Mesothelioma Patients: Sleep Disorders

Causes
Sleep disorders in mesothelioma patients may be caused by the pain resulting from the malignant tumor that with its growth puts pressure on affected body organs. The treatment process or the therapy itself may cause sleep disorders in the patient. There may be other factors to cause irregular sleep in mesothelioma patients.

Nature of Disorders
Mesothelioma patients suffer mostly from sleep disorders like insomnia and sleep-wake cycle disorders. The growth of the tumor and as consequent side effects of the treatment of the disease, the patients lose sleep through pain, cough, depression, anxiety, fever, fatigue, nausea, etc. Sleep gets interrupted by the schedules of the treatment, by hospital routines and even by other people in the hospital room. The patient’s stay at the hospital induces loss of sleep due to the noise in the hospital. Other causal factors may be the age of the patient, the pain and even maybe the room temperature. If the loss of sleep becomes chronic, the mesothelioma patient becomes irritable, depressed and anxious being unable to concentrate on anything. For the patient treatment with therapy in this condition at the hospital becomes hard to cope.

Treating the Disorders
Certain steps need to be taken to mitigate the sleep disorders in mesothelioma patients. First and foremost is the creation of an environment for the patient that induces sleep like lowering noise and turning off or dimming lights in the room, adjustment of room temperature, keeping the pillows in comfortable position, dressing the patient in loose and soft clothes, etc. The mesothelioma patient should refrain from drinking water at bedtime to avoid sleep interruption. This can be compensated by drinking enough water during the daytime and emptying bowel before going to sleep. Bowel and bladder habits should be so adjusted as to avoid interruptions in sleep at night. Promoting rest through high protein snacks and exercises are also advised.