Back trouble and sleeping habit

As I briefly mentioned in my first post, I have just experienced some very scary back trouble. It started suddenly on Sunday night as I was getting up from the lounge. My legs felt like they couldn't carry me and my lower back was really hurting. I couldn't stand up straight, and I started shivering and shaking and my teeth were clattering even though I hadn't felt cold. I managed to get into my bed and turned on the electric blanket which helped. I got up again a bit later to turn off the lights - I could barely get myself there and back. I have never had anything like this happen before. When I went to the doctor on Monday, he immediately told me I was having the week off work which really surprised me - he is usually very careful with giving people sick leave. He also told me to lie flat on my back as much as possible, and do as little as possible out of bed. I was quite surprised as this seemed to be different from what I have heard about backache before. But, it has worked (together with the muscle relaxants/painkillers he gave me). My back is much better, and I can now walk ok. It is still uncomfortable to sit and standing is not so good either. I had another appointment with the doctor today with the results of the x-rays and CT scan that was done on Tuesday. Apparently the problems were caused by a slipped disk. One thing this has highlighted to me is how much I take my ability to use my body for granted. It was quite scary not to be able to walk properly. What if this happens again? Or worse still, what if it happens again but is even worse than this time?

In my last post I wrote that health is the first area I want to focus on, as I think it has such a major impact on every part of my life. I have realised that getting back to doing yoga regularly is something that will be important for the health of my back – but I need my back to get a bit better before I can start doing yoga again. Loosing some weight will also help my back. Last night I went for a tiny walk up to the top of the street, and today I went for a slightly longer walk. I might try some gently yoga stretches tonight.

I have had a very very unhealthy sleep pattern for a very long time, and I find it really hard to get into a good sleep routine. I often think that my body clock is made to go over more than 24 hours – either that, or I have completely wrecked it with years and years of often staying up until early hours of the morning working on what started with assignments, then work, then my masters thesis + work. I still do this on a regular basis with things that need to be finished for work.

I am realising more and more how important sleep is for our health. It is ok to occasionally have a late night, but to regularly only sleep 4-5 hours (or sometimes even less) a night is damaging. So my goal will be to be in bed with lights out by 11pm during week nights, and by midnight on Friday and Saturday night. I think this will be an important habit to get into to ensure I am not too tired to exercise and organise and prepare healthy food. So my plan is to be recording here how I am going with getting to bed at a proper time.