Sleeping Better with COPD

People with COPD can have issues with lots of normal daily activities. For some folks who have COPD, sleep is a huge issue. It might be difficult for your elderly family member to get to sleep or even to stay asleep. Worse, she might not feel rested, even after a full night of sleep.

Always Talk to Your Senior’s Doctor

Your senior’s doctor can help you to figure out sleep issues with your senior. Some of them may be related to COPD, while others may be related to other health issues. Her doctor can help you to understand how much activity is right for your elderly family member and what she needs to do in order to get her sleep back on track. If medication is really the best or only option, her doctor is the best source for that, of course.

Take Care with Naps

Naps can be helpful, but they can also be a problem. If your elderly family member is sleeping too long during a nap or is napping too late in the day, that can have an impact on sleeping overnight. Naps done right can be refreshing, though. The trick is finding your senior’s napping sweet spot, meaning the right amount of time for her to nap and have that nap be effective. Tracking sleep and how it affects her can help with this.

Exercise Really Is Effective for Sleep

Lots of people with COPD get winded easily just by doing everyday activities, so the idea of exercise is almost laughable. But exercise is not only possible with COPD, it can help immensely in improving lung function and other issues, like sleep. The trick is for your elderly family member to exercise properly and for the right amount of time. She also needs to respect what her body tells her while she’s exercising.

Work on Conserving More Energy for Important Tasks

Conservation of energy is a phrase you’ll hear a lot as your elderly family member deals with COPD. The concept is basically that your aging family member only has a certain amount of energy and much of it is required by her body to just perform basic functions, like breathing. That can also mean that activities that she normally performed easily are now more difficult. Turning those tasks over to someone else, like an elder care provider, allows your senior to save that energy for her own tasks, like getting some tai chi in.

Sleeping better might have more to do with what your elderly family member is doing while she’s awake than it does anything to do with what she’s doing while she’s sleeping. Getting that balance right can help so very much.

If you or an aging loved one is considering hiring elder care in Paradise Valley, AZ, please call the caring staff at Golden Heart Senior Care of Scottsdale at (480) 284-7360. We are here to help!