What do you do for sleep?

3/25/10 10:23am

I wish I could find an answer for this question too.... My husband of 36 years has even moved out of our bed because I kept him awake too. My doctor has given me sleeping pills and I have taken them, but they didn't either. Taking them is another worry for me as I'm so afraid of get hooked on them.

Glad to know someone else has the problem too. But sorry we both are in this Sleepless boat together~~

Susan

3/25/10 10:42am

I also had trouble sleeping. I tried Ambien but did not like the feeling of a hangover the next day. My doctor prescribed Ativan and it works great for me. My daughter has fibro and tried absolutely everything.... darvocet, ultram, ambien, loritab and nothing worked. I finally asked her doctor about ativan and she prescribed it for her, she is now sleeping all night and is feeling so much better during the day. Many doctors hesitate to prescribed this because it can be addictive, but in my case I'm finding that I'm using it less and less.

Ellen Galo

3/26/10 9:46am

That's interesting - Ativan totally backfired on my mother when she was in the hospital. She became very agitated and wasn't making sense. If my sister had not been around to tell the nurses that this was not her normal behavior, I'm not sure what would have happened!

Just goes along with my family history of overreacting to meds, I guess!

Ellen

Sharon

3/25/10 3:22pm

hi i am new to ra, was dx'd about a month ago, started taking plaquenil and prednisone, i was already taking meloxicam. its amazing how much better i feel. i don't sleep but that is another problem altogether i guess. i just don't sleep well, bladder issues, comfort issues, i also have restless leg syndrome and that does keep you wake occasionally. i have tried sleep meds but they don't help since i wake up often to go to bathroom. so i just play online til i can't keep my eyes open and then wake up in an hour or two. lol my mother has horrible sleep issues, she has all kinds of sleep disorders and meds only help for a while and then they stop, no otc or herbal stuff has worked. she sleeps in a recliner can't sleep in bed.

namanan

3/26/10 6:11am

whatever you do, take the prednisone in the morning!! i split my dose in half, in am and 1 in pm. it will keep you wide awake and dreary all day long. i would catnap all day and all night long. i take a pain med about 2 hrs before i want to go to bed. i get 4 hrs of sleep, get up, take another pain med, and get about 4 hrs more. i play computer games for an hour to take my mind off the pain and let the meds kick in, then back to bed. i hope this helps you some!!

Laurie

3/28/10 12:56pm

Sleep was the first issue my doctor tackled. He said if I get too tired I'm open for more pain and illness cause of the auto-immune part. So he put me on Soma, a muscle relaxer; and I add half a stress tab to quiet my racing brain. I can be so sleepy sitting by the tv and the moment I'm flat in bed my brain switches full on. This combination puts me into a 6 hour sleep pattern that doesn't leave me hung over the next day. I am worried about getting too dependent on them tho. It looks like pills will be a regular part of my daily life forever more.... :-/

Ellen Galo

3/28/10 6:08pm

Hi Laura, thanks for writing - yeah, none of us like to have to take stuff, everything is a balancing act!

By stress tab, do you mean a multi-vitamin especially for people under stress? Or some kind of alternative or herbal med? Just curious - I took a multivitamin kind of "Stresstabs" way before I had RA... it turned out to have a ton of iron in it (100 mg!) and I got very constipated. That was the end of that!

I know what you mean about dozing on the couch then being wide awake when you go to bed! I haven't taken Soma but the cyclobenzaprine does something similar for me. HOwever, it's not something that I want to be on indefinitely. SO I'll either vary it now and then, or try doing without sometimes (that usually doesn't work, so I'll take something different for a while just not to get dependent on one thing.)

Good luck with working out all your meds - it can take a while, don't get discouraged!

Mary

3/25/10 4:56pm

I too am restless at night. Just can't seem to stop my mind from rambling from one thing to another all night long. I take flexeril about 4 hours before I go to bed and it seems to work. But what will happen when I run out (it was an older prescription from a pain management doctor for three herniated discs in my back)?? I don't know...Just cope with it I guess...Any ideas???

