Sleep, day time rest and dreams.......

[Karen]

Have you experienced sleeping problems since the SAH? Have you experienced vivid dreams? Do you still need to have a sleep/nap in the daytime or do you just sit quietly and chill for a while? ..... let us know how you've coped....

Thank you for your replies to the Fatigue post on SAH Discussion .... and I hope that you will help us out with this one too ..... your replies will be used in a future BTG project ....

[myratas]

Hi Karen

Since my SAH I do find that I get tired so much more, I do take naps during the day. The biggest problem I do get is the nausea during the night and actually have been sick.

During early in my recovery I was having problems sleeping the hours were so erratic. To be honest I was scared going to sleep as I had my rupture about 2.00am and it took a long time not to think about it especially in the exact position that I was sleeping.

I don't think that my dreams have changed that much but Asim has pointed out that I have sleep walked in my sleep and found me crying once.

Myra xx

[MUTTI]

HI KAREN

MY SLEEP PATTERNS HAVE TAKEN ON CHANGES I STARTED OFF I COULDN'T SLEEP AT NIGHT AND WOULD ONLY GET 4-5 HOURS IN THE MORNING AND I TOOK NAPS

NOW I HAVE TIMES WERE I WILL SLEEP 10 -12 HOURS AND OTHER TIMES I SLEEP 6-7

WHEN I SLEEP LONG I DREAM VERY VIVED BUT WHEN I SLEEP SHORT I DON'T.

I NO LONGER NEED TO TAKE NAPS. BUT IF SAY I GO OUT SHOPPING WHEN I GET HOME I NEED TO SIT AND VEGITATE FOR AT LEAST AN HOUR AND I DON'T LIKE TO BE TALKED TO AT THAT TIME IT MAKES ME IRRATIBLE.

HOPE THIS HELPS EVELYN

[jess]

Hi Karen my sleep patterns have changed completely when I first came home from hospital I used to sleep in till 11amish then I had Garry and I used to be awake alot more and I felt I didn't need to sleep as much. Jess.xxx

[charty]

I sleep all night from 10pm until 7am, much better than before I was ill, then I was always waking up worrying about work! or getting up and writing myself notes. I have a doze in the afternoon now for about an hour at the moment. I often feel tired.

Caroline

[Tina]

Hi Karen

My sleep patterns have changed a lot......like Jess when i first came out of hospital i slept a lot. It gradually got a bit less during the daytime. Even now 13 months later, i actually feel more tired than ever.......i think it is because i am trying to do more. I often find when i do my housework, i have to go and rest, as i feel shattered and dizzy and wiped out! If i have a late night, i either have to have a nap earlier or, it takes me a good few days to get over it. Also with concentration, that really tires me out. Sometimes i am so tired, but cant sleep and have very vivid dreams.

I know when i first saw the survivors DVD, and they were all saying how tired they were, some were a year or so down the line....i said to my self...that wont be me! I always have had lots of energy...but it is me!

Hope this helps Karen,

Love Tina xx

[Skippy]

Hey there

For the first year I had to sleep during the day otherwise the headaches and fatigue would wipe me out for days. Almost a year to the day I stopped needing the sleep during the day, but find that if I don't get enough sleep during the night I wake with a headaches and feel quite anxious and have VERY strong feelings of deja vu which are quite unsettling.

If I know I'm going out of an evening I will make sure that I don't do too much during the day but it had gotten better over the last year.

The wierdest thing for me is that I no longer dream - or if I do I certainly don't remember them - in the last 2 and half years I have probably remembered half a dozen dreams.

Hope this helps

TTFN

Sami xxxx

[michelle C]

Hi Karen

Before my Sah i used to be so tired and stressed but not get a decent nights sleep waking up three or four times and always used to dream and would get up to go to the toilet and carry the dreams on!!

When i came out of hospital i used to sleep a few times during the day, and sleep on and off during the night. (thinks that cos of waking me up for tablet time)

Its 14thmonths on now and i sleep better than i did i dont sleep during the day but like most have said i feel more fatigued now i get up shattered and go to bed shattered. I dream very vivid and quite frightening dreams now and like Sami sometimes have a feeling of deja vu, and spend the next day wondering if i have done something or did i do it a while ago or was i going to do it..i find this very upsetting.

love luck and laughter

Michellexxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[Vivien]

When I first came out of hospital, things are very vague, but I know that I had to wake up every three hours to take the medication to stop vasospasms, so had an alarm. Wether that then influenced my sleep pattern I am not sure, but even though I was very tired, I could not sleep more than a couple of hours at a time, and when I did sleep it was disturbed with very vivid dreams. So I spent a lot of time just lying on my bed.

