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Chemo Screws Sleep Cycles
But you need to sleep to heal
Cancer is a b*tch when it comes to getting good sleep.
Before this latest round of cancer, my sleep cycle was great. I got to sleep easily and getting a decent night’s sleep was not a problem. OK, I sometimes woke up after 4–5 hours, played silly games for half an hour, and then went back to sleep. But that happened rarely.
However, I did look it up… and found out it might be a medieval thing. According to At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past by Roger Ekirch, before the advent of artificial lights, people’s sleep cycle consisted of going to bed at sunset for “first sleep”, waking up in the middle of the night, and then having “second sleep”.
The period of waking was when prayers were said for Matins, thus the name.
A French physician named Laurent Joubert (1529–1581) advised couples that intercourse during this natural waking period would bring more enjoyment.
Once I learned how this short period of wakefulness was natural and could even be fun, I just took it in stride.
That has changed with the cancer however.
Turns out that cancer can mess with sleep cycles.
What can be done about it?
