Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group How do you sleep?

1. What position do you sleep in?
On my stomach or on my side with a pillow between my knees.

2. Are there certain positions you can't sleep in?
Cannot lay on my back.

3. What kind of bed do you sleep in?
Soft, with a pillowtop works best for me.

4. What kind of pillow do you use if any?
Very thin pillow for sleeping on my stomach/side, and one between my knees when on my side.

5. Do you have to take any meds to help you sleep and if so what?
Muscle relaxants/painkillers if I really need it.

6. Do you do anything else to help with pain or comfort to be able to sleep?
Use a very light duvet and a warm room, or a heating pad. Sometimes a hot bath before bed.

How do I sleep? Not very well.

1. What position do you sleep in?
I typically sleep on my left side in a somewhat fetal posititon. I use a thin fluffy pillow for my head and a pillow between my knees.

2. Are there certain positions you can't sleep in?
There is no way I can sleep on my stomach or back. Unfortunately my left side is starting to give me grief.

3. What kind of bed do you sleep in?
A firm mattress with a pillow top. And if I can't get comfortable in that bed I sometimes sleep in the other room....that bed has an even firmer mattress.

4. What kind of pillow do you use if any?
Cheap, thin and fluffy pillows.

5. Do you have to take any meds to help you sleep and if so what?
I sometimes take Flexeril.....but as Buggie mentioned, it too makes me grouchy and irritable. If I can't fall asleep I do take Benadryl. Sometimes I am groogy from the Benadryl. A Bailey's Irish Cream over crushed ice with skim milk also helps me fall asleep.


6. Do you do anything else to help with pain or comfort to be able to sleep?
A hot bath sometimes helps.

Sleep is a luxury and something I don't get enough of.
Take care,
Cara

1. Flat on my back. The first 10-20 minutes are close to excruciating as my back "settles in," but after that it's okay. However, if I sleep on my sides my shoulders dislocate and my jaw subluxes, and if I sleep on my stomach I can't turn my head sideways to breathe without major neck pain.

2. Oops, I told you which positions I can't sleep in when I answered number 1.

3. I sleep on a $14 camping air mattress. Actually, I sleep on a stack of two of them... this makes it normal bed height so that I can get back out of bed in the morning. I pump it up really really full, so it's quite firm... with a bit of elastic-ey give at the pressure points. It's the most comfortable thing I've ever slept on! (and cheap )

4. Right now I have two thin, $2.00 pillows from Target that equal one small- to average-thickness pillow put together. Usually I have my old, "mushy" pillow which scrunches up wonderfully under my neck and I use one thin, cheap pillow under the rest of my head. Unfortunately, I'm still waiting for my former roommate in Florida to send me my pillow and my teddy bear--they didn't fit into my boxes when I moved to Boston a few weeks ago. I can't wait... my neck hurts!

5. I take a tiny little dose of trazadone before I go to bed (I'm super-sensative to the stuff). 1/8 to 1/4 of the normal "starting dose" usually makes me droopy enough to fall asleep most nights. I also take a muscle relaxant in the evening (baclofen) and if things are bad despite my afternoon pain meds I'll add an extra dose or half-dose of methadone in the evening.

6. I spend some time with my heating pad draped over my back before I get into bed to get the muscles relaxed a bit... preparation for the dreaded "spine settling" routine. A little violin music never hurts.

I'm actually sleeping better lately than I have in a long time, and quite happy about it. I still sleep less than a person should, and still wake up feeling like I haven't slept in a week, and still and drag along all day... but that's life. At least I wake up.

'Erie (-:

A water pillow sounds comfy... I'll have to look into that!

I've stared and stared at those Tempur-pedic pillows and was just so afraid it would just be another pillow I can't use... and the price - ouch! Maybe some day I'll try one. If I think about all the money I've wasted on prescriptions that don't work maybe I can talk myself into one.

hehe well 'smoking' isn't really an option for me. But I suppose if I was really hurting and it was available I might try anything LOL.

I slept on my stomach quite often when I was little. I used to wonder if it might have cause my neck problems. Enbrel sure seems like a miracle drug for some of you. That's good! I hope I can find something that does that for me some day. Not likely my insurance would pay for that though.

Again with the smoking! LOL Maybe I should move to California where I can get a prescription LOL I've noticed changing the temperature helps me sleep. It's crazy how long I can sometimes toss and turn thinking I can't sleep then I change the temperature and fall right to sleep. I just wasn't catching on to what my body was trying to tell me. Shows you what pain can do to your head. lol It also seems to help to have the fan of the air conditioner or heater on. If it's too quiet I can't sleep. Has to be really dark too. I actually painted my room chocolate brown because I thought it would make me feel comfortable when I wake up rather than that bright white that hurts my already aching head. And it seems to work. I actually haven't put my curtains back up, just mini blinds and it's dark enough in there for me to sleep at night. Before I couldn't even have the slightest crack in my curtains or I couldn't sleep.

I can imagine how hard it is for you to go through this pregnancy. I'm scared to death to have children. I don't know what I would do if I couldn't take anything for the pain. But it sounds like your AS is pretty bad so it's encouraging to see you do it. Then after the pregnancy there's the fact that it's almost unavoidable that you will have to pick up your child. There's no way AS would keep me from holding my child but I know I would pay for it.

I had a pretty good day today as far as pain goes so I'm hoping for some good sleep tonight. I really think it was the rain that had me hurting more than usual. It has finally passed and it's cool feels great outside. Hope you are sleeping better too.

Oh my gosh, I don't know how you sleep like that. Sleeping on the floor kills my back... but glad it works for you! I'm thinking about taking up Yoga or something similar but unfortunately all I'll probably do is think about it knowing me. lol