Hello, nice people. It’s me again. I need to talk to my MS nurse about sleep. I wake up once a night for a “wee toilet visit” and then I cannot sleep. I do sleep eventually, but only aften having been awake for 1-2 hours. I used to take amitriptilyne but I stopped it as they told me it’s not safe when trying to conceive. If you are experiencing similar problems, how do you manage them? TIA
Hi Maria. These days I seem to sleep sound and long but e.g when I worked or had things on my mind I would often have similar problems to you. I found the best thing to do was to get up, have a bit to eat, write down anything that was buzzing through my mind and go back to bed. Worked for me
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This might sound fanciful, but it’s a serious suggestion: learn some poetry by heart. Silently trying to recite learned poetry to myself is my go-to for getting back to sleep. It gives the brain just enough to do to crowd out the sort of less helpful nighttime rumination that is unhelpful to peaceful slumber, and is also an interesting and pleasurable thing to do. Far more effective, I find, than counting sheep, or back from 1000 in 7s, or whatever, which have never done the trick for me.
Naturally, you will also want to look at your bedtime habits to rule out the obvious things like fluids before turning in, etc, but I’m sure you’ve been through all that. I hope that your MS nurse has some good ideas.
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Hi, I’ve had endless problems with sleep. Two things have helped a bit. One was to do some exercises before going to bed - I just pick stuff at random off the NHS website, e.g. for legs, makes me a bit less restless. The second thing that helps is mirtazapine, very low dose, prescribed by GP.
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It’s important to discuss your sleep issues with your MS nurse. They can offer guidance and alternatives to amitriptyline that are safe during conception. In the meantime, try to maintain a consistent sleep schedule, limit caffeine and screen time before bed, and practice relaxation techniques to help manage sleep disruptions.
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