Extradonary Sleep Needs and other concerns

[HaleyB]

Do any of you find you need a lot more sleep than most 'healthy' people? If so how do you cope with it?

Background:
I am 37
I have 3 kids, all school aged (no little guys to wear me out)
I have a spinal cord injury (car accident when I was 16), my entire lumbar spine is fused, I have a lot of nerve damage but am still ambilitory. Of late (last few years) the nerve damage is progressing. I have lost feeling, have a lot of spasms, have lost some muscle control (but am still able to walk) and the quality of my pain has changed (was muscle pain more than nerve pain, now is much more nerve pain). I have been told that I "should" not be able to walk for years now, and given the fact that I can they always follow up with saying it will not last forever. I am not sure exactly what makes them say this. I guess this is starting to really worry me. I know how much it can cost to convert a home and car for a wheel chair, and we don't have the money.
I also have arthritis (oh joy).
I also have a kidney defect, but that has been under control for over a decade now.
I take a lot of pain medicine. I thought this might be the problem but, I take less now than I did 10 years ago. I tried to cut back to see if it would help and it did not. I did stop taking Celebrex about a year ago, I can not remember if that was when this started or not. My insurance will not cover it, so there is pretty much no way I can take it anyway.
My bloodwork is normal. I do not have Lupis. I am not anemic. Thyroid is fine.

I need to sleep 10-11 hours at least a night. I know the pain inturupts my sleep, it is impossible for me to cover all the pain with medicine (I would stop breathing, kwim), so the 10 hours makes sense to me. But about 1 or 2 days a week I need more like 15+. I go back to sleep after the kids go to school and can not wake up for hours. I pretty much lose the whole day. It is really getting me down.

The real kicker is I want to try to get some sort of job. I am starting to feel guilty about being such a drain to my loved ones. I get great insurance with DH's work but my medical co-pays still amount to 300+ a month. I have never really worked (I was 16 years and 11 days old when I broke my back) and am afraid I am unemployable because of my limitations, but thought I might find something I could do- except not if I need this much sleep! And I worry that if I did work, the strain on me would cause me to need even more. But we are not really getting by well on one income. We do OK, but have only a little savings and with my health that really scares me.

I guess I am also just feeling a bit down today.

 

[BillSears]

Every disability is different so I can't really say whether yours would cause this problem. I'm a paraplegic due to a spinal cord injury at 17 and I don't think that causes me to "need" more sleep. I like sleeping in in the weekends and tend to get about 10 hours then and I get about 7-8 on a normal night but I don't think my hours are that far from the norm.

Have you talked to your doctor about this? He may have some suggestions that you haven't thought of. Also have you considered that it might be a sign of depression? I've heard that sleeping long hours can be depression related.

 

[welovedis]

I second the idea of speaking with your doctor, depression and sleep apnea are 2 things that instantly come to mind. GL!

 

[DisneyElf]

Quick question -- do you snore - all the time ? Do you feel like you have no choice but to sleep (can't make yourself get up and move - even though you know you should?).

I had problems for years -- even to the point I was falling asleep at work -- in fact it was the joke of the office Recently I brought up this topic during a Doctors visit ... he immediately sent me for a sleep study. After that I had to go to an ENT. Turns out - that I have mild sleep apnea -- but - I have a very narrow airway (I'm also asthmatic). Turns out -- my blood oxygen count went down into the 80's at night (normal is 96 - 100 %)

Since early Jan. I've been sleeping with a CPAP machine -- and it has stopped all the symptons. My health plan covers it -- under durable medical goods.

Maybe you should ask your doctor about it.

 

[Earstou]

It's been my experience that a lot of pain meds cause me to be overly tired and I can sleep for hours when using them. Due to the last medication I tried, my Ds was late for school two days in one week because he couldn't wake me up.
I was also using Celebrex until insurance decided not to pay for it. I really liked it because it helped with the pain with very few side effects. My sleep patterns didn't seem to change after I quit using it.
I would suggest discussing your meds with your doctor.

 

[vhoffman]

Have you thought of working at home? On the budget board there's some good suggestions about working at home. I think its called "legitmate work at home jobs" or something like that. One of the suggestions is where you take phone calls at home for various businesses. Say, for example, someone wants to order something from a TV commercial and calls an 800 number. It could get routed to you, you process the order. something along that line. They mentioned two companies that sounded good, I'm considering looking into them. You can set your own hours and pace. The pay isn't great, but your overhead (gas, parking, wardrobe, etc), isn't that great, either. Worth looking into if you would like some part-time work that could fit around your health problems, good luck.

I also just sent you a pm.

 

[dj2]

i think with sleep it not always just the quantity, but the type of sleep you're getting that helps your body rejuvenate and heal. do you have a facility nearby that looks at sleep disorders? it might be worth a visit to see if they can shed some light.

 

[eternaldisneyfan]

It sounds like you may have sleep apnea, 4 people in my house have it. I would get a sleep study...

See, REM sleep (or dream sleep/deep sleep) is the sleep that your body 'counts.' In sleep apnea, once you start deep sleep, you stop breathing. This can happen for 2- 30 seconds and in any intervals. So your body's REM sleep is constantly being interrupted because your body initiates a 'fight or flight' stimulant...Pain meds cause heavier sleep.

Questions:
Do you have nightmares (especially about dying/drowning, suffocating)?
Do you wake up and take a gulp of air or gasping?
Do you wake up sweaty with a fast heart rate?
When you're awake, when you're sitting still do you start to nod off?
Do you frequently wake up with headaches?
Do you feel generally tired no matter how long you sleep?
Do you snore?

These are all signs of sleep apnea. It is a serious disease known as the "silent killer."
But it's easily treatable with a CPAP or BiPAP which corrects the problem and eliminates the symptoms.
(I stop breathing due to lung weakness from Muscular Dystrophy).

I would request a sleep study from your doctor

Christamae

 

[JenJen]

I have Chronic Pain and I am tired ALL the time and I don't take pain meds every day because they make me sick to my tummy so I just deal with a lot of the pain. Pain will make anyone tired. It takes a lot of work to deal with pain 24/7. If you still are tired after you are sleeping that amount of time you might want to look up Chronic Fatigue Immune Deficiency Syndrome. A diagnoses requires that you have extreme fatigue for at least 6 months in a row and is not resolved with rest or sleep. I was diagnosed with CFIDS at 12 years of age and Fibromyalgia at 18.
It could also be that you are waking up so much from pain during the night that even though you are sleeping you are not getting stage 4 sleep. That will make you need to sleep more and feel sleepy. Stage 4 sleep is nessesary to feel rested and for the body to heal properly.
((((((((((((((hugs)))))))))))))))))))
Jen