Not sleeping

FormerMember over 4 years ago

1 reply
41 subscribers
1414 views

Feel like my time is almost up got given 10 months in December last year 2 - 5 years max with treatment just started chemo after they told me i wasnt having it as there is no point so i guess thats a good sign. Not really sleeping or sleeping then waking up during the night and not getting back to sleep does anybody have any tricks on getting making to sleep i just cant seem to relax or find any motivation anymore :/ sorry for the depressing post.

FormerMember over 4 years ago

Hi Lizzie

I am so sorry you’re finding sleep so hard and feeling so down. It certainly strikes a chord with me. There were two things that helped me. The first was a chat with my GP and some medication for anxiety followed by some counselling. The second was meditation. I use the Headspace app. It really helps me to uncouple the feedback loop between anxiety in my brain leading to anxious physical feelings (hunched shoulders, rapid breathing) leading to anxious thoughts. Once I could get off that hamster wheel I was able to see that I still felt the full range of emotions, comfortable and uncomfortable, and to focus on feeling happy and enjoying life for what it has to offer, each day as it comes. It’s not a magic wand and it takes discipline to find ten minutes a day to sit quietly but, in my experience, it works.

I still sleep poorly thanks to pain and the effect of cancer medication but these days I don’t worry about it.

Please don’t feel you need to apologise for a depressing message. We’ve all been there. I don’t think anyone comes here to the incurable group because life is peachy. But so many of us find it’s a safe place to unload the inevitable rubbish that an incurable diagnosis brings with it, put it to one side and find a bit of comfort, peace and maybe even a laugh. I hope you will too.

xxx