do you wake up at different times now?

MyLungCancer

I can't sleep and wake up much earlier than before cancer.

JaneA

I've always been an early riser because of having to go to work. Now that I'm retired, I sleep until I wake up - and that is still early. I wake up earlier in the summer when it gets light around 6:15 am. And I usually don't stir until about 7:15 in the mid-winter. But with the time changes, I believe that I'm getting up about the same time according to the sun.

But yes, I don't think that the quality or quantity of our sleep is as good during and after treatment. Part of it is the steroids that they give us before chemo. The other part is being anxious over our diagnosis and treatment.

And now, we have the pandemic to worry about too.

Teachertina

I try to stay up later to sleep later but I wake up once or twice every night. I go to the bathroom and check out my window to see that all is well, always wake up with the sun anyway. Some days I need a nap! I used to sleep late, can’t do it anymore.

Bengal

My sleep patterns are very erratic. Sometimes I fall asleep immediately and sleep through the night. Sometimes I toss and turn for hours, wake up several times during the night or, if I do manage to sleep will not wake until mid-morning. I think it has to do with residual effects of chemo, plus
deep seeded anxiety. And, yes, the pandemic doesn't help.

MarcieB

This is going to sound weird, but I heard from two different sources that lavender oil, applied to the soles of your feet can help your sleep. All I can say is, "It works for me." It also works for my husband who used to FLAIL in his sleep! (believe me, THAT didn't do much for my rest either!) I ordered us each a roll-on from Rocky Mountain Oil Company so it's easy. We just roll a line of oil down our feet and that's it. You can also buy the oil and mix it with a carrier oil, like almond - that works, it's just more fuss.

cllinda

I found that because my husband has retired and not setting alarm clocks, I'm sleeping until about 7:30. It's a perfect time to wake up for me. It is nice for the summer not having to get up at 5:15 for my granddaughters to babysit. And with the whole craziness of schools opening or not, I don't know if I will be watching them. Both my daughter and son in law are teachers. So I'm enjoying the sleeping in right now.

GregP_WN

Same boat lately can't sleep at night then sleep in the morning

Bengal

I've found just having a lavender scented air freshener in my bedroom has helped me sleep- sometimes.
I will try the oil.

LiveWithCancer

In the summer, I seem to wake up between 5:00 and 6:00 in the morning, no matter what time I go to bed. I sleep later in the winter - I guess because it doesn't get light as early. I like getting up really early. My favorite way of sleeping is get up really early in the morning, take a nice long nap, stay up really late at night. I'm both a morning person and a night owl but I'm not too crazy about mid-day

legaljen1969

I still have a regular work schedule so my wake-up time remains fairly consistent. I "usually" first wake up at 4:00 a.m. when my husband gets up for work. I then wake up again around 6:20. I often check email or play with my cat until about 6:45 and then start my day.

If my hot flashes are particularly brutal, I may get up a couple of times in the night to drink some cold water or go to the restroom. We turn our AC to 70 at night and I sleep with a fan blowing right at me, so usually I am pretty chill by the morning. I find it helps me sleep much better when I am cool or cold.

My sleep schedule from November 2019 (first irregular mammogram) through biopsies, surgeries and eventual return to work in March- well it was toast. I was up until usually 2:30- 3:00, slept for about 30 minutes until hubby went to work and then tried to sleep for a couple of hours. I was averaging 18-21 hours of sleep a WEEK between November and January. I upped it to about 24 hours a week between January and February with the help of Xanax. I was pretty sure I was going to lose my job because I was so stressed and ineffective. After surgery, between pain medication and being forced to stay home, I did good with 6-7 hours a night for the first couple of weeks and then my workmates started making me crazy and calling me every 30 minutes and saying they were "worried" because I slept "so much."

Then just after I returned to work, the world shut down and COVID... well that got me off course again. I now only remote in on Fridays, so my schedule is pretty consistent.

GregP_WN

The strangest things I had in the hospital was not sleeping much at all, then maybe sleeping 3 or 4 hours when the doctors are coming in.

GregP_WN

my sleep patterns are starting to change back more towards normal so that's a plus.