Azurelle,
And you are up to see the sun rise, if you are on my sleep pattern, and you can get seated at any restaurant if you arrive for dinner between 8 and 9PM. The grocery stores aren’t crowded, yet they are still open. I find many advantages and virtually no disadvantages, other than other people who want me to get up at 6AM. My gosh, why? We are retired and have no need to get up with the robins.
Enjoy your night!
Jackie
Thanks so much Janelle. I’m printing this out for hubby.
Jackie
Janelle,
I hope you have learned to love the nights. It is so peaceful, and with all the light and sound aversions that came with the aneurysm, I feel as though I really need this quiet time.
Jackie
Hi Merl,
There is a new post from today from Janelle. A RN at Mayo Clinic said our sleep patterns could be affected by the aneurysm. I wish I had answers to your questions. If I could get to a 4AM bedtime with a noon wake-up, I would be thrilled. I just keep trying.
I can share a sleep “trick” with you from a book I read by a psychiatrist who was very interested in hallucinations. (Dr. Oliver Sack, I think.) He said we all hallucinate in the last moments before we fall asleep. He said to stop thinking about anything else and just focus your eyes on the inside of your eyelids. I swear, this works. Sometimes I see something peaceful, like a stream flowing through the countryside, but at other times I have seen a vivid green monster sort of thing. It isn’t disturbing because it is similar to viewing a cartoon, and I’m asleep almost instantly. It almost seems like a type of self-hypnosis.
Getting up at a consistent hour seems to be key in the process of resetting our sleep schedules. I was told by a doctor to get up at the same time every day, even if it meant I would only get an hour or so of sleep.
I hope this helps at least a little!
Jackie
I found a very interesting article on this website: msktc.org. Hopefully it will explain a lot of things.
We often forget that a cerebral aneurysm which ruptured is considered a closed TBI, thanks for the reminder and a whole area to search when trying to understand symptoms, etc!
Hey Jackie,
I have tried many a trick to try and get to sleep, none of which have been the complete answer. I’ve had the ‘joy’ (NOT) of enduring a few neurosurgeries (6 so far) and each has had it’s own impact on my sleep, my stamina and post op symptoms/side effects. Some medicos are of the opinion its activity related, so I varied my activity. Some say it’s medication related, so I vary my meds. After many trial and error and error and…. Personally I do not believe it is any one single thing, I think each has it’s own contributing factor and not only contributing but also compounding effect. As I’ve said to others previously, some think this is an A+B=C equation but it’s not, it’s more an A+B+C+D+… So as much as we try to manage everything we simply can’t.
I look at it a bit like a juggler who can manage having three balls in the air at the same time, without an issue, add another 4 balls and something has to give. He either goes faster trying to manage them all or he drops the lot. Some days I manage, other days I drop the lot.
I completely agree with Moltroub about this all being a TBI. Absolutely it is.
Merl from the Moderator Support Team
Janelle,
Thank you, going there now.
Jackie
Hi Janelle,
I went to the website, but I don’t know where specifically you found the article. Will you provide a link to the article, please.
Thank you,
Jackie
Hey Jackie_JJ,
Here’s a sleep article I found. I’m not sure if it’s the specific one Jannymanny was describing, but it may help.
https://msktc.org/tbi/factsheets/sleep-and-traumatic-brain-injury
Merl from the Moderator Support Team
Jackie – I’m thinking if you make yourself stop what you’re doing by 3am that gives you an hour to “unwind” before going to bed at 4am.
Do you read in bed? I’ve always read in bed and it helps relax me.
I’m thinking if you force yourself to be in bed by 4am and then set your alarm for noon you may be able to force a reset in a few weeks. You don’t have to go to sleep at 4 right now, just make sure you’ve stopped everything and are relaxing in bed to start the retraining process.
azurelle
Yes…that is the one I was talking about. Thanks, Merl!
Much thanks to Merl and Jannymanny,
Jackie
Thank you Azurelle. That is exactly what I am trying to do. Life keeps getting in the way of my schedule! I even have a timer by the computer to go off at 3am.
I had to get up at 9AM yesterday to go with hubby for his out-patient surgery; one of the dogs hurt herself, so I must respond to her needs; the cat is old and sick and must be tended to, schedule or not! You understand the problems. Biggest problem is my compulsion to finish anything I’ve started, including the four other projects I’ve started and forgotten about. Those big surprises at bedtime mean it is often 7am instead of 4am when I finally relax, read and sleep. Woe is me!
This sounds crazy even to me.
Thank you so much for your help.
Jackie
Thanks Merl.
Jackie
Thanks, Merl, I have read this a couple of times now.
Jackie
Hi,
I can’t type well so I’ll be brief.
I have the same problem of lying awake all night and collapsing at 8am. Sometimes I sleep until 2 or 3 and it repeats over again, Have you had any help from doctors? Mine just acted like he’s never heard of such a thing and wanted to send me for a sleep study. My average medical training by google says this happens in the majority of TBI patients, Not sure what to do but I wanted to let you know it’s probably more common than anyone bothers telling us patients, Hope you find a solution,
Welcome and thanks for posting! You have stumbled across a topic that is a few years old. (5 years old) You can tell because it has the starting date of Feb ‘19 and the last post of Mar ‘19. I’m supposed to close older posts; however, I will keep it open to see if anyone responds. I think you’re responding to @Jackie_JJ, hopefully she comes on and answers you. If you want to respond to a specific person you just hit the “reply” on their post!
Personally, I’ve only had one doctor tell me I needed to get a sleep study asap because I checked off the majority of her boxes. It was the first time she met me and wasn’t my Doctor, I was there for an upper GI test. I told her point blank I wasn’t going to have one, because in 26 days of NSICU with the brown shirts (respiratory therapists) watching everything when I was stuck in bed, they never saw anything wrong. You should have seen the look on her face lol.
That being said, BH did have a sleep study and we both sleep a lot better with BH wearing a CPAP.
Hi dfan24,
Did you happen to read the response to my original inquiry about sleep? I just re-read it, 5 years later! Unfortunately, my sleep problems remain except now, instead of being on a reversed sleep schedule, I’m on a rotating sleep schedule that will include at least one day a week where I don’t sleep at all. Overall, I still average around 7 hours per 24 hours. I’m very sleepy now at 9AM and will fall asleep while typing within about 30 minutes. I’m done with trying to force a sleep schedule because it simply doesn’t work for my brain. (I did suffer a ruptured 10mm aneurysm with lots of brain bleeding in 2014.) The worst part of this ordeal is having an appointment that conflicts with whatever hours I’m sleeping/need to sleep that day.
If you haven’t tried asking your doctor for a mild sleep aid, you could try that and take it at 2am/3am.
I wish you the best of luck. It is a big problem!
Jackie