Poppy

3/25/10 6:20pm

I, like you, just figure that it is time to get things done. My husband isn't real happy about our opposite schedules, but we have put up curtains between rooms where I work and he sleeps and it has helped him tune out my noise and light. I teach kindergarten, so they keep my mood up during the day and I get a lot done at night, but I noticed I then go through periods of needing to go to bed earlier and get lots of sleep. This happens only once a month or so, but then I go back to my sleepless state. It does drive me crazy, but the best I can do is take a tramadol and read until I finally go to sleep. Tramadol is a narcodic, but not one that is addictive. It helps with all of the pain and it is easier to get comfortable enough to relax and rest. A hot bath or shower before bed helps too because then you are warm and your muscles are feeling better. Good luck.

Ratnapriya

3/26/10 6:46am

I have this sleep disorder too. It took me years to realize that low level pain throughout your body can make you restless and you cannot find comfort on anysides. That keeps us tossing and turning and sleepless. For me one tablet of painkiller before bedtime really knocks me off to my dreamland. I also get up more refreshed and less stiff in the morning.

Try it, it might help

Ratnapriya

Ellen Galo

3/26/10 8:53am

I think it is partly the low-level pain, but not totally. In fact, I didn't mention one thing that does help me a lot - a heating pad. Even if I just use it for 5-10 minutes on my back, it not only warms my area of greatest tension, but I think since my body temp runs low, it's just very comforting.

Taking Tylenol at bedtime worked before I had RA, but now I can't take Tylenol regularly. Celebrex also causes problems for me - it also takes about 4 hours to really kick in so just before bedtime doesn't work. When I occasionally do take it out of desperation (like yesterday, on a 3-hour road trip to yet another test), it does help, but I can't take it regularly.

So - I've gotten so more Yucca! Actually this time it's just Yucca (stalk), not the total 13-herb mix. I don't know yet how it will work, will report on that sometime in the near future! It's a traditional med for arthritis for native americans and has been studied only slightly - it has anti-inflammatory compounds in it and has a similar effect to ibuprofen. (Speaking of which, I'm a secretary for university chemistry & physics departments, and one of the professors does research on medicinal plants - maybe I'll suggest this one to him!)

Lene Andersen, Health Guide

3/26/10 7:40pm

Flexeril usually does it for me, too. I was talking to somebody who comes from Grenada the other day and she swears by a cup of hot milk with half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon (she does a lot of home remedies that seem to keep her healthy).

Ellen Galo

3/27/10 8:43am

I can take Flexeril for a while, then I switch to something else - seems to depend on the time of year, but eventually some side effect causes more trouble than the drug helps.

Hmmm, warm milk & cinnamon, seems like I have heard of that! Maybe a calcium/magnesium tablet with it too.

Which reminds me - my husband often has this 'periodic limb movement' problem when he first goes to sleep - and it can go on quite a while. It's not restless legs, it doesn't keep HIM awake, just ME . The physician's asst in his doctor's office was going to send him for a sleep test (because he sometimes snores as well, has sinus problems, thick neck, etc), but the doctor said, well, try some calcium/magnesium at bedtime. Seems to help quite a bit - not always, but often!

So - all of a sudden the last week or so, my "sleep" switch has kicked back on (happened in mid-April last year, and went off in August), and suddenly I DON't need sleep meds! Weird... but I'm not complaining! Instead, I'm off to the weekend clinic today because - PRESTO! another little skin infection has turned up this morning, appeard to be an infected sebaceous cyst, which I've had a couple of times, and it's a staph infection so they give me oral antibiotics (sigh). But the antibiotics will probably help my arthritis too, they usually do for a little while, til I'm back on Enbrel.

telos330

3/31/10 1:41am

Ellen-I also suffer from RA and am a Sleep Tech. So I see things in several lights.

