How would you describe your relationship with sleep?
Is your relationship with sleep good, complicated, or non-existent? What have you tried to improve your relationship with sleep? Do you have any tips that you would like to share?
my relationship with sleep is pretty much non existent. I’m weaning myself off sleeping pill, zopliclone, every night as it wasn’t helping helping much. 
I am sorry to hear your relationship with sleep is pretty much non-existent and the sleeping pill wasn't helping much. Are you going to ask your doctor to try something new?
In the meantime, have you heard about warm milk helping to induce sleep? I wrote about it here, https://restlesslegssyndrome.sleep-disorders.net/living/warm-milk
Regards,
🥄🦄 Ray (Team member)
My relationship with sleep sounds a lot like yours. I’ve had rls for over 2 decades and on top of that I struggle with Meralgia Paresthetica in both my hips/upper legs, chronic Thoracic back pain, sleep apnea, anxiety/agoraphobia, chronic dry mouth and migraines. My bladder wakes me up at least three times a night as well. It’s a maddening battle to understand what is exacerbating what and what might be helping. I’ve tried pretty much every therapy there is out there, pharmacological and non-pharmacological and for me the only thing that works for my rls is pain meds which any doctor will make you feel like a villain for needing. Marijuana does t nothing to help me sleep no matter what strain I’ve tried. Calcium blockers make my mouth so dry I can barely swallow. Muscle relaxers and sleep meds help for a day or two but then my body adjusts to them and they no longer work. Pain meds work but again getting them is a nightmare. What is a girl to do? I wish technology could advance to the point where we could do a whole body transplant. In pain, exhausted all the time, is no way to live.
I wish you the best of luck on your journey! I hope you can figure out your sleep and rls so you can have a happier health.I saw a sleep specialist in the last, maybe it’s time to go back down that route again. I wish there was just a way that you could have your file looked at by all kinds of specialists and then they could come up with a plan together. I feel you. My bladder wakes me up several times in the night too. I remember the sleep doctor told me that shouldn't be happening, the bladder can hold for 8hrs. I told him my bladder became sensitive after my gall bladder was removed. Before that, I had no issue being able to sleep 10hrs and not have my bladder wake me.
I am sorry to hear that you also don't get any help from MMJ in the sleep department. I'm frustrated that getting painkillers is such a challenge and that we are vilified for wanting a bit of pain relief.
Whole body transplant would be pretty nice, eh. Who knows, maybe the painkiller made from sea snail venom will be figured out in the next year or two:
Snail Venom Yields Potent Painkiller, But Delivering The Drug Is Tricky - https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/08/03/428990755/snail-venom-yields-potent-painkiller-but-delivering-the-drug-is-tricky
Agreed, being constantly exhausted and in pain is no way to live. We deserve better.
Sending positive vibes.
🥄🦄 Ray (Team member)
My relationship with sleep has been complicated for a little more than 2 decades now. I don't know when I developed Obstructive Sleep Apnea but from age 11-20 I became an incredibly light sleeper that would take forever to fall asleep.
Then in my 20's my health took a dive and sleep became even more of a challenge.
I tried sleepy teas, valerian root and prescribed sleep meds. None of them worked. Unfortunately, my chemistry makes it so that sedative strains of medical marijuana (legal in Canada) aren't sedative for me. Warm milk (I wrote an article about it) can help me fall asleep quickly but it doesn't help me stay asleep. My bladder wakes me up every couple of hours. I have been working on that for a year now and there has been slow progress.
The only two things that kind of help is mediation and following a sleep routine. I haven't been able to follow the sleep routine in a year and it's definitely made my sleep challenging again.
🥄🦄 Ray (Team member)
