sleep

[hurlock1]

I have a problem getting to sleep. I hate going to bed and laying awake and listening to my wife snore. I used to be able to go to sleep the minute my head hit the pillow. It's really frustrating. I tried Roserum. It made me dream really weird dreams and made me feel sick at my stomach. I tried benydril. I sleep with a cpap machine and it made my nose and mouth as dry as the back of my hand. Recently the Nurse Practitioner prescribed Temazepam and I do go to sleep shortly after going to sleep (usually at about 10:30) but I wake up fully at about 12:30 am, and after going to sleep again, I wake up fully again at 3:00 am only to wake up again when the alarm goes off at 5:15 am. ( i go to dialysis at 6:30 AM) And I can't sleep at dialysis. I look around and see as many as not of the other patients sleeping through dialysis. It would be so great if I could sleep through dialysis. It would be so great if I could get a good night's sleep! I'm wondering if there is a sleep medicine that people take that is not harmful. I see all of these commercials on TV for Ambien, But there have been things in the news about people sleep driving, Sleep walking and such on Ambien.

[G-Ma]

Welcome to the club....the non sleep club...my neph went down the list with most sleep meds you see on tv..Roserum, did nothing, Lunesta, did nothing, and others and I'm back on Ambien, which gives me 3 hours sleep at the most.  If I take Benadryl and Ambien I get 4 hours.  Mostly I feel like the walking dead.  If you find anything that works, let us know.

[cherpep]

Ahhh... the walking dialysis zombies.  Yep count me in with that group.  I hate taking medication for sleep, I just never feel rested, just drugged.  But then again - I also hate not getting any sleep.  On the nights when I'm lucky enough to finally fall asleep, it's only minutes before the alarm wakes me up to go to work.  Yep, I'm a dialysis zombie.

[paris]

I belong to that club too!  My husband can't understand and worries he wakes me up during the night.  Nope--never fell asleep in the first place!  I take Ambien and rotate between the bed and couch several times during the night.  Can't imagine what it would be like without the Ambien and I am not going to try! 

I hope you find something that helps you.  It is miserable to always be sleep deprived.   

[paul.karen]

i finally fit into a club.
I work fulltime and get about 5 hours a night sleep.  That includes waking up at least twice if not more to try and use the bathroom.
In bed by 9 or 10.  Up for work at 5am with plenty of tossing and turning.
Two weeks ago we bought a temper-pedic bed.  Lotsa $$  Karen sleeps well it doesnt help  me.

Tylenol has a PM pill i take every now and again.
And i rarely drink anymore but when i do i seem to get a goods night rest..

[Savemeimdtba]

I am in the minority here, I know... but I sleep much better since starting dialysis.  I sleep a good 10-11 hours a night (don't throw things at me, please ).  I don't know if it's just that I'm so exhausted by the time I go to bed or what but it's working for me! ::knock on wood::

[paddbear0000]

Before I started dialysis I slept all the time. Since I started dialysis I don't sleep at all. I am in the dialysis zombie club too. I can't take benadryl because it gives me restless legs. I've tried Ambien though. It worked for me, but it to be very scary. My husband kept telling me that I was waking him up and talking incomprehensibly to him. i've woken him up telling him I saw psychedelic colors on more than one occasion. I would also hallucinate. The day after taking it, I felt groggy all day. My best friend started taking too, until one  night she woke up in the middle of the night and cooked eggs on the stove. She got  up the next day and found the pan, with the eggs still in it, on the stove. And the stove was still on!!!! She never took another pill again. I keep telling various doctors that I am not sleeping, but each one tells me to see another one of my doctors, so I'm just going around in circles. Maybe some day I'll actually get more than 3 hours of sleep in a night!

[jbeany]

I am in the minority here, I know... but I sleep much better since starting dialysis.  I sleep a good 10-11 hours a night (don't throw things at me, please ).  I don't know if it's just that I'm so exhausted by the time I go to bed or what but it's working for me! ::knock on wood::

I alternate between that and the waking up every couple of hours.  I do find that the more I exercise, the less likely I am to wake up, but some nights, I'm up every two or three hours, and some nights it would take an explosion to wake me up before I've gotten my 10 straight hours in.  At least when I do have the nights where I keep waking up, I can usually fall back to sleep in a few minutes.

