I am just wondering if it is normal for someone to sleep excessively after treatment. My fiance has had seven radiation treatments and two chemo treatments (five hours each) and seems to be sleeping like ten to twelve hours a day. Is that normal? I worry too much so I guess this is to calm my nerves some.

It's very normal, and it could go on for several months. Rad can really wipe you out. The rest is good for him as long as he continues to eat and drink on some sort of schedule. Amy in the Oz

Funny you should ask that. Today Robin is pain free,and he is sleeping for England i guess that will be the morphine patches,but it sure is quiet around here !!!

"Cancer fatigue" is a well known side effect of treatment and completely normal. In fact SSDI claims are usually awarded based on it.

The body gets very beat up and needs lots of rest.

I worried about all the sleeping, too, with my son, but luckily I had found OCF and knew that it was "normal" or maybe the "new normal". Even so, sometimes I would quietly sneak into his room and get as close as I could to see if the covers rose and fell so I could tell if he was breathing! And that was hard to do when it was dark out with no lights on in his room. :rolleyes:

I didn't even realize how fatigued I really was during treatment, and for quite a while after treatment ended. I guess after a while, feeling fatigued seems normal.

4-1/2 months out, though, and I have a lot of energy back - and maybe there's even more that I forgot about!!

I am a 'world champion at sleeping'. I slept mega portions of the day and night during radiation treatments partly out of boredom and partly because I was freezing. Unless you are having bad dreams, 'sleeping though it', reduces the amount of calories you are burning. HOWEVER, when you are awake, you need to go out and take a walk around the block to keep those other muscles working and smell the fresh air, and do whatever normal stuff you can do. Yes, fatigue from both drugs and treatment is common and lots of sleep may result. Remember to keep hydrated and get enough calories. Keep swallowing regardless of whether you have a peg or not. He can do this.

Take care,
Eileen

Don't worry, by the end of my treatment I was sleeping 16+ a day, but within 2-3 weeks of finishing it I'd returned to a normal sleep pattern. The treatment drains your body.

I never had to sleep that much before Tx. I remember Edger Allen Poe's poem where he said "sleep is little periods of death". Anyway I slept a lot during Tx and watching a ton of daytime TV certainly helped put me in the sleep mood. However, I still didn't sleep as much as my wife does normally!! Anyway, I'm back to my "normal" sleep habits and enjoying being awake.