To Sleep Or Not To Sleep?

Crohn's Disease Forum

Help Support Crohn's Disease Forum:

Do you have trouble sleeping?

  • Yes

    Votes: 63 81.8%

  • No

    Votes: 14 18.2%
  • Total voters
    77
C

Cara Fusinato

Sarcastic Forum Comedian
Joined
Sep 5, 2006
Messages
612
How many of us have trouble sleeping and what do we do about it?

I have never slept well, even as a kid. Now, I pretty much don't HAVE to have the restless leg syndrome med. REQUIP, sometimes it helps with the squirmy legs, but I like the side effect of sleep about 1 hour after taking it. It puts me to sleep and keeps me there, minimum 6 hours, but more like 8-10 usually.

Just curious about everyone, as ever!
 
It depends for me on when I get home. If I am home then most of the time I can sleep(except when I get my horrible anxiety, but thats another issue) But some times I get home at like 11 or 12 and then I cant sleep for a while after, usually at 1 or 2. Then my anxiety comes in and when that happens I just can barely sleep until the sun comes up.
 
Hi Since ive had my ileostomy ive has problems sleeping i wake every time i turn over (((hugs)))
 
I really have never had any sleep problems. During my run with Prednisone there were problems, but other than that I am usually fine.
 
since I was on pred, for the last year or so Ive had a lot of trouble getting into a deep sleep. the last month or so though, I feel Im sleeping a lot better. funny I still feel tired though. lol
 
devildee i'm sorry you have problems sleeping with your ostomy. I really truely dont. Only time I'll wake up is if I let it get to full I guess you could say, sorry everyone. Have you tried putting a tube top around your mid section, where your stoma is, over your bag? It will hold it closer to you body, like form it to your body...I use this and it keeps it so close i dont feel it when sleeping, I usually wear one during the day also because if the wind is blowing you can sorta see the lump or spot that is biggger so you know something is there, unless i wear a womens tube top. It can stretch and such for the bag to fill. You really should give it a try I'd really feel bad if you didnt, I know it would make things easier for you.
 
I have no problems sleeping (thanks in part to the hot tub before bed), but when I am on prednisone, I get like the enegizer bunny and run on a solid 2-3 hrs an night.

Flying Frog (aka Nelson)
 
I am all about going medicine free whenever possible. In university my anxiety used to get the better of me and I would have trouble sleeping. I could go days and days. When my tummy is calm, my mind is so much calmer- so instead of managing my head to sleep, I manage my body. This might sound all hippi dippy but try it at least. Give yourself and hour to prepare for sleep. Have a hot cup of camomile tea, burn some sage incense, gently massage sesame oil into your feet and tummy put a lavendar eye pillow across your eyes lay on your back and focus on breathing in an out deepy through your nose and mouth. Try and observe your thoughts without reacting to them and soon you will have drift off, peacefully and drug free. Just try it before you knock it.
 
Sleeping problems

I too have restless legs at night time and this can create sleeping probs for me. Most of the time its not too bad but sometimes all I wanna do is constantly stretch my legs, not too good now the colder weather is coming. Most of the time I sleep ok, except when I am especially anxious and then theres no chance of sleep!!
 
ambien for me
though..insomnia..doubt it is related to the crohn's-or--well-maybe it's all realted in a holistic sort of way..but--
oh..i don't know
ambien works for me though :)
 
I have trouble sleeping also. I always toss and turn to find comfy spot to try and sleep. Maybe i should get some benadryl like i have for my remicade treatments. lol that makes me very tired.
 
Ever since I had my ileostomy op I seem to sleep for England. I too wear a close fitting top and can sleep on any side, in fact I mostly sleep on my right hand side where my ileo is. It doesn't take me long at all to drop of, I suppose the anti anxiety drug helps too. Trouble is though I still manage to feel tired even though I've had plenty of sleep.


Ruth
 
Too Sleep Or Not To Sleep

No I dont sleep much do to spasams and pain . When I take 3mg Lorezapam and 50 mg gravol i will sleep about 4 hrs.


TAMMY
 
help w/sleep problems

I have had trouble sleeping for years. I always relied on otc meds like tylenol PM. Finally I was referred to a pain specialist, he prescribed me Amitriptyline. This is an anti-depressant but he told me it is also used in conjunction w/pain meds for sleep issues. I now take 50mg at bedtime and I sleep right through the night. It works great for me.
 
ahh, sleep

I hardly ever have trouble sleeping. I can fall asleep anywhere at anytime. I am usually exhausted so I look forward to that moment I can close my eyes. I have always had a problem with nightmares though. I actually wake up dripping with sweat and screaming. I am lucky that I never have pain during the night though.

