Last week I wrote about problems with sleep. It seems to have resonated with people; I’ve had several comments from those who found my difficulties familiar. This started me thinking back. Had my sleep problems changed? How long has this been a problem?
It’s coming up to the four year anniversary of the stroke that knocked me sideways, sent my life on a different course. In the beginning, my problem wasn’t that I didn’t get enough sleep. I seemed to do was sleep!
Sleep became the thing that structured my day. If I didn’t get that nap when I needed it, I stopped being able to function properly. Family could tell if I had missed a nap as I stopped making sense when I was talking, would do even sillier things than I usually did.
It was a desire to share how I was affected that started me writing again. So here is my poem – not brilliant by a long straw – but it accurately reflected the do a bit, sleep a lot pattern that was how I lived through the early days post stroke.
And here am I now complaining that I can’t get enough sleep. How times have changed. I’ve come a long, long way from where I was.
Neuro Fatigue
I open tired eyes, still clinging to sleep,
clutching the duvet that fends off
the day. I slide one leg to
the cold morning floor
To stumble my way
through the
bedroom
door.
An hour and tea later
I think I’ll try
to get dressed.
Teeth cleaned,
exhausted,
I’m back
on the
bed.
A ten minute rest gives me e-
nough energy to drag
on fresh clothes
and start on
my day
doing
chores.
And so my day trundles slowly
along. Rush hour traffic.
I start then
I stop, and
I start,
and I
stop.
Written by Portland Jones, Disabilities Liaison for West Midlands