Hi everyone, I need ideas/advice to cope with my husband’s agitated sleep. He clasps and unclasps his hand and rubs constantly and rocks the boat which wakes me up. Or he rubs his face so hard he has red marks in the morning.
I’m not sure about giving him a sleep aid or cbd oil: what have you experienced ?
Thanks for any hints
Caroline
Hi Caro2132!
This disease manifests itself in a similar but different way in each patient. The participants in chats like this offer practices and solutions to learn from, and through the "trial and error" method, achieve a quality of life with interesting moments despite everything.
These are our experiences about after 7 years trip with PSP:
•Control of palliative medication against depression and insomnia. In our case right now: 1 Sertraline-50 at breakfast and 1 Lorazepam-1mg one hour before dinner. Of course all these drugs were prescribed by a physician.
On our case we have maintained the medication with Sertraline and Lorazepam daily for 4 years with good results and no significant side effects.
Pills can be taken in a spoon of applesauce or similar...this helps it slide down. Also a good pill crusher helps.
A light dinner helps to control insomnia. Also a moderate walk (with aids) or wheelchair before dinner helps to generate a natural fatigue that helps fall asleep.
Some include 3 to 6 mg of CBD Oil via subling, usually before lunch but not necessarily, to stimulate appetite, reduce anxiety and as a co-adjuvant analgesic in neuropathic pain.
If you are interested see:
healthunlocked.com/psp/post...
Hug and luck.
Luis
Hi Carol, As mentioned in previous posts, everyone is different and symptoms vary. My husband is still quite functional, with progression going slowly. My husband also has problems with sleep, no restlessness , just unable to sleep which then interrupted my much needed sleep also. After discussing with his neurologist we tried 5 mg of quality melatonin given by an oral disintegrating tablet placed under tongue. It helped for awhile, then we increased to 10 mg. He seemed to have increased dreaming and restlessness. We again discussed with Neurologist and a sleep medication was prescribed. It works well for him and he gets a full night sleep.
Contact his doctor, explain the situation and see what he thinks. This is a neurological disease and I'd be leery about giving him something without a doctor's approval. The side effects or interaction with another medication could be quite unexpected.
Ron
We tried melatonin, too, but with no relief. I was also reluctant to give a sleep aid, but neurologist suggested a low dose of trazodone. Have been using this for almost 2 weeks, and it is working!
Hi Caro2133,
I tried hot Chamomile tea last night for myself. Hubby with CBD is causing me, his caregiver, to have insomnia. I’m having trouble staying in the moment at the moment. Lol. The tea was good and it did relax me a bit. I slept, just not long enough.
You might try doing a search on the topic of sleep. If you click on LuisRodicioRodico’s picture (above), and view his posts and replies, he’s listed some great exercise plans and home remedy solutions that doesn’t involve medications.
You might also want to read my topic titled “Top Of The Morning To You” just to understand that you aren’t alone.
Best wishes for some sweet dreams to come your way. Sending hugs!
Xoxo from I SewBears
I forgot to mention one other thing that has really helped. I pushed a queen bed and a twin bed together. Both of the beds are adjustable. Fortunately our bedroom is large enough to handle a bed this size. If not, I might have tried a double (full size) and a twin. Having completely separate mattresses helps me to not feel the thrashing “rocking” that goes on throughout the night. The queen bed is nice because hubby sleeps all over the place, usually horizontal instead of vertical so he has plenty of room all to himself. It helps me to be with him, right next to him, but I can escape to my side of the bed (the twin) whenever he is having a tough time. I always have my Mom-Dar on when he moans, but knowing that he’s beside me and breathing is a comfort. If his breathing is rhythmic enough I can sleep with white noise in the background. I have a fan turned on full blast and that helps too.
My husband takes a small dosage of Clonazepam (hubby calls it “clip-pity-clop”) this helps with spasms and agitation. You might want to run that by the doctor? I have heard that a tolerance can build up so it’s best to start with a very low dose.
Now I’m just thinking out loud here but have you tried putting soft mittens on his hands to prevent him from rubbing his face? Is he rubbing his skin because it’s irritated? There are creams mentioned on this site that others have tried. I’m not really familiar with this issue.
I’ll post more if I come up with other tricks that I’ve tried.
Thinking of you from I SewBears Xoxo
Ruth is on 15mg Mirtazapine at night and 3 drops of CBD oil - this seems to help. All the other medication we tried - zopliclone, diazepam , trazadone, melatonin - either did not work after a while or caused her to be a zombie in the day.
Richard x
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