CFS sleep

Have you tried Valerian Root? 

Hi Jimmy,

you can get valerian at health food stores. But I would check with your doctor maybe first, herbal remedies can interact with prescribed medicines and make side effcts worse or give you new ones. if you do an internet search, you will be able to find more information about those two drugs. Or ask on this website on the sertraline forum.

Sleeping well is difficult, I know, and I wake up pretty much every night once or twice at least. Have found some help in relaxation and breathing exercises to get back to sleep, sometimes music helps too. Not worrying about not sleeping is essential too. I have read that our brains have a natural sleep cycle of an hour and a half, and once I realised I woke up either every hour and a half, or three hours, or four and a half hours, I thought - well that's just my natural sleep pattern coming out and went back to sleep.

Hi,

I think a macrobiotic diet and walking twice a day, do it for as long as you can cope with even if its 5 min do it once in morning and once in eve at the same time every day its important to get a routine, snooze for 10min after every walk but dont sleep any other time only after activity including reading of anything that makes you exausted go to bed the same time every night and wake same time, this should help your body clock,

Your diet should be very clean as possible i have read that people with me have problems with toxicity and inflammatory problems so a macrobiotic diet can sort this, eating raw food juicings and smoothies will help you feel calm and stop headache and pain because it has anioxidents whivch is medicine, try and get a zink and vit c effervescent and alo vera juice for your immune system, and stop worrying, the people iv met incuding myself worry too much about house work and bills.

Hi Jimmy, Lots of great advice on here already but I thought this might be worth mentioning as it sounds exactly how I was when I was first diagnosed- and I'd ;like to give yoiu some hope things will bgte better, as thye did for me- In my case it weas too much adfrenaine-

........contd..case of to much adrenalne- from havig pushed myself way too hard prior to diagnosis and also had a very acidic diet which can cause key mineral deficiencies ie calcium an magnesium -2 minerals which also help you to sleep. I changed my diet to an alkaline one, stated to take calcium andn  magnesioum tablets (from Boots) cut out all caffeine( tough! :-) but worth it), kept good sleep hygiene ie, bedroom just for sleep - no tv, no surfing the net in there etc. Great book by Frank Lipman called Spent- helped me recover well from this awful insomnia and initia first few months of CFS - within a few months I was sleeping in chunks of 3-5 hours. Hpe thta helps you xx

...excuse the awful typing! lol! xx

 

Hi Jimmy, 

Here are some suggestions I have tried at one time or another:  cut caffeine out of your diet, cut down on sugars, eat whole grains instead of white flour foods, eat cheese or drink milk before bed, take an antihistamine or dramamine (both make me very sleepy).

Given the pills I am on now staying awake is my problem, but I have had sleep troubles before. One thing I have found helpful is not to watch TV or read any-thing exciting before bed.  I still do that sometimesand then I wind up with crazy dreams and restless sleep.  Reading geology books puts me right to sleep.

Good luck!

Sunny

Hi, 

Here is something I should have thought of before I hit the green button:

See if you can get a sleep study done to see if you have sleep apnea.  When I went back and read your comment it made me think of the test I took'  I don't have sleep apnea but one of the things they look for is what you describe.  If you do have sleep apnea they can give you a c-pap which is a machine that forces air into your lungs so you keep breathing.

Hi jimmy,

I went to an nhs seminar pretty much focused on sleep management. One of the interesting things I learnt is that it is natural for a person to wake up several times during the night, apparently everyone does it, but usually we don't remember as there was no stimuli.

I don't know of any supplements you can take but routine and habit really helped me, when I wake up if I can't get back to sleep straight away, I either sit up or if I'm able to get out of bed and make a herbal tea, sit and read for half an hour 20mins just accepting that I am awake, and then go back to bed put on a sleep time meditation and I usually drift back off, this doesn't see immediate results you need to keep at it for a couple of weeks, but then it really kicks in.

Hi and thanks for all your replies.

I've had CFS for about a year - overtraining for a marathon was my downfall. Absolutely does my head in. Thankfully its not as bad as how other people can suffer from it. I still work full time and maintain a house on my own but its a real struggle at times. I've cut out caffiene for about 6 months and no alcohol either. How I'd love to be able to go for a pint with my friends but its just not worth the risk !

I think I'll give the root a miss - too many conflicting stories. I've booked in to see a hypnotist to try and help with the sleep.

Thanks for all the suggestions - have taken them on board :-)

HiJimmy welcome to the sleepless club ,, I'm  a bit of a expert . Get your vitamin D checked , as soon as I got a supplement for it I was a way lot better my sleeplessness was at a all time high , I got my levels checked my vitamin d was low my iron was low and so was my calcium the pain in my legs was unbelivable . Pain not been able to sleep and I was slowly getting worse. Weeks after I got vitamin d my levels were back up and I started to sleep. It was wonderful. I still have problems but it's much much better now.