Oh, I can dream - problem is, I'm in pain in my dreams! It's been so long now that I can no longer remember a dream in which I wasn't in pain. To make matters worse, I'm a cognitive dreamer, which has also increased in frequency since being a painee.

Like many here, I'm no stranger to waking up in pain, or not being able to get to sleep because of it, yadda, yadda, yadda... I finally came to the realization that I was doing myself more disservice by lying there than just getting up and finding something either constructive/positive or distracting enough to do until I can fall asleep. Some mornings my wife gets up to find me sitting in front of the TV or computer, having been up all night. I don't like it, and it can take me several days to get my 'clock' straightened out again, but we have a phrase we use with each other in dealing with pain: Do what ya gotta do (or Ya gotta do what ya gotta do). So that's what we do - whatever we have to - one day/night at a time.

Over the years we've discovered/reinvented a lot of ways of coping with pain & stress. I think most folks here have. Some of the methods are the same - some different - whatever works for each of us. We can't cure/heal each others pain, but hopefully we can help each other bear up under it. Like they say:

1. Reduce the sense of suffering
2. Improve the quality of life

Doc