Sleep deprivation

[grannyh]

Having trouble staying asleep - fall asleep easily but wake in the early hours with thoughts whirling round & keeping me awake - any suggestions as to what I can do or take to get back into an acceptable sleep pattern - preferably OTC . All ideas welcome!! Many thanks in advance

[olive2709]

Know how you feel I use boots sleep aid or any other own brand depending what shop iam in every 3-4nights . Also turn of all electronic things 1hour before bed including TV . I read books tune into radio 4 and when I wake push sleep button on radio as radio 4 becomes world service keep very low so you have to concentrate helps

[lynne99 in reply to olive2709]

Oh it is so nice to hear it is not just me that keeps radio 4 on all night. I find that if it is not on I keep all my senses alert waiting for something ... what I do not know.

Some nights, I work so hard in my head at night that by morning I'm shattered and no real jobs done.

[HurtingPat]

Really fed up of only a few hours sleep. Wake up for a wee at 12 o'clock then sleep for an hour ,etc by 5 o'clock im ready for a cup of tea. Then waiting to get up

[olive2709 in reply to HurtingPat]

It's the pred that causes the trouble I am on 16mg down from 40mg last September fall asleep during day for 10-20mins I don't fight it any longer try togo with the flow that way I stay calm still have nights were I get no sleep

[grannyh]

Thanks for replies to my query re no sleep - just remembered had to increase pred a couple of weeks ago by 1mg -what a difference that can make!!

[Patricia157]

I was diagnosed in January this year and had similar problems to you. I found that it was better to just get up for half an hour and maybe have a drink and a read. I sometimes took a paracetamol to calm my brain as I used to find it helped long before I was diagnosed.

I also purchased an electric blanket which has several settings. The one I have can start at high to warm the bed and then I could reset it to very low and it turns itself off after an hour. This has worked for me and now I get a much better nights sleep. I still have the odd night with poor sleep but it is usually when I have started on another reduction in Pred but I am doing this very slowly according to the advice given on this forum.

The other helpful thing I found was when my upper arms ache I have a neck pillow which I hold between my arms and it separates my arms when lying on my side. A very small cushion or maybe a rolled up towel would work as well.

I hope you get some relief soon.

[Celestee in reply to Patricia157]

I feel as if I wrote this post. My sleep is also horrible. My arms go numb, I use a giant pillow to keep the one I'm not sleeping on up.

I sleep on an electric blanket, and use a heating pad during the day for my neck and shoulder. i seen a fitted neck and shoulder heating pad and need to get it.

For me the relief comes and goes. More here than gone,

[barbara1234]

In my case, I can't blame my usual sleep problems on PMR--rather, I think they're age-related. I happen to be 84 y.o.

At my age, it is pretty usual for persons to awake around 2 or 3 a.m. and be unable to get back to sleep for a few hours. I have found it best for me to get up and surf the Internet or read or something until time for the morning paper at about 5 a.m. At that time I eat a light breakfast and read the paper and sometimes go back to bed, sleeping soundly for another two or so hours. (I don't always go back to bed, but just when I think I have quite a need to do so.)

What do you'uns think?

Best, Barbara

[barbara1234 in reply to barbara1234]

Oh, I forgot. Sometimes turning on the radio to a nice PBS station helps me get back to sleep--

Barbara