What is sleeping like for someone diagnosed with cancer. How might the physical and mental impact interfere with the quality of sleep?
For a disease that has such a big impact on the day to day wellbeing of those diagnosed with it, it would be assumed that it also impacted the sleep of its patients.
Sabita Shah, aged 51, is a former cancer patient in London, England. In 2018 she was diagnosed with Triple-negative breast cancer, a very aggressive type of cancer. It was tough for her and her family to process and accept and it required Mrs Shah to undergo chemotherapy. This had a heavy impact on her physical wellbeing but also on her mental wellbeing. In particular, sleeping was something that Mrs Shah found a challenge.
“The first couple nights after my diagnosis I didn’t sleep at all. All that was on my mind was what I was going to go through for the next few months and how it would affect me. You know you have the obvious fears and worries and those were definitely present. When someone tells you that you’ve got cancer there’s one thing that your mind jumps to: ‘Am I going to survive this?’. It is natural to think that.
“I hadn’t accepted my situation yet and was somewhat feeling sorry for myself. I was thinking all sorts of negative thoughts about the situation and they just kept spiralling. I remember having to get out of bed because it was so intense.”
Mrs Shah underwent chemotherapy and instantly noticed side effects that took a toll on her physical state.
“I remember feeling nauseous on day 1. Day 1. It wasn’t like normal. I had aches and pains in my body. It added to what I was initially feeling, all the negative thoughts and worries at night about the situation. It almost fed them more. I knew I would experience these, I was aware of everything that was taking place. I just couldn’t feel positive about it. Chemotherapy is the way of treating the cancer but it feels like it does the opposite it makes you weaker. I would lie in bed and would have to lie in a certain position because my body was in pain. My head was spinning and I was restless. I was tired and exhausted but restless.
“I was nauseous and would throw up a lot. I would sleep with a bucket on the side of my bed because I was so sure that I was going to throw up. It kept me up because it is so difficult to sleep when you feel that way not to mention the throat pains.”
Often steroids are taken as part of a patients cancer treatment. These can disrupt the sleep of those taking them.
“I was given steroid tablets that I had to take in order to manage my cancer. I didn’t know anything about how these affected you prior to taking them. These impacted my sleep the most. It isn’t the same as how chemotherapy affects it because that is more physical and also it was a mental thing with me. I was tired however, I wanted to sleep and I could eventually fall asleep once I had got into the right position, nausea had worn off and my mind was relaxed. However, it is as if the steroids I took wiped that away. I wasn’t even tired. I would just lie in bed awake with all those other feelings that I had.”
One rarer occasions Mrs Shah would have to spend the night in hospital.
“There were times I had to stay overnight in hospital. I had a low red blood cells that required me to have a blood transfusion. This was one time. I was in this room, just me because I had to be in isolation due to my immunity being low and I was very high risk of infection. I couldn’t sleep in that situation, I don’t know if anyone would be able to. I was away from my husband and kids and just in this room. I remember one time I couldn’t swallow and again I was required to stay the night in hospital.
“I would just stare at the ceiling, I had to lie flat on my back which was another reason I couldn’t sleep. I was uncomfortable. I was in a lot of pain. I was in a random room in a hospital because I couldn’t swallow and I was at risk of infection. All of those factors combined made it nearly impossible to get a good night’s sleep.”
