According to my doctors, the two factors that have been impeding my progress on cognition for the past year or so are sleep problems and stress. Getting the second edition of Beating the Dementia Monster out the door has helped a lot with the stress, but the insomnia remains a challenge. I do think I've been making progress.
The insomnia has steadily worsened over the past year and a half. It is only once every two or three weeks that I sleep all night, since I invariably awaken at about 3. I cannot get back to sleep. I consistently go to bed at 10 with the goal of making it to 5. But that doesn't happen any more.
I said before that I picked up a white noise machine on Amazon, and that seems to have helped a little. Maybe. But I'm still up at 3.
On the other hand, I have improved things a lot. When I wake up, I try not to lie in bed longer than 20 minutes (based on advice I've read) and then get up. Rather than do my devotional time at 5, I do it at 3:30 or whenever it works out. This takes me an hour to an hour and a half, and then I go back to bed. Generally, after going back to bed, I can then fall back to sleep. Often I'll sleep until 7:30 or as late as 8:30. I will then feel well when I get up for good.
I've discussed this before, but lately it has become even more the norm. If this continues it will be a good thing, because I feel rested when I do get up. I discussed this with my neurologist in June, and she was positive about it. We noted that recent research found that interrupted sleep is inferior to uninterrupted sleep for fighting Alzheimer's disease, but it's better than the alternative.
No comments:
Post a Comment