Recently Diagnosed or Relapsed? Stop Looking For a Miracle Cure, and Use Evidence-Based Therapies To Enhance Your Treatment and Prolong Your Remission
Multiple Myeloma an incurable disease, but I have spent the last 25 years in remission using a blend of conventional oncology and evidence-based nutrition, supplementation, and lifestyle therapies from peer-reviewed studies that your oncologist probably hasn't told you about.
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Multiple Myeloma – Sleep, Insomnia
“Conclusions- Among patients with Multiple Myeloma, fatigue, pain, sleep, mood and functional performance are interrelated…”
Sleep (SLE) is the lowest of low tech therapies for the newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patient. Don’t expect your oncologist to spend much time talking about the importance of a good night’s sleep…
Please take it from a long-term myeloma survivor, there is no therapy more important to your progression-free survival and overall survival than a good night’s sleep.
When you are diagnosed with an incurable blood cancer, trouble sleeping and insomnia are the type of symptom/side effect that are almost inevitable. And, according to the research linked below,
- sleep, fatigue, pain, and mood are all connected in the myeloma patient’s world
- sleep apnea can make your myeloma worse aka apnea can make your myeloma more aggressive
My point is that your SLE will be thrown off in many ways. You will experience both mental and physical challenges. Your myeloma itself can cause pain while dexamethasone or prednisone (steroids that accompany most chemo regimens) can make SLE almost impossible.
Fortunately there are documented therapies to help you SLE. From timing your medications, to therapies like moderate exercise, meditation, to nutrition to supplementation such as melatonin. All proven to induce SLE when your head hit the pillow.
This blog post summarizes and links to more than 10 years of research and blogging about sleep, insomnia and myeloma. This post provides dozens of evidence-based but non-conventional therapies that you can pursue to help you sleep longer, more soundly, wake less during the night, etc. All have been discussed in the links below.
- Sleep Secrets of a Long-term Myeloma Survivor
- Multiple Myeloma – Sleep Apnea?
- Multiple Myeloma – Stress, Sleep?
- Multiple Myeloma – Meditation
- Multiple Myeloma – Melatonin
- Saw Palmetto – Kill Myeloma, Sleep Better
- Multiple Myeloma – Sleep Quality Over Quantity
Have you been diagnosed with multiple myeloma? Are you having trouble sleeping? Scroll down the page, post a question or comment and I will reply to you ASAP.
Hang in there,
David Emerson
- MM Survivor
- MM Cancer Coach
- Director PeopleBeatingCancer
Recommended Reading:
- Multiple Myeloma Chemotherapy, Allergy, Hypersensitivity, Side Effects?
- Relapsed, Refractory Multiple Myeloma- Therapy Options
- Multiple Myeloma-10 Mind-Body Cancer Therapies Better than Chemo-
Guide to insomnia and technology
Reasons someone may develop insomnia
- Medical conditions
- Medication side effect
- Mental health conditions
- Inconsistent SLE schedules
- Unhealthy SLE habits
How to relieve insomnia
While many people do suffer from insomnia at some point, there are things you can do to improve your ability to SLE. The first (and easiest) solution is to examine your sleep habits and practice good SLE hygiene.
“SLE hygiene refers to recommendations for healthy SLE habits. They are things that are generally good for your SLE,” said Baron.
Good sleep hygiene and technology habits
- Establish a regular routine that signals to your body that it’s time to SLE
- Create a good SLE environment with a comfortable mattress and set the room temperature between 60 and 68 degrees. If you SLE during the day, consider blackout curtains to block natural light.
- Use ear plugs, white noise machines or fans for a quieter sleep environment.
- Avoid caffeine and other stimulants close to bedtime, and drink alcohol only in moderation.
- Exercise regularly during the day to improve your SLE and ensure you are exposed to adequate natural light during your waking hours to maintain a proper circadian rhythm.
- Stop using smartphones, tablets, computers and televisions 30 to 60 minutes before bed.
- Start using an anti-snore device that automatically moves your pillow when you snore so you don’t wake up yourself or your partner.
- Introduce light therapy into your nighttime routine to simulate sunset and signal to your brain that it’s time to rest.
- Try a weighted blanket, which may reduce stress and allow you to feel calmer when it’s time to go to SLE.
Technology that helps
Technology is emerging that may help improve your SLE. Some of these technologies monitor your body during SLE, others monitor and adjust your sleep environment and others address physical conditions that can make it harder to get to SLE and stay asleep.
Sleep Apnea Drives Multiple Myeloma in Aggressive Way, Mice Study Finds
“SLE apnea can drive the development of aggressive multiple myeloma in mice resistant to the cancer, a study found, suggesting that the sleep disorder is a modifiable risk factor for this disease.
Treating SLE apnea, breathing that starts and stops repeatedly during SLE (also known as chronic intermittent hypoxia), may help to prevent multiple myeloma or improve its treatment, its researchers suggest.
Their study, “Chronic intermittent hypoxia enhances disease progression in myeloma-resistant mice,” was published in the American Journal of Physiology, Integrative and Comparative Physiology.
Fatigue, SLE, Pain, Mood and Performance Status in Patients with Multiple Myeloma
Patients newly diagnosed with MM presented with fatigue, SLE and mood disturbances, and diminished functional performance. Over half the patients were anemic before starting chemotherapy and this is known to contribute to fatigue, affecting their quality of life.
Severe fatigue and anemia were more prevalent among females than males. SLE disturbances included frequent awakenings at night and increased daytime sleep with almost 1/5th of total SLE time occurring during the day.
- Increased SLE efficiency was associated with less fatigue.
- Increased mood disturbance was associated with more fatigue.
- Decreased aerobic capacity as indicated by the 6-minute walk test was associated with more fatigue.
- Increased muscle strength may improve aerobic capacity.
Interventions are needed to decrease fatigue, improve SLE and functional performance. Pain needs to be alleviated as pain can decrease physical activity thus negatively affecting performance status, mood and SLE, resulting in increased fatigue…”
Promising Antineoplastic Actions of Melatonin
“Melatonin is an endogenous indoleamine with an incredible variety of properties and activities. In recent years, an increasing number of studies have investigated this indoleamine’s interaction with cancerous cells. In particular, it seems that melatonin not only has the ability to improve the efficacy of many drugs used in chemotherapy but also has a direct inhibitory action on neoplastic cells.
Many publications underlined the ability of melatonin to suppress the proliferation of various cancer cells or to modulate the expression of membrane receptors on these cells, thereby reducing tumor aggressiveness to metastasize.
In addition, while melatonin has antiapoptotic actions in normal cells, in many cancer cells it has proapoptotic effects; these dichotomous actions have gained the interest of researchers. The increasing focus on melatonin in the field of oncology and the growing number of studies on this topic require a deep understanding of what we already know about the antineoplastic actions of melatonin. This information would be of value for potential use of melatonin against neoplastic diseases…”