Resource The Lifesaver: ME/CFS/FM Patient Finds Simple Way to Get Sleep

[Cort]

Cort submitted a new resource:

Hand Warming for Better Sleep and Migraine Relief - Simple Biofeedback Tool is "Life-Saver" for Darden

Hand Warming For Better Sleep

This cheap and easy way to turn down her stress response and help her sleep was a life-saver for Darden and her ME/CFS and fibromyalgia. It's also been used with success in migraine.

Darden's Experience

Beginning in the 1980's I began to suffer...

Read more about this resource...

 

[Cort]

Darden left this very interesting comment:

Deep breathing and other relaxation exercise do not necessarily produce this vascular response. I practiced these for years and they did not help in fact before I learned hand warming I got through the night by meditating and doing yoga breathing but that did not stop the night sweats or help me get back to sleep. The system that is affected by hand warming is unique. It affects the “wired tired” condition associated with CFS/ME but not in my opinion the flight/flight response associated with emotional stress. I think this distinction is important.

 

[Darden Burns]

Thanks for publishing this Cort. For the record I tape the sensor to my middle finger. You can see that in the photo on my blog post. http://fibrofriends.typepad.com/fibro_friends/biofeedback/ Deep breathing and other relaxation exercise do not necessarily produce this vascular response. I practiced these for years and they did not help in fact before I learned hand warming I got through the night by meditating and doing yoga breathing but that did not stop the night sweats or help me get back to sleep. The system that is affected by hand warming is unique. It affects the “wired tired” condition associated with CFS/ME but not in my opinion the flight/flight response associated with emotional stress. I think this distinction is important.

 

[Not dead yet!]

There are also mood rings http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/question443.htm

Which also work by temperature. But the only calibrated "color" is green = about 82 degrees.

 

[CantosMaria]

I have severe problems falling a sleep because of my nerves and this is the first time I hear about this method.
Have experience with mediation, thus think that i can master this and will try it.

 

[MF4Mark]

Try targeted cold therapy. Forum noob but long time insomnia sufferer. Before it was mind racing and can't calm the mental chatter. Past year has been sleepy from morning till late afternoon. Then wide awake from dusk till dawn with heart racing and palpitations. I'm big into natural remedies and prefer them over drugs. I used natural remedies to wean myself off tramadol and motrin AND gotten a gawd awful case of dermatitis under control. I was on the tramadol for 5 years and the dermatitis resisted all antihistamines and even prednisone.

Lately, the only things which work are alcohol and trazadone. I despise the idea of a liver transplant so I want to put alcohol back as a recreational drug and NOT an insomnia remedy. Hence I finally relented to tramadol, especially after going 36 hours wide awake a few nights ago.

So anyways, last night I had to bump up to 150 mg Trazadone but cortisol spiked after 4 hours. From 10 pm till midnight I was WIDE AWAKE until I put cold packs under my feet and neck. I wrote a resource guide because I think it might somehow tie in with vagus nerve stimulation.

BTW Cort, I think I have Hashi's (keep reading, I'm going somewhere ). I tried using a balanced cal/mag supplement for sleeping but it backfired. I used to have a slow stomach but the calcium (by suppressing thyroid) caused gastroparesis- it now takes 6-8 hours to empty. Eventually I discovered "rest and digest" and vagus nerve stimulation. Which led me to your tVNS wiki. I think there's every reason to think elevated cortisol levels can be lowered by VNS, especially given it seems to work for PTSD.

Oh and in case someone asks, "why not cut the calcium?". I did but it seems the alcohol screwed up my gut balance. Another thing to note. When I took the cal/mag with water it took 1.5 to 2 hrs for stomach to empty. When I added Trazadone, that dropped to 20 min. Ergo, boosting serotonin in the stomach could be a remedy in itself for gastroparesis.

 

[MF4Mark]

Oh one more thing, I seem to have found another way to rig up the tVNS so gravity doesn't pull the clip off. When I have a moment I'll draft a work instruction. For now, I'll just tell y'all the review I wrote at TENSPros.com:

It works but it's unsupported so you have to figure out a way to keep gravity from pulling it off. I'm an electronics tech, so I did. I wear earrings in both ears. I have alligator clip leads, heat shrink tubing, and a soldering iron because I'm a tech. So, I cut a clip lead in half, stripped 3/8 inch and tinned the copper. Then slipped 1 inch of heat shrink onto the red probe wire. Now another 1 inch shrink tubing onto the clip wire. I mated the soldered bit onto the end of the red lead, then heated the shrink tubing such that the clip was now mechanically connected to the red probe. I heat shrunk the tubing on the red probe (to cover the red plastic) then wrapped electrical tape at the junction of the two heat shrink tubes. Warp the clip lead from behind, over the top of my ear then clip onto my earring. Attach ear clip as normal. The clip lead acts similar to the hook on sporty earbuds and helps support the weight of the ear clip.

PS: Cort, please move/copy this to wherever you feel it's a better spot. It might sound difficult but it isn't. Whenever I get around to posting pix, you'll see it's literally a 15 min job. It will seriously take me longer to draft a proper wiki than it takes to do the work.

EDIT: PPS: This was NOT meant as a dig on Cort. This was me venting about the design of the clip itself. IMO, the manufacturer should have incorporated some sort of over-ear hook into the tens clip.