Very tired in afternoon, evening...why?

kaemicha said:
I am months away from seeing this but I had to reply and say the same is going on with me and I can't snap out of it. I get less than 5 hours..not in a row in about 9 hours of trying. Five hours isn't enough and I'm muddled during the day.

I don't know what to do. I do have a medical marijuana card, in Oregon, and that helps..but it doesn't keep me asleep.

I see that you, Phoenix, are in Oregon, too. We can stay up together! Boo!!

Just wanted to vent.

Thanks all!
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I've had the problem since peri-menopause. I also couldn't sleep good as I entered puberty. So those were hormone issues. I took HRT at the beginning of the peri-menopause, and it helped me go from sleeping 2 hours of disrupted sleep a night to 5. Then my sister got breast cancer from her HRT. So I stopped taking mine. The problem returned full force. The other issue I have is related to blood sugar. I'm hypoglycemic - low blood sugar. So if I eat too much sugar in any form it makes me jittery and/or makes me very alert, but exhausted. To ward off that issue I eat a high protein diet, and it helps some with the sleeping. An hour or so before I go to bed I drink protein powder blended into milk, and that helps some. Now, to keep the innards moving along, I eat prunes. They work best, but they make me jittery because of the high sugar. So I'd better not take them after dinner or my sleep is a lot worse. It's been over twenty years since my last period, but I still get hormone surges that keep me awake. I exercise, I try to eat right. Pot can mellow me out, but it does not help me sleep. The drugs the doc gave me were bogus. Grrr.

So you are in Oregon