If I don't sleep 8 hours I feel like I'm having a heart attack
Interesting. I find that I actually feel better with too little sleep, at least in the short term. It catches up to me after awhile, but I generally sleep in "cat naps": go to bed at 6-10 AM, sleep a couple of hours, wake for a bit, sleep another hour or two... this goes on until about 7 PM, when I get up and stay up until the next morning. However, I typically fall asleep in the bath. I take a hot bath every night to soothe my aching muscles (and to get clean—I haven't been able to tolerate morning showers for about 20 years).
If I sleep the amount my body always used to want to feel rested (9 plus hours), I will feel terrible: hurt all over, hands so stiff and painful I can't bend my fingers and extremely groggy. But a 2 hour nap will restore me a bit, without the "side effects" of extra pain & stiffness and profound grogginess.
I have tried many sleep medications. The only one I will currently use on occasion is Sonata (zaleplon) as it is very short acting (3-4 hours). Ambien, which I used to use, gives me a hangover (sleepy next morning). I would like to try "Xyrem" (sodium oxybate, better known as "GHB"), as it produces a natural sleep unlike all other sleep medications. However, the restrictions on prescriptions of Xyrem are absurd, based on hysteria about GHB being a "date rape drug." (Gee, what is alcohol but the
original "date rape drug"...). I used to use GHB and it's precursor drug gamma hydroxy butyrolactone, before it was made a controlled substance, and it was very helpful. But that was before I had severe pain and before my sleep was as totally screwed up as it is now.
I used to have night sweats, but not much anymore, unless as a result of the hot flashes I started to get a couple of years ago (probably due to menopause, but possibly related to borrelia or bartonella infection). Fortunately, the hot flashes have decreased greatly from their peak, when I'd have them every hour, or whenever I woke up, or whenever anything made me the slightest bit activated/nervous. Miserable things, hot flashes, especially in the summer in Tucson!