When Psoriasis Reacts To Little Sleep

We had a new member of our family with us this past Christmas. Although she is way too young (only a month old) to be excited about opening gifts under the tree, it was her first holiday. We counted ourselves lucky to spend it with her.

At this time, I had already spent a little over a month helping her new mom and dad get accustomed to having a new little one in the house. After all, that is what a good mom does right? I never had the help when my two sons were newborns.

Then again I did not have psoriasis when my boys were young. I truly never thought about psoriasis until spending some very limited sleeping nights started to show.

Lack of sleep and stress are psoriasis triggers

My daughter-in-law went into labor at midnight. Being her first child, you would expect the labor to be hours or days long. It is always a toss-up. My daughter-in-law was only in labor 12 hours before her little bundle was born. I was there to witness it all.

The whole day made me forget that we had been up for hours with only about two hours of sleep. However, my body did not forget. Of course, it didn't. Stress is one of my biggest triggers but that didn't even cross my mind given the situation. The next two days consisted of frequent visits between the hospital and the new parent's apartment.

Newborns don't sleep either

Our new addition to the family is healthy so we are blessed. My youngest son who is the new dad is 27 years old. That means that the last time I was with a newborn was that long ago. There were nights over the course of this first month where our little one would only sleep about two hours.

Thankfully, the three of us would take turns while the others slept. It was a good system. Not so good for my body though. As the days sped by over this past month I could see my psoriasis spreading. I did not tell my son and daughter-in-law about it. There was nothing that they could do other than send me home. That was not an option not in my mind.

Saying goodbye to lack of sleep

It was always the plan for me to go home on the evening of Christmas. After all, it had already been a month that I had been away. Now that I am back home, I can see an improvement with my psoriasis. It is nothing different I am doing with my treatment. I still take a biologic shot every month as I have done before I left.

In fact, I had my biologics sent to my son's house so I did not miss taking it while I was there. It is amazing to me that psoriasis would react given my sleep pattern. It took me spending that time with my son and new granddaughter to find out the truth.

A new psoriasis trigger

Am I the only one that has seen their psoriasis react to little sleep? I never really thought about it. If anyone has had the same situation could you share your story in the comments?

I do not expect it to be baby related but if you have seen your psoriasis react to interrupted sleep, I would really like to hear about it. I always thought stress was my biggest trigger. I guess getting little sleep is a new stress that I have to start being mindful of.