Afternoon naps...

Hi honey...I posted a similar question not to long ago about naps.  I always fall asleep in the afternoon(unless I am rock climbing or pouring concrete...LOL!) because I get so little sleep during the night.  I feel HORRIBLE when I wake up after sleeping an hour or so.  My pain is ten times worse, and the fog is unbelievable.  I try to stay awake but I can't unless I am out somewhere.  I don't know why this happens as it would seem to me that our body needs the sleep.  I am just like you...I feel  worse after a short cat nap then I do when I wake up in the morning.

Huggies

Donna

Hi honeybaby-

I take a short rest period, late morning, where I get my whole body up on the couch and close my eyes for a short while. Late afternoon I almost always take a nap- whether it's a half hour or more, it's the only way I can make it through a day. After my afternoon nap, it does take me awhile to get moving again, but so far the benefits outweigh how I feel when I get up.

I'm like Donna, unless I am out and about, my body and brain need the rest.

Jill

I usually take a nap at some point during the day too, whenever my kids take theirs. Without fail when I am getting ready for these naps, I am thinking, "Man this is going to be great....just what I need". Then after the nap, ugh! I feel terrible too. Not only am I groggy and achy, but I am in the absolute most awful mood. Grouchy does not even begin to cover it. It seems like when I wake up I am literally irate. If anyone knows what causes that, I'd love to hear it. It's just like a horrible cycle, you feel as if you will just die without a nap, like you've never been so tired (and no one else has either) and so there is no way around a nap, and then when you wake up from it you feel worse. It stinks. I remember a time when a quick 20 minute nap made me feel refreshed, not so much now though.

Dear Mrs. T; I too, feel out of control cranky doesn't even begin to cover it, when I awake. Hopefully no one encounters me before my meds kick in, after my walk. It could be disasterous. I always contributed it to hypoglycemia. You could maybe, help us all, if you were to check your blood sugars after awakening from your nap, before you move around much. If my suspicion is right, it should show low blood sugar. I find if I eat a piece of whole grain toast, or a piece of fruit, I come around faster. Just curious. 

Hi,
The trick to naps is to understand the sleep cycle. After about an hour, you are in deep sleep and it is harder to wake up. You cycle through to near wakefulness every 1.5 to 2 hours. So you either need to sleep less than the amount of time it takes to get to deep sleep, or enough time to cycle through to the near wakefulness time in your sleep cycle. If you wake up periodically, you will notice it is in increments or multiples of 1.5 to 2 hours. This is because your pain or stress or something else wakes you up while you in the nearly awake period.

Here is an easy to read article and a diagram.

http://library.thinkquest.org/11189/slpmech.htm

Sue

Statgeek,
That is very interesting about the sleep cycle. The strange thing is, when I have waking up at nights, it is always at 1 hour intervals. This usually happens for about 3 or 4 hours, and then I sleep through several hours without waking. I take medication that has the side effect of making me sleep, so that could have some affect.

I have been trying to find the answer to this nap after pain but cannot seem to come up with a logical explanation. However what I can tell you is that I finally met with the doctor who has studied fibromyalgia for many years. I have been to so many doctors who can't seem to provide me any useful information but I would call her an expert due to her ongoing research team's work, and experience. She prescribed me with Naltrexone. It's actually the same substance that people take to get off their addiction of narcotics. However it makes me sleep deeply at night and I wake up feeling refreshed for once! I used to feel like I had mono every day. Her theory is that people with fibromyalgia have inflammation in our brains often because of stress chemicals in our brain that never went back down. This helps bring the inflammation in the blood brain barrier back down slowly over a period of about eight months but it's something we can take the rest of our lives. I noticed when I missed it does I had another restless night and woke up in the middle of the night with stiff muscles. This does not happen anymore on this medication. She also told me to start taking Inosine. It's a dietary supplement that can be found online. Basically her other theory is that people with fibromyalgia tend to have less antiviral killer cells and this helps increase them again. She did comprehensive bloodwork on me which showed that yes the inflammation levels in my brain are high and my antiviral killer cells are very low. This was really exciting to me because she told me I even have a chance of beating this. I really suggest you talk to your doctor and do some research because finally for once I have hope. She also recommends taking coq10, omega-3, vitamin C, vitamin D, and vitamin B 12. I know everybody is different but I felt urge to share my story and hopes that it will help others. Good luck!