How do you tell how much sleep you need?

[Justdave]

Sounds silly, if you tired lay down. But I work early in the morning like many, so I have to plan like everyone else but some bad days I need more others less. 

I never know, so I find lately I am going to bed at, no laughing, 8 pm.  Yep, the guy who used to live on five hours now needs nine plus and sometimes I need more, Ack

I am running this rule, if I wake before my alarm goes off, I got enough.  Sometimes though I wake an hour before my alarm.  I think, hey I could have gone to bed at 9.  But I fear of too little rest, I flair bad if I am tired.

Then there is the naps,  even with the extra sleep time.


Do people with ai run by the same 8 hr rule as a minimum, it makes me feel lazy resting so much.

[Reanne]

Give up feeling lazy!!  It doesn't matter.  If you need to rest,  you should rest and take care of yourself!  I would love to be able to sleep 9 hours.  I am lucky to sleep 3 at one time, then I'm awake to go to the bathroom, or take pain med, etc.  Evidently your body needs the rest, or you would be able to go to sleep at 8 pm.  Don't risk a flare.  Rest, rest, and REST!

[Patze]

Hi Justdave,

I wish I could sleep normally.  I can be so exhausted that I fall a sleep in a matter of ten or twenty minutes, and I'll wake up two or three times during the night (last night it was three times), so I have no clue how much sleep I need or even get anymore.

I don't nap as I often work long hours, and will have to almost shut down during the weekend to try to catch up on my rest.  I do find myself taking off more and more time just to try to recoup.  Ugh.

Take care of yourself -

Patze

[beautifulkrissy026]

Sometimes I could sleep 10 or 12 hours, wake up in the morning and within an hour or 2 I am crashing on the couch and for the life of me can't stay awake even with two little ones running around.  Then there are days I will sleep for a few hours and I'm good to go. I just never know. Try and take one day at a time. Our lives are short as it is, and when your body is telling you to rest, then rest because if you don't then your just making your life shorter in the long run. I wish to god I could understand the whole sleep thing, because it don't feel very good as a mom to not be able to stay awake during the day with your kids. By the way I also never sleep more than a couple hours at a time. I to wake up to go pee. LOL.
Kristine

[Joe S.]

I do not know about others but I usually start to meditate around midnight. Often I can keep going (minus potty breaks) until 5:30 or 8:00 am. When I am in a flair with high pain levels I will shake first and then black out for 1/2 hour to 1 hour once or twice a day. If my pain levels go too high at night I will be up until I can get them back under control. As an example; an ear ache got me up at 4:25 this morning and I have been up since. I tried to meditate at 1:30 but only got a few minutes in before the pain struck again.

Get as much sleep as you can!

[Shani]

I have been sleeping basically all day, these days.
Never can seem to sleep for a few hours without waking up inbetween.
Especially at night, I wake up because of the pain.

It can get really frustating, I'm trying to take a painkiller every 4 hours as suggested by Rheumy.

[beautifulkrissy026]

Well I think all this talk about sleeping really messed me up last night. I slept for a total of 3 1/2 hours and I'm up. Today is going to suck. Wish me luck with a 1 1/2 and 3 1/2 year old. WooHoo!
Kristine

[amberjolie1]

beautifulkrissy026 - I can relate to being so tired with little ones (my youngest is 3 1/2).  What makes things even more fun in our household is that my hubby also has an autoimmune disease, and I'm actually now suspecting he has Sjogren's, too, and he gets just as tired as I do sometimes.  But we don't always get tired at the same time.  So our poor kids are always dealing with someone being tired or crabby, or taking a nap.

[navydad]

In my case,, I dont sleep normally like other people,, I go to bed,, and literally collaspe into a coma like sleep,, some nights I thrash about all night
Last night I was in bed at 8PM,, slept till 4am,, wake up confused,, get up,,, stagger around,, eat some pain meds, and hopefuully continue to stay alive,, sure isnt nice

[irish]

I have never been a good sleeper. Guess I was born that way. Since 2000 when my mucus issues (which have totally confused all the docs in southern mn) my sleep went down the drain. I was working then and most of the time 3,4,5 hours was the most that I slept--and not all at once. I spent much of the time up coughing and hacking and drinking decaf hot tea to sort of clear me out so I could sleep. I told the docs that as soon as they figured out what was wrong with me I would sleep and I still believe that. I think that the body reacts to the stress that the autoimmune disease causes us. Makes all our cells and systems on high alert.

It darn near killed me working those long days. I don't know how I did it but you know how it is. When you have to you pretty much just pull yourself up by the bootstraps and do it. I often wonder if I will die early due to lask of sleep.

I usually fall into bed and fall asleep in about 1/2 hour lately. But I wake up way too early and then can't get back to sleep. Last nite I went to bed at MN and fell asleep about 12:30 and had to be up at 4AM to drive to the cities for my infusion and my hubbies doctors appt. Right now I am still up and will be for a long time. I developed a headache that I thought my doc needed to know about. I had to take 20 mgm of Prednisone at 10 PM plus I had 200 mgm of hydrocortisone IV today with infusion. All these steroids plus my infusion will cause me to me wired tonight. Hope there is something good on House Hunters!!!!Irish

[eyeamdry]

I've been sleeping some nights/days for 15-20 out of 24.  Then there are times when I can't sleep at night because I'm up to pee and do other things like eye drops every hour or two.  There is just no medium here.  I have not been taking the Nuvigil pills like I should.  I wake up early like 7 or 8 and need pain meds and to go back to sleep.  It doesn't make sense to take a Nuvigil then.  If I can get 2 or 3 more hours sleep, that would be good then to take Nuvigil.  But after I wake up at 11am or so I lie on the couch and am out til 1-2 oclock pm.  I hate this.

Lucy