[angellady07]

Count me in.  I usually take a couple of benadryl and am still awake at 2 in the morning. I'm exhausted but I can't sleep. When I do close my eyes my legs start jerking and feel like something is moving inside. My nephrologist prescribed mirapex for restless leg. Thanks paddbear I never thought benadryl might be part of the problem.

[thegrammalady]

i've been on dialysis for 3 years and had the same problems. it got to the point i just didn't try any more. if i couldn't sleep, i just got up and read or used the computer. but then i don't work, so if i needed to sleep during the day i could. some days i would sleep most of the day and then have no problem sleeping that night. no way to live. however, since i have started nocturnal my sleep patterns are much improved. best decision i've ever made. in my book more dialysis = better sleep.

[TeenHatesDialysis]

Sleep has been a huge problem with my 14 year old daughter since she was 8 years old and CKD started kicking in. I have adjusted her schedule so that she doesn't have to be to school until 9:15am.  I know that she could not make it any earlier.  She is in the zombie club. She won't take ambien, because some nights she takes it and still doesn't sleep and then it makes her more of a zombie the next day.  I took her to sleep studies and sleep doctors.  She is on hemodialysis in hospital M, W and Friday 2:30- 6:30pm and she sleeps if the nurses are not too loud.  The docs continued to tell me to keep her up, don't let her sleep, because sleeping during dialysis is making her stay up all night.  I tried to keep her awake during dialysis, but then she wasn't sleeping at all....Major zombie. Hoping that things get to normal or somewhat normal someday.

[Yvonne]

I am a carer to my husband John, he is not on dialysis yet and he can fall asleep on a pin head. But I have the problem, not been able to sleep in years just can't turn my thoughts off.  It's worst now as I worry about John.  I was telling a Friend of mine about it and she said try Camomile herbal tea with a spoonful of honey last thing at night. I don't know if it's mind over matter but ever since taking it I have slept quite well. Also try Kalms take 2 with the tea and you should sleep like a log. Yvonne 

[sewerrat4u]

It's 1:50 am right now and I can't sleep. I take TRAZODONE 50MG , it knocks me out but a few hours later I'm wide awake. That's when the ugly anxiety comes in, I do PD for 8hrs every night and I never get a straight shot of sleep. My wife can put the lights out as soon as her head hits the pillow.
I just hate dialysis 

[kristina]

Is "Insomnia" a general problem, meaning, is it wide-spread in dialysis-patients?

[hurlock1]

I was wondering if anybody has tried Ambien CR. (Controlled Release) I'm thinking that I could go to sleep, no matter what's on TV, @ 9:00 pm and wake up at 5:15am The commercials say "be sure to allow for 8 hr sleep and don't drive any machinery until youknow. . ." There was a news story last week where this guy had a wreck, and was aquited of DUI because he was driving while asleep, on Ambien. I don't want to end up like that. but it would be great to get a nights sleep.

[thegrammalady]

Is "Insomnia" a general problem, meaning, is it wide-spread in dialysis-patients?

most dialysis patients have an inverse sleep pattern.

[Tinah1968]

Any of you ever try Melatonin? It is produced by your body but if your levels are low you don't sleep at night. You have to ask the Dr if it is safe. I used to take it before and it helped me but right now i am not having trouble sleeping but I do occasionally.. So I take it 20 minutes before I go to bed and I sleep through the night.