After about a year of this I was sent to be assessed by a psychologist to see if I had Post traumatic Stress disorder, which can happen when you have a near death experience, and also I had hospital staff telling me how serious an SAH was and how I could die. At the time of my SAH I think it affected my mood or something because I was really laughing a lot and joking and not taking the illness seriously, which is why I was told how really ill I was. Also friends and family came to see me, and a really good friend I have known for years gave me a hug and a kiss, which she has never done before or since, which made me realise how bad it was! Anyway, I digress The asessment showed that I did not have PTSD, but might benefit from meditation.

Now eighteen months on I sleep about 6 or 7 hours a night with the help of a sleeping tablet and the meditation. I still get vivid dreams but not so many.

I get very tired at times, so I either have to just have some quiet time or a nap in the afternoon ( the nap is rare, but I lie down and listen to the radio for an hour or so )

If I know that I am going out in the evening then I rest beforehand and usually droop around the next day.

If I have a busy day with lots of people around I get to the point where I just cannot take anything in anymore and I have to retreat for a bit of peace and to recharge otherwise I get a bit snappy

So I think there is progress but it is slow, before my SAH I slept a good 8 or 9 hours a night with no really memorable dreams. Wether I will get back to that state, I don't know.

Vivien x

[Anne Fleming]

Hi Karen

After I came out of hospital for first few weeks I would go to bed at about 11pm and sleep thru till 10am next morning, something I've never done before. Now 14 months on I sleep pretty ok, go to bed after 12, get up about 9 (I work from 10-6) and maybe wake up once during the night.

I did had very bad exhausting nightmares when I was on beta blockers (Propanolol) for a few months last year and also when I woke up after sleeping for the first few minutes I would have visual hallucinations and see things moving about the bedroom. All that stopped when I came off the tablets.

Before I had the SAH I liked to have an afternoon nap at weekends and still try to fit one in if I feel like it.

Love and best wishes

Anne x

[bogbrush]

During the first few weeks, I slept a lot at odd times of the day and night, often having vivid dreams and waking in the early hours unable to get back to sleep. It took several months before I returned to a fairly normal sleep pattern and not generally needing to sleep during the day. Even now 2.5 years on, I still often wake very early in the morning. I get very tired after a week's work and often need to sleep during the day at weekends. Just sitting quietly helps, but the need for sleep is sometimes overwhelming. I don't often dream, not that I can remember anyway. The dreams I do have and remember are not that vivid, but they are very strange ones.

Regards

Keith

[Janet]

I didn't sleep very well for the first few months as I suffered with extreme anxiety which made it hard to get to sleep. I also used to get a horrible jolting sensation just as I started to drift off.

I sleep pretty well now but like Sami I haven't really had any dreams at all since the SAH or not that I can remember.

Janet x

[Louise]

I had no problems sleeping when I first came home that was due to the Sodium valporate for seizures I could sleep all day and night if I'd been aloud.....

when I came off that the I found it harder, I wouldnt be able to switch off I'm still the same now when somethings going on my brain just races.....

L.x

[Karen]

Thanks for your replies.....xx

[donna79]

Hello Karen

I used to sleep all the time when I had just come out of hospital, then I had trouble sleeping now I am tired all the time and YES i have some strange dreams some of my dreams are really upsetting and make me feel down all the next day its strange how dreams can determine how you feel x I know I cant control them so I guess its one of those things x x

Also my dreams feel so real and I know this sounds strange but they feel more real than before my SAH x x

does anyone else suffer with this ??

[Guest ElaineW]

Maggie has had no problems sleeping - it is the one area in fact which has vastly improved. She used to be kept awake often during the night with her arthritis. She still tires very easily but very rarely takes a nap during the day but she is always in bed betweenn 8 and 9 p.m. She does not have vivid dreams but nothing disturbs her.

Elaine

[ninja]

Hi All

Since my SAH three years ago I quite frequently sleep for an hour or more during the day. I usually go to bed at 10pm and always get up about 6.30am although I sleep quite well. I used to have a good lie in prior to my SAH but no matter what time I go to bed I always wake up at the same time. I quite frequently dream but nothing like the nightmares I had after coiling. One embarrasing thing that I find I do is yawn frequently especially in company which I think give people the impression that I am bored with them which is not the case.

