Sleep pattern post SAH

[Karen]

Kris,

I also found that post SAH I did not have any experience of dreaming whilst I was asleep and I seemed to go from very deep sleep (REM?) to wide awake with no interim stages.

I have assumed this is due to the fact that my traumatised brain was inducing very deep sleep to aid the recovery process? However in the last few weeks, I have started to experience slight recollections of dreaming on waking. I am taking this as another postive sign of my contined recovery.

Has anyone else experienced anything similar with sleep patterns/phases?

Wem

(Topic split and added to the SAH forum)

Edited April 9, 2013 by Karen
Admin Note: Split Thread

[Winb143]

Wem,

I do not remember anything pre shunt, once shunt was in I came around but never had a dream until

approx. 3/4 months ago. (I Think?)

While in cuckooland, I saw my parents and some of my brothers who had passed on.

Dream or not? I like to think they were looking out for me.

Be Well one and all

Love

WinB143xx xx

Edited April 10, 2013 by Winb143

[Louise]

Since the SAH I rarely dream only on the odd occasion that I do...

And when I was in hospital I was with my Mum & Granny and other members of my family very safe & secure till my Mum pushed me towards Ronnie, yes Mum & Granny were dead but strangely it gives me comfort...

[Winb143]

Louise,

I was at a party with my parents and brother who had passed my Mum just pointed at my daughter never spoke to me.

I wasn't at all scared I wanted to sing with her, she was not having it though lol. Thanks Mum xx xx

Weird isn't it xx but nice xx

Love

Win xx xx

[Louise]

Yeh that weird/nice thing know that...

[Karen]

Hi Wem,

I had the opposite of you and had pretty prolific dreams heading towards nightmares just after the SAH... None of them made any sense and they were particularly weird/bizarre, so I often had to "wake" myself up from them.

After this point, I went through a phase of not being able to sleep until 4am, even though I was dog tired and it nearly drove me to distraction!

Once I regained a pattern of sleep, many months later, I stopped dreaming completely or just couldn't remember them.

Again, it was months before I started to dream "normally" ... It does make you wonder whether it is part of the healing process? It's something that I've always wondered.

Over the years since the SAH, I still have a pattern of sleep, where I can have prolific dreams, not remember anything or times where I just can't get off to sleep or wake many times during the night ...I'm 50 and menopausal and I believe that disturbed sleep can also be a symptom of menopause, so now, I kind of don't know whether it's the hormone factor also coming in to play?

xx

[kpaggett]

I also did not dream very much and would wake and be wide awake. I do the wide awake thing about 3X week now and the rest of the time is normal sleep/wake. I distinctly remember having my first dream. Most of us don't remember dreams all that often, but not to dream is a totally different thing than not remembering a dream. Now, I dream but don't remember sometimes like before.

~Kris

[DawnS]

I very rarely dream since sah, but I wonder how much of this is a lack of dreaming and how much is a lack of memory? I have always been a night-owl and used to come to life at about 23:00, but these days I can't get past 21:00 without serious repercusssions the next day and now I'm always awake around 06:00. I only ever set an alwarm as a back-up, it's an extremely rare thing for me to need it these day. Gone are the days of a long lie-in at the weekend!

[gateford]

I have gone from having night terrors two/three times a week to none in the last 4 months post SAH… not being at work so less stressed may be one reason… but my other half is sleeping better without me jumping out of bed in the middle of the night!

[Winb143]

Hi Again All,

Perhaps our brain is too tired to cope with dreams and the brain needs a break from our dreams.

Just a thought xx

Regards

WinB143 xx

[Gill C]

I rarely remember dreams pre or post op. I know I seem to have more 'waking dreams' the ones that seem very real even when you wake & those leave me unsettled & headachy.

My sleep pattern at the moment is rubbish despite taking amytrip & the sedative anti d. I most commonly wake at 5amish or as the sun is coming up. OUr bedroom faces east so as soon as the sun comes up our room is bright & the wooden blinds don;t keep the light out. I haven't been able to sleep in at the weekend since the clocks went back

[Teechur]

Gill,

I take Amitryptiline too. Do you take it for headaches? That's why I take it but I'm not sure it helps at all. It definitely makes me sleep HEAVY. If I take it too late I can hardly get my eyes open the next day. I used to sleep 5-6 hours a night and be cool with that. I'd get up at about 4:30, be at the gym at 5:00, swim or lift for an hour, then shower and off to work.

Right after the SAH I needed a LOT of sleep, often. Makes sense since recovery happens during sleep/rest. I was dealing with restless leg syndrome for about a month and I think the Topamax might have brought that on. I was taking magnesium supplements as needed so I wasn't doing a jig in my sleep every night. Once on the Ami I have only had it (RLS) once and it wasn't bad at all.

I look forward to getting off the Ami. I would like my old sleep patterns back, please.

[Winb143]

Couldn't sleep last night, Hubby snored, dog barked, Daughter left a light on.

Up I get made settee into a bed, then up jumps my dog Sadie pups who looked at me with big brown eyes, so I

gave her a cuddle the took my pillow back to bedroom.

2 am 3 am 4 am still no sleep, I lay there thinking of happy days and remembered my Mum saying to me the following:~

"Win when you cannot sleep you need to relax your body", I remember being in bed with her and she told me to do

this.

Toes relax(wiggle them) legs next wiggle also, working your way up to head, we both lay there laughing so much at how to relax.

We used to get up and have a cuppa then go back to bed.

Mums are great xx woke up at 8.30 am this morning xx

WinB143 xx

[Gill C]

Teech in the early days of my anni (before it was found) I was in so much pain at night I couldn't sleep until they prescribed amytrip. I took it constantly through my time in hospital & afterwards (now have been taking it for 3 years) & because not sleeping made my symptoms so much worse they continued to give it me. Problem is I am now so used to taking it I can't sleep without it, I am trying to wean myself off & have gone down to 20 mg instead of 25 & would like to cut it down to 10mg soon.

I know my natural sleep pattern is shot to pieces but at the moment I feel sick I am so tired (had another bad night last night) so it doesn't look likely I can reduce the dose. In fact my GP didn't seem inclined to let me reduce the dose, she was in favour of still taking it which suprised me!

I'm pretty lucky in that my headaches are usually go with paracetamol or paracetamol with ibuprofen. Yes I do feel heavy the next day sometimes which is why I want to stop taking them

[kpaggett]

I had really severe restless legs at first. I couldn't talk in the ICU very well, but when I did start to say single words, I yelled restless legs!!!! and they all started discussing if I really knew what I was talking about...and they still gave me nothing for it until I yelled it again the next night. I can't believe they couldn't figure it out because I was completely paralyzed yet my legs flew up in the air every night! Now, I don't have that thank goodness.

I also have lucid dreams where I know I am dreaming and have some control over the weirdness. The other night I was dreaming that I lost my purse with $200 in it. I looked and looked and then I realize that I was dreaming and decided that I no longer needed to look for the purse. Then I found myself in an underground huge storage place looking for an autographed picture I presumably had. 'OK!, the issue is searching!", I yelled in my dream...and then I woke up.

Happy dreams,

~Kris