A contribution by Maria McCutchen, author of “It’s All in Your Head – A Life of Mental Fogginess And Physical Pain”

Sleep is precious to me, today. Because I typically only get 3-5 hours a night, and some nights, less, I will feel like I hit the jackpot when I get 5 or more hours! It seems so long ago since I’ve slept through the night – and I don’t mean the kind of “sleep” like I get now, where I wake-up a lot, and will have to fight to get back to sleep. I mean, sleep as in – sleep peacefully without waking up in the middle of the night, uncomfortable, in pain, and having odd neurological symptoms. I don’t even remember those days, to be quite honest. I forget what sleeping peacefully through the night was like.

All of my neurological issues cause this sporadic, restless sleep. I have to sleep on my right side, because on my back or on my left side, I get strange symptoms, which my doctor thinks may be nocturnal seizures. For whatever reason I don’t get them on my right side. But the only way to find out what’s going on is to get a sleep study and I just can’t right now….money, and the fact that they are miserable tests! I’ve had one and now I fear going through that again. So I continue to put it off – getting these odd symptoms looked into. And until I do get them looked into, I will just continue to sleep on my right side.

I cannot take sleep aids due to my neurological symptoms, so I have to do more natural things to help me sleep and I have found a few tricks that will help me at least get more sleep than when I don’t do anything at all.  They are:

• Warm Milk – It’s true – a cup of warm milk before bed will help you sleep. Well, most people anyways. It works for me. L-Tryptophan, the same amino acid found in turkey that makes many people tired after a big turkey dinner, is in milk too. L-Tryptophan will bring on the feeling of being sleepy so you will feel relaxed. It’s really like an all-natural sleep aid. It’s one of my favorite tricks to help me sleep.
• Warm shower or bath - Taking a nice hot shower before bed relaxes my tense muscles in my neck that flare up because of my cyst and Chiari. About a 20 minute hot shower before bed and I will feel nice and sleepy, and toasty. This works really well if I combine it with another one of my remedies.
• Heating Pad – Some nights I use a nice warm heating pad for my neck and my head. Mine turns off automatically and I don’t have to worry about it being left on all night. The warmth relaxes me, makes me sleepy, and I will usually fall asleep fairly quickly, and a lot of times – stay asleep.
• Chamomile tea – Chamomile tea contains Matricaria recutita, or Manzanilla. It is an herb that’s been drank for many years. It has especially been used as a sleep-aid. Chamomile tea tastes good, it’s smooth, and within about a half of cup, I am relaxed and very sleepy.
• Meditate – Some nights before bed, I meditate. I turn off the TV and I will put some relaxing music on, and meditate. I like to sit on the floor with my legs crossed, and my eyes closed, and meditate. I will vegetate in my mind until I’m not thinking of anything in particular, and just try to zone into myself. I will start to picture myself getting tired, and suddenly I am. There have been times when I’ve zoned out so much, that I have fallen off to sleep – right there on the floor, in Indian style.

Sleeping can be a big issue for people with brain problems, whether it’s a brain cyst or Chiari Malformation, or whatever. And if you are anything like me and can’t take medications easily, then it can be an even bigger challenge to get a good night’s sleep. If you have sleep problems and are looking for an all-natural remedy, try one or more of my suggestions. You may find that one or more work for you without the need to take heavy medications. One thing to consider is that you may have to do it a few times before your body adjusts, so don’t give up too quickly. If it didn’t work the first time, then do it again and…..sweet dreams!

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It’s All in Your Head – A Life of Mental Fogginess And Physical Pain

by Maria McCutchen

Maria McCutchen did not have time to be sick. With a husband who had just lost a job, two young sons, and a cross-country move on the horizon, who had time to be sick? Maria didn’t have time for a common cold, let alone a major medical condition. But one day while shopping in the grocery store where she had shopped hundreds of times before, she couldn’t find the milk. It was then she knew what she was feeling was more than just stress or exhaustion. There was something very wrong.

After consulting a few doctors, Maria discovered she had a rare brain cyst known as a posterior fossa arachnoid cyst—a very large brain cyst. Hearing these cysts were normally asymptomatic was of little comfort, especially because she felt her mind and body slipping away more and more every day. Normal mental and physical functions were becoming harder to control. Even if the doctors didn’t believe the cyst was a problem, she knew it was.

It would take months of living inside a shell of a person that she’d become, months of living in a mental fogginess and sometimes even physical pain, before she would finally get the medical attention she needed. It’s All in Your Head chronicles her harrowing medical odyssey and her attempts to regain some sort of semblance of her old life after treatment.