Case 5.10: a woman with insomnia
By Anton Kramer
Marian v L.. Born June 1973. First consultation sept 1994.
Patient has been sleeping badly since she was fourteen years old. She only sleeps 3 to 4 hours a night for months; in recent years, sleeping has become worse and worse. The patient does not sleep for the first hour, then for half an hour or a whole hour, wakes up again and then sleeps for short periods of 15 to 30 minutes each time. When she is awake she reads (in bed or in the living room) or does some puzzling. She doesn't need much sleep, but from this she gets exhausted. Her father, brothers and uncles also only sleep for a few hours; she thinks this is a vision of the future.
Patient says not to worry and insomnia is not related to dreams either.
She sleeps lightly, easily wakes up from sounds. She dreams a lot; in a dream work and home and shopping are intertwined, "there is no rope to tie up". In general she dreams about nice and fun things, a lot about home and only rarely about an accident.
The patient also suffers from heart palpitations for 5 to 30 minutes. She had this as a baby already, there would be no abnormalities but no ECG has been made.
First she feels that the heart beats harder behind the breastbone, then the frequency goes up to 130 beats per minute. Her legs, arms and head become heavy, she wants to rest and has to sit down at least, but preferably lie down. She has the feeling that she would disappear.
From her twelfth to her fifteenth year she had migraine; she had pain at the top of her head and saw colours with her left eye (green and red and yellow as flames). The eyes hurt, especially when moving the eyes.
The patient is a doctor's assistant at a company doctor; it is fairly quiet work, she can take her time for patients. She finds herself very precise, in such a way that it sometimes drives her crazy herself. Everything has to be right, she cannot make mistakes.
She finds herself very calm and quiet among strangers. She is an inner fatter, wants to get out of something first. She likes to be among people, doesn't lead the way, likes to participate but also likes to be alone. She has hardly any fears, she is a bit afraid of mice and storms.
She doesn't eat much, in general half portions. She loves Dutch vegetables and especially endive. She doesn't like foreign food very much except Indonesian and that can be quite spicy. She particularly likes milk chocolate. She drinks a lot.
She is very chilly, especially the hands, likes warm weather, tolerates the sun well.
Menstruation no peculiarities. She sleeps on her back or belly with her hands above her head.
I gave her a remedy based on the symptoms:
- sleep interrupted, waking frequent.
- sleep position abdomen/back with hand over the head.
- palpitation.
- eyepain < turnining to right.
- vision colors red/yellow.
- desires bitter (endive).
And an observation that reminded me of discussions in the Centre. Patient has told quite a lot, but came across as very reserved. She talked about sleep and dreams and food, but about family or work or interests I couldn't get anything out of it. This seems to fit in well with this plant family.
After two months I saw her again. She had had a clear aggravation: she had slept a few nights much worse, woke up ready at two o'clock in the morning. Gradually she went to sleep more and more, now and then 'even' until six in the morning. She regularly woke up for a while, but slept back in quickly. She felt rested! Since two weeks the weather is getting a bit worse, then she faints from four o'clock. Psychologically she feels better, fitter and especially less irritable. She dreams less busy and chaotic, no longer from one place to another (work, home, shopping) but each subject separately from the other.
The palpitations are also clearly less; they come up behind the sternum but do not continue, the frequency remains normal and after _ one minute it is over again.
Six months after the first consultation I see her again. Sleep stays good, one night a month she sleeps badly for example 3 or 4 hours but with this she is very satisfied. She can go out much better than before, because her sleep is not disturbed by it. The palpitations have almost disappeared.
She is still cold and still has some blue fingertips regularly.
Three years later the patient comes back for a headache. It only partially resembles the migraine of the past. I give Silicea on the symptoms and that helps just fine.