Hey guys,

So I have really bad pain at night most nights and it keeps me from getting to sleep even though I am exhaustion. Then sometimes, the pain will wake me up from my sleep and then the cycle of pain will start over and I won't be able to sleep again. Has anyone else had this kind of problem? What do you do to help? Thanks for your help

Sleep problems are extremely common with CRPS. Are you taking anything to help you sleep? You should consider it. Sleep is restorative and very important to anybody dealing with chronic pain.

I can only tell you what I do. I use "trazodone" a very safe drug that is very commonly prescribed for sleep. It's very inexpensive. The brand name of trazodone is desyrel.

It is an antidepressant but prescribed in a low dosage for helping with sleep. It works quite well for me, but some nights the pain exceeds what the trazodone can accomplish.

I'm sure others will chime in too. Good luck to you.

The pits when you can't sleep or when finally do keep waking up...and yup the exhaustion is just another thing to add to an already overloaded body. So in a long winded way, yes I experience that....what I do about it...I am in the very early stages of a new medication...thus far, it has in the very least helped me get some rest....even if it's just four hours;

Please keep us posted on your progress.....

My son had this problem for several weeks. He wasn't sleeping at all at night until his pain management doctor started him on a vitamin regime that includes magnesium (good for sleep and muscle spasms), and vitamin C (good for pain) and vitamin B (for nerve health) and vitamin D. If you can get liquid magnesium, it is more easily absorbed than the tablets.

Losing sleep IS the pits. Being tired just makes pain worse and vice versa. I could not live without melatonin at bedtime. This is a good natural alternative and OTC. Some people do well with a SleepyTime Tea kind of thing also. I keep a bottle of Tylenol bedside. The only time I ever take it is if I wake middle of the night and am just too sore to fall asleep again. It doesn't provide big guns pain relief but just taking the edge off a little seems to help at night so I can go back out for a bit.

I hope you get some rest soon,
Littlepaw

Unfortunately, insomnia is a nasty component of Crps. My doc, who worked with Dr. Schwartzman, believes it's not just the pain that causes the insomnia. Rather an underlying physiological change. She did a LOT of studies with Schwartzman on pretty much everything about Crps. Woohoooooo lucky me to have her lol. And they found that Crps patients are, a lot of the time, truly losing all most all sleep.
Most chronic pain patients talk say "I can't sleep at all" when they generally sleep 3-4 hour a night. However people with Crps don't sleep at all when going through bouts of insomnia.
She wants to set up a Crps only sleep trial and do more studies to see what exactly happens with Crps and sleep loss!
You are definitely not the only one who goes through everything we do and then add the insanity of sleep deprivation....lol

I have had CRPS for over 15 years. Was not diagnosed with it until about 10 years ago. Lack of sleep is something I am still battling doctors with. And being that I go to the VA as it is service related I don't really have the choice of finding a new physician. Pain Mgt tells me I need to see the mental health docs. Mental health tells me I need to see primary care. Primary care tells me I need to see sleep clinic. Sleep clinic tells me I need to lose weight and see pain management. It is beyond ridiculous.

Sleep doctor who has the sleep study that shows I suffer from sleep apnea. I tell them that the CPAP isn't working. It makes me take longer to actually fall asleep. And when I do fall asleep it wakes me up within an hour by falling off. So I was looking for alternatives. When I told him his suggestion to try going to sleep earlier wouldn't help because if I go to sleep earlier I will just wake up earlier and then be even more tired during the work day he suggested that I am not willing to try(which isn't the case I told him I had been trying that) and if I am not "willing" to lose the weight required there was nothing he could do for me and that I should go back to pain management as that is the underlying cause.

It is an uphill battle that makes me want to rage more often than not.

Hi Everyone! I just joined today so I hope I am replying correctly! I have a lot of trouble sleeping because of the pain which always seems worse at night. I now take 50mg Amitriptyline which helps a great deal - I take it about 2 hours before I go to bed and if the pain is still keeping me awake I lie with my legs rising on about 4 cushions so my knees are almost at right angles (the pain is in my feet). I usually fall asleep eventually and a few hours of sleep is always better than none! I hope this helps

Didnt sleep for years. I tried everything, lunesta, ambien and the amitriptyline one doc gave me made me WIRED! I thought I was being punked. lol I tried it for 3 nights thinking it would take a while to get into my system but NO. Wide awake and in pain. It is most important for us to get a good nights sleep, as hard as it is. My life saver sleeping aid is also Trazodone. I wake up well rested, not groggy but RSD rears its ugly head once I wake up and the day starts.

Everyone is different. I wondered what is the matter with me? Drugs dont work on me. Vicodine makes me hyper like a speed demon. A great therapist told me about this swab test that gives you a 12 page report on how your body reacts to different drugs. Sure enough all the drugs I had been taking for the last 4 years either didnt work or had a bad effect on me.
It is called CYP450. I wish my doc would have given me this test before ever given me a statin. Right there on the results was a danger warning.
Along with the RSD pain I have permanent muscle damage from Zocor and Lipitor and I was only on it for 2 months.

I still dont have a pain pill that takes my pain away and the side effects were not acceptable for me. But being able to now sleep at night is HUGE.

Smile and try to bring some happiness into your life.
Shelbie

Going without sleep is terrible!! If I get 4 hours a night I'm doing well. I'm just starting pain management so I'm hoping this will help. Right now the only thing I have is gabapentin and I take one percocet at bedtime, because I'm afraid to take more.

Hugs