RA itself by it increase in TNF can cause both fatigue and sleep problems. But It can be the meds. Sometimes the timing of the drug is everything. Pain meds may take care of the pain but disturb sleep. Sometime changing the time of a med can take care of the pain and not disturb your sleep. I find pain med used in my AM even if I'm not hurting controls the pain during my day and allows me to sleep during my night. I would talk with your doc or pharmacist about what drugs effect sleep and some strategies can be used. Benydrl will help you go to sleep but disturbs you sleep architecture. Always look at your sleep environment. Darkness tells us to be asleep and light tells us to be awake. Make sure the room is dark, you should not know the sun has come up in the morning. Watch night lights. No TV in bedroom. Bed room is for sleep and sex. Not for reading or catching up on hobbies or tasks. Keep to a routine. Same bed time and arise time. Your body then knows what its suppose to do. Go to bed- it you can't go to sleep in about 20 min, get up and go to another room to do something relaxing. Don't try and catch up on your house work. As soon as you feel drowsy, go back to bed and try again. If not asleep get back up and do the same thing and relax. You might try a warm bath. Our body cools down as we go to sleep, that's why your feet feel warm as you are going to sleep the body is taking blood to the surface of the skin to remove the heat from the core. That is also why its hard to sleep with cold feet. The warm bath dilates the blood vessels to cause the start of the cooling. Prednisone will cause insomnia. Hate the drug. When I used to get it for Remicade infusions, I knew it would get very poor sleep. I could deal with it every six weeks, because I felt so good in- between. After 5 years it stop working, but Rituximab is working great. But it leaves a little fatigue because the TNF levels are up, but holding on to the year between doses.

Sleep apnea and restless legs can disturb your sleep. Some erosion of cervical bones can cause atypical OSA. Talk with your doc. Keep a sleep diary so you can share it with them. Here is a link to one- http://www.sleepeducation.com/pdf/sleepdiary.pdf

Sleep, like diet and exercise is important to your health. Good sleep helps to manage stress and thus your RA- Best of luck

telos330

3/31/10 4:02am

Ellen-I also suffer from RA and am a Sleep Tech. So I see things in several lights.

RA itself by it increase in TNF can cause both fatigue and sleep problems. But It can be the meds. Sometimes the timing of the drug is everything. Pain meds may take care of the pain but disturb sleep. Sometime changing the time of a med can take care of the pain and not disturb your sleep. I find pain med used in my AM even if I'm not hurting controls the pain during my day and allows me to sleep during my night. I would talk with your doc or pharmacist about what drugs effect sleep and some strategies can be used. Benydrl will help you go to sleep but disturbs you sleep architecture. Always look at your sleep environment. Darkness tells us to be asleep and light tells us to be awake. Make sure the room is dark, you should not know the sun has come up in the morning. Watch night lights. No TV in bedroom. Bed room is for sleep and sex. Not for reading or catching up on hobbies or tasks. Keep to a routine. Same bed time and arise time. Your body then knows what its suppose to do. Go to bed- it you can't go to sleep in about 20 min, get up and go to another room to do something relaxing. Don't try and catch up on your house work. As soon as you feel drowsy, go back to bed and try again. If not asleep get back up and do the same thing and relax. You might try a warm bath. Our body cools down as we go to sleep, that's why your feet feel warm as you are going to sleep the body is taking blood to the surface of the skin to remove the heat from the core. That is also why its hard to sleep with cold feet. The warm bath dilates the blood vessels to cause the start of the cooling. Prednisone will cause insomnia. Hate the drug. When I used to get it for Remicade infusions, I knew it would get very poor sleep. I could deal with it every six weeks, because I felt so good in- between. After 5 years it stop working, but Rituximab is working great. But it leaves a little fatigue because the TNF levels are up, but holding on to the year between doses.

