A very tired Gail talks about sleep and dementia – not a great combination!

Hi, it’s Gail. I just thought I’d do a quick diary on sleep disturbance and lack of sleep. Since my diagnosis, my sleep pattern has not been great; it’s a bit hit or miss.

Some weeks I sleep really well, and other weeks I sleep very little. I think, it’s not–well, I suppose it could be due to nightmares as well, because I do have nightmares. But it’s just, get into bed, I either can’t sleep or I get into bed, I fall asleep, and then I wake up an hour later. And like last night, I was awake every hour, on the hour. It’s exhausting.

I used to get up and go into the craft room, but seem to be slowing down a little now. And it seems like a real effort to go into the craft room, so I just lie in bed in the darkness. It’s quite lonely, just being lead, listening to nothing, really, because everything’s so quiet and still. And everything’s dark outside, and nobody’s moving, or even the dogs don’t even move, they just stay asleep, while I’m trying to sleep. And it always seems to be worse when you can’t get back to sleep, and the night’s so long and so empty.

But it is what it is, and I’ll still go for my morning walk. I have a quiet day today, so I think I’ll just be taking it easy, and I’ll relax for the rest of the day. Sleep and dementia, not a great combination.