[SleepySadie]

Hello, everyone. I’m glad to have found this forum.

I have been trying to find the cause of my daily tired/sleepiness for several years. I’ve worked with my Dr to rule out thyroid, diabetes or heart conditions. She wants me to try wearing a contraption to sleep in at night to find if I have sleep apnea. There is NO way I would be able to sleep in that thing NOR a CPAP machine. In order to go to sleep, I have to be absolutely comfortable and unencumbered. – And, even then it’s a struggle to fall asleep.

Over time, I have become more and more tired during the day. I have worn my Fitbit to sleep in which shows that my sleep is not terrible most nights. I usually get one 3-hr sleep cycle of REM. Although I wake 2 – 3 times each night, I tend to get 5 or 6 hours of sleep.

Not sure if everyone else agrees – but I believe there is a real difference between “sleepy” and “tired” Yesterday, I was sleepy all day – felt like I had taken a sleep medication. Today, I’m tired – muscles a little achy, eyes burning, muscle weakness.

This is becoming actually debilitating for me. I am getting the true essentials done. I go to work every day and do an OK job. I take care of my daily chores. But, I no longer do any of the things that would bring me pleasure. I don’t go for walks, I haven’t even used my brand-new treadmill a single time. I really believe it would be helpful to get some physical exercise. But, how can I bring myself to do that when I feel so bad all the time?

Anyway, to get to the point of this post, I now suspect my issue may be that I take something for sleep each night. My main DOC is a Benadryl based OTC sleep aid. However, I’ve also been rotating in Ambien and liquid melatonin, some nights. While these drugs are supposed to be out of our system within 10 hours, I have read there’s a small amount that remains for days.

I would appreciate anyone sharing their experiences with long-term use of sleep aids. If I didn’t work, I think I would quit cold turkey. Maybe after several days of no sleep, I would fall asleep naturally?

[Martin Reed]

It’s definitely more difficult to do things that matter when we don’t feel good! Is not doing them making things better? If not, perhaps that could be a change worth exploring — no need to go big with a 10 mile run on the treadmill; perhaps you could start with a 5 or 10 minute walk instead?

The human body will always sleep when it has been awake for long enough — but it’s important not to make any changes to prescription medication without taking to your doctor first.

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