ABOUT FEELING TIRED

The Power of Sleep

Do you sometimes feel fatigued from your care-giving duties? Of course you do. We all do.

Even during our ordinary working lives we burn too much of the candle and meet Fatigue!

When you get tired, your brain turns to mush. This is a well-known and oft-used cliché. Both are familiar – fatigue and cliché. Cliché’s are truisms in such cases.

The question is, what do we do about it?

Duty is relentless, a constant companion. We get so used to it, we forget there is any other state. And, we are too tired to do anything about it.

Probably the best and probably the only way to cope with this is rest.

Yes, and how do you go about getting rest, you ask?

Become a thief. A thief of time. Just steal the time. Here and there.

And when a real chance opens up for you, just drop everything. Nothing else is important for the time being. Lie down. Sleep. Sleep is restorative.

We know this. I know this. I live in a house where everybody else rises when it’s still night. I get disrupted, and disturbed sleep is destructive to the restorative process.

So, of course, and naturally, I get tired in the afternoon. There is nothing for it but to take a nap, because the brain has turned to mush and my productivity sinks like a winter temperature. Luckily, since I am “Retired!” – HA_HA_HA_HA_HA – I CAN take the time to NAP. Hoorahh!

This wasn’t so easy when Ann was still here fighting with Mr. Alzheimer’s all of the time, and there were some desperate times – but, as you’ve heard me say – You Are Stronger Than You Think! Well, I’m still here, aren’t I? I didn’t go completely goo-haw, even though I thought I had.

When she slept, I slept. And wrote. And slept. Fatigue followed me around, but I got enough winks in to carry on.

(This was mostly after the hump of desperation and depression. I had a turning point after a crisis when she turned on me, accusing me of not loving her any more. Acceptance is a hard stage to reach for the care giver.)

So, for some reason – no doubt exhaustion – I actually got some restorative sleep last night.

This morning I woke up after a broken 7 ½ hours – an almost record: average maybe 5 1/2 to 6 hours – and I was feeling a whole lot more able and energetic. Still do 10 hourse later.

Ah! The power of sleep.

You can read my fatigue poems in Chasing a Butterfly: A journey in poems of love and loss to acceptance – the Alzheimer’s Poems, with Poems for Everybody.

You can read samplers of the book here:
Amazon.ca – goo.gl/nexsF4        Friesen’s – http://bit.ly/2jQpFxS

And for further reading:
#caregiver #dementia #Alzheimer’s

ENJOY YOUR DAY.

“Your husband is tired because having dementia is tiring.”
— Elaine
So – When he sleeps, you sleep. Damn the housework.
–Me

You can read Elaine’s column here:
https://goo.gl/ozDQKr

Elaine is Dr. Elaine Eshbaugh   –   as in Welcome to Dementialand, where you can read lots of useful stuff, including humour with dementia.

Far too much stimulation for the ALZ brain to sort out.
You, the care giver, have to wait it out.
You are his nerve-calming pill, his calm in the storm, his rock, his pillar.
You are care giver.
You are strong!
–Me

PICTURE:  goo.gl/41LyFq

Don’t forget to check out my tribute book to Ann, “Chasing a Butterfly.” Go to: Amazon.ca –   goo.gl/nexsF4  Friesen’s  –  http://bit.ly/2jQpFxS

#caregiver    #dementia   #Alzheimers