I swear, I eat my vegetables, take a daily multivitamin, avoid caffeine past noonish, try to get enough sleep and keep a reasonably regular schedule…so why am I tired all the time?
It’s getting ridiculous. Wednesday night I started feeling really, really tired on the way home from work. I was going to make calls to see some new apartments, but fell asleep on the couch at 8:30 pm instead. Thursday morning the alarm rang, and I had no idea where I was. I tried to sit up, and felt really disoriented and woozy and my heart started pounding, so I decided that since I have about a billion sick days, I would use one. No fever, no other normal short-term illness symptoms, just felt dog-tired and foggy all day. Slept on and off all day, slept all night, and today I feel almost as zonked. The brain never really did turn on.
This is starting to become a disturbing pattern (except for the calling in sick). Between my constant fatigue and last fall’s wonderful adventures with cancer, it’s making me really nervous. I scheduled a physical for a couple of weeks from now - it’s been a few years anyway, not that I don’t see enough of my doctor for stupid acute stuff, but haven’t had a full checkup in a while - but in the meantime, why the heck do I feel like I’m sleepwalking? Am I missing something?
(sorry, I hate it when I get asked that when I moan about being tired all the time. But the all day fogginess and exhaustion are trademarks of you know what.)
Well, if that were true, my ex would definitely have to have had some really hard-core time-release sperm. Either that, or something s going on that hasn’t happened, in, oh, about 2,000 years…
You sound like half the people I work with. There’s something strange going around…if your head and stomach starts to hurt(not a throw-up feeling, but *pain[/]) too it might be a sign that the bug has migrated to your area too. joy. Or maybe our bosses are just poisoning us.
It seems to help me have more energy just in general throughout the whole day if I’m well hydrated. I sleep better too if I drink a glass of water right before bed.
Maybe get checked out for thyroid problems… I’m tired a lot of the time too (often have to take a nap when I get home from work) but I am a night owl by nature so I do stay up til about 1.30 am everynight (can’t sleep, body clock won’t let me til then)… but I knowing exhaustion is one sign of thyroid problems… good idea to get it checked out by your Doctor - at the very least, it will help put your mind at rest you know?
I used to work with a doctor who related being taught the following in medical school: “Never ask a patient if they are tired! EVERYONE is ALWAYS tired!”
Not much help, I know. I am tired often too…eight hours of sleep out of every 24 seems to be the absolute bare minimum necessary to keep me from yawning all day. 9 or 10 hours every day would be great, but is impossible given my life. I have been like this as long as I can remember and am going to bring it up with my doctor at my next checkup. My mother has a history of thyroid problems, so I would like that looked into for me.
My best friend is currently suffering from mono, and the first symptom that drove her to see a doctor was extreme fatigue. Not saying you have mono, but it’s one possibility.
The mono thing had crossed my mind, although I feel somewhat better this morning…as for work, well, it’s always stressful. I work for an immigration law firm, and you can imagine how fun and predictable that’s been over the past year. Also, war tends to stress me out, as I have this really bad habit of taking international politics personally. Plus my cousin was in Baghdad until a couple of weeks ago, which was *definitely[/] stressing me out. Maybe the fatigue is partially a delayed reaction. I should have thought of the thyroid thing, too, but thanks for reminding me.
What the heck, I was overdue for a physical anyway. Plus I need a new batch of Armenian jokes; my doctor is Armenian, and we always swap jokes when I see him. Plus he doesn’t know about my cancer adventures from last fall; those involved my gyno. I should probably have a chat with him anyway.
Since you’re overdue for a physical, go get that done. I can’t imagine that your doctor wouldn’t check your iron level as part of a standard physical, but make sure he checks it.
Anemia can leave you feeling pretty wiped out like that for no reason, and there doesn’t have to be an obvious cause of the anemia, as my wife found out a year and a half ago.