my story revisited #102-more sleep please

MY STORY REVISITED #102-MORE SLEEP PLEASE

8 years ago my biggest issue is the same as my biggest issue now 
its i dont sleep at night

i easily fall into a deep sleep
just ask my wife she
then
about 5 hours later i am wide away

its not because of my age and my prostate
i dont wake up having to pee at night
i just boom wake up

sometimes my aricept (donepezil) dreams wake me up
usually they are not disturbing but sometimes i act them out
ive been known to hurl a pillow across the room and yell out
that usually wakes me up
when im awake 
im awake

its the aricept (donepezil) i take for my mci due to alzheimers disease

my mother and my brother took it at night and didnt have any problems with it 
my older brother was on it for awhile 
he told me it didnt seem to bother him at all

for me
it does

ive tried several meds even otc ones like benadryl and melatonin but had side effects or they didnt work well or they interfered with the aricept (donepezil)

the prescription meds i was given didnt work either 
they seemed to make me restless and made me sleep less or made me sleepy all day long

last year when i was in recovery mode from whatever that illness i had i was given meds to help with my stomach to see if i could get my appetite back and be able tolerate food
some of these meds i tried really helped with my sleep

one in particular gave me 7 hours of sleep but i had to stop it because of significant other side effects
another made me feel stoned all day long

an side here
i just looked at my weight one year ago 
i was down 40 lbs
today i have regained 20 of those lbs and like where my weight is
i hope to keep it at this weight
its about 5 lbs over my high school weight
i feel good
just
i need  more sleep
__________
06-20-2013
SLEEP

many of you who read this blog regularly know that
i have trouble sleeping
ive always been an early bird
in fact we have an alarm clock but we never use it
since everyone knows that ill be up

i need 7 hours of sleep to feel rested every day
when i was diagnosed and started on the
aricept (donepezil) it knocked 1-2 hours of my sleep
off at night
ive tried different medications to help but they dont work
well except for benadryl which adds back about an
hour of sleep each night
but benadryl interferes with the way the donepezil works so
im not really suppose to take it
but i do when i get on a several nights run of not sleeping
so i just take it anyway

luckily for me im retired so that if i dont get enough sleep
eg wednesday night i only slept 4 hours so
that afternoon i slept for 3 hours
so i usually can compensate
last night i slept for 6 hours
i think what helped is a medication im taking for the nerve
pain for my sciatica was adjusted so i take it at night
instead of twice a day
so last night i did it that way and i think that helped me
sleep

also since i ruptured that dang disc or is it disk
i like disk better but know its really suppose to be disc
the prednisone i was on and the night time pain has knocked
off another 1-2 hours of sleep at night
so some days i feel slightly zombeed
but again luckily i can take my compensatory nap

so between 1-3pm each day if you call me you wont
reach me
i dont schedule appointments or visitors during nap time
i understand why those preschool kids all take naps now
without them i would not make it
__________
so my solution is the same as it was 8 years ago 
i sleep usually five hours a night and if im lucky i will sleep 6 hours like i did last night
i wake up between 3-4 am 
then
at noonish after lunch i take a nap
usually 1-2 hours 
that regimen works well for me

if i miss my nap i usually am able to power through ok but will usually fall asleep earlier that night
then i wake up early the next day
luckily i dont miss many naps

i do take my aricept (donepezil) in the morning
if i take it at night i dont sleep well 

if you have a loved one with dementia and they are on aricept (donepezil) be aware that this sleep disturbance may happen

also be aware that as the disease progresses the alzheimers biological clock gets all messed up and they will not sleep well at night if at all
just ask any caregiver about this one

so is mine the meds
yes
is mine the disease
not yet i dont think but the dreams may be from the meds amd or from the disease

these things your medical provider may not tell you

the organic green doctor