Sleeping for My Psoriatic Arthritis

It sounds ideal, doesn't it? Sleeping for psoriatic arthritis: blissful or a complete contradiction?

I am sure that many of us deal with sleep disturbances regularly. Over the years, I've had insomnia, psoriasis, and psoriatic arthritis, so sleep has never been something that I have been good at.

My doctor has given me some ideas on how to increase the frequency of my sleep and try to improve the quality of my sleep. His idea is that it should positively impact all three of my conditions. 

He believes that by getting more sleep along with some big dietary changes, we should see some big improvements this year. The hope is to see inflammation lower dramatically, thereby reducing my pain levels considerably.

What steps am I taking to improve my sleep?

So we have decided that starting with sleep is a good idea. The thing is that if we do both diet and sleep improvement at the same time, how will we know what worked?

So 6 months of sleep improvement is our current experiment. After that, we will add some big dietary changes and see what the effects are, trying to isolate where my main aggravators are.

Where I live, there are very limited resources available to me, and I would like to reduce the amount of pain medication that I need to take regularly.

Step 1

Keep a sleep journal. This is one of the most tedious things I have had to do in a while.

Keeping track of what I do, eat, how I sleep and wake up, etc. I find that my Fitbit watch is helpful in this and made documenting my sleep journal a lot easier. Keeping this going over the next few months will give me a way to track my data and reflect back on the impact the changes in my sleep have had.

I also use my sleep journal to set goals that I would like to achieve. It is good for me to have a tangible thing to look at and remind myself why I am doing this.

Taking this with me to the appointments with my doctor gives us some talking points, and we can bounce ideas off of each other on how to move forward. He would often ask me something very relevant that I had not thought of yet.

Step 2

Making changes. Things I am changing to assist in better sleep include but are not limited to the following:

• Limit screen time: Shutting off screens at the same time every night
• Consistent bedtime: I have had to set an alarm for this
• Healthy sleep environment: Bedding, lighting, and the like
• Sleep assistance: Guided meditations, sleep music, and or reading
• A predictable morning routine: This reduces my anxiety about going to sleep and therefore also reduces stress)
• Therapy for dealing with insomnia-related issues and mental health

What does the research say?

Some studies are being done that link inflammatory responses to lack of sleep. I think that it is great that this is being addressed more regularly and brought to the forefront a bit.¹

Surely knowing more about this will benefit us greatly as we learn to live better and healthier lives and combat the symptoms that come along with conditions like psoriatic arthritis.

Do you find that having better sleep improves any of your psoriatic arthritis symptoms? Is this anything you have taken note of?