Can anyone help me not be so tired?

In My Humble Opinion
1

So, from maybe 15 till now (26), my general routine has involved long (long!) daytime naps (like 2-3 hours or more). This has led to me not being able to sleep and night and generally lots of frustration and such, and my sleep schedule recently has become horribly mutated to the point where I can easily go two days with no sleep.

So I decided a week ago that I was going to cut out the naps and only sleep at night, try to go to sleep and wake up around the same time everday, and only use my bed for sleeping and sex. The problem is, I’m still sooo tired all the time. I run about 4 miles/5 days a week in the morning, and I eat pretty healthy (mostly fruit, fat-free yogurt, green tea, water, whole grain bread and brown rice. And the occasional jell-o low cal pudding cup. If I eat meat it’s cause I’m out, and it’s usually either sushi or grilled chicken breast). Last night (Weds. night), I got to sleep around midnight, woke up at 8, and was still tired as soon as I woke up. I perked up for like ten mins after a cup of tea and some food, but basically stretched out on my yoga mat and conked out for like 1.5 hours.

Something else I’ve noticed is that in general, although I’m tired when I wake up, if I force myself to get up and move around, sometimes that tiredness wanes. Like just now, I forced myself off the yoga mat and did some sun salutations and feel a lot better.

Also, I was taking an SSRI for about 20 months, and stopped taking it in mid-July. Have had almost no symptoms, and this sleep thing was going on well before I began the SSRI, but maybe that has something to do with it.

I had my thyroid levels checked about a year ago and they were normal. Is it normal to struggle with sleepiness all day long? Should I just give the “no-nap” thing longer to work? Have I doomed that plan forever now that I took a nap?

Any advice or success stories would be so greatly appreciated. This is really upsetting me :(. Thanks so much.

2

Drink more tea. Or strong coffee. See if in a couple of weeks, you adjust. The fact that you can sometimes work through it is a promising sign.

3

They say it takes the average human 21 times to form a habit. Wait three weeks and see if it still occurs. And yes, no naps for three weeks straight. You have never doomed it, it’s like a diet, just get back on the horse if you fall off.

In the morning, do you shower? Wash your face and eyes as soon as you get up with stinging cold water. Coffee’s good but it takes time. For the first early morning thing, crunch into an apple. Go outside the house and do your sun salutations if possible, the breeze often helps.

4

IANAD, but breathing problems while you’re sleeping could contribute to not getting a good night’s rest. Has anyone ever mentioned that it sounds like you stop breathing in your sleep? Do you snore a lot? It might be worth checking to see if you have sleep apnea.

5

I disagree. You’d be better off cutting out caffeine entirely for a month or so. Flush out your system and I bet you’ll feel better.

The fact that you can get moving and work through it should be your guide. When you fell sleepy, get up and get moving.

Honestly, I used to suffer with sleepiness most days. What worked for me was banishing my alarm clock. If you need to wake up to an alarm clock on a regular basis then you need to get to sleep earlier.

6

Do you snore? Is there a possibility you might have sleep apnea? Sleep apnea isn’t something that affects only the overweight - it can affect pretty much anybody and can make your days miserable from exhaustion. My husband has almost the same trouble you do on the weekends (he manages to stay awake from sheer force of will during work) - he’ll sleep for 12 hours and still need a nap. And when he naps, he’ll sleep for up to 5 hours!

When he sleeps, he snores - very loudly - and often chokes. My dad also has apnea and, since he got a CPAP machine, has been much more alert during the day. He used to doze off wherever he happened to be sitting. Now he doesn’t.

If you haven’t already, you might consider doing a sleep study. Definitely talk to your doctor, though.

Oops - I see Shoeless beat me to the punch.

7

Oooh, thanks for the sleep apnea idea guys! I’ve been toying with that for a while but haven’t followed through. The thing is, I don’t really share a bed, but I’ll definitely ask my doc about this.

I really like the ice-cold water splashing thing too, Anamikaa. That will turn into one of my go-tos, along with walking around.

8

Yeah, if it’s only been one week, it may take you a couple weeks to adjust to your new sleep pattern. Plain, old jet lag can make me a bit dopey for a few days, but my sister is a freakin’ zombie for well over a week! If you’re changing a sleep pattern you’ve yad for years it’ll be a good while of adjustment.

If you still feel like crap after a month has gone by, look into sleep apnea.

9

Hmm. Is it possible you’re not getting enough calories/fuel/fat for your energy needs?

10

Possibly . . . but I do need to lose weight, and am not really adept at counting calories. Also, I find the calorie-counting makes me a bit more neurotic about food than I like to be. So possibly, but probably not. I do also eat eggs, which I forgot to mention, and for fat, I usually (almost daily) have a snack of home-made hummus and carrots (or pita chips). So I think I’m okay on the food front, although that is definitely something to keep in mind.

11

That was my first thought as well. Calories are one thing, but a balanced diet is made up of all kinds of things, like protein, iron, etc. Lack of iron in particular can cause drowsiness.

