Emotional Upsets

I visited my Mum recently and was then visited by one of my brothers who I know to be a very cross person but I wasn't ready when he started to argue with me about nothing really.

Well of course I should have walked away but I didn't and we proceeded to have a row in front of my Mum and then he left leaving us both in tears. I am really sorry that this all happened mostly because of the upset I know was caused to my Mum, but even looking back now I cannot see how it could have been prevented but it will not happen again as I will just avoid him.

The thing is these things happen but what is the best way to minimise the effect on yourself and your reaction to it because a mental or physical reaction is going to happen to it sooner or later.

I slept fine that night because I thought about it for a while and then decided to STOP thinking about it. Sometimes I might write down something like this to kinda get it out of my system but in any case I would physically or symbolically shut the book on it so that it has been dealt with and doesn't keep me awake. Sleep is so valuable I have to do all I can to make sure I get enough and on this occasion I was conscious of the fact that I would need to drive myself home the next day.

When I got home I felt OK but was torn between having a pre-emptive rest in order not to suffer too bad and effect from it or just keep going and wait for the inevitable crash.

Well I chose to go for the latter and so far haven't been too bad apart from feeling fairly low now but that could be anything.

CFIDS May Topic- Sleeping zzzzzzzzz

What strategies do you use to help you to sleep at night. Here is my response to this months topic.
I love to sleep and used to be able to sleep so well, I miss it badly.
I had to sleep recently with my sister and she said that I went from asleep to awake instantly as if I wasn't really asleep at all. I do think that solving the sleep deprivation problem we all have would go a long way to making all our other symptoms much better.
apparently if you deliberately stop people going into a deep sleep after a few nights they will get all the symptoms of fibromyalgia.

I used to use valerian to help me to sleep and found it very effective although I do think it lost efficacy over time. Since I have started taking cymbalta my consultant has said that I can no longer use it.

I understand that Dr Jacob Teitlebaum has a combination sleep remedy which looks interesting and I would certainly try it if I wasn't taking cymbalta.

I have recently started taking clonazapam only a quarter at night but can't say if it helping or not as I don't think I have had a normal week for some time to make a proper judgement- I did try to up this to half a tablet but found that I could not get up until about 2pm from extreme fatigue which is not really getting much quality of life.

On a COPE pain management course we talked about good sleep hygeine which involved looking after your comfort- I have a really good mattress- a Dorlux Marquis king size which has a built in topper- and use lots of pilows including a body pillow. I decided against a Tempur mattress because I had heard that can make you a bit sweaty and I get hot enough at night.

I use a heat pad for pain releif and to keep me warm and a Chillow pillow in the summer if I am hot. I also use a Remedi pain releiving device for half to one hour while in bed it helps with pain releif and relaxation.

My bedtime routine is to go to bed between nine and ten in the evening and will probably watch some light television or play a game on my ipod like bejewelled and of course sorry to go on about it but if I am not sleeping or to wind down I will listen to a podcast or a talking book. My favourite at the moment is a free podcast by alistair McCall- Smith called Corduroy Mansions which I am sure is not meant to be so boring but it can send me off to sleep- I have not managed to get beyong chapter 12 yet!!

I also have a CD called peaceful sleep by Jan Sadler on my ipod as well as The Soul of Healing Meditations by Deepak Chopra and various free podcasts of relaxation and meditation.

So I seem to have an army of strategies but of course unfortunately still have many nights when I don't sleep beasue of pain and discomfort or wake up with bad dreams and pain. Some nights I just get up and abandon all attempts to sleep go and have a cup of tea watch a bit of TV on my own and go back to bed a few hours later.

The most annoying aspect is when you have slept but wake up feeling as if you haven't slept a wink. I have no answer for this but just take eaxh day as it comes and if it has to be a duvet day then so be it.

The most annoying aspect is