What Sleeping Is Like When You Have a Chronic Health Condition

What sleeping is like for people with chronic conditions and what healthy people don’t understand about them.

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What Sleeping Is Like When You Have a Chronic Health Condition

For people battling chronic disease, sleep is a complicated thing.

Our relationship with sleep is one where we regularly swap between not getting enough and getting what many people call “too much.”

I typically have to be in bed for around nine or 10 hours to wake up functional.

If I take my medication to get to sleep, I might be in bed for 12.

And that’s on a good day.

On a bad day, I am in too much pain to sleep even with my medication.

Other times, I can’t stay awake.

It’s frustrating to never know whether or not I’ll be functional until I open my eyes.

It never gets easier, either, because we’re either too sleep-deprived to be human or we’re out like a dead thing because our bodies have finally let us rest.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard well-intentioned friends postulate that I feel so crappy all the time because I sleep too much.

I appreciate their thoughts and intentions. Really, I do. However, they couldn’t be further from the truth.

Your body usually knows what it needs.

You keep doing whatever it is you need to do and take care of yourself with the guide and care of your physicians.

Take care of whatever you need to, and don’t apologize for it.

You are who you are, and that’s OK.

Written By E. Prybylski