Still Not Sleeping Well

Two weeks ago I posted that I was having trouble falling asleep at night. While I haven't been completely successful overcoming this problem, I've made some progress. Eventually I do go to sleep but I agonize about it for a long time each night.

I seldom nap and I'm not gong to bed until I'm really tired. I'm trying to go to bed at the same time every night while my wife comes to bed a few hours later. That's a problem as I wake up then and that's the point where I have the most trouble getting back to sleep. This is the point where I get panicky that I'll never get to sleep again and I start feeling very anxious.

Psychological issues are part of this too. My PD hadn't progressed much in the five years I've had it but lately there has been a progression - harder to get dressed by myself, gait worse, left arm weaker...I'm starting to look a year or two ahead instead of staying in the present. I think that's where the panic that I feel in the middle of the night originates.

I've started exercising more Aqua therapy, Nautilus machines, dumb bells, Total Gym at least one of them every afternoon. I don't smoke and I only drink decaffeinated coffee.

I don't want to take sleeping pills because of my Parkinson's disease but I'm taking an aspirin and two CoQ10s just before I go to bed and when my wife gets into bed with me because it helps me fall asleep again.

I was reminded that I used to fall asleep almost instantly. I don't have somnipathy, a sleep disorder. The period of time between my lying down and sleeping is at the far end of the 1-20 minute normal range.

And yes, I still do get up at night to urinate, so that doesn't help the sleep continuity.

I have trouble moving on the bed as do many Parkinson's patients. That worries me because it gives me a foreboding sense of what it would be like to be trapped in my body.

This is a tough thing to turn around but I'm trying to stay calm, breath steadily....and let my mind get carried off into sleep.