Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) is a prevalent symptom among stroke survivors. This symptom is an independent risk factor for stroke and may reduce stroke survivors' quality of life, cognitive functioning, and daytime functional performance.
Sleep is critical, but sleep problems may follow after a stroke. Poor sleep can slow your recovery and lead to depression, memory problems and night-time falls.
Regarding the duration of fatigue after stroke, acute fatigue can last up to 6 months, whereas the chronic type can persist in 40% of patients after 2 years. Another study reported fatigue to be still present in one-third of patients up to 6 years after stroke onset.
Causes of fatigue
Neuroplasticity is our brain's ability to change. After a stroke, uninjured parts of the brain can take over tasks injured parts used to do. The parts of your brain taking on new functions are not as efficient, so you have to concentrate harder. This can make you feel more tired.
The physical impact of the stroke on your brain and body can trigger fatigue. In the early weeks and months after a stroke, your brain and body are healing. The rehabilitation process can involve trying to do things in a completely new way, or learning and doing exercises which can be very tiring.
Even after surviving a stroke, you're not out of the woods, since having one makes it a lot more likely that you'll have another. In fact, of the 795,000 Americans who will have a first stroke this year, 23 percent will suffer a second stroke.
The most rapid recovery usually occurs during the first three to four months after a stroke, but some survivors continue to recover well into the first and second year after their stroke. Some signs point to physical therapy.
How Does a Stroke Impact Life Expectancy? Despite the likelihood of making a full recovery, life expectancy after stroke incidents can decrease. Unfortunately, researchers have observed a wide range of life expectancy changes in stroke patients, but the average reduction in lifespan is nine and a half years.
Two-thirds of stroke survivors have a condition known as sleep-disordered breathing (SDB), which is characterized by abnormal breathing patterns that interrupt your sleep during the night. As a result of SDB, you may be very sleepy during the day and have more difficulty concentrating or solving problems.
You are still the same person, but a stroke may change the way you respond to things. It's not always possible to go back to the way you were before a stroke, but you can get help and support to make the best recovery possible for you. It can be hard for the people around you if they feel you've changed.
After six months, improvements are possible but will be much slower. Most stroke patients reach a relatively steady state at this point. For some, this means a full recovery. Others will have ongoing impairments, also called chronic stroke disease.
When communicating with a stroke survivor who has communication problems (aphasia), it is helpful to: Be patient. Eliminate distractions. Turn off the TV, limit extraneous noise.
This is because, since we are warm-blooded, wetting the head and hair first when taking a shower will cause your body to adjust its temperature too quickly, as per the gurus over at bellaireer.com. This will cause blood to rush up the head and may cause the breakage of a capillary or artery, leading to a stroke.
There are significant cognitive and physical disabilities in the second recurrent ischemic stroke as compared to the first-ever one, and the second stroke tend to be more dangerous and carry more disability.
Driving after a stroke
If you have had a stroke or TIA, you cannot drive for 1 month. Whether you can return to driving depends on what long-term disabilities you may have and the type of vehicle you drive.
Characteristics of post-stroke fatigue may include: overwhelming tiredness and lack of energy to perform daily activities; abnormal need for naps, rest, or extended sleep; more easily tired by daily activities than pre-stroke; unpredictable feelings of fatigue without apparent reason.
The key to stroke treatment and recovery is getting to the hospital quickly. Yet 1 in 3 stroke patients never calls 9-1-1. Calling an ambulance means that medical staff can begin life-saving treatment on the way to the emergency room.
The initial recovery following stroke is most likely due to decreased swelling of brain tissue, removal of toxins from the brain, and improvement in the circulation of blood in the brain. Cells damaged, but not beyond repair, will begin to heal and function more normally.
The short answer is yes; the brain can heal after acute trauma from a stroke or brain injury, although the degree of recovery will vary. The reason the brain can recover at all is through neuroplasticity, sometimes referred to as brain plasticity.
Therapies or medicines almost never fully restore memory after stroke. However, many people do recover at least some memory spontaneously after stroke. Others improve through rehabilitation.
Wondering how to tell if you had a stroke in the past or how to tell if you had a stroke in your sleep? Unfortunately, most people don't actually find out they've suffered from a silent stroke until they see a doctor for another condition and are ordered to have an MRI or a CT scan.