7 Ways to Improve Your Sleep When Living with a Serious Illness
Living with a serious illness—like cancer, heart failure, or kidney disease—can take a major toll on your body and your mind. And when sleep is hard to come by, everything can feel even harder. Sleep isn’t just about rest. It’s an important part of healing. Good sleep helps your body recover, improves your mood, and makes it easier to think clearly and manage symptoms.
But getting enough quality sleep can be a challenge when you’re dealing with pain, stress, anxiety, or even just a change in routine. The good news? There are 7 simple steps you and your loved ones can take to sleep better, feel more in control, and improve your quality of life—whether you’re at home or in the hospital.
Sleep Hygiene: 7 Steps to Get Better Sleep
Whether you’re living with a serious illness, or taking care of a loved one, there are practical ways to improve your sleep hygiene—or habits around sleep—so you can get the quality rest that you need. These steps start first thing in the morning.
1. Start Your Day with Light and Fresh Air
Getting natural light during the day helps set your body’s internal clock. If you’re able to go outside in the morning with your coffee or even go for a short walk, that would be ideal. If this isn’t possible, ask for help opening any window coverings and sit near a window—or just turn on the lights in your living space.
2. Spend Time Out of Your Bed During the Day
Being upright and alert during the day will help you sleep better at night. If you can, get out of bed and spend time moving your body, sitting in a chair, doing light stretching, or taking a short walk, with or without a loved one.
And try your best to limit sleep to nighttime, as sleeping during the day can confuse your body and lead to something called delirium, which causes confusion and memory problems. Staying awake during the day helps keep your days and nights on track.
3. Keep a Bedtime Routine
Routines help your brain know it’s time to rest. Try to do the same wind-down activities each night, in the same order. This may look like washing your face, brushing your teeth, and reading or listening to calming music. Plan to go to sleep at the same time every day, for at least 7 hours, and set your alarm for the same time every morning.
4. Create a Sleep-Friendly Space
For the best sleep, your space should be quiet and dark. If there’s any noise, you can try blocking it out with white noise or using ear plugs. If there’s light peeking through the windows, think about window covers or an eye mask.
Try your best to avoid scrolling on your phone or watching TV right before bed, as the light can interfere with your sleep.
If you’re in the hospital, you can ask your care team to dim or limit the lights, which can be disruptive to sleep. The machinery can be loud, so you can ask for ear plugs—if they don’t have them, perhaps a loved one can bring them when they visit.
5. Quiet Your Mind Before Bed
It’s normal for your mind to race at night—especially when you’re living a serious illness. To help quiet your thoughts, try incorporating a book into your bedtime routine or playing a word-based game (e.g., think of a word, like “pillow” and come up with as many words that start with each letter, e.g., P: peace, patience; I: ice, idea, etc.).
6. Ask Your Doctor About Melatonin
Melatonin is a hormone your body naturally makes when it gets dark, helping to signal that it’s time to rest. If you’ve tried the tips above and still aren’t sleeping well, ask your doctor if melatonin might be right for you (and how much). While melatonin can help some people, it works best when combined with the healthy sleep habits you’ve already tried, above.
7. Talk to Your Doctor If Sleep Is Still a Struggle
If you’ve tried these steps and still aren’t sleeping well, it’s important to let your doctor know. Sleep problems could be due to pain, medications, or something else—and there are ways to help, like changing the timing of a medication. If you have a palliative care team, bring it up to them, too.
The Bottom Line
Getting good sleep when you’re living with a serious illness is challenging, but it’s possible. With the above steps and support from your doctors and loved ones, you can get the rest your body needs. If disrupted sleep is getting in the way, talk to your care team.
What’s Palliative Care and How Can It Help?
If you read about palliative care above and are wondering what it is, palliative care is specialized medical care for people living with a serious illness. It is focused on relieving symptoms and stress of a serious illness, like pain, stress, and other symptoms—like difficulty sleeping. The goal is to improve quality of life for both patients and family.
Palliative care doctors can help get to the bottom of sleep disruptions, recommend changes, and talk with your other doctors to coordinate care. They can also help prevent or manage delirium, which can happen when sleep is frequently disrupted—especially in the hospital.
Acerca de GetPalliativeCare.org
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