How Do You Sleep II

[Cody Fousnaugh]

This isn't the same thread/topic as the other one, "How Do You Sleep?". This is about what you take/use to help you get to sleep and stay asleep. However, at our ages, staying asleep seems not to happen due to urine/bathroom wake-ups in the middle of the night. Also, any stressful thoughts we are having when we do wake up in the middle of the night that won't allow us to go back to sleep.

For sleep, many times, we will have a Sleep Gummy (CBD), but that only works for part of the night. The Sleep Gummy will put us to sleep pretty fast, but when it comes time for the first bathroom wake-up, the Sleep Gummy stops working. My wife has also taken a Tylenol 8 HR. that, sometimes, can help her sleep.

However, lately, due to stress (?) from my upcoming radiation therapy, as well as bathroom wake-ups, neither of us has been getting the sleep we really need. I have a much easier time laying in bed and resting, until I can get back to sleep, than my wife does. As for myself, I don't use the bathroom in the middle of the night at all. I have a hospital urine bottle that I urinate in while in bed. Anyway, sometimes, after midnight and she wakes up, she will have to get up and do something, like our banking, until she is able to get sleepy again.

The biggest problem with my wife's sleep problem is, she is still working a full-time job during the week. We thank the Lord that her job is an "at home" one, but still. Depending on how she feels after getting off of work at 4PM, she will take an hour nap. As for me, I can, and will have to for my radiation therapy, take a nap or rest a number of times during the day. Fatigue is one of the effects that prostate cancer radiation therapy does to a guy.

So, bottom line here is............do you take/use anything to help you get to sleep and not get up that much during the night?

 

[Don Alaska]

I think each person's sleep issues are as individual as their lifestyles @Cody Fousnaugh. You have your health issues, and your wife may have other things that keep her awake. My wife often naps in the evening, then cannot sleep though the night afterwards. My wife has discovered that she has hidden pain issues as well, and sometimes different posture like sleeping in a recliner is easier than sleeping in bed, and if she takes a Tylenol, or even better naproxen (Alleve) even if she doesn't realize she is hurting.

I have tried using CBD to no effect. I use melatonin sometimes, and I have found that different manufacturers and different types and concentrations affect me differently. When I could still hear well, talk radio would help me sleep by interrupting the "racing brain" I used to experience. Music never did, but people talking seemed to work. Since my hearing is nearly gone, that doesn't apply anymore, but my racing brain is gone as well.

 

[Yvonne Smith]

Both Bobby and I take 10 mg of melatonin at night, about an hour before bedtime. Bobby is very coordinated with this, and at 9PM, he lets me know it is time to take melatonin, and at 10 PM, he starts putting everything away and getting ready for bed, so we are pretty regimented with this.
However, Bobby will get up anywhere between 3-6 in the morning, and I usually sleep until 6-7 , and longer in the winter.
When i use the vibration plate before bedtime, it seems to help relax my body and i sleep better, but sometimes, i am involved in reading a book or painting before bed and do you use the vibration plate.

 

[Axel Slingerland]

Usually I don't take anything to sleep. I don't mind two 12 hour days instead one with the normal 24 hours. My Neuro who is now 80, told me 10 years ago that's because I'm getting old. Well, It's a lot worse now that I am six months out from 70. When I told Cindy what he said, she just smiled, handed me a cup of coffee and said "Old Folks Boogie?"

Now and then I would grab my acoustic when we would go out on the front porch. Usually I would just strum out some standard 12 blues riffs. One day I surprised her by doing something like this. (Please note, I can not sing so it sounded way worse than this guy.)

However, when I am in enough pain to require intervention, I wait until I'm ready to go to bed to take a Percocet because I hate the feeling I get when I take them, I've always said they make me stupid, but it's more like I turn into a spaced out hippie. I just sit and stare off into space at nothing. (Commonly referred to by Vets as the 1,000 Yard Stare.) I sleep longer than four hours and usually I wake up I'm in less pain.

I assumed the dose was too high and asked the Doc to lower it. He said what I have is the lowest dose made, and suggested I break them in half. So I did that and they didn't relieve my pain, plus they still make me sleep longer than four hours, but when I wake up I'm stiff as a board and in a lot of pain. That kind of defeats the porpoise. So I just take them before I go to bed. Two days in a row of doing that and I'm usually in less pain for several days.

