Saturday, November 1, 2014

Halloween Trick or Treat Mini Flare: Helped by Sleep

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So last night was Halloween and to my surprise I didn't eat really any candy however that same day I stopped by Dunkin Donuts for a chocolate glazed donut (quite amazing) and for lunch had a chicken and cheese quesadilla followed by Dominos Pizza for dinner. We tried to order Papa John's however they had a wait of 2 1/2 hours. You don't have to be a nutritionist to know that this was not very healthy. When I was younger I use to remember on Halloween walking up and down the streets of the neighborhood trying to accumulate as much candy as possible and then returning home and trading my sister (one year we mixed up the candy piles and both got into trouble).

Anyways so although I did not have any candy however didn't probably eat the best things I did feel some cramping around 9 o'clock and was over at my parents handing out candy. When I came back to my place I had about 3 bowel movements in probably an hour or so that were all loose (however I did feel better after it was over). I took a hot bath after and felt really good (no heating pad needed). Also I feel asleep around 11:30 P.M. got up an hour later and had a chicken and cheese sandwich since I was hungry and went back to sleep and probably got a good 8-9 hours of sleep. This morning I woke up with no pain and felt back to normal. For some odd reason if I do have a loose bowel it is the week before I take my Humira shot.  I should point out that Friday morning I woke up around 6:30 AM and was up for a while before going back to sleep and getting up for work. I had a cramp most of the day (I think due to lack of sleep). However, I also think it may have been a hunger pain since after I had lunch it went away.

The moral of the story is sleep seems to have an important factor for me. I don't know if the fact that the immune/body is resting and therefore has a healing aspect to it. It would be interesting to measure inflammation rates in IBD patients who get more and less sleep. No doubt though sleep really does have a great benefit.