Episode 411: Sleep Roller Coaster

Sleep is the foundation for everything! I’m Annette Leonard of https://www.annetteleonard.com find me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/theannetteleonard If you're watching this on video you can see I'm wearing my dark shades -- that means my migraine is off the charts. Part of the reason is that my sleep is gone to s*it. If you're tracking, you'll also notice I haven't dropped an episode in a couple of weeks and that's down to the same reason. We are the proud parents of (1:05) a 14 year old pit-mix rescue. She is entering a phase of old age (senility, deafness, etc.) that is wreaking havoc on our sleep. There are a variety of things at play from her trying to get into our bed, her deafness, and her incontinence that are having significant impact on our sleep. This has been building up for the last couple of months, but now our sleep is being interrupted multiple times a night, every night. I can't solve this simply. Several things are happening because of this a) without a solid chunk of sleep every night, my migraines don't get a chance to reset so I'm starting at a worse place when I wake up; b) my physical pain is worse for the same reason; 3) my mind is mush brain fog and thoughts are so muddled I can't track anything; 4?) keeping up on what I need to follow up on as a professional patient or any extras in life are just shot; and.... I forgot the last thing. Sleep is integral. Do I need to go to friends houses and sleep for a couple of nights? Do I need to sleep in our camper van for a few nights? There's a reason we use sleep deprivation for a mechanism of torture. I acknowledge that I'm laughing right now and this isn't funny. I'm doing that out of discomfort and to put you at ease -- I'd like to have a good cry about this. However, crying takes a lot of oxygen and makes my head hurt worse. This has reduced me to tears. This had made me a jerk to live with. The dog has not responded well to drugs and I can't find a drug strong enough to keep me asleep. We'll have to find some workable solution until the end of one of our days. Do you have ideas about what to do when you aren't getting much sleep? Also, every couple of weeks I'm hosting a Chronic Wellness Conversation on IG Live with authors, thought leaders, and sick people. Go check out those recordings on my Instagram. Talk to you when I get some sleep. This is the Chronic Wellness Podcast. I'm Annette Leonard, speaker, coach, and sick person who believes that my illnesses do not define me. If health is the absence of disease and wellness is the presence of wholeness, then no matter what your disease status, we can work toward your wellness, your wholeness. Whether or not you are ever "healthy" on paper, you can be well. Join me and others on the path back to wholeness at AnnetteLeonard.com. Whether you are a person experiencing chronic illness or are someone who loves or serves people with chronic illness I have great resources here on this channel or on my website for you.