 

[Don Alaska]

Usually I don't take anything to sleep. I don't mind two 12 hour days instead one with the normal 24 hours. My Neuro who is now 80, told me 10 years ago that's because I'm getting old. Well, It's a lot worse now that I am six months out from 70. When I told Cindy what he said, she just smiled, handed me a cup of coffee and said "Old Folks Boogie?"

Now and then I would grab my acoustic when we would go out on the front porch. Usually I would just strum out some standard 12 blues riffs. One day I surprised her by doing something like this. (Please note, I can not sing so it sounded way worse than this guy.)

However, when I am in enough pain to require intervention, I wait until I'm ready to go to bed to take a Percocet because I hate the feeling I get when I take them, I've always said they make me stupid, but it's more like I turn into a spaced out hippie. I just sit and stare off into space at nothing. (Commonly referred to by Vets as the 1,000 Yard Stare.) I sleep longer than four hours and usually I wake up I'm in less pain.

I assumed the dose was too high and asked the Doc to lower it. He said what I have is the lowest dose made, and suggested I break them in half. So I did that and they didn't relieve my pain, plus they still make me sleep longer than four hours, but when I wake up I'm stiff as a board and in a lot of pain. That kind of defeats the porpoise. So I just take them before I go to bed. Two days in a row of doing that and I'm usually in less pain for several days.

Have you tried hydrocodone instead of Percocet (oxycodone) @Axel Slingerland ? It might be worth a try. Sometimes people respond differently.

 

[Marie Mallory]

Usually I don't take anything to sleep. I don't mind two 12 hour days instead one with the normal 24 hours. My Neuro who is now 80, told me 10 years ago that's because I'm getting old. Well, It's a lot worse now that I am six months out from 70. When I told Cindy what he said, she just smiled, handed me a cup of coffee and said "Old Folks Boogie?"

Now and then I would grab my acoustic when we would go out on the front porch. Usually I would just strum out some standard 12 blues riffs. One day I surprised her by doing something like this. (Please note, I can not sing so it sounded way worse than this guy.)

However, when I am in enough pain to require intervention, I wait until I'm ready to go to bed to take a Percocet because I hate the feeling I get when I take them, I've always said they make me stupid, but it's more like I turn into a spaced out hippie. I just sit and stare off into space at nothing. (Commonly referred to by Vets as the 1,000 Yard Stare.) I sleep longer than four hours and usually I wake up I'm in less pain.

I assumed the dose was too high and asked the Doc to lower it. He said what I have is the lowest dose made, and suggested I break them in half. So I did that and they didn't relieve my pain, plus they still make me sleep longer than four hours, but when I wake up I'm stiff as a board and in a lot of pain. That kind of defeats the porpoise. So I just take them before I go to bed. Two days in a row of doing that and I'm usually in less pain for several days.

I do hope you get to feeling better and don't have to take anything for pain.
Hubby had back problems and a fusion, he was addicted to pain meds for 19 heelish years for me and him. Not one pill since Jan.2019, thank goodness.

 

[Axel Slingerland]

Have you tried hydrocodone instead of Percocet...

Yeah, I had that but it made me sick after the colon cancer surgery. We tried both Norco and Vicodin and we decided it was something about the ingredients of it. So my doc switched me to Percocet.

I do hope you get to feeling better and don't have to take anything for pain.
Hubby had back problems and a fusion, he was addicted to pain meds for 19 heelish years for me and him. Not one pill since Jan.2019, thank goodness.

Whoa... That does not sound like fun. Back in Eureka I rarely took anything. The nerve blocks took care of the pain typically for about two out of three months. But here it's more like two or three weeks at best. But I still only take one or two Percocet a week. Two a day like my prescription says... Fuhgetit. No way I'm getting addicted to these things.

My Neuro in Eureka told me there are surgeries that could help, but not to even think about that until I can't control my bowels and bladder. Other Docs have told me different things, but my Neuro was the one who presented the best reasons to not go there. I would most possibly be in More Pain being the key selling point. Those surgeries don't always work.

 

[Marie Mallory]

Yeah, I had that but it made me sick after the colon cancer surgery. We tried both Norco and Vicodin and we decided it was something about the ingredients of it. So my doc switched me to Percocet.


