Posted on May 3, 2012 · Posted in TBI Voices
This entry is part 30 of 32 in the series Quinn

Fatigue and Sleep after TBI:Part Thirty

Quinn and I discussed his fatigue and sleep after TBI and some of the issues that fatigue and sleep after TBI cause him in his everyday life.

We’re almost finished.  We’ve been doing this a long time.  I haven’t asked you about fatigue and sleep after TBI, is that, are those issues for you? 

Yeah.   If I do a lot of brain things during the day, I often have to take a nap later in the day.  Or I just have to sit away from the computer, maybe have like the TV on in the background and just, take a nap or close my eyes and just get away from the world.  Not as often as it used to be, it’s gotten better.

I nap a lot less than I used to, maybe a couple of times a week instead of seven days a week where it used to be.  I’m going for a sleep study because  I have sleep apnea.

Did you have any problems with sleep before you got hurt? 

Just the sleep apnea.

So that’s a pre-morbid problem. 

Yeah, and it’s a question has, has that been altered.

What is your typical 24-hour cycle?  What time do you go to sleep? 

Usually around 2:00 a.m.

Why so late? 

I’ve always been a night owl.

What time do you get up? 

Usually around 10:00  or 11:00.

And that was your normal sleep pattern before fatigue and sleep after TBI and you got hurt? 

No, it, I would usually get up a little earlier, depending upon what kind of a meeting I would have or what kind of work I would have the next day, but, you know, usually I’d go to bed around 1:00.  So a late night would be 2:00, but the other thing, the other issue is I would either play hockey late at night or I would referee late at night, so I wouldn’t get home until 12:30, 1:00 in the morning.  So I’d wind down, I’d go to sleep, it would be 2:00, 3:00 in the morning.

So your days, what do you do with your day? 

Take care of the animals, do a little bit of work on the computer, as far as, you know, research real estate, try and do a couple of errands here and there as far as go to the bank, go to the gas, go the store or, you know, pick up some groceries or something.

 

Next in Part Thirty One –  After Brain Injury – Normal is a Roller Coaster 

By Attorney Gordon Johnson

800-992-9447

About the Author

Attorney Gordon S. Johnson, Jr.
Past Chair Traumatic Brain Injury Litigation Group, American Association of Justice
g@gordonjohnson.com :: 800-992-9447