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Reporting Back: Strategies on Improving Sleep with IPF.
Hello wonderful forum members!
A few weeks ago I created a forum post on strategies that might help improve the quality of sleep that patients living with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) are getting. As we well know, this disease in itself causes enough physical exhaustion and fatigue, that when coupled with poor sleeping habits, can make activities of daily living feel nearly impossible.
Unfortunately, exhaustion and both physical and mental fatigue have been really causing me trouble the last few weeks and I am looking for strategies to help improve my quality of sleep. I tend to go to bed on a regular schedule, and ensure I am getting between 7-8 hours sleep per night which was suggested by my family doctor. Even when I seem to have slept through the night, I often wake up feeling groggy and tired still which leads me to believe my quality of sleep might be the issue (as opposed to the length of sleep).
I am thankful for the many responses that I received from other patients living with PF/IPF, and I thought I’d compile all the suggestions I’ve received. It is my hope that a concise document like this might be helpful to you, or your loved one living with this disease. I also hope to bring it with me to the local support group I participate in, as I know sleep is a common struggle among many of us in that group. I have removed names from the comments and suggestions to honour members’ privacy. Here are some suggestions that I can ‘report back’ to you regarding others’ efforts in improving the quality of their sleep:
A) “I used to massage lavender oil on my husbands forehead and sprinkled some on his pillow and he thought it helped”.
B) “I try to avoid caffeine and chocolate before bedtime I take ibuprofen and liquid children’s Benadryl with medication at supper I take Ambien, a prescription sleep medication, an hour before I go to sleep If I wake up and have trouble getting back to sleep, I try to pray myself back to sleep or read a book”.
C) “I play music on my plugged in iPhone from a youtube site. It is called 8 Hour Sleeping Music, Music Meditation and it can be found here”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?nohtml5=False&v=4D8ezH0iXh8&app=desktop
D) “I’ve been using a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machine for only one week now, but already my disturbances per hour have dropped from 79 to 6”
E) ” I sleep with an oxygen hose, feel pretty rested in the morning so far”
F) “I turn off all electronics about one hour before bed and let my eyes get tired and adjusted to dim light by reading a book. I only let myself try to sleep for 45 minutes then I get up again so I don’t feel frustrated which just contributes to my inability to sleep”
G) “I try counting as high as I can both forwards, or counting backwards. It sounds silly and childish but it works for me”
Do you have anything else you could add to this running list of strategies to help improve sleep for patients living with PF/IPF?
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