Open Eyes ~ First time I have heard how cortisol affects sleep issues, very interesting. Will have to do more research on this. I guess this may very well be what makes it difficult to sleep, stay asleep and go back to sleep when I wake up in the wee hours of the morning. My bedroom is a very scary place for me anyway, but your new information takes things to a much deeper level. I wish someone had explained all this to me, even my sleep doctor never took the time.
You are lucky your husband is understanding and supportive of you. I know what it feels like to be kicked and punched while in sleep by a spouse. It's not very pleasant. You have to do what you have to do to try to ensure some semblance of sleep to stay sane. It's a survival issue. I had to sleep separately from my spouse too.
I really like your idea of a coloring book, never thought of that. I know there are adult coloring books on Amazon. Do you use crayons or colored pencils? Interesting how doing something so simple like that shuts down the flight or fight response in the brain. I had been playing GinRummy or Solitaire at night while listening to soothing music. Then I have booktapes that I can turn on for increments of 15 minutes at a time to help lull me back to sleep. Making sure I use boring books, lol, so far that works, but I always wake up exhausted as if I ran a marathon in the morning, with severe muscle aches and joints.
Interesting how you learned what your brain does to keep you confused. May I ask, was there research you did on this, or did your therapist teach you all this? I would really like to know more about this.
I also live in an Independent Senior Home, but it's really not so independent. We have Alzheimers patients here who are supposed to have aides with them around the clock, but the aids never do and with Sundowners, my neighbors wander at night. My neighbor across from me has Alzheimers and she gets lost once she goes outside her front door and mistakes my door as hers and will knock on my door for long period of time all night long and calls for help. I have complained about this to management but it keeps happening. So, in defense, I am forced back into my bedroom so I can shut the door and turn the fan on high. Once back in bed, I am then subject to fear and feeling unsafe being in bed. No easy answers. I am stuck here for the next two years, sadly.
Birdie
Quote:
Originally Posted by Open Eyes
This therapy I am doing now is similar to EMDR but has more to it than just EMDR. A lot of people that struggle with PTSD complain of having sleep issues. It's hard to go into a deep sleep when your body is stuck in hyper vigilant mode. A person is a lot more sensitive and has a tendency to suddenly produce a lot of cortizol which basically keeps the body "ready" for flight.
I'll start some research on Google Scholar about Cortisol and sleep and when I see the new psych doc next week, will address this. When I was on an APsychotic medication, my former psych doc put me on Cogentin and that helped me with very restful sleep. When my sleep doc heard I was on Cogentin, he warned me of continual usage of this drug and I went off of it. Perhaps I'll ask about this drug with the new psych doc too. I know Lamictal and Klonopin are not helping maintain my mood lately with all this trauma, so I do need some extra help, especially with sleep.
Thank you soo much for educating me about all this Open Eyes, you have just enriched my life more than you know !!
Birdie
I had them a lot myself and ended up having to sleep with the TV on so if I woke up all confused at least the TV would be on so I could realize where I was faster. Actually, my husband got so he did not like sleeping with the TV on so now we sleep in separate rooms which is fine with me because my husband is a challenge to sleep with anyway because he tends to move around too much during his sleep and would hit and kick me in his sleep. It got so I was waking up with a large pillow as a sheild near the bottom of the bed trying to get away from him in my sleep.
The reason I also ended up having the TV on was to avoid thinking about the trauma while trying to drift off to sleep and instead fall asleep listening to something on the TV. I tried to find things I could listen to that would not cause me to want to look at the TV. Some people listen to talk radio or even listen to books or music, anything that helps their mind relax. It was not until I read how if you do something that is mundane like coloring in a coloring book for instance, the brain realized "oh, no emergency so I can stop pumping cortizol" and that is how the mind starts to calm down so the person can feel some kind of "normal".
For myself, it helped me to learn about what my brain is actually doing that is confusing me so much. |