Sleeping at night

[lisa]

Hi There,

One of my worst flushing times is when I sleep. I tend to sleep on my side, and then often wake up with that side of my face flushed (naturally, it can sometimes stay like that for hours, even up to a day).

Any ideas about how to deal with this? Is there medication one can take before going to bed? I've tried to train myself to sleep on my back, but it hasn't helped. It's a real tricky one, I know. But I know find that my sleeping has become disrupted as I'm scared of the flushing.

Any help appreciated.

:arrow:

[Mermaid]

I remember Geoffrey mentioning that taking .25mg of Clonodine about an hour or two before you go to sleep at night, could help alleviate those rosaceans who flush during sleep.

[Ghost]

On thing to try might be a Chillow (cold pillow system). I used one for about a year (it sprung a leak after that).

Good points: it is cool and that feels good.

Bad points: it's hard and not as flexible as an ordinary pillow. It's a pain in the butt to "assemble" and maintain.

Mine was from several years ago. Maybe they've gotten better since then! Just do a search on "Chillow".

[meg]

Hi Lisa,
I also have flushing from sleep during the night. I try to offset it by keeping my head elevated and using a fan to blow cool air on my face. To elevate, I use several pillows and the top pillow is a buckwheat pillow. Not sure if the buckwheat pillow helps that much, but it is supposed to stay cool. I think the fan helps the most.
Meg

[IowaDavid]

I have found a system for myself that allows me to sleep. First off, I have a futon. So, I made a "wedge" for the head-end of my bed. It's essentially like a large doorstop, only it's long enough to fit across my futon. Its "back" is 10 inches tall. The sloping part (the part I rest my mattress over) is 23 inches long. The base of it is about 20 inches long. It's as wide as my bed is, so it's a triangle of these dimensions extended across the width of my bed.
This allows me to sleep on a slant that roughly allows me to bend at my waist as I sleep, so it keeps blood from rushing to my head. I just made the thing out of spare wood; it's not fancy but no one sees it, either. ;)
Also, I do use a chillow and find it's very helpful for not allowing heat to build up in the back of my head/neck. It doesn't actively cool you, really, but it prevents heat build-up.
Also, I have a fan sitting on a milkcrate that's aimed at my legs. Some air deflects off of my legs and hits my face and this is cooling. DON'T put a fan directly on your face. This will most likely irritate your face over time and it took me awhile to figure this out (I am slow sometimes).
With the fan on your legs, though, you can sort of pull your covers to expose a given amount of skin area that the fan will cool. Also, as I'm going to sleep, I spray my face with distilled water if I feel it getting too warm. The side-breeze from the fan reaches this water on my face and cools it. Of course, again, you don't want direct fan air on your face, especially if you're spraying water.
So, I do this, and depending on how tired I am, I drop off to sleep relatively quickly.
It sounds like a lot, and it is, I suppose, but this is just my personal coping mechanism for avoiding sleep flushing. Just to give people ideas about how to deal with it. I really do think having a fan on low or medium blowing across your lower extremities is a good way to have a constant, body-wide cooling going on as you sleep that won't irritate your face.
Of course, I'm single. I don't think this set-up would fly too well if your spouse doesn't have rosacea. ;)
Hope this helps someone.

David

[cactus]

Ah, sleep difficulties. I have struggled with flushing during sleep also. The one thing that really helped was I bought a bed wedge from www.relaxtheback.com. There are other stores that sell similar bed wedges. They come in different elevations, starting at 7 inches and going up from there. This allows me to sleep at an angle starting at the waist and it is very comfortable. Prior to using that, I had been propping myself up with pillows and doing damage to my back and shoulders. I would often wake up in pain because of the unnatural angle. Anyway, the bed wedge definitely helps, although I agree it is still difficult to always sleep on your back. My body just craves to sleep on my side or stomach, but I always bring on a flush that way and it is just not worth the consequences. I also use a ceiling fan over my bed to create a gentle breeze.

[irishgenes]

I would wake up every morning with red cheeks and eyelids from rubbing against the pillowcase at night. I got a U-shaped neck pillow which keeps my face off the bedding. I am still flushing and itching a bit on arising, but splashing my face with cold water for a minute seems to help.

[AmandainAtlanta]

I used to flush at night too. Clonidine put an end to it almost completely.

I do have a ceiling fan overhead, and I have a chillow as well. But the clonidine is what did the trick!

Hope this helps,
Amanda :D

[Mary]

Hi,

I also used to flush at night. I bought a floor fan and put it on low facing my face and also have an overhead fan on low. Also clonidine has helped tremendously with the night flushing......it also puts me right out which is nice.

Hope this helps!!

Mary