Joint pain and neuropathy at night making it very difficult to sleep - any suggestions?

I’ve been experiencing a lot of joint pain and neuropathy symptoms at night. It’s making sleeping very difficult. I fall asleep in pain (due only to pure exhaustion) and I am woken up every morning by the same pain. Any suggestions for what to do? I need to be able to sleep. It’s horrible.

[weathervane]

I have the same problem, its my leg muscles and knee joints at moment that are the worst, some of the pain may might be due to Anastrozole which i take after lumpectomy, is being reviewed.

I was told to take regular paracetamol during the day and increase dose of anti inflammatory . The anti inflammatory took 2 weeks to get full effect . This has helped a bit , I also have pillows under/ between knees and soft topping on bed .

I still waken up in pain but not as severe, I would be very interested to read any other suggestions you get . I can cope better with the day pain but not being able to sleep is the worst. Take care , gentle hugs 🤗

[Debbie_kinsey Administrator LUPUS UK]

Hi BrooklyneDeanne

Sorry to hear you’re struggling with pain and sleep. Everything can be so much tougher when you can’t sleep! We have a blog article about pain management in lupus which may be useful: lupusuk.org.uk/medical/lupu.... It doesn’t specifically talk about sleep or pain at night, but it includes some quotes from different people about pain management techniques that they’ve found helpful.

Have you spoken to your doctor about this? They may be able to advise if any treatments or medications might be useful, or may refer you onwards, for example to a pain management programme or a physio to look at things like special pillows or positioning, if they thought that might help.

Take care

Debbie

[CecilyParsley]

I get the same thing. I tried sleeping pills which worked for a time but now the best thing for my nerve pain is Garbapentin and I take sedating antihistamines to help me sleep. It is nit ideal but I do sleep most nights now. I hope you find something to help you, it is such a debilitating pain I know xx

[LuzyCLL]

I also have these pains, numb arms, etc I find the only thing that has helped is doing gentle yoga stretching. It has taken a while but now I rarely have neuropathy or numbness

[dg70]

Me too I just started gabapentin for neuropathy and joint pain and I sleep like a baby I've just increased to two capsules at night which leaves me a little groggy in the morning whereas one didn't but the pain was still in the background waking me up with one. Last night I woke up still a few times but went straight back to sleep and didn't feel the pains I usually do. I tried amitriptyline first but it didn't agree with me. There are four different drugs to try for neuropathy if you look at the nhs website. I'm just glad one is starting to work. Sometimes I have to bring in paracetamol with codeine as well if its bad but hopefully this should be less if this drug works like it should. Pillow between the knees I do as well which helps and memory foam mattress topper with a good not too hard mattress. It's so annoying because if we don't sleep well we're just even more exhausted in the day. I also take progesterone at night which helped me sleep too before the gabapentin as I'm menopausal. Nytol used to be my saviour but I had to be sparing as you're not supposed to take it for more than a few days. I would take one once or twice a week to catch up on sleep. You wake up in the night but you don't care, you just have numb arms where you've laid too long on one side.😆 See your GP or Rheumatologist and they can sort you out pretty quick.

[Cas70]

I haven’t read thru the replies so forgive me if I repeat. I use Olbas Oil on my knees and feet in fact, any joint that hurts - if you need cooling use Deep Freeze Gel or spray. I have Turmeric every day - start with a small amount and work up. Make sure it’s the good stuff. I am mostly pain free thru the night and during the day I use the hot or cold patches you can by - Deep Freeze or Deep Heat. No drugs involved so you can take a pain killer too Good Luck

[Hidden]

Thank you all for your replies! I’ve taken some notes and have some great ideas to help now =)