The only time I had a hard time sleeping was when I was pregnant and that was because I had to get up to eat a lot. I was always starving!
 
Sleep isn't normally a problem for me - waking up can be though! I'm a really light sleeper, normally a bird farting outside makes me wake up.
 
I have had trouble sleeping for a long time now. Sometimes it takes me quite a while to get to sleep. Once I am asleep, I generally don't wake up. I usually don't take anything for it. Now, I take too many damn pills to add any more unless it is absolutely neccessary.
 
No trouble sleeping usually. If I drink coffee too close to bedtime I will be up for hours. Used to have trouble when I was younger, so I would read in bed until I was tired. I work shift work so my sleep is often at abnormal times.

ruthg, Restless leg problems are often caused by a Magnesium deficiency.

D Bergy
 
sleep and crohns

I could sleep my life away. I am usually asleep the second my head hits the pillow and I usually have trouble waking up. Seems like I'm never rested enough.
 
i am new here my name is Chrissie, i have enjoyed reading all your posts and found it really good to see that i am not alone. this is my first post.... i hope it to be one of many.
i don't sleep to well,i go to bed hours before i know i want to go to sleep (mid-evening) with tiredness, pains in my stomach after my evening meal and cronic joint pains, i sleep well until between 2-6 am..... these are the hours when if i wake i can never predict if after a loo visit i will be wide wake or suffering from back pain or twitchy legs or more visits to the bathroom....... cronic thirst or just more exhaustion, and heavy sleep. most nights i wake and go down stairs, i switch on the television and watch till i feel tired, i then just turn and sleep. but find i am so tired in the morning my whole day suffers. then other nights i sleep more solidly i think it depends alot on how fast my bag fills and how loose it is..... i think i have just grown to accept it to be honest, sometimes i need to wake my husband and ask him to help me up.... this is hard to accept.... i'm 30 yrs old and only been diagnosed about 9 months and previously worked, hoping i wont have to grow to accept this...

thanks everyong for being there....
Chrissie x
 
I have always had trouble sleeping through the night. I wake up occasionally to reposition myself. It was really bad when I was on the predinisone. If i took it close to bed time I'd wake up in the middle of the night with horrible sweats and a dry throat. Whenever I have a flair up I also get joint pain so then I'd wake up to use the bathroom, just be in stomach pain, or my joints and legs would ache like crazy to the point where I could barely walk. The best thing I could do was take one tylenol PM about an hour before I wanted to go to bed and then wait for it to set in.
 
Sleep is a massive issue for me, it always has been. its obviously worse when on pred but even normally some nights, like last night I have so much trouble, I just lay there staring at the ceiling, im tired but cant actually get to sleep, I think its because I think about things to much.

I have tried an over the counter drug we have in Australia called Restivate and its effective but gives you a BAD hang over the next day, its actually worse then not getting any sleep at all.

Then there was the night time cold and flu tablets which have anti histamines in them, they are also effective but grogginess usually follows in the morning.

Lastly I tried panadeine forte, which is available by script only as it has a high dose of Codeine in it .. it too is effect but we all no what to much codene can lead to (blockages up the backside).

Anyway, I’ve found going to gym after work and making sure I don’t sleep to much the night before is the best way for me, but either way some nights are just a bitch.

*yawns*

Jesse
 
You know, it's soooo easy to be dismissive of a good nights sleep, until you can't get one. Or to overlook the effect of continued lack of proper sleep on your health

I 'assumed' my 'normal' situation was just that.. 'normal', a part of the natural aging process. If I slept more than 6 or 7 hours, I'd wake to discover my body had aches and pains... took me forever to limber up. And I didn't feel refreshed just tired.. So tired I would have preferred to have stayed in bed, but if I did it, then I'd feel even worse when I did get up. It was just a no win viscious cycle. I just figured everyone my age felt that way. I considered spending thousands on a best quality bed, even tho I had spent quite a lot on the bed that I have now. I never made any direct connection to my sleeping, my tiredness, aches N pains TO my disease. now I'm not so sure. Not since I started taking my LDN.

