Strategies to sleep

Hi RachelMaisy

I know how difficult it can be when you're first diagnosed with cancer. Although I didn't suffer with sleepless nights it certainly took me a while to get to sleep with everything that was going through my mind.

You might like to take a look at this recent blog about sleeping through the night and see if any of the tips there help you.

It would be great if you could pop something about your diagnosis and treatment into your profile as it really helps others when replying to you and also when looking for someone on a similar pathway. It also means that you don't have to keep repeating yourself. To do this click on your username and then select 'Profile'. You can amend it at any time and if you're not sure what to write you can take a look at mine by clicking on my username.

x

This is a problem shared by most people regardless of their cancer type. You wake up. Your mind races. You start to catastrophise. Next thing it's an hour or two later and you've had no sleep.
I can only offer a couple of commonsense tips.

1. activate the blue light filters on any phones, Kindles, iPads etc - it really does make a big difference

2. Have a warm bath before bed - it sends the blood to your skin instead of your brain (though that's probably not the best anatomically correct way of explaining it).

I'm afraid it's probably not going away any time soon. You may well find after surgery that you get night sweats whilst you're adapting to the medication and they're not much fun either. 

But if you are awake, you are definitely alive. And that's not to be sniffed at!

You will get out the other side and wonder what you worried so badly about but for now, I think you are going to have a lot of sleepless nights.

Hi Barbara,

thank you so much. X

Sorry I couldn't be more encouraging but sometimes just knowing that what you're going through is really very normal can help you to get through it.