Sleep/Bed time

QIPARN

Recently wake up knees, elbow, big toes and both hands cramp up in pain .Had arthritis for quite a while but why has it got so bad overnight, have not change diet, or exercise (a little less as more tired, but never good sleeper).Recently on Finasteride and Solifenacin for enlarged prostate but side effects don't list anything that may affect arthritis. Why has my symptoms worsening at night not so much in day .Been advise thank you

rte

finistride didn’t help my sleep pattern, I started dozing through day, meaning I got less quality night sleep. Just started mirabegron to hopefully make my urine urgency lessen and helping my sleep . I’ll post any improvement in a months time.

Baloo

Yes I keep thinking an arthritis attack is strangely weird. Its more than one thing. It's not exactly pain, and its not exactly stiffness, but when it happens I grind to a halt swearing and cursing, and its not exactly can't sleep, but is worse at certain times and doesn't exactly go away when it goes away.

An attack is decidedly more than one thing and worse in certain ways at certain times.

Some people call some of it a flare up.

What I have learnt though, is sleep regulates itself into cycles of a few hours each, so all you really need to do is get enough of them, and so finally the whole thing is just weird.

Skinny Keef

pain wakes me up every night between midnight and 4 am

it depends when the drugs wear off.

I’ve learnt to live with it now as it certainly isn’t going to get any better, and if I feel tired during the day I just take a nap, normally 90 minutes does the trick.

When I am particularly bad, flare up time, I normally go to bed after I have finished preparing the evening meal for my wife and son, and sometimes don’t even bother with eating. Sometimes rarely I sleep through but normally I make use of the night time to get some music done or watch some motorcycle racing. I have given up trying to fight it and get back to sleep as it just doesn’t work. One thing I learnt when learning to surf at 39 was you can’t fight the waves they are too powerful. You have to go with them and use the time between waves to your advantage.

Woofy

Sorry you are struggling. I often wake up in pain, I think it’s part and parcel of this condition. I am making the most of being on steroids, as it eases the pain enough for me to get a few hours shut eye. I too nod off in the day if I need to, but it’s only 20 mins or so, as I don’t want to mess up my bedtime routine.

jamieA

Hi @QIPARN @Skinny Keef @Woofy

I regularly wake between 3-4am with aching shoulders and hands. When I told one of the rheumatologists I saw when admitted to hospital he explained to me that the body naturally produces it's own steroid called cortisol. He said that the body's production of cortisol is at it's lowest between midnight and 4am for night sleepers.