Whoa... That does not sound like fun. Back in Eureka I rarely took anything. The nerve blocks took care of the pain typically for about two out of three months. But here it's more like two or three weeks at best. But I still only take one or two Percocet a week. Two a day like my prescription says... Fuhgetit. No way I'm getting addicted to these things.

My Neuro in Eureka told me there are surgeries that could help, but not to even think about that until I can't control my bowels and bladder. Other Docs have told me different things, but my Neuro was the one who presented the best reasons to not go there. I would most possibly be in More Pain being the key selling point. Those surgeries don't always work.

That is good Axel, glad your not taking many of them.

 

[Axel Slingerland]

I guess I spent enough time around people who took serious drugs to know that life was not for me. That was one of the down sides to playing in a band. And even living in Eureka. Far too many stoners and tweakers around them both.

 

[Don Alaska]

Yeah, I had that but it made me sick after the colon cancer surgery. We tried both Norco and Vicodin and we decided it was something about the ingredients of it. So my doc switched me to Percocet.


Whoa... That does not sound like fun. Back in Eureka I rarely took anything. The nerve blocks took care of the pain typically for about two out of three months. But here it's more like two or three weeks at best. But I still only take one or two Percocet a week. Two a day like my prescription says... Fuhgetit. No way I'm getting addicted to these things.

My Neuro in Eureka told me there are surgeries that could help, but not to even think about that until I can't control my bowels and bladder. Other Docs have told me different things, but my Neuro was the one who presented the best reasons to not go there. I would most possibly be in More Pain being the key selling point. Those surgeries don't always work.

I don't know what surgeries are suggested, but they would be the last resort I think. We had a 16-year old boy who had cancer of the spinal cord, and a surgeon was flown up here for the surgery from Los Angeles I think to do the surgery. An electrode was implanted in his spine to kill the pain. He was terminal however and died within a few weeks of the operation, but at least his pain was relieved, making his passing more comfortable for him.

 

[Cody Fousnaugh]

Neither of us take any kind of prescription med for sleep. I've been on 50mg Tramadol, that was prescribed to me a number of years ago. I was on Percocet for a time after my left rotator cuff surgery/rehab sometime around 2014 that I had done thru Medicare and my Drug Plan (not thru the VA). My Ortho doctor ended up taking me off of Percocet and put me on 50mg Tramadol for Osteoarthritis that I wound up getting in that left shoulder. I tried PT, with the VA, but it didn't work on the pain I was still getting in that shoulder. So, I was kept on 50mg Tramadol to take once a day and every-other day. I've been on that for some 10 years now. 50 mg Tramadol is the very lowest milligram of Tramadol there is, but it sure helps my shoulder pain when I take it. I also take a Tylenol 8 HR with it to make the Tramadol last longer during the day. On the days I don't take Tramadol, sometimes I have to take two of the Tylenol to combat that shoulder "achy/nagging" pain.

But, as already stated, neither of us take any kind of prescription med for sleep.

 

[Jacob Petersheim]

Once in a great while now I'll take 5mg of Melatonin, and very rarely 10mg.

But my real sleep aid is TV. Not the regular stuff, but YouTube videos. And particular ones at that.

Sometimes what works best are some kinds of ASMR videos done by certain people. Usually these are intended as sleep aids as well as being sort of generally hypnotic in a calming self-help way.

Other times I'll watch either MST3K videos or the same crew's later Rifftrax videos. These are mostly old movies, mostly black & white, along with the hosts doing sarcastic riffing on the dialog and the on-screen action. This is usually hilarious, but after I've seen one several times it becomes relaxing.

All of the above come in lengths from 15 minutes to nearly 2 hours. I put the TV on its "low power" mode which I have tuned down for very low brightness and somewhat desaturated colors. Quite often I decide "that's enough" and shut it off. Other times I let it run out, and after a short interval of inactivity the TV turns itself off.


In MST3K the backstory is that a guy was shot into space to the "Satellite Of Love" to be tortured with bad movies by mad scientists on the ground. The guy made some robot companions out of junk, and he watches those bad movies along with them. These are mostly old, bad monster movies but they can be almost anything.

 

[Cpvr]

I take seroquel and hydroxine(sp?) every night to help me sleep. My mom takes them as well, but my nana(grandma) takes ambien to help her sleep.