I think you are going to have to 'make' yourself get up at 8am....even if you have only slept an hour or so, and no naps in the day.
It will be very difficult at first, but your body will have to reestablish what 'normal' wake and sleep times are.

Wish you the best....keep us posted.

Lady - Sleep problems with MS are so common and so many MSers go though it. I generally do not fully wake up during the night. (Although, I do take Neurotin before bedtime and that keeps me "asleep" for the night). I partially wake up with spasms and quite often sleep restlessly (jerking around in my sleep) - but still do not wake up fully during the night.

I don't have any suggestions other than using a dim light and/or night light in the bathroom. Brighter light sends signals to the brain to wake up and for many people (MS or not) once the light goes on, they have a hard time getting back to sleep. It's worth a try.

I would also talk to your dr about this as they may want to do a sleep study on you and/or make other recommendations. Not getting the quality sleep does have an effect on our cognition. Think of those studies they did on over tired drivers vs. drunk drivers. Over tired drivers consistently did worse than drunk drivers.

Try some of the suggestions others have made and let us know how you are doing.

Thanks Sally! Missed y'all too...been a very busy time at work lately and they are starting to watch net usage more, so I can't be around as much.

Do you turn on lights when you get up? If so try to put up so nightlights so you don't turn on bright lights. I found that the lights woke me up too much when I would get up. So now I wander at night with just the light of small nightlights and that helps so much. My body does not get aroused like it should really wake up. It has helped alot.

I keep my room extra dark! I make sure that the cable box, and TV light are blocked. the light from the bathroom with the toothbrush light is blocked or turned off. it helps me achieve a deeper level of restful sleep.

After I take my meds I know I have a window of time that I can force myself to turn off the lights and go to sleep. past that, I miss the window, and I am awake till 3 or 4. So, I take my meds, and one hour later, I force myself to make it dark and try to rest. If I fall asleep great! if not, I dont beat myself up, but I do give it a good try.

I dont drink tea or coffee products past 12 noon. Even soda with caffiene is a no no past noon.

I have a wind down routine. i take a warm bath, and massage myself with lotions. I rub my feet, and rub my arms, tell myself to relax, let go, release.

I make sure the room is not too hot or too cold. either way could keep you awake shivering or sweating. Cog fog sets in when I am hot, then I cant think, and cant get to sleep.

Trial and error. figure out what works for you. On those nights that it works, celebrate! on those that it doesnt, dont beat yourself up. Take it in stride and find rest thru the day.

Thank you for all your ideas.

I am working on a plan and it worked last night. I still went to bed late 2:30 am and got up in two hours to go to the bathroom (I have only night lights btw). I went back to bed expecting to just lay there wide awake, but I slept until 10:30 am. Yippee!

I got 7 hours and did not stare at the ceiling all night or have to get up and read again. So that was good.

What I did differently was that I showered early and did not exercise right before bedtime at all, I skipped it, that was one change, and I didn't have my yogurt before bedtime either. So no food to digest and keep me wakeful.

I can fall asleep on a dime but staying asleep was my problem. Two hours and up. Last night was good so I hope I have the same luck tonight. If so, I will have to figure a good time to exercise to keep the spasticity away.

I did have spasticity in my one leg, toes and arch. Also my leg fell asleep in the kitchen chair working on my new laptop present. Exercising keeps these muscles loose so they don't tighten up on me.

I felt good today after the 7 hours and one bathroom trip. I hope that keeps up. If not, I will have to alter some more of my routine as some of you suggested. Oh, and I had decaf tea. Yuck!

I appreciate your ideas. Thanks! I know going to bed even earlier will take time to do but 2:30 is good instead of 4 am. I'm getting there..I hope.

Yeah, Lady!!! I'm glad you got a good 7 hours of sleep. I hope this continues to work for you and eventually you get your sleep schedule switched around to where you want it.

Well, that didn't last long. (sigh) One good night. Then last night I was so tired I fell on my buttski in the bathroom. Big hinny bruise and a bump on back of my thigh.

I was half asleep and not paying attention. I am glad I didn't get stuck between the bowl and the wall, not much room on either side. Whew! I just need to sit on a pillow for awhile on chairs or in the car.

Just what I needed another part of my body to be in pain, NOT! I slept all day today, after being up last night with only two hours sleep.

Time to evaluate again.

I have been living with nightime incontinence and Crohn's disease for 8 years now . . . have not slept more than 4-5 hours w/o waking to use the restroom. Most nights I wake at least twice, and if I am having a rough night, it can be every 90 minutes! I too had trouble falling back to sleep, especially if I had any issues to deal with . . .

Melatonin. After a certain age our bodies slow down or cease production of melatonin, which helps regulate our body clocks and helps allow sleep. I take 3mg before bedtime. I still wake up, but getting back to sleep is easier.

A natural way to help boost melatonin is to get exposure to sunlight between 7am and 9am, when the blue light of the spectrum, which stimulates melatonin production, is strongest.

I also play a familiar CD when I get in bed, and in the morning I try to recall the last song I heard. Often I am surprised how quickly I did fall asleep, because I couldn't make it past the second or third track! I have even found that using each song on the CD for a different meditation or preparation for sleep is helpful: track #1 for setting my breathing, #2 for "scanning" the body, head to toe, for tension and relaxing as I go, #3 for deep relaxation through visualization. (My favorite visualization is of me floating, face down in the ocean in snorkel gear, gently rolling with the swells, and hearing and seeing a pod of great whales rising in a circle around me. Sometimes just their singing and their air bubbles rising around me are enough to lull me to sleep.) If you do the same series of exercises to the same songs and in the same order every night you will literally train your mind&body to respond to the music, and provide you with a pathway to sleep that you have custom-designed for yourself.

As lefthanded said Melatonin helps me to fall back to sleep when I get up. I take 2 3mg Melatonin Plus pills from Sam's. Still wake up a bunch to pee, but do get back to sleep. And, I use a 'white noise' machine to cancel the many background noises.