open surgery in Dec 2010 but eventually settled down - unsure if it was the anaesthetic or brief intervention of morphine (to which I had a reaction so had to stop taking it) but it did resolve itself. Also I'd been used to being active and post surgery clearly wasn't using up energy levels that I had despite feeling tired, was less able to sleep - can also be a matter of getting comfortable in bed which for me meant being propped up with pillows sitting up - took a while to sleep on the side where I'd had the surgery. Sometimes if we're on inhalers or steroids these can also interfere with sleep. hope things improve soon.