Chronic pain & sleeping in fetal position
 

Hi:

I have full body RSD and other chronic pain conditions. My severe chronic pain is controlled very well by my fentanyl patches, at a dosage of 125 mcg every 72 hours.

When I sleep, during the day or during the night, I enjoy sleeping in a fetal position (like a fetus in its mother's womb). When my mother sees me sleeping like this, she says I am not normal; according to her, I should sleep in a straight position. When I am in a straight position, whether on the back, the abdomen, or the left or right sides, I have a much harder time sleeping.

Just before going to sleep, I take my epilepsy medications (Keppra and Klonopin) and other medications, such as MSIR and Inderal. I guess these medications help me fall asleep. However, a very light noise in the night wakes me up and I have trouble falling asleep again. It can take hours for me to fall asleep again.

What do you think? Thanks for sharing your ideas.

With due courtesy, your mom just doesn't know what she's talking about on this topic; you're very normal.

http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders...says-about-you

Doc

Thank you very much, Dr. Smith. The document from the link you gave me provided a very interesting view on sleep patterns and personality. People who like to sleep in a fetal position are apparently hard on the outside, but soft on the inside. To the people who physically see me, I seem like a hard person, but I only harden myself, as if making a hard shell, to protect myself against the physical and psychological effects of RSD. However, I know that on the inside of me, there is a soft part; when I am alone or with my cat, I let that soft part of myself out by crying into my pillow or talking to my cat. Even if she does not understand my words, I believe she understands I am sad because she meows at almost every sentence I say. I am sure it is her way of telling me she loves me the way I am. She is able to make me laugh. She is such a special cat. Her name is Capucine, which is why I chose that screen name.

Dr. Smith is right -- your Mom is misinformed. Sleeping in the fetal position relieves pressure on the discs/spine, and feels lots better than laying straight. It "opens up" the disc space and "untraps" nerves that might be compressed. You can lay like that all you want! ;)

I think alot of us have sleep problems. I know that I have -- the pain wakes me up, and I also have trouble getting back to sleep. I have a set of CD's that play "nature sounds" such as the ocean, rain, light thunder, etc., and listening to these CD's almost ALWAYS puts me back to sleep. You can find these almost anywhere they sell CD's. They're wonderful!

I wish you the best of luck. God bless & take care. Hugs, Lee

I don't know if I'd put too much stock in that part of the article/study - yet. It actually said,

(emphasis mine)

The article/study is full of these "may be"s & "can be"s, and I saw no mention of people who change position many times during the night - the ones who are all over the bed! Some folks read something like this and may try to make judgments about themselves or others or are concerned if/when they do/don't "fit" these alleged "types", and I just don't see much validity or value in that.

I think the major thrust of the whole thing was that sufficient quality sleep is important to people's health (which kind of seemed like a "No Duh!" to me) regardless of position.

I recall no specific mention of any health issues of the study's subjects, but it should go without saying that when there are overriding health issues involved, all bets are off. ;)

Doc

Hi, Leesa:

Quote: "Sleeping in the fetal position relieves pressure on the discs/spine, and feels lots better than laying straight. It "opens up" the disc space and "untraps" nerves that might be compressed. You can lay like that all you want! ;)"

I guess that, in this case and for some of us, our body knows what is best to relieve the pain it might feel, as well as make the sleeper more comfortable. Thanks for this information. It makes so much sense, but I never would have thought about it if you had not mentioned it.

My severe chronic pain is controlled very well by my Duragesic patches, my MSIR capsules, and my Tambocor capsules. Since the Tambocor was added to the Duragesic and the MSIR, I am able to run up and down stairs without much pain at all. Before, I could not even do it without paying a big price for it.

I am not sure if it could be my pain waking me up at night so many times and without my knowing the pain is responsible for all this. I know I am a very light sleeper. When I sleep, a mosquito flying next to my face would wake me up for sure. Any noise, even light, would wake me up.

The idea of using "nature CDs" for falling asleep is wonderful. Do you have any CDs that you particularly like and would recommend? There are so many of them that I do not know which ones to choose.

Once a "nature CD" helps you fall asleep, who turns off the CD player for the sake of not wasting electricity or batteries if the CD player is on all night? Is it possible to program a CD player to turn itself off in, say, 15 minutes? If yes, which CD player brands should I get?

Thanks again for all your information.

Hi, Dr. Smith:

Quote: "Some folks read something like this and may try to make judgments about themselves or others or are concerned if/when they do/don't "fit" these alleged "types", and I just don't see much validity or value in that."

Even if I did not fit what this article said about my sleep pattern, I would accept it because I know that everyone is different and that there are exceptions to this "rule". In my case, I thought it was funny because I found a way it could apply to me.

The nature CDs don't work for me, though I liked the idea when I first heard it many years ago. If you're not 100% sure, you might find one to borrow at the library to try. My wife likes classical & avant gard music to fall asleep to.

Some players have timers, but with consumer electronics changing models & features every 15 minutes, you kind of have to shop in the moment for the features you want in the range you can afford. You could start by googling: "CD players" timer

If you already have one that plugs-in to the wall, you could also just plug it into a lamp/outlet timer.

Doc

If your computer is in the bedroom you can find many restful sounds , music to sleep by, relaxation sounds - any of those searches on YouTube should bring up many to try.
just find some that you like and try them out
some are short and some are longer but the length is posted for them, so a longer length one is what you would look for.

There are a few websites that you can even set to play rain, thunder, waves sounds all night long.

I've used this one for just relaxing-
just set the sliders on the drop down menus for the sounds you want and how loud you prefer.
http://www.soundsleeping.com/

Hi, Jo*mar:

Unfortunately, I do not have a computer at home. I use the one at my workplace. This is why I wanted to have "nature" CDs, so I could listen to them at night with a CD player. The computer at my workplace also does not have sound. Right now, I feel anxious without knowing why. Thanks for the link, even if my work computer does not have sound.