Unable to sleep/nap

[Sooki]

In my sleep study, I had a private bathroom in the room.  When I needed to get up, I signaled my watcher, who came in and disconnected me while I left. I think that probably most people doing sleep studies have to get up in the night!  There was someone watching and connected by speaker all night, so that anything that came up would be easily resolved.

[belovedchaos1]

Hi everyone,

I've been going through this forum looking for answers or ideas as to what might be part of my illness and what isn't... and this has all really been helpful. Even before my diagnosis I noticed that my sleeping patterns have been really off. I wasn't sure if it was anxiety or something else. All of these tips will really help. I feel like I'll be really prepared for my rheumy appointment at the end of the month. 

I've never responded well to melatonin and was always curious as to why it made me feel doped up and really tired. The inflammation reasoning and the article sunshine and irish posted were really informative and probably very accurate. Navigator thank you for those tips - they are already for the most part what I was doing already instinctively (you start to narrow down what aggravates things and helps things over time) but these are really sound and I'll be trying them out to see if it helps at all with my sleep patterns.

Thanks guys for the support.

[irish]

I am going through a bad period in my life. It really got worse when I finished my 5 months of 1000 mgm solumedrol monthly infusions. I have had a fair amount of nites that I could not sleep at all. I just decided not to panic and watched the weather channel and read some and napped and rested during the day.

I have also developed some depression since then and have now had my Zoloft increased. I decided to look up the symptoms of low serotonin and my goodness, it is very interesting. Insomnia and many other things. It is something worth searching and reading. There are also foods that one can eat that can help some with increasing serotonin. If a person is really low then they would need to take a SSRI med which included the med Zoloft. Just a little info. Irish

[WhatYouSjo]

I found that the onset of SS symptoms disrupted my sleep. Before SS, I used to sleep easily through the night and fall asleep right away. Once my symptoms hit, I would wake up frequently and struggle to get back to sleep.

I started tracking my sleep carefully several years ago with a smartphone app that syncs to my watch and monitors my movement at night. The app is called "Sleep as Android", but I'm sure there are similar apps for iOS. If you don't have a compatible watch, you can put your phone near your pillow. It creates graphs and charts, and you can tag specific nights with custom tags for things like medications.

This has helped me immensely because I can correlate sleep length and quality with treatments that I'm trying at the time. I believe low-dose Naltrexone and helminthic therapy have both helped improve my sleep quality. CBD oil may also be helping, but it's too soon for me to tell. Stress reduction and relaxation techniques are also very important for me.

[irish]

I have had an increase in my insomnia and I have had way too many nights where I was awake all night. I did not feel like sleeping. It started prior to my 1000 mgm solu Medrol IV once a month and got worse while I was on the solumedrol. I have been off the Medrol IV since mid Sept and am still having the bad insomnia.

I am also having many other health issues that I finally went to the doctor with about a list of 15 things that need to be addressed seriously and need to have some referrals to other specialties. I know that some of the symptoms are from depression that is becoming an issue. This also ramped up after I quit the Medrol. Sort of like after the fact kaboom.

So I finally called my psych doc and he increased my Zoloft and I am t see him in 2 weeks. Now, I have been on Zoloft since 1992 and I bet I am one of the drug companies older patients. This is the antidepressant that has kept me able to be up, living and working. Not all days have been perfect, but so much better than without the med.

Sooo, I was way behind on my Zoloft and depression research so I was sort of buried on line for a few hours this weekend. Interesting to see all the info out now. The colon produces more serotonin than  the brain does and this is one of the reasons that the colon has so many issues. We don't have too much serotonin from the bowels that cause problems, it is the fact that our serotonin is low. I am hopeful that adding serotonin will help my depression and my colon. My colon has been such an issue and so many scopings in different areas without finding too much wrong. The reflux is always an issue and have to watch that.

I am wondering if some of you with insomnia have considered trying a SSRI med such as Zoloft or one of the others to help with sleep. If you look up symptoms of low serotonin you will find many lists of symptoms that one can have that will improve usually with an antidepressant. Some of you would do well with just a dose of 25 mgm an hour or two prior to bedtime and it would make life so much easier. Some people need to take the 50 mgm which is the average dose.

It is actually much safer to take an antidepressant low dose than to take ambien, etc at bedtime. While driving down the road one day there was a radio program on about the poor sleep habits of Americans. The guy talked about how much people worked and then all the things they had to do when they got home from work with kids, homework, sports, etc. Then, the kids are in bed and it is 11PM and instead of going to bed people hit the computers and pay bills, do extra work they brought home, shop on line, etc. Then they take their ambien and go to bed at 1 AM if they are lucky.

The highway patrol has been keeping track of morning car accidents the past years in relation to ingestion of prescription drugs such as ambien, etc for sleep. THe number of morning accidents are way up and morning sleepiness from hangover of too little sleep combined with sleep meds. It was a significant amoun of increase in accidents and quite scary as these people have kids they need to raise.

Taking a low dose antidepressant on a regular basis for sleep generally maintains a more constant blood level that isn't as apt to produce the morning hangovers. Be aware that one does have to adjust the med dosage and usually their is a week or two or sleepiness until one gets used to the product.

I am not working for the drug companies, but there is a lot of information out there on Ambien and the other sleep products regarding getting people too stoned. I took a very low dose of Ambien many years ago and by the 4th night of dosing I could hardly walk the next day from weakness and staggers. That was the end of that drug for me. It really scared me cause I bet on long term dosing I could have almost become comatose as I am so drug sensitive. So, just some info for you to ponder over. Irish