I’m on AC / Taxol regimen and have routinely been waking at 4.30 / 5am each day. I’m shattered. Does anyone else get this?
I had a spell of this when having chemo. It wasn’t great but I used to get up & watch some telly & usually fall asleep again doing that. Sleep was basically all over the place. I recorded films & watched them in bits mostly.
Yes!!! I’m on Tamoxifen and although I drop off to sleep ok I find that I am wide awake at around 4.30 -5am with a brain whirring. It is particularly irritating as I must get up at 7 to go to work.
I suspect it isn’t necessarily the drugs though. Personally I know that when I am under any kind of stress, worry etc, then I will wake at a ridiculous hour and start thinking. (the very last thing I actually want to do.
I don’t have a solution I’m afraid, it tends to sort itself out once I stop stressing.
regards
Val x
Hi
Whilst having TAC chemo I started sleeping badly and when I finished in June 2008. Even now I still wake up at approx 4.30 most mornings! Sometimes I can get back to sleep but otherwise it is downstairs to watch a bit a TV and have a drink of Ovaltine or Horlicks then after an hour or so back to bed and generally back to sleep. When I am staying away from home the same thing happens no matter what time I go to bed. Isn’t it strange?
Nonny
Hi I’m in the 4.30am club too. Why is 4.30am so popular or not as the case maybe. Sometimes I can get back to sleep and sometimes I can’t.
Jan
During my chemo I was also awake a lot in the night - 4.30am being a popular time. I had a duvet in the living room, so would go downstairs and fall asleep on the settee - at least I didn’t have someone snoring loudly next to me. Since I finished chemo 5 weeks ago I have been managing to sleep until 6 - 6.30am. However this morning I didn’t wake until 7.48am - later than I have slept in months.
I became quite a big fan of Sarah Kennedy on Radio 2 during my sleepless periods. I didnt want to get up as it made the days so long. My husband bought me a lovely little personal radio which I kept by the bed, so when I woke up I could just pop the headphones on and listen to a show till I dozed off again. I actually miss her shows now my sleep has returned to something more normal.
I also sleep badly and cope by leaving the radio (R4) on all night - it stops my mind racing when I wake up, and find I can then drift in and out of sleep. It hasn’t stopped me waking up, but it does help.
I’ve only just started on FEC, first one last Wednesday and I’ve found myself awake and raring to go at 5am each morning. Problem is it only lasts an hour or so then I’m like a wet rag!
The first day was really hard, as I was so full of beans early on, I planned a whole load of stuff which I found I couldn’t do after all. Beat myself up a bit over that, so I’m trying to just go with the flow now.
Wendy
x
Hi, I’m on the 4.30 wake up call as well. I’m having taxotere and I think it’s a combination of that and the steroids, it’s always worse when I’ve just had the treatment which is weekly, so basically it’s all the time. I occasionally take a sleeping tablet when it’s really bad, although I prefer to do without if I can. I usually get up and watch tv or come onto the computer. Its’ a bummer I know, but waking up is better than the alternative!!!
Hope you all have a good day. Take care, Dianne