When you experience long-term sleep disruptions, your risk for certain diseases like cancer can increase. But the relationship between cancer and sleep can also work the other way. Getting a good night’s sleep can also be challenging when undergoing cancer treatment, especially for survivors.
What is insomnia, and how can cancer patients manage this sleep condition during or after cancer treatment?
This article discusses how cancer patients can manage insomnia during or after cancer treatment. Additionally, this article lists the rare cancer types that individuals must look out for.
4 Tips to Manage Insomnia During or After Cancer Treatment
Insomnia is a common sleep disorder in which a person has difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or getting quality sleep. This condition can happen even when you have enough time to sleep well and in a good sleep environment.
For a cancer patient inside a hospital, getting a normal night’s sleep can be difficult for the following reasons:
- Hospital environment: Patients can have difficulty sleeping with an uncomfortable bed, pillow, or room temperature. Noise and sharing a room with strangers can also contribute to sleeping issues.
- Hospital routine: Doctors and nurses entering the room to give drugs or perform exams can interrupt the patient’s sleep.
Additionally, the quality of sleep a patient experiences while staying in the hospital can be affected by anxiety and the patient’s age.
Anxiety, depression, and stress are common reactions when you learn you have cancer and have to receive treatments and stay in the hospital. Such conditions can also cause insomnia.
Alternatively, chronic insomnia can increase your risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, coronary heart disease, and cancer.
Improve Your Diet and Exercise Habits
Even when you’re in the hospital, you can still improve sleep by making the following changes to your exercise and diet routines:
- Stay physically active during the daytime
- Ensure you have regular exercise, but don’t perform such activities within three hours before bed
- Eat a protein-rich snack like milk or turkey two hours before sleeping
- Don’t eat heavy, sugary, or spicy foods before sleeping
- Don’t smoke or drink alcohol before bedtime
- Avoid foods, drinks, and dietary supplements, containing caffeine
Other lifestyle changes you should consider to help improve sleep include:
- Relaxing before sleeping
- Maintaining the same daily schedule for sleeping and waking up, regardless of how little you sleep
- Avoiding naps
- Avoiding watching television or working inside the bedroom
Work Through the Hospital Routines
Staying in the hospital during or after cancer treatment can give the patient a challenging time sleeping, especially considering the hospital routines that can interrupt sleep. If you’re a hospital patient, you can do the following:
- Ask your caregivers to schedule care so that they wake you up the least number of times at night
- Request a massage or back rub to help you relax or relieve pain
Participate in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
CBT-I, short for cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, can help you control or remove negative thoughts and actions keeping you awake. Doctors typically recommend CBT-I as the initial treatment for insomnia since it’s equally effective or better than sleep medications.
Cognitive behavioral strategies to help improve sleep include:
- Relaxation techniques: Includes progressive muscle relaxation, breathing exercises, and biofeedback to help reduce anxiety during bedtime. These techniques help you control breathing, muscle tension, heart rate, and mood to help you relax.
- Stimulus control therapy: Helps remove factors conditioning your mind to resist sleep. One example is setting a consistent wake and bedtime schedule and avoiding naps.
- Sleep restriction: Decreases the time you spend in bed through partial sleep deprivation that makes you tired the next night. Once your sleep improves, your time in bed gradually increases.
- Light therapy: Uses light to help push back your body’s internal clock if you fall asleep too early and awaken too early.
Your doctor can recommend other strategies associated with your sleep environment and lifestyle to help you develop habits promoting a sound sleep routine.
Take Prescription Medications
If you think diet, exercise, and CBT-I still does little to improve your sleep, consult a doctor who can prescribe sleeping pills.
While doctors usually don’t recommend taking prescription sleeping pills for more than a few weeks, they can approve the following medications for long-term use:
- Ramelteon (Rozerem)
- Eszopiclone (Lunesta)
- Zaleplon (Sonata)
- Zolpidem (Ambien, Intermezzo)
Although prescription sleeping pills may help improve sleep, they can cause side effects like daytime grogginess and increased falling risk. These sleeping pills can also be habit-forming. So ask your doctor about the benefits and potential side effects of these medicines.
Rare Cancer Types to Look Out for
Cancers, including rare ones like mesothelioma, can bring about a life-changing experience for the person and their families.
Visit the Mesothelioma Group’s site for more information about mesothelioma and how to prevent and treat the symptoms of this disease.
Moreover, cancer symptoms or the side effects of cancer treatments can cause other conditions like insomnia.
To give you an idea, ask your doctor or oncologist and look out for rare cancers, such as the following:
- Adenoid cystic carcinoma: This rare cancer affects the lungs, breast, or salivary glands.
- Medulloepithelioma: This form of cancer affects the eyes in children.
- Mesothelioma: This disease usually occurs in the tissues lining the lungs or abdomen.
- Paraganglioma: Also called extra-adrenal pheochromocytoma, this disease is a rare form of nerve tumor.
- Translocation renal cell carcinoma: This disease is a rare form of cancer in the kidney.
Scientists are still looking for ways to treat cancer effectively and address other conditions like insomnia associated with this dreaded disease. Contact the American Cancer Society at 1-800-227-2345 to donate and contribute to ongoing cancer research, advocacy, and patient support.
References
- Lack of Sleep and Cancer: Is There a Connection?
- Sleep Disorders (PDQ®)–Patient Version
https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/side-effects/sleep-disorders-pdq
- Insomnia: What Is Insomnia?
https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/insomnia
- Insomnia: Diagnosis & Treatment
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/insomnia/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20355173
