Rebound insomnia

Last night I had a little queasy tummy before bedtime, and eating a dry cracker didn't quite do the trick. I pulled out the Zofran (anti-nausea med) and re-read the label. Sure enough, "may cause drowsiness" is right there in the tiny print. I took one and got into bed thinking I would fall straight asleep. NOT.

Three hours later, I'd been tossing and turning regularly. I was too stubborn to take Ambien or Ativan, and wasn't sure how the meds would mix with each other anyway. At 3 AM Rik got up. At 6 AM the alarm clock went off. I really don't think I slept for more than 30 minutes at a time all night long.

This rebound insomnia comes whenever I've taken a sleep aid for too many nights in a row. I'd been taking Ativan since I've been bandaging my arm at night and it's hard for me to sleep that way. A few nights ago I decided to switch to Ambien when I felt the Ativan wasn't working as well.

Perhaps I should have combined the Decadron high from Monday's chemo with coming off sleep aids. This makes three nights in a row of not-best-quality sleep. I will try to take a nap this afternoon to keep my head on for a meeting tonight.

Oh, and I finally got my made-to-measure JoviPak arm sleeve. It's big and blue, with quilted channels to provide compression, has a special extra pad to control swelling in the back of my hand, and fits perfectly. It should help me sleep better while providing lymphedema compression.