Lack of Sleep

“I.B.S.” should stand for ‘I be stressed’ because I am definitely stressed out a lot due to it. There are many aspects to IBS that make it very difficult to deal with and one of them is sleeping, or lack thereof. Every morning I get woken up by my IBS, it never fails. When I don’t get enough sleep because of my IBS, I get very frustrated and angry. I’m a person who loves to be positive and happy, but deprive me of sleep, then I will be the crankiest person you’ll ever meet. Personally, the only thing that combats the crankiness is marijuana, which I use for medication and have a license for, because it puts me in a very content state, even if I didn’t get much sleep. Some of you may be wondering, well if you use medical marijuana, doesn’t that help with sleeping? Well, yes, it does, but it only helps so much when there’s other aspects to IBS that can put up a great fight.

How to get some sleep with IBS?

The one thing I try to do to help me get through the night is not eat at least a couple of hours before I go to bed. Ideally, it’s best not to eat for at least 4 hours before I go to sleep, however, that’s not always realistic when hunger pains substitute the IBS pains. If I eat right before I hit the sheets, then I’ll be waking up constantly throughout the night due to gas and stomach pain, having to use the toilet almost every time. How could anyone ever expect to stay comfortable in bed for more than 4 hours when IBS is kicking me in the gut nonstop?

Being productive on a consistent basis is also too much to ask for when I consistently lack sleep. It’s bad enough that IBS is attending work with me, but to be extremely tired on top of that makes work almost unbearable. It slows down the creative process and makes it hard to get anything done on time. However, I’d be lying if I said that after all of these years, I wasn’t slowly getting used to it. There are many times when I decide to stay awake only after having slept for 2-3 hours, which is extremely hard to do when you’re not getting much sleep. Nonetheless, I’m trying to change my mindset when these things happen. So, I started splitting my sleep schedule into different parts throughout the night and day. After my first nap at night, I’ll sit on the porcelain throne for however long my IBS wants me to, and then I stay up and work in my office. I figure, why waste another hour trying to go back to bed when I could just stay up and be productive? Ever since I started splitting my work schedule up, I am able to get a decent amount of work done sooner than later. Sometimes the best way to deal with IBS is just to take it day by day, strategize accordingly, and never give up. Still, being interrupted from a good dream is a good reason to be pissed!

How does IBS affect your sleep?