What kind of meds do you take to wake up?

Hi everyone :)

I am in a really weird sleep cycle.. I will sleep for 2-3 days straight.. and I mean straight!! My dear and wonderful hubby counted the hours that I was up during one of my 3 days sleep cycles and he counted 12.. YES 12 hours awake!!! And to tell the truth.. I really don't remember much of the 12 hours.. I am totally out of it. When I do finally wake up.. the first day I am out of it... then I get 3 days of normal (haha) sleep and normal (haha) days.. as normal as you can get with fibro I guess :)

I am just wondering what kind of meds you guys have been on that works to keep you awake and not like a zombie. We are going crazy with how I am sleeping! I really feel bad for my dear hubby and my 3 kids. I want just a little of my life back..I don't want to sleep my life away... any help would be great.
Thanks everyone:)

Thanks Getting by for your response... I am calling my doc tomorrow for Adderall. I have spent about 3 hours all over the web and on here looking at what everyone has been saying about it.. and it sounds like just what I need. Like you said on a different post.. you can deal with more pain from the Adderall then the fatigue. I am so right there with you! There is always pain meds! But there is nothing for not getting out of bed for days in a row.. because you can barely lift your head due to fatigue. Thanks so much :)

I do not take anything for awakening. However, I do drink coffee in teh morning.

Donnaeil

Thanks everyone for responding... The first thing we did was check my meds.. and cannot find anything that would cause this type of sleeping. I was just dx with CFS.. and they think that the fibro and the CFS is what is causing this. That is why I was asking what type of meds people take to stay awake. I would LOVE to take meds away.. but then I would be worse off then I already am. I don't need to take steps backwards.. steps forwards would be better :) We have finally after many years of trying different meds found ones that work pretty good.. now the issue is the sleeping for so long.. so now trying to tackle this one. I wish I liked coffee or tea.. but I don't.. I do however have 2 cans of Mt. Dew (if I am awake) in the morning.. but doesn't seems to matter.. I can still fall asleep anytime after.

I did call my doctor today and asked about the Adderall.. and he thought it was a good first step to try.. and he said if it doesn't work.. we will keep going til we find something that does. Love my doc :)
Thanks again for your answers:)

p.s. Now have to switch to caffeine free Mt. Dew... I just thought that was kinda funny :)

Have a great & hopefully pain free day!

I am finding since I finally changed my eating pattern and what I eat, I am sleeping deeper, longer, more often, and then awake with some energy level the next day for a longer time.

I was treating myself really bad for a long time. I had my digestion so messed up I couldn't stand the idea of food during the day and if I did eat, I felt worse. I could only eat at night.

And because of that pattern I would do one of two things. If I worked, I barely got through the day, then would go home, eat, crash and burn. If I didn't work, I would lay there till midnight and have to take a bunch of pills to sleep.

The last couple of weeks I have been making myself eat a good lunch, with allot of very complex carbs in it, that doesn't upset my stomach, and then eating dinner, and my sleeping cycle is slowly changing to sleeping quite deeply without sleep meds. And I am more awake and have a better energy level the next day for a longer period.

Long way to go, but it kinda makes sense brain chemistry wise, because carbs, preferably very complex carbs, plus amino acids, plus B Vitamins equals a higher serotonin level, which makes you more alert during the day, and converts to melatonin at night. And if your not eating right during the day, which I haven't been for years do to digestion problems, your running on your adrenals to keep moving during the day, and your brain is chemicaly starving to be able to not only relax, but be alert and maintain a decent sleep cycle.

If I was rotateing back and forth from 3 days of almost round the clock sleeping, to a couple of days of semi normal and back to mass amounts of sleeping I would probably be attributing my problem to total burnout, then you finally catch up a little, can function a couple of days and burned out again. I was doing something similar last time I had a hard physical job. I could just barely get through my 5 days, then sleep almost round the clock from Friday night to Monday morning, and get caught up just enough that I could function, sliding downhill all week, and do a repeat on the next weekend.

It was so bad on weekends with almost non stop sleeping, my kids were looking into my room to make sure I wasn't dead.

I don't know about the Adderall. I believe in the gotta function at almost any cost principle myself, but another drug could seem to help, but be adding to your long term problem. If drinking 16 mountain dews a day would keep you up and going, would you drink 16 mountain dews?

Well, anyhow, what do I know. Gotta do what you feel you gotta do, but I think the reality is your suffering recuring short term burn out and you have to figure out how to add more wood to the pile, not more gas on what little wood is there to burn.

ADD is a little different. If I was going through school today I would be pegged ADD in a heartbeat. Probably why after I picked up smoking in my teens my ability to focus kept getting better and the two years I totally quit smoking, I couldn't focus well. Smoking increases Dopamine receptors and Dopamine, and the smoke has a as yet unidentified Dopamine breakdown inhibitor and Dopamine improves focus also. Why some people with ADD find Welbutrin to be fairly effective. Increases Dopamine levels. Some take Welbutrin, plus Adderall.

I figure ultimately, a person has to do what they have to do. I have gone through so many weird sleep cycles though its rediculous. I offhandedly mentioned that if a person could function on 16 cans of Mountain Dew a day, would they do it. I did it!! 100 Milligrams a day of Amitrytilene for sleep, then sucking down can after can of Mountain Dew all day and I could stay awake and clear and focused for 14 hours straight everyday for months and then get my 10 hours of deep sleep on the Ami.

After about 3 months of this I was a total nervous wreck and I could only stay awake in 5 hour spurts. 5 hours wide awake, 5 hours asleep, 5 hours wide awake around the clock.

Oh, it was Diet Mountain Dew by the way. Rat poison instead of sugar.