Stay with it for three weeks, as above, and after that, I would start with your diet, maybe cycling things in and out over a period of weeks to see if there is something that helps/hurts your energy level.

Also, there are different kinds of tired - tired muscles, tired brains, emotional tiredness. Pay attention to what kid of tired you are (is it lack of focus vs. lack of motivation or body feels fit but brain is tired, etc.) and see if you can figure out the triggers of your particular kind of tiredness and then how to combat it.

12

Do you take your vitamins regularly? Are you getting enough iron in your system? Anemia, even a mild case, can make you tired.

13

I had the answer for you, but I’m so tired I can’t remember it. Do something now. Another 30 years of sleep deprivation isn’t going to make it easier.

14

This is all really good advice, and I do think sometimes the “tiredness” is more boredom. But I think often it’s really tiredness. The only correlations I’ve noticed is that the tiredness tends to come right after I wake up, and also from about 11:00 to about 5-6 PM (which is a good chunk of time), and if I’m doing something physical, like shopping, sometimes it’s more easily abated.

I take a daily MV. My iron levels as of one year ago were normal.

15

Ok. Take up the tips here, and when you start feeling sleepy, do something about it. I get into these zones where I stare at the computer for too long, but when I feel sleepy, I drag my butt outside. I drink water constantly - I have one of those Camelbak water bottles at my desk and at home, and just the act of lifting it to my mouth keeps me awake.

But most of all, the first thing is your body needs time to change over to the new system and you haven’t given it nearly enough time. When I changed from washing my hair daily to washing it 3-4 times a week, it was greasy (gross I know) for a month before it settled into its new situation, and now it’s as silky soft as it will ever be but never greasy. It takes time.

16

Fatigue can be the result of depression, despite you being on an SSRI for months with no cessation, you could still have had and still have depression. My late husband was diagnosed with low-level chronic depression or dysthymia, and it was not responsive to medication and really screwed up his sleep habits. Wellbutrin was the only drug that had any good effect, and it was minor.

If it could be something like dysthymia, therapy can possibly help. CBT especially. CBT can help with insomnia, too, based on a thread here at the dope a few weeks ago.

There can also be other sleep disorders other than apnea like narcolepsy.

I’d suggest: Keep a food diary to make sure you are getting plenty of calories and a good balance.

Take your concerns to your doctor to get a full workup. Lots of things can cause fatigue.

Look into things like dysthymia to see if that’s a possibility.

Stay away from stimulants and depressants for now.

And good luck.

17

There are so many health issues that can cause exhaustion and sleep disturbances, depression being one of them. Continue to look into all that.

However I’ll jump right in and tell you what worked for me. I used to eat somewhat like you and had the same issues for years, it was miserable. My thyroid, iron, ferritin, and vitamin stores all tested as normal and while I’ve always had issues with low-grade depression, I didn’t feel any more depressed at the times when living a normal life was a struggle because I was so exhausted.

I’ve changed things completely diet-wise in the last year. As a result I haven’t napped in ages (and am able to take a cat-nap for a few minutes to refresh myself if I need to, before I was out for at least 2 hours), only get sleepy at bedtime, and I only need 6-8 hours of sleep at night to wake refreshed (used to sleep for 10, 12 hours on a regular basis because I just couldn’t get up). I appear to be highly sensitive to dietary carbohydrate, and can’t sustain normal energy levels if I’m constantly jacking and crashing my blood sugar by eating lots of quickly-digested sugars and starches. Now my diet is based on natural fats, proteins, and veggies (technically ‘low carb’ although I do get 50-150g of carbs per day) so I never get blood sugar crashes. There are other issues I had that have been helped a lot by these diet changes as well.

ETA: You’re getting almost no fat in your current diet and that’s really not good. You need fats for normal functioning of almost every part of your body. Eat some butter.

18

Can I change my diet while not eating meat? I was raised vegetarian and started eating meat less than a year ago. I’m really not comfortable with preparing meat and buying it, and if I did I’d want to buy organic, and that is too expensive for me right now. I think I eat meat maybe 1x/week, and that is due to eating out.

Would I have to give up my breads and fruits? Cuz I love those . . . and again, was pretty much raised on them

19

Your diet really sounds like it’s lacking any discernible, daily protein. If you’re concerned about calories, just always make it ultralean chicken, canned tuna/salmon, etc.

20

Well, like I said, I eat eggs daily, as well as hummus (chickpeas are high in hummus) and yogurt has a good bit of protein . . . I think I eat about the same about of protein as most vegetarians.

Although looking online, it recommends that I get about 1 g protein/kg body weight. I definitely don’t think I get that much. How do you guys feel about protein shakes? I don’t really like the taste of canned fish and find organic chicken a bit expensive. Although my greatest concern is that I’m not comfortable preparing it myself.

Sorry to be difficult. Thanks so much for the recommendations.