Sleep apnea and restless legs can disturb your sleep. Some erosion of cervical bones can cause atypical OSA. Talk with your doc. Keep a sleep diary so you can share it with them. Here is a link to one- http://www.sleepeducation.com/pdf/sleepdiary.pdf

Sleep, like diet and exercise is important to your health. Good sleep helps to manage stress and thus your RA- Best of luck

telos330

3/31/10 4:07am

Ellen-I also suffer from RA and am a Sleep Tech. So I see things in several lights.

RA itself by it increase in TNF can cause both fatigue and sleep problems. But It can be the meds. Sometimes the timing of the drug is everything. Pain meds may take care of the pain but disturb sleep. Sometime changing the time of a med can take care of the pain and not disturb your sleep. I find pain med used in my AM even if I'm not hurting controls the pain during my day and allows me to sleep during my night. I would talk with your doc or pharmacist about what drugs effect sleep and some strategies can be used. Benydrl will help you go to sleep but disturbs you sleep architecture. Always look at your sleep environment. Darkness tells us to be asleep and light tells us to be awake. Make sure the room is dark, you should not know the sun has come up in the morning. Watch night lights. No TV in bedroom. Bed room is for sleep and sex. Not for reading or catching up on hobbies or tasks. Keep to a routine. Same bed time and arise time. Your body then knows what its suppose to do. Go to bed- it you can't go to sleep in about 20 min, get up and go to another room to do something relaxing. Don't try and catch up on your house work. As soon as you feel drowsy, go back to bed and try again. If not asleep get back up and do the same thing and relax. You might try a warm bath. Our body cools down as we go to sleep, that's why your feet feel warm as you are going to sleep the body is taking blood to the surface of the skin to remove the heat from the core. That is also why its hard to sleep with cold feet. The warm bath dilates the blood vessels to cause the start of the cooling. Prednisone will cause insomnia. Hate the drug. When I used to get it for Remicade infusions, I knew it would get very poor sleep. I could deal with it every six weeks, because I felt so good in- between. After 5 years it stop working, but Rituximab is working great. But it leaves a little fatigue because the TNF levels are up, but holding on to the year between doses.

Sleep apnea and restless legs can disturb your sleep. Some erosion of cervical bones can cause atypical OSA. Talk with your doc. Keep a sleep diary so you can share it with them. Here is a link to one- http://www.sleepeducation.com/pdf/sleepdiary.pdf

Sleep, like diet and exercise is important to your health. Good sleep helps to manage stress and thus your RA- Best of luck

Anonymous

5/26/10 7:06pm

I have used Simply Sleep or Tylonal PM if needed. They both work VERY well for me. Both are Benedryl and it also helps my allergies!

Ellen Galo

5/26/10 8:40pm

I take Benadryl occasionally for sleep but not tylenol any longer - it caused a rise in my liver enzymes while I was taking it every day. Fortunately, I found I could do without it, sometimes by using Yucca AR (antiinflammatory).

JustaguyWhoknows

5/13/11 3:22am

i also hav trouble sleeping at night. I can be so tired sometimes that I hav no trouble falling asleep, but after 2 hrs I wake up n I am wide awake. I hav tried many things from pills, to alcohol, to tea. There are some things that work n some things that do not. The things that. Work usually stop working with continued use. Everybody's sleeping habits r different so some things might work for others n some not. I recently just took my computer, television and anything else that might prevent me from going to sleep, out of my room. Believe it or not This actually works great. A bedroom should simply be that, (a room with a bed only) So find things that wrk for u then cycle them every so often. Kava Tea works great.

Ellen Galo

5/13/11 8:15am

Wow, things do change in a year! I NEVER use Benadryl for sleep now as it seems to keep me up instead! I use a half-tablet of cyclobenzaprine fairly consistently...

Its good to know that you found what works for you! I've never had a TV in my bedroom (although we allowed our daughter to, and never had a problem). I find Tai Chi helps calm and focus me too, even just the warmups, by relaxing both my brain and body, but also toning them at the same time!

Ask a Question