Melatonin and Sleep
Melatonin is used most frequently for sleeping troubles and jet-lag. By differing the amount of exposure to lightness and darkness, there is a possibility of abrupting the sleep/wake cycle. It is believed this change results from varying levels of melatonin being produced. Taking melatonin is thought to induce sleep. It is found to work best when taken between twenty to forty minutes before bedtime. Low levels of melatonin seem to impede or disrupt sleep (http://www.readysorf.es/lifeplus/ingredients/p2.html). Without rising levels of melatonin in the evening, it is difficult to fall asleep (http://www.liberty.com/home/appaloosa/mel.htm). The peak of melatonin production appears to be at 2:00 a.m. Melatonin levels rise when the sun goes down and decrease after 2:00a.m. (http://www.ceri.com/melaton.htm). By taking melatonin tablets before bedtime, one can supplement their melatonin levels, making sleep come more easily and sleeping more consistently

[kristina]

My case may be different due to the other complications I have, but when I entered end-stage renal failure I began to have problems sleeping with accompanying pain in the kidney region, and we discovered in an old Encyclopedia Britannia the recommendation that lime-juice helps certain kidney complains. Since then I squeeze half a lime into a glass, fill with water and drink one glass every day in the morning. All I can say is that I sleep much better and the pain has gone. Whether the lime helped I could not say but I still drink it.

[hurlock1]

Any of you ever try Melatonin? It is produced by your body but if your levels are low you don't sleep at night. You have to ask the Dr if it is safe. I used to take it before and it helped me but right now i am not having trouble sleeping but I do occasionally.. So I take it 20 minutes before I go to bed and I sleep through the night.

Melatonin and Sleep
Melatonin is used most frequently for sleeping troubles and jet-lag. By differing the amount of exposure to lightness and darkness, there is a possibility of abrupting the sleep/wake cycle. It is believed this change results from varying levels of melatonin being produced. Taking melatonin is thought to induce sleep. It is found to work best when taken between twenty to forty minutes before bedtime. Low levels of melatonin seem to impede or disrupt sleep (http://www.readysorf.es/lifeplus/ingredients/p2.html). Without rising levels of melatonin in the evening, it is difficult to fall asleep (http://www.liberty.com/home/appaloosa/mel.htm). The peak of melatonin production appears to be at 2:00 a.m. Melatonin levels rise when the sun goes down and decrease after 2:00a.m. (http://www.ceri.com/melaton.htm). By taking melatonin tablets before bedtime, one can supplement their melatonin levels, making sleep come more easily and sleeping more consistently

Ihave tried melatonin. I have most of (half) of a bottle in my medicine drawer. It gave me nightmares. I don't know why. other nights, no nghtmares, No sleep! It also caused stomach discomfort for whatever reason. I would have liked it to work for me. It is cheap and available across th counter.

[hurlock1]

My case may be different due to the other complications I have, but when I entered end-stage renal failure I began to have problems sleeping with accompanying pain in the kidney region, and we discovered in an old Encyclopedia Britannia the recommendation that lime-juice helps certain kidney complains. Since then I squeeze half a lime into a glass, fill with water and drink one glass every day in the morning. All I can say is that I sleep much better and the pain has gone. Whether the lime helped I could not say but I still drink it.

I'LL TRY THAT! It can't hurt, as far as I know.

[kristina]

I hope it helps, good luck!

[staceyand joe92]

I have a terrible time sleeping since beginning dialysis. I can't take Ambien. I am one of those people that cooks, walks, drives in their sleep. I woke up one morning to find out I had baked a cake and frosted it at some point during the night. My doc gives me Ativan to help relax me before bed and it does help but the next day I feel hungover.

[silverhead]

The only thing that works for my wife is 1 Tylenol #3 and 1 Tylenol PM, She might still wake up a couple of  times and say that she has had "Bad" dreams but with a few soothing words drops off to sleep quickly......

[draven]

When i was on dialysis i couldnot sleep at all. my mind would not switch off. i found that not sleeping at dialysis did help a little.

[cherpep]

Shhhhh.  Don't tell anyone, but I actually got a good night's sleep.  Not just 1 - but 2!!  The past 2 nights I fell asleep right away, and slept for 7 hours straight!!  Unheard of!!!  I don't want to tempt fate, so I won't say it out loud.  I haven't done anything different, so I'll be back in the zombie club soon enough I'm afraid.  But, for today, I like feeling rested.  Shhhhhhhh.. keep it between us.