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How to Sleep Better During Cancer Treatment?
By Raveena M Prakash
Cancer patients usually face trouble with sleeping due to some side effects of cancer treatments. Some patients experience anxiety, stress, and emotional distress because of their recent cancer diagnosis, which leads to a lack of sleep. Symptoms of the cancer also cause sleeping issues in patients. If you are concerned with how to sleep better during cancer treatment and want to understand the connection between sleep and cancer, then read further!
In this article, we’ll discover more about the common causes of sleep issues in patients, how a poor sleep cycle affects the patient, and tips to improve sleep in patients.
What are the causes of sleep issues in patients
Cancer diagnosis and its necessary treatments might interrupt many parts of cancer patients including their sleeping cycles. There are some risk factors that might trouble the sleep patterns in patients.
These may include:
- Stress, anxiety, and depression: Patients who received a recent cancer diagnosis may experience extreme levels of anxiety and depression, which eventually lead to sleep deprivation.
- Extreme pain: Patients undergoing treatments such as surgery and other treatments face extreme pain, which often results in trouble sleeping.
- Cancer treatments: Several cancer treatments, including chemotherapy and radiation therapy, and their side effects might change patients' sleep routines.
- Medicines and their side effects: Different types of cancer medication might prevent sleep, eventually changing the sleep routine and causing insomnia. There are some medicines that cause sleeplessness in patients; these may include corticosteroids, antidepressants, anticonvulsant drugs, and hormone therapies.
- Prolonged hospital stay: Many patients have experienced trouble sleeping, once they have started to stay in the hospital for their cancer treatments.
How poor sleeping habits might affect patients
Some studies suggest that many patients face sleeping issues due to cancer symptoms, including extreme levels of pain and discomfort. In some patients, extended periods of hospital stays might cause sleeping issues, and patients with advanced stages of cancer, including some complications in treatment, might experience sleeping issues. All these mostly lead to challenges in sleeping issues in cancer patients.
Poor sleeping cycle in patient cause health issues, these may include:
- Weakens immune system: Poor sleeping habits damage the body’s ability to fight against infection, which makes the cancer patients prone to many diseases.
- Affects bodily functions: lack of sleep might cause bodily functions to regulate appetite and other body functions.
- Irregular metabolic activities: Cancer patients with a lack of sleep cause irregular metabolic activities in the body.
- Changes in hormone regulation: Lack of sleep or poor sleeping habits changes hormone regulation by interfering with the release of hormones.
- Trouble in thinking or brain fog: Patients with a lack of sleep often experience trouble in thinking or brain fog.
Tips to improve sleep in cancer patients
Understanding the reason for trouble in sleeping patterns is crucial for solving this issue during cancer treatments. In some cases, patients' lifestyle habits cause challenges for getting quality sleep, while in others it happens due to the intake of several medications or side effects of treatments such as pain or discomfort. Additionally, sleeplessness can also happen due to extreme levels of anxiety, stress, and other mental health issues in patients.
There are some tips used to improve the quality of sleep in patients. These may include:
- Create a positive environment for sleep: Try to sleep in a quiet and cool environment and arrange a comfortable bed for better sleep.
- Keep a schedule for sleeping on time: Follow a sleeping schedule and go to sleep at the same time without fail.
- Practice subtle physical activities and exercises: Practice exercises and physical activities such as walking and swimming during the day.
- Avoid alcohol consumption: Stop consuming alcohol and other beverages during your cancer treatments.
- Eat a healthy, balanced diet: Consult with a dietitian and get enough nutrients to match the energy requirements to tackle the side effects of treatments.
- Reduce screen time and avoid scrolling on phones: Stop using phones for longer hours, which might negatively impact your sleep pattern, and avoid bedtime phone scrolling. Overly using phones might reduce the quality of your sleep and cause tiredness to your eyes.
- Practice relaxation therapy: Consider taking relaxation therapy, which helps to lower the levels of anxiety, stress, and overthinking in people.
- Avoid difficult conversations: Stop yourselves from having any difficult conversation related to cancer and treatment outcomes with anyone at night or late in the day.
- Avoid overthinking habits: Avoid overthinking and stressing out about the outcome of cancer treatment during the day and night. Overthinking leads to a lack of sleep in patients.
- Consider taking sleeping pills (with the prescription of a doctor): Consult your doctor if you experience a lack of sleep for more than two or three weeks.
- Practice breathing exercises and meditation: Practice breathing exercises and meditation to relax and calm your mind, consider praying, and listen to calming music.
When to see a doctor
When you have tried every tip and are still struggling to get enough sleep, then consider consulting your doctor. Get an immediate consultation with your doctor if you experience these symptoms.
These may include:
- Sleeplessness lasts for more than two or three weeks
- Fatigue, an extreme level of tiredness in your body
- Extreme level of anxiety and depression
- Sleep deprivation connects with the intake of medication
Untreated sleeping issues might affect patients' physical and emotional health, especially during cancer treatment. Consider taking a consultation with your doctor for treating struggles related to your sleep cycles.
If needed, your doctor might suggest a more personalized treatment plan or change the dosages of drugs to improve the quality of sleep. This helps to get a proper sleep and rest, which eventually results in successful recovery and healing from cancer treatments.
If you are experiencing trouble sleeping, then visit Oncare Cancer Center and book an appointment with our cancer specialists today!
Consult Today
Cancer patients usually struggle with lack of sleep because of the side effects of different types of cancer treatments. Patients need to maintain a healthy sleeping cycle during their treatments. Patients who get a good sleep cycle during their treatment phase tend to repair any damaged tissue and rebuild white blood cells and red blood cells.
At Oncare, we offer proper guidance for our cancer patients who are struggling with lack of sleep while undergoing major treatments. We provide some tips to improve their sleeping cycle during cancer treatments.
If you or any loved ones of yours are diagnosed with cancer or concerned with the symptoms of cancer, then visit Oncare Cancer Center and book an appointment with our cancer specialists and get an estimated cost of treatments.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some of the 5 best tips to improve sleep habits during cancer treatments; these may include:
- Try to follow a consistent sleep schedule.
- Try to create a peaceful sleep environment.
- Use relaxation techniques such as breathing exercises and meditation.
- Watch out for what you are eating and drinking.
- Try to take short naps and follow physical activities.
Poor sleeping habits might affect cancer patients and cause a wide range of issues. These may include:
- Extreme level of pain
- Worsen weakness
- Depression and anxiety
- Extending hospital stays
There are some common causes of sleep issues, these may include:
- Stress, anxiety, and depression caused due to the cancer diagnosis result in lack of sleep in people.
- Several cancer treatments and their side effects might cause sleep issues.
- Experiencing extreme pain due to surgery and other treatments causes sleep issues.
- Some medications might cause sleep deprivation in patients.
- A prolonged stay at the hospital might cause a lack of sleeping issues.