Getting quality sleep is important for everyone but especially so for anyone who lives with chronic pain or chronic illness. However, many people across the world are sleep deprived. If you are one of those people, there are a few things you can do to try to improve the quality of your sleep.
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Improve the Quality of Your Sleep by Finding out Why You Are Sleep Deprived
If you know why you’re not sleeping well, you might be able to do something about it.
Are you in pain or uncomfortable? Is your brain too active at night? Are you too hot or too cold? Do bad dreams or nightmares wake you? Is medication causing insomnia as a side effect? Does a full bladder wake you? Is snoring a problem or do you have breathing difficulties at night? Do you have other health issues which may affect your sleeping?
Finding the cause of your sleeping difficulties is half the battle. For some of the problems I’ve listed, you may be able to help yourself. However, sometimes medical help is needed. Never hesitate to talk to your doctor if you aren’t sleeping well.
What Can Happen if You Suffer From Chronic Sleep Deprivation?
Whether you suffer from insomnia or you simply have disturbed sleep most nights, it’s a serious problem because sleep deprivation has an impact on your health.
Apart from feeling like a zombie day after day, it’s much more difficult to cope with pain and life in general. You can become irritable, easily stressed and depressed. It’s possible to develop memory problems due to tiredness and it’s difficult to stay focused and concentrate. If you’re unable to concentrate properly, you may be at risk of having accidents.
Chronic sleep deprivation can also affect long-term physical health. The immune system can suffer making you more prone to catching viruses. There is also more chance of gaining excess weight, developing heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes.
Improve the Quality Of Your Sleep – How Much Sleep is Enough?
Everyone is different, but according to the NHS in the UK, most people need roughly eight hours of sleep every night. However, if you live with chronic pain or illness, you might also find that you need more than that. You may need to nap during the day. Living with health problems can be tiring – there’s more to chronic pain than just the pain.
12 Ways to Improve the Quality of Your sleep
Here are twelve ideas that might help you to improve the quality of your sleep if you are having problems.
1. Talk to Your Doctor
It’s important to tell your doctor if you have a long-term sleep problem because there may be a medical reason. They might refer you for a sleep study to try to find a cause. If snoring is a problem, you may have sleep apnoea which can be helped by using a CPAP machine.
Tell your doctor if your pain is keeping you awake because they may want to alter your medication. If your medication is causing insomnia or disturbing dreams (those are common side effects), tell your doctor.
Sleeping pills may help but are normally only prescribed for short-term use. Unfortunately, sleeping pills aren’t an ideal long-term solution. They may interact with your other medication, have nasty side effects and cause dependency. Please take a look at this article about sleeping pills, if you are considering using them.
2. Form Good Sleep Habits
If we get into a routine of not sleeping properly, it becomes difficult to break that habit. Therefore, try to maintain a regular sleeping pattern with a set bedtime at night and use an alarm to wake you in the morning.
When we are in pain or we’re tired and fatigued, we often need to sleep on and off throughout the day. This can mean that we’re not tired at night. Therefore, when you nap through the day, set an alarm so that you don’t sleep for too long.
If you wake through the night, don’t automatically get up or reach for your phone. Try to stay in bed and do some relaxing breathing exercises. Don’t clock watch or get annoyed with yourself. If you really can’t get back to sleep, try reading or listening to music.
3. Relax Before Trying to Sleep
It’s important not to tax your brain before sleeping so wind down by having a warm bath, listening to soft music or a relaxation CD. Meditate, practise mindfulness or do calming, relaxing breathing exercises.
Avoid Screentime
Switch off your smartphones, tablets and computers for a couple of hours before you go to sleep. Using them will stimulate brain activity and prevent you from sticking to your routine and falling asleep. Besides that, the blue light used in screens actually tricks your brain into thinking it’s daylight.
4. Are You Sleeping Comfortably?
Beds are expensive, but it’s crucial to have a comfortable mattress.
5. Watch What You Eat and Drink
Eating a big meal before bedtime may mean your sleep is interrupted by indigestion. Apart from that, your stomach will have to work hard through the night. The stomach and brain are connected, therefore, if the stomach is hard at work, the brain is kept active too.
However, don’t go to bed hungry either because hunger will also waken you. Have a light snack if you need to eat before going to sleep.
Avoid Stimulants
Avoid alcohol, caffeine and sugary drinks close to bedtime as they will stimulate your brain (and your bladder). Alcohol might help you to fall asleep, but it could be a night of disturbed sleep, leaving you more tired in the morning. Alcohol can also increase symptoms of sleep apnoea.
6. Does Your Bladder Wake You at 3am?
Bladders can’t always hold on through the whole night and once you’re awake, it’s difficult to get back to sleep. Try not to drink anything for at least a couple of hours before going to sleep.
7. Darken Your Bedroom
Our bodies naturally expect daylight in the daytime and darkness at night. A bright bedroom in the summer months, or if it’s lit up by the moonlight or external light pollution might keep you awake. If your bedroom isn’t dark enough, treat yourself to some blackout blinds or curtains or wear an eyemask.
8. Check the Room Temperature
Extremes of temperature will cause a night of disturbed sleep and could increase pain levels which will waken you, therefore, try to ensure your bedroom is neither too warm nor too cold.
