What is sleep?

As5567

Does anyone have any suggestions on how I cant try to get some sleep!!

My AS has decided to go into over drive, both hips are really sore and whole pelvis/buttock area is also very sore. My lower and middle back is very stiff and painful along with my neck. The worst part right now seems to be my rib area, each time I make a wrong move or breath in too much/too little my whole back will go into spasm causing extreme pain and frustration.

I think this recent flare has been brought on by many factors, the recent changes in weather, I seem to react very badly to cold weather just like some of the people on here during that heat wave over summer. I think recent added stress from uni work deadlines, getting stuff ready for going away, stupid nonsense changing hospital stuff.

I guess the lack of sleep isn't going to help in the long run either as well as a lack of appetite, mouth is full of ulcers from Arcoxia.....which will settle down eventually.......sorry for going on moaning it just helps some how:S

stickywicket

I'm sorry. I'm lucky in that I'm usually good at sleeping. You've had a great deal of stress recently which won't help at all. I can only suggest you try to space out pain relief during the day so that you can take what you need at night. I presume you have a good bed and mattress. They're the essentials.

villier

have a word with your gp he may give you something short term to help you get some sleep

destiny0321

at the moment not getting much sleep at moment as got a chest infection/coughing a lot.
plus pain from oa & psa playing up at moment because i am not well,
i find if i go on my ipad or laptop go on facebook or word shaker it makes or brain work hard you are taking mind of pain then you find yourself nodding of
hope you find this helpful as this is what i do. destiny

Kittkat

Hello I find that a hotish bath with something soothing in it an hour before bed helps me. Turn your mobile phone off that is meant to keep you awake. Limit caffeine after midday if you can.Maybe try a bit of reading if you can. I found aloe vera gel very good for mouth ulcers aswell.
My friend swears by nytol although I don't know if that would interact with meds.Or you could get some tablets from the docs? Hope you get some sleep soon!

As5567

stickywicket wrote:

I'm sorry. I'm lucky in that I'm usually good at sleeping. You've had a great deal of stress recently which won't help at all. I can only suggest you try to space out pain relief during the day so that you can take what you need at night. I presume you have a good bed and mattress. They're the essentials.

I don't really take any pain meds during the day so they have more of an affect during the night. Last night I took the strongest painkillers that I had to hand which had very little impact on helping me to sleep. This morning at around 7:30AM I found some left over diazepam from a few months back which my doctor prescribed for me, I took the medication as prescribed on the box. It has worked rather well even tho I only had around 4 and half hours sleep, I did not wake up once.

villier wrote:

have a word with your gp he may give you something short term to help you get some sleep

I'm seeing my Rheumatologist early next week so I will just ask him then, saved bugging my gp (not that I will be able to see one in a timely manor anyway)

destiny0321 wrote:

at the moment not getting much sleep at moment as got a chest infection/coughing a lot.
plus pain from oa & psa playing up at moment because i am not well,
i find if i go on my ipad or laptop go on facebook or word shaker it makes or brain work hard you are taking mind of pain then you find yourself nodding of
hope you find this helpful as this is what i do. destiny

Sorry to hear about your chest infection and Arthritis playing up, being sleep deprived is a horrible feeling and just adds to the pain even more

I do find that using my laptop etc in bed does help me to drift off and drifting off to sleep is there I get the problems, I'm finding that I need to concentrate on how I take in a breath of air otherwise one wrong move will cause my whole back to go into spasm

dreamdaisy

Sleep is something my husband specialises in. He achieves, night after night (and currently afternoon too) that lovely, relaxed, deep and healing slumber which so cruelly eludes me. I supppose I could prod him with some pins every now and again to give him a taste of my life but that would be unkind, no?

I don't go down the mobile / tablet route at night because I find that stimulates my brain too much. I do my mental alphabet lists instead or read my Kindle, both tend to help me drift off. I waken every ninety minutes or so, either due to pain or to move, so I never get to the REM stage of deep sleep. I am used to gong to bed tired, waking up tired, and functioning during the day tired. I guess if I went down the medication route things could be better but I do not want to take any more meds at the moment. DD

hileena111

Sleep?.....that word isn't in my dictionary
I'm sorry you are having so much pain....it sounds as if you have done all that you can
Hope the rheumy has some ideas next week

Love
Hileena

Teapot

I have had a really bad 4 weeks of flare pain not sleeping but I went back to gp on Tuesday and got stronger pain killers. These made me sleepy but I did sleep and feel my body is a bit more rested now and have not felt as bad for the last two days. I am probably the last one on here to buy a V shape support pillow but my daughter got me one yesterday and last night I slept even better especially as the pain is more in my upper arms and shoulders at the moment and it enabled me to sleep on my back. I also put a pillow under my knees and a hot water bottle on my hip. Its a bit of an operation to get into bed and in position but it is worth it when it does work. Also I leave my radio on low and find this helps to take my mind off of pain. This does not always work but anything is worth a try to get some sleep. I hope things ease for you soon.

barbara12

Hi...hopefully your rheumy will be able to help..if you can get a good nights sleep then everything seems so much better.
The only thing that has helped me is amitryptaline...I do hope your get some relief very soon x

Boomer13

Hi;

I have terrible muscle spasms with my PsA & spondyloarthritis. I wasn't sleeping at all a month ago because of these and GP prescribed a muscle relaxant and it's worked beautifully; sleeping better than I have in a long time.

Hope you find relief.

As5567

Boomer13 wrote:

Hi;

I have terrible muscle spasms with my PsA & spondyloarthritis. I wasn't sleeping at all a month ago because of these and GP prescribed a muscle relaxant and it's worked beautifully; sleeping better than I have in a long time.

Hope you find relief.

I took another dose of Diazepam last night which was prescribed to me a few months ago, it seems to work brilliant for a few hours but then wears off really quickly. On the plus side I slept without waking up from 10:30pm until 3am, only problem is now I can't get back to sleep and this irregular sleeping pattern is really starting to effect the amount of uni work I can fit into one day

As5567

barbara12 wrote:

Hi...hopefully your rheumy will be able to help..if you can get a good nights sleep then everything seems so much better.
The only thing that has helped me is amitryptaline...I do hope your get some relief very soon x

After doing a quick bit of research, Amitrptaline does sound like something that would suite me long term. I will bring it up with my doctor next week at my appointment, Diazepam seems to work really good but the problem with that drug is that it works less and less the more you take it.....and you can become addicted so it's not really a viable long term option.