This is topic sleeping position and Lyme? in forum Medical Questions at LymeNet Flash.


To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://flash.lymenet.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php/topic/1/43153

Posted by psano (Member # 7785) on :
 
Just wondering if anyone else has had to change their sleeping position noticeably since being ill.

Before Lyme (AL), I would usually sleep flat on my back, without a pillow for my head. After Lyme (PL), I couldn't do that anymore because I'd feel dizzy. Likewise for when I slept on my left side, which was my preferred side to sleep on.

The result is that the only way I could get to sleep was to sleep on my right side, which felt really unnatural at first.

Anywho, the reason I bring this up is that last night I was able to sleep on my back without a pillow for the first time since last August! No dizziness! Even though my eyes have been drooping continuously for the last 2 weeks, I feel like that's another small breakthrough, and one I hadn't really thought about as a symptom, but maybe it is.

Patti
 
Posted by cantgiveupyet (Member # 8165) on :
 
yep, i cant lay on my back either...very dizzy. this was worse when i first got sick...and very noticable when getting MRI and cT scans done.

Laying on my stomach hurts too...so i lay on my right side.

i used to lay on my left, but that is not comfortable to me either.

it is strange indeed.
 
Posted by cantgiveupyet (Member # 8165) on :
 

 
Posted by iceskater (Member # 8655) on :
 
For me, a sleeping position and lyme is a oxymoron( have gone several months at a time unable to sleep) I have considered sleeping upside like a bat, especially since any type of nocturnal patterns are gone.

" The Absence of proof is not proof of absence"

Figure Skating
 
Posted by hatsnscarfs (Member # 6562) on :
 
For the first 1 1/2 years I could only sleep absolutely motionless, flat on my back. My shoulders and ribs hurt too much to turn on my side. Sometimes I slept propped up on pillows.

Just the last month I've been able to sleep on my side too! Hooray. The problem some nights is my temperature changes in each position. Typically cold on back, burning up on left side and other pains on right side.

hatsnscarfs
 
Posted by Gabrielle (Member # 5329) on :
 
I have always been a side-sleeper. When getting very ill with Lyme I could only lay on my back because my heart started to race like mad on the side, especially on the right side.

Also I used to sleep in the embryo position but I had to give it up because I was so stiff and my body hurt too much.

It's much better now, I'm back to the embryo position and sometimes even I don't feel my heart any more.

Gabrielle
 
Posted by lymeHerx001 (Member # 6215) on :
 
no position is comfortable.

I have spent 1000$ on new matresses only to return them for others that are equally as useless because of the lyme.

I wake up in more pain then I had when I went to bed.
 
Posted by [email protected] (Member # 8111) on :
 
I, too, have always slept best on my sides. Since Lyme I can't sleep on my Right side because of rib pain and neuropathic pain in my right leg. I can't sleep on my left side becasue of left hip joint and leg pain. Turning on my back for a while relieves some of these pains for a while but then I have choking feeling in throat from sinus drainage (allergies)and have to try one or the other side again.
 
Posted by Andie333 (Member # 7370) on :
 
I had never paid a lot of attention to my sleep position prior to Lyme. But as my joints became affected, I bought several new mattresses trying to find some relief from the pain I'd feel when I would first wake up.

Nothing helped.

For several months after starting abx, I couldn't sleep on my right side at all. I couldn't put any weight on that side of my body.

Now, thank God, I'm able to sleep pretty comfortably on either side, and I wake up feeling pretty good most mornings.

Andie
 
Posted by Virginia of Yore (Member # 3269) on :
 
I found early in my infection that my hands would go numb if my arms were bent when sleeping, so I had to sleep on my back with my arms straight down by my sides. That helped, but of course during the night we all shift and change positions, so I still would sometimes wake with one or both of my hands numb if my arms were bent for long. If I shook them well, feeling would return. It is probably from inflammation in the ulnar nerves or tendons. i have heard of other lymies with the same problem.

Talking on the phone for a long time with a bent arm holding the receiver would also make it go numb. It has decreased over time, now only sometimes recurring at flares or when herxing with a new drug.
 
Posted by Virginia of Yore (Member # 3269) on :
 
One thing that might help some people with pain is to get a special "memory" foam mattress topper (like the pricey "Tempurpedic" mattresses.) It helps reduce body pressure on your spine and joints. You can get them at Costco or Sam's for around $100 or so (vs. the thousands a Tempurpedic can cost.) I asked a Temp. salesman if the 1 to 2 inch pad on a good regular mattress would work just as well as the expensive 4 to 5 inch full foam mattress, and he said yes, assuming your mattress and box spring were still good and not sagging. They sell just the pad themselves, but of course prefer to sell you the whole bed to make more profit, so probably won't tell you about it unless you ask. It costs quite a bit more than the one at the warehouse stores. (The memory foam is not the regular old-fashioned kind you see at many other stores for college kids' beds, etc.)

Some people really do not like the "feel" of the NASA space/memory foam, so try it out in a store first. (Bed Bath & Beyond might have one on display.) My spouse has had no lower back problems since using one. (He's not a lymie, just had spasms from other muscle problems.) They make pillows of the same material, and sell those at Costco/Sam's as well. (I found them too thick to be comfortable for me, but a smaller one I had used at a chiropractor's was fine. Just haven't found one like it in any local stores.)
 
Posted by hurtingramma (Member # 7770) on :
 
I was always a side sleeper, but for the last few years only on the right side.

Now I usually lie flat on my back, no pillow under my head, but one under my knees.
When I do sleep on my side, I also use a pillow between my knees.
 
Posted by DolphinLady (Member # 6275) on :
 
When most ill, I couldn't sleep on my back nor right side because the right side of my head (sinuses, ear, lymph nodes) would get painfully congested in a matter of minutes. I slept on my left side for years.

I have since made significant progress and today I can sleep in any position.
 
Posted by HEATHERKISS (Member # 6789) on :
 
We have the tempurpedic. I love it. My husband has decided after having it for 4 years that he hates it.

He has lately been sleeping on the couch recliner. Poor guy says he's in pain.

I used to sleep 10 plus hours and needed all kinds of pillows. For my stomache, in between my knees, to prop my feet up blah blah blah.

Soft sheets also helped.
 


Powered by UBB.classic™ 6.7.3