Re: Need help with CPAT Stats
Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2016 4:10 pm
Robysue, How many people do you think do well with those type items? Even if educated about what to do?
There are two answers, which apply to me as well as most of humanityChicagoGranny wrote:Robysue, How many people do you think do well with those type items? Even if educated about what to do?
1) Most people who manage to do these things and get used to doing them on a regular basis do feel better and have fewer problems managing whatever chronic health problems they happen to have.
2) Most people find one or more of these things very, very difficult to do in the long run. It's extremely difficult to change your long term behavior even when you know it will help. (Which things a particular person finds hard to do will vary tremendously.)
For me? Let's look at your list and see how many I need to do better on:
Practice good sleep hygiene. When the insomnia is threatening to take over my life, I really focus on this. If I did this all the time? I'd have less problems with the old insomnia monster that is always hiding somewhere in my bedroom waiting to pounce.
Eat a good diet. I need to do a better job on this. I know I feel better when I eat a diet that has (a lot) more vegetables and fruit and a good balance of various protiens rather than heavy on the complex carbs. But I struggle with this: Not much tastes good to me right now, and that's leading to my eating too many carbs. And it is affecting how I'm feeling.
Have a regular, moderate exercise program. That reminds me that I need to get back to my nightly walks ... Seriously, I do feel a lot better when I get some moderate exercise every day. And I miss the walks, so I really ought to start taking them, particularly since skiing is done for the year.
Try to avoid daytime naps. Not a problem for me.
Practice total abstinence of caffeine including sources like chocolate (sigh). Since caffeine is one of my migraine triggers, most days this is pretty easy for me to do. But giving up my beloved iced tea when eating out was very, very difficult. (Yes, I can and do make decaf iced tea at home.)
Review all medicines, vitamins and supplements you are taking to make sure none are interfering with sleep. Yep. Done that. Need to get back to taking the Magnesium though since it tends to help sleep.
Use the bedroom for sleeping (and sex) only, and make sure the bedroom and bed are comfortable.
Been doing this ever since I first moved into my own apartment at the age of 23.
Optimize emotional stress in your life. BIG, HUGE problem for me. Even though I do things to try to minimize it: Yoga, yep. Regular massages, yep. Meditation, not enough, but I do try. And it does bring the emotional stress down from RED to ORANGE.
Use CPAP software, such as the free SleepyHead, to make sure your therapy is optimized. Yep. Although there's currently something going on in the data that I haven't figured out yet.
If you still don't feel or sleep well, make sure you have regular medical checkups to confirm there are no other medical problems. Let's see: Migraines can interfere with sleep, but I've been working hard to get them under control. And they're mostly under control. TMJ can interfere with sleep. Mine's treated, but I can tell the TMJ stress is growing. And the TMJ dentist no longer takes my insurance. So there's the whole idea of how much do I want to spend. Chronic pain? Not so much with the massages.
So, let's see I'm probably "well educated" about what to do, and I struggle with at least 4 or 5 of these 10 things. But that doesn't mean they aren't good ideas to work on.
