Constantly tired

Originally when this first started, it wasn't that big of a deal. All it required was a quick hour long nap and I'd be fine but now it's taken on a life of it's own.

For awhile, I was staying up til the early hours of the morning (anywhere from 4-6 AM) and sleeping until 5 PM or so. That was somewhat easy to understand because I was going to bed so early, it was only natural that I slept late.

Then it progressed into going to bed around 12 PM, waking up at about 3 AM, staying up til about 6 AM then once I went back to sleep, not waking up til the evening hours.

Now I'm at the point where I'm going to bed early (11 PM or so), sleeping all night, waking up after a good 8 hours of sleep or so, but after being up for 2 or 3 hours I just want to go back to bed for awhile and end up sleeping for another 4 hours. It's really starting to interrupt my life and I'm not getting much done, if anything. My social life is starting to suffer too.

Has anyone else had this problem? Any solutions? I can't take prescription sleeping pills so that recommendation is out of the picture.

- Rainy/DD

I currently have a counselor and although I've never been clinically diagnosed with depression or any mental illness, she thinks I might be. My doctors are well aware of my sleep issues and haven't really given any helpful advice.

I'm on medications for seizures and chronic pain:
Lamotrigine for seizures
Exalgo for time release pain management
Oxycodone short term pain
Diazepam for spasms
Alprazolam for anxiety
and folic acid...but I don't know if I really count the folic acid one as a medication.

I've tried almost every sleep trick there is. I'll research more on the sleep hygiene though so thanks for that tip.

- Rainy/DD

The diazapam will make you sleepy too. If you are taking it during the day, that could be the reason you are sleeping during the daytime. Maybe a different muscle relaxer would help. I took soma for a few years. Flexeril gave me a hangover and made me very tired. Diazapam is in the benzo category and is often used for sleep. So maybe just taking it at night would help, if you aren't already.

I hope you get your sleep straightened out.

Hugs, Karen

I wonder if adderall would help you. That is what I take for fatigue. The doctors don't like prescribing it, but yours might. There are other types of stimulants too. But I take adderall 30mg xr. It is a capsule. It keeps me awake during the day and then I take ambien at night to sleep. I hope that this helps some. Talk to your doctor about it. Some pain meds make you sleepy and some actually give you a little energy. Mine don't do either. I take percocet 7.5 six times a day.

I hope you get this straightened out, or at least so that you can get back on a schedule. I try to go to sleep the same time everynight. There was a time where I slept for two years. I didn't have any stimulant then. It stunk. I feel like I lost those two years. I hope that this doesn't happen to you.

Take care...

Hugs, Karen