Saturday, July 05, 2008

Changes Coming.... maybe

Today I'm going to touch on a subject I haven't talked about much. For those of you who don't know us... my husband has sleep problems. Its called delayed sleep phase disorder. He struggles to fall asleep for hours every night. Usually ending up asleep in the wee hours of the morning(2-3am - which is an improvement from the 4am that it was a few years ago). Thats not all. Once asleep he is nearly impossible to wake up. The average day he gets up around 11am-12pm - again, an improvement from the 1-2pm that it used to be.
This has been a source of pain and frustration in our relationship and daily life. I'll admit that when we first got married I thought I could "fix" him. But I learned quickly that was not the case. It hurt me alot (and still does sometimes) that I could speak lovingly and caress him in the morning and receive no response. Late evening comes and he is active and not remotely interested in going to bed and I am nearly falling asleep on the couch next to him. Before the boys were born it was easier to adapt my schedule around his (to a degree) - I would spend hours every morning coaxing him awake. But now I have very little flexibility because the boys need my time and attention.
Over the last few years we have tried various medications and treatments to try to correct this imbalance - a permanent jet-lag (kind of). Some of them have worked for a time but he would build up a tolerance after regular use. The most effective medication we found is very expensive. We've not found anything that helps both with falling asleep and waking up.
A few days ago he began a new medication. We are hesitant to get our hopes up only to have them shot down later. So far we've had a couple of good days. Isaac has been able to get up shortly after the boys and I do and we've had breakfast together and he's had time to play with the boys before going to work. Its been so nice. We pray that it will continue to work this way and possibly help his body to find a more normal cycle. Please say a prayer for us during this time as we are enjoying the change but trying not to get too comfortable with or carried away by it, at least not yet.


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