Why Sleep Is Very Important And Can Effect Many Areas Of Our Health:
A indidvidual adult not living with epilepsy or any other health condition needs at least 7 hours of quality sleep according to the CDC. Based on your age and or health condition this varies. Remember the key word is "quality". Please see their website for your individual recommendation. Lacking quality sleep can cause problems in many areas of your health.
Lack Of Quality Sleep Is a Seizure Trigger For Many
Since my nocturnal seizures were diagnosed, not to mention going through menapause, there are many nights I have seizures without knowing it and disrupting my sleep. So even though I felt I was sleeping, my brain was not. My husband would tell just by how I looked and say, "Honey, you need to rest today, you're not looking good". I can definetely feel it the day after a night of poor quality sleep, and as the image says, I need to rest to help my body recover to hopefully not bring on more seizures. If I don't, more seizures seem to come on and it forces me to have to rest more than I would like during the day. I shut off all my electroniccs during my rest times and hopefully sleep but my brain doesn't always agree with that.
According to the Epilepsy Foundation, adults living with epilepsy and caregivers which are adults need at least 2 more hours of sleep a day compared to someone not living with it. So if you don't get it during the night, you need to schedule a time during the day to make up for it. At times this is obviously not possible and over time it can catch up with us and cause more seizures.
At times my medication can either make me very tired or anxious, making it very difficult to get the sleep needed. Believe me, I don't always want to sleep I would much rather being doing something, just like anyone else. When people use to ask me 'why are you always tired?' or 'why do you sleep all the time?' it really bothered me! This is my body telling me I need to sleep/rest or the awful seizure monster will hit again and again.
Things My Doctor Has Told Me To Try And Do To Help
One of the things I try to do is I try to stick to a regular bedtime and wake up at the same time. I also will meditate in the morning to try and relax my brain/body right away. I've been doing much better at getting in exercise of some kind, when safely can be done, or at least try to stretch.
I've done a much better job of drinking lots of water throughout the day, and stop drinking caffeine by the same time nightly (see my blog about caffeine), again, it's hard to do when your meds make you sometimes want to sleep. Remember certain foods also have caffeine.
Finally, I have scheduled rest time at same time daily for myself. This is a for sure hard one to do based on family things scheduled that I do not want to miss. Also, with medications my body just wants it at a different time some days.
Make sure you talk to your neurologist and see if any of the above might be good ideas to help you.
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All good suggestions…sleep is so important, especially when managing a chronic condition.