Cheers

John

[Sasbo]

Hi Karen

I slept a LOT - almost consantly I've been told - when I came out of hospital and this continued for quite some months afterwards. I was then able to stay awake for a few hours at time but needed at least one sleep in the daytime each day. I don't recall any problems at night then. After the second clipping, a year later, I again needed to sleep during the day although it wasn't as intense as post-SAH. I still need to have a sleep most days although I'm currently being tested for another condition - ME, a rheumatism type or auto immune problems - which leaves me greatly fatigued. The doctor thinks that whatever is the problem was triggered by the SAH. However, there are some days when I feel relatively normal and other days when I'm very very tired. At least one day a week I'm confined to bed and sleep for England.

Dreams are frequent and very, very vivid post-SAH.

Sarah

[tennissmithy]

Hi Karen and all

Sorry for the late reply been so busy this week and tired and headachey.....

Antway when I came out of hospital I slept alot, most of the time in fact. The only thing that kind of woke me, was the alarm to take tablets every 4 hours!! After a couple of months, I then had a sleep in the afternoon and went to bed about 10ish.

Since being back at work full time, I find I go to bed between 10 and 11 and get up about 7. At the weekends I tend to stay in bed till about midday and then often have an afternoon nap for a couple of hours on a Sunday if not both days. I find that if I don't do that then I have the most horrendous headaches for the next week and feel really awful (the problem this week and porb next week too as no lie ins this weekend because away with friends)

My dreams are much more vivid and nightmares are horrible and give me headaches for example instead of before I would just dream a fight and 'see' it happening, now I 'hear' all the argueing as well. It often makes me cry

Hope this helps Karen

Laura

xx

[perrycornish]

Apologies from me too, I simply did not see this thread, so sorry Immediately after my discharge from hospital i too could have slept for my country, now I still go to bed and to sleep much earlier than before the SAH but not quite as dramatically. I am almost on normal sleep levels for about a week then bam back comes the need to sleep more. Before the SAH I was a chronic insomniac. I do dream a great deal both before and now, but now they continue even if i have been woken up, they are rather disturbing and disruptive dreams, leaving me quite anxious when I awake, this would not have been the case prior the SAH, I'm looking forward to some improvements

Edit; So sorry about the typos, brain asleep already

[sue]

Hi Karen, I am just so behind with the message boards!

Right, as you will gather from the present time of 3.26am. Sleep still does not always come easy!

After the SAH I could sleep for England and did! Spending the majority of time in bed.

Gradually improved over the past couple of years and sometimes have great surges of energy (ask the other 2 degrees Sami and Jan!) (It is just not normal for me to dance to drum and base??)

I have noticed that I do dream a lot post SAH and some of them are quite vivid......can only remember bits of them though|

As for day time sleeping.........lots of times still.....I really feel I could do with a nap......the only way I do it is if our Matt.....Bless im.....makes me chill out of the sofa to watch holiday in the sun on an afternoon.....love it!!!...have been known to just drop off!! for little while

Love to ya all,

Suexx

[Cal]

Hi Karen,

Jim does not have a problem with going to sleep. He actually has a problem staying awake

He does still need a 2 hour nap each day and he goes to bed around 9:30 each night. He is 1 year and 2 months since his SAH.

Regarding the dreams, yes he does have very vivid dreams. He has woken me up many times thrashing his arms like he is fighting someone.

Love,

Cal

XXXX

[Guest fairyzo]

hi karen

After my SAH i had alot of problems sleeping and still do .I find i have no energy so i always feel tierd but i cant sleep and when i do i still suffer for really bad vivd dreams .Sometimes iam unaware im having bad dreams but tim wakes me up because im trashing around and over my recovery i have hurt myself whilst asleep.I still have to have a little rest during the day but it does depend on whether im having a good or bad day , and it depends on what im trying to do and how much i have pushed myself.

zoe x

[Shanti]

Hi Karen

I like many on here, slept for England for 3/4 months post SAH.

Also had a nap most afternoons around 4pm for an hour.

Strangely I hardly seem to dream at all anymore, which is odd. None that I can remember anyway. Although seem to go into a sort of reverie/dream state in the early mornings before I wake up properly.

After 3 or 4 months post SAH though, I seem to have developed a sort of anxiety attack quite often just when I thought I was dropping off to sleep. And have to get up, make a drink/biscuit and perhaps read for an hour then before I can get to sleep.

After doing far too much with my Mum/Dad etc these past 5 months, I'm back to having a lie in the mornings and a nap some afternoons about 4pm.

Big hug

Lesley xxx

[Guest Shiree]

Hi there

When I came home after my SAH, I had terrible trouble sleeping. I think it was just a case of extreme anxiety. I also had terrible nightmares every time I went to sleep, and would wake my husband up screaming. It took at least 6 months to start to sleep better. I still have the occassional nightmare but no where near as bad as they were.

I didn't have daytime naps at all, even though I felt I needed them just couldn't sleep during the day.

hugs

shiree