Here's what forms the basis of my thought process. One of the side benefits I have experienced since starting LDN is the ability to have a great nites sleep, to wake up after 8, 10 or more hours in bed... And not only feel rejuventated, but to not suffer like I was an arthritic ninety year old. I'm limber, I'm energized and I feel really fine.. usually with a spring in my step and a song in my heart! Now, the thing I can't attest to is whether this is a downturn in my disease OR a side effect of the LDN. Let's look at the latter as a possibility for a moment. I expected nitemares or extensive sleep disruptions from my LDN treatment. It's known that those are typical side effects of this drug. I have had vivid dreams, so that I can attest to. But my sleep cycle has improved. I have far less pain, so it's easier for me to get to sleep... and I think the positive effects of the LDN treatment has meant less worries, less things to keep my mind in overdrive, so I don't have as many of those 'mind racing out of control' nites to prevent me from getting to sleep... so, these two aspects of the drug have assisted me to get to sleep sooner.. easier. But the long sleeps that no longer cause me pain in the morning... that flies in the face of the 'expected' side effects of the LDN. for that reason, I suspect that my improved ability to sleep, the feeling better in the morning, etc., THOSE I suspect are signs my illness is starting to weaken. If one accepts that theory (and I'm no doctor, this isn't a scientific study, okay?) I would suggest that my pre LDN sleep experiences were a 'symptom' of my IBD.

That the whole question of sleep: getting to sleep, sleeping soundly, feeling of being refreshed/rejuvenated after a good nites sleep... that these are natural part of the whole sleep process.. of how a 'healthy' body rests and recovers. I also think that missing any/all of these is a sign/symptom of IBD in general, and that anything one can do to improve their sleep situation MUST help in fighting this disease. That's my 'new' theory, and I can't prove it, yet it seems to me to be so elemental, so logical, and fits the condition I find myself in post LDN that it has to have a kernal of truth in it. I just find it hard to accept that I didn't see it before. Like I said, I thought it (my sleep situation) was just due to my age. I see in hindsight, that like my docs suspect, I started getting IBD 20 years ago, and my sleep situation started degrading, and continued to degrate, since then
 
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no matter how much i sleep im always tired.
and i always wake up at 7am no matter what time i go to bed. its sooo anoyying

x
 
i love sleeping, but i am a night owl, and literally cannot drop off to sleep unless i am really tired (usually 1am-2am). this causes problems the next morning as i still have to be up at 7 on school days. if i go to bed earlier, i lie there and get so frustrated that everyone else in the house is snoring away & i'm still awake, that it makes sleep even harder to achieve lol

i never go for a sleep during the day, unless i have a migraine or have a bad cold.. mainly for psychological reasons. it reminds me of when i was really poorly with crohns years ago, in hospital, and spent months in bed..

so, i just go around looking slightly tired each day, except saturdays & sundays when i can sleep in :D

btw, many of you have mentioned the restless leg syndrome - what is this? i also have it, have done for about 4 years now, but i dont know what it is, nor what causes it.
 
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same here dingbat first day back at school tomorrow its around 10.00 and im not tired at all. I know even if i go up to bed now ill still be awake at 12.00 annoyed that instead of having 9 hours sleep and feeling great ill have had 7 hours and be cranky! oh well get a lie in on wednesday going for bloods at the hospital at 10.30 :) dont think i could cope without weekends!
 
hi amor - good luck with the blood tests on wednesday! i would also be completely lost without weekends to replenish some rest - as it is, i start off the weeks tired but coping, by thursday & friday mornings i am shattered, and spend my days yawning. i have almost forgotten what its like to wake up, leap out of bed, and look forward to my days - crohns brings an unnatural tiredness, and it seems these days the best i can do is just put up with it.


dingbat.
 
I never had trouble sleeping but going back on prednisolone over the Christmas holidays I could hardly sleep at all (Christmas day I was awake from 3am!)
 
i have never really had an issue with sleeping apart from i sleep to much.

I could go to bed at 10pm and sleep right though to 2pm the folowing day and still go to bed at 10 that night.
 
Sleeping is pretty much impossible for me unless I take 2mg Klonopin and like 4 Simply Sleep. Prednisone or not. Also a very very light sleeper. Up almost every hour but after being in bed for about 5 hours then I could sleep for 12 hours with no problem. Wierd.
 
Bumping this one up! For all you Night Owls out there!

I CANNOT SLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!!!!!!!!!
I'm sooooooooooooooooooooo tired!!!!!!
 
i never had trouble sleeping only when flaring or when on prednisone at 40mg.. right now im at 35 and i sleep ok..
 
