Beautiful, restful SLEEP!!!!

Throughout most of my TSW journey, I've been fortunate enough to be able to sleep most nights.  I found the right combination of over the counter meds to help me from the first month.  During the first 7-8 months before my big great improvement, I had a handful of restless nights and I had what I called a "waking hour" where I would wake up for anywhere from 5-60 minutes but fall back to sleep.  This typically occurred at 3 or 5 am. During that  waking hour I would of course itch, itch, and itch some more.

Here is what I took:  50 mg Benadryl, 800 mg ibuprofen, and 1000 mg acetaminophen.  Around month 9 or so I added 5 mg Melatonin and that helped me to not have that waking hour.  Since month 9 as well, I have been decreasing my acetaminophen and ibuprofen as well since I no longer have pain and my swelling is next to nothing.  I take 1 acetaminophen and 2 ibuprofen.  The one thing I noted is I sleep until around 10-11:30 am.  Typically I wake around 11 am after going to bed around 1:30 am.  No matter how hard I would try, I would  have a really hard time waking up at 9 am with hubby so I can see him off to work.

Well 2 nights ago I got into bed and before lights went off, I realized I had forgotten to take my meds.  So I asked hubby to just get my benadryl only.  In an hour I was fast asleep....and woke up at 9:45  feeling rested. Hmmmm....I thought to myself, "I wonder if the melatonin is making me feel groggy in the morning?".

So last night I was planning on skipping everything but the benadryl.  But we got to bed and I completely forgot to take even that!  I fell asleep for the first time in I don't know how long WITHOUT benadryl!  Talk about amazing!!  For the 1-2 years prior to TSW, I had to take benadryl nightly or I would never fall asleep because the itching was always so bad.  So this is absolutely amazing!  I did add something though...recently hubby's stomach has not been well (probably from all the stress of the last few years).  So 2 nights ago I started making him chamomile tea for him and having a cup myself.  I'm not a big tea drinker and honestly don't care for the taste.  I've tried at least 50-60 different types and flavors of tea during my goal to eat healthy.  I know herbal teas are significantly more healthy for you than coffee.  But I LOVE my coffee!! Mind you I have 1 cup every morning  and that's it....I used to drink a pot a day for years (shamefully even when I was pregnant).  My goal is to ultimately cut out coffee completely but in order to do that I need hubby to be on board as well so we can just get rid of it completely in the house.   :)

The bottom line is I am finally on my way to being on the very tail end of this TSW.  My goal is not only to have clear skin, but to have great energy, need no sleep aids, and be as healthy as I possibly can be!

Hope all my skin friends are getting decent sleep out there!