difficult to get a quality sleep

[ivy28]

Hi,

I hope someone can help me, i am a 30yo female and i have been having trouble sleeping.  It is not chronic but i think i get episodes of no sleep once a month.  What usually happens to me is, i normally go to bed at about 10-11pm, trying to get sleep but would only be able to sleep at about 3am-4am already.  What's worse is that during the sleep, i am conciously aware that i am sleeping and would occassionally be wide awake every hour.  Then i would force myself to sleep again.  This happened to me very recently and for 5 consecutive days, and the lack of sleep made me so weak already, with low blood pressure and whole day of dizziness.  It is disturbing my work already so i went to the doctor to get prescription for a sleeping pill.  It has helped me one day, but i stopped using because i do not want to get into the habit of popping in a pill so that i could sleep.

WHat could be wrong with me?  Or normal days, i could get a sleep, but would still wake up about 3-4 times at night, which makes it difficult for me to get up in the morning.

hope someone can help...

[Earlier]

Do you have RLS-restless leg syndrome or sleep apnea?  You might not know yourself but if you have a partner in bed I bet they do.  RLS does exactly the same to me that you just described.

[ivy28]

hi thanks for the reply, what exacty is RLS? on another problem of mine, i have chronic pain on my right side, from the waist down to my right leg. Even if i didn't have any strenuous activity.  i haven't checked what are the symptoms of RLS though.

[KatEyes]

Any chance you usually sleep on your left side? If you happen to have periodic limb movement is your sleep (PLMD), the movements can happen in whichever limb is not "pinned down" (for lack of a better term). I was tested for all the joint and muscle diseases but turned out I had this sleep disorder, along with RLS.

As already mentioned, sleep apnea can be another sleep disturber.

[ivy28]

Hi,

My husband says i don't snore, so it couldn't be sleep apnea.  And i sleep on my right side most of the time, i practiced sleeping on the left side, but i just can't seem to sleep on that side.  I could suspect this as RLS or PLMD, but to which doctor should i go to for help? Orthopedic doctor or straight to a neurologist?

[Suri123]

Hi ivy28, how are you? How is your sleep these days? How would you rate your sleep disturbance? I feel this might be usual if you are not getting sleep occasionally, which might be due to a very hard and havoc day either at home or at your work place. Do you remember of any incident or changes in your sleep pattern which might have caused sleeplessness? Do observe for few more days and try to relax and overcome of any stress either physical or mental. You need to follow a healthy sleeping habit. Do morning-evening walk, regular exercises, have nutritious diet with lots of water. A gentle body massages followed by a hot shower and listen to soft music before going to bed can be soothing to mind and body may be relaxing. If persists then visit a sleep specialist for a sleep study. Take care.