When I flare, it's nearly impossible to sleep. For one thing I can't lie down, the pain is too bad when I lie down flat so I have to be sitting up. And secondly, I can't be in a dark room - for some reason my nausea goes crazy when the lights are out, so I have to be in a brightly lit room. So when I flare, I tend to stay up all night sitting up on the couch with all the lights on. I can sometimes doze off like that for 20 or 30 minutes at a time, but the urgency or pain usually wakes me right back up again so I never sleep for very long. It's absolutely miserable - I wish I could sleep more during a flare, I'm sure my body needs rest during that time, but it's just not possible!
 
I sleep, but I wake up tired. Here lately it seems like I didn't even go to bed at all, I'm tired through out the day and have no energy.
 
devildee(donna2005)LOL said:
Hi Since ive had my ileostomy ive has problems sleeping i wake every time i turn over (((hugs)))
Click to expand...
I have never been able to sleep though the whole night since I had my ileostomy aswell! My doctor is sending me to a sleep clinic to figure the whole mess out!

____________________________________
~traci~:ghug:
dianosed with crohns disease 1986
Ileostomy 1992
 
I have a horrid time getting to sleep, then staying in sleepy time. Now that I'm on 800 mgs of Seroquel and 1500 mgs of Depakote, I don't seem to have that problem, lol.
 
I remain undiagnosed, but I've had trouble sleeping since I was a kid, long before my relatively recent gut issues. Up until I was about 11, my brother (4 years older) and I shared a bedroom. He always fell asleep before I did. When I was about 9, my brother had a morning paper route, and I would go out with him sometimes. We'd leave about 4:30am, get back around 6. He would fall right back asleep, and I'd be up the rest of the day.

I went to a sleep specialist last week, and am going to schedule a sleep study. Maybe it will at least explain the "fibromyalgia" I've had for about 30 years.
 
I take enough drugs to help me sleep at night it could take down and elaphant. I have tons of trouble sleeping you are not alone. It is FRUSTRATING I know it leaves you feeling sluggish the rest of the day and that isn't any fun. Hope you get the answers you need David.
 
I can't ever have a solid night sleep. My G.I. Doc told me that this is fairly common in his Crohn's patients. He thinks there is a tie, but did not know what the tie is.
 
Right now I don't sleep much at all. Every position hurts since my tummy and sides are so sensitive. I'll find one that is tolerable, but wake up 20 minutes later in so much pain I can barely move. I take Benadryl on the weekend when the hangover is tolerable. During the week I just deal with being a zombie. Prior to crohn's I never had trouble sleeping. Oh how I miss those days.
 
I always have sleep issues. My G.I. said that it can be caused by Crohns. He asked me to have my neurologist order a sleep study, which I had last Thursday night. It will be interesting to see the results. The technician said I definitely was thrashing about, and he also said the oxygen levels were fluctuating. He is not sure the docs will be concerned about it our not.
 
there can be other several reasons for not getting a sound sleep . you may want to try yoga . It's a great source of energy for your mind, body and soul . it would calm your body and help you sleep better .
I tend to redecorate my bedroom often , get new sheets and mattress overlay etc.
also do not put tv in the bedroom
 
I never sleep at the start of this illness I slept alday and night. Now i get a couple of hours a night even taking 7.5 mg of zopiclone. I toss and turn all night the more i do the more my aniexty effects me and i think about things.. the list goes on.
 
I too barely sleep. Would be interested to know what the link is to crohns and not sleeping well. Any Ideas on what it may be? Could it have something to do with the force of gravity on the relaxed body? Just a theory. Might be a part of it.
Dougute let us know what your results are Im interested. Anyone else who has had sleep study let us know too.
 
I was actually diagnosed with a sleep disorder before I was diagnosed with Crohns by a year... I wake up about 7 times an hour without reason... the sleep study I did showed I had enough oxygen but my body just kept waking up and this is why i was always so exhausted. Now I'm on Amitryptiline (sp?) to help me stay asleep. I still have some trouble of course when I have to get up to use the bathroom several times in a night.

Pam :)
 
My pain is always high at night, and my favorite position to sleep at night is on my stomach, so I have a hard time getting to sleep and staying there. Another issue I have is the tramadol causes insomnia..if I try and sleep I wake back up 5 minutes later. So I take that only during the day until 4 or so, and I take unisom to try and knock myself out to get out of pain. Even then I don't get real rest because of the pain!
 
No trouble sleeping... I slept 12 hours a night, and have a 2 hours nap in the afternoon. It affects my life. My life is just on repeat of eating, pain and sleeping. :((
 

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