We lose body heat from our heads and that’s the one part of our bodies that goes uncovered at night. If your head and face become cold, you will wake up and if you have trigeminal neuralgia or another facial pain condition, you will most likely waken with pain. If you can’t maintain the temperature of the room, wear a hat through the night.
You might also want to invest in an electric blanket or if you tend to overheat, perhaps a fan or a cooling mat and pillow would help.
9. Worries, Stress and Anxiety
We’ve all been there. Things play over and over in our minds and we see every hour on the clock. It’s easy to say, ‘switch off and stop worrying’, but in reality, it’s not that simple.
If you keep thinking about things you need to do the next day, write a list then try to put it out of your mind. If something is worrying you, try talking to someone or write down what’s bothering you. Learn some breathing and relaxation exercises too because they can help. Becoming sleep deprived won’t help.
Click here for tips on coping with stress
10. Tinnitus – the Noise Which Nobody Else Hears
During the day, other noise can drown out tinnitus or at least distract you from it. But in the silence of the night, those ringing and whistling noises can be overwhelming and can prevent you from falling asleep.
Playing quiet music could distract you, however, if you have a partner, it might distract them from sleeping.
Other things to try:
- Use pillow speakers to listen to music or sounds.
- Try a sound machine to drown out the tinnitus.
- Wear wireless sleep headphones. You could even combine wireless headphones with an eyemask.
11. Supplements and Herbal Remedies to Aid Sleep
There are some supplements and herbal remedies which could possibly help. A popular supplement is melatonin, a manmade hormone which can help to regulate sleeping patterns. If you are in the UK, and possibly in some other countries, melatonin should only be prescribed by a doctor.
If you intend to try any supplements or herbal remedies, please talk to your doctor or pharmacist as they may not be safe for you or they may interact with other medication which you take
12. Keep a Sleep Diary
If the problem is persistent, keep a diary to record your sleep pattern. It will let you see if there’s anything you can do yourself to improve the quality of your sleep.
If you need to discuss your sleeping problems with your doctor, let them see your sleep diary so they can understand more about what’s happening.
Click here to learn how to help doctors listen and understand
Children Need Good Sleep Hygiene Too
Sleep is so important for everyone, most especially children. Sleep helps their growth and development and, just like adults, if they don’t get enough quality sleep, they will most likely be grumpy and tired the following day. If you have children, their lack of sleep will also be affecting your sleep. And if they’re tired and grumpy, you possibly will be too.
Some of the suggestions above might also help children to get better quality sleep. I have also come across the following article specifically aimed at children. I hope you find it helpful.
Help Your Children to Get Better Sleep
Sweet Dreams
I hope these tips can help you to improve the quality of your sleep. It might take time to get into a routine, so be patient with yourself. However, don’t just put up with long-term sleeping problems – your doctor will be able to help you.
Thank you so much for reading.
If this post resonated with you, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
And feel free to share it with your friends or support groups.
Take care,
Liz.
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I’ve got a love/hate relationship with sleep; I love sleep, it hates me! I always find I get up each morning now feeling so rough, often with a migraine, face feeling awful, not able to breathe, my joints don’t want to move without some WD40. So even if I do sleep, I almost wish I didn’t because of how I feel when I get up. I have found that changing my pillow has helped with feeling a bit more comfortable. I eventually splashed out on a ridiculously expensive Tempur memory foam pillow last year and it was such a good investment. I can also tick off ‘get a new bed’ on your suggestions as I’ve just ordered one! Hurrah! My mattress & divan are almost as old as I am, so it’s well overdue. New bed will arrive in August, so I’m looking forward to that. Melatonin is an interesting one; I looked at this before but I didn’t think supplements were available in the UK (maybe I’m wrong?) I’d be interested in trying it if it’s possible to though. And a great point on those niggly anxieties and thoughts at night. Easing those out of our heads is really important.
Super tips, Liz! I hope you get some good Zzzs this weekend! xxxx
Caz, firstly, I am so glad you mentioned melatonin. When I checked the other day, they are available to buy from various places online. But after reading your comment, I checked further and they are actually banned from public sale here. They are available, but prescription only. I’ve adjusted my post and added the NHS link. It’s worrying that people can buy them online.
I know that morning feeling well. Nothing wants to work. I have a memory foam pillow too which I love. It was expensive, but has definitely been worth it. I hope your new bed helps you. We’re nearly into August, so not too long to wait!
Some great tips here, another one is what the Hystersisters told me about when I had my hysterectomy and I know it sounds bizarre but a wool quilt. They like our beds and mattresses are an investment but so worth it, I have two one 9.5 and one 4.5 that fasten together but I have never had to do that.
I also have a cool pillow but a good quality one.
Not mastered the not getting up for a pee though as one of the symptoms of MS is peeing and having to the minute you get the urge…:) xx
Oh, I’ve not heard of a wool quilt before, but I imagine they’d be really good. The through the night peeing is so annoying, isn’t it?
I’ve been really bad at sleeping recently. I think it’s the change in all our lives right now. Being unsettled.
I almost always have a how water bottle as I can’t fall asleep if I’m cold in the slightest. I have a lot of medical equipment in my room that make very quiet noises, I now need that white noise.
Some great tips thanks.
I think you’re right about the change in all our lives just now upsetting our sleeping habits. I seem to see 4am too often.
Oh me too. It used to be the case I’d see 4am on the night side, now it seems to be the start of my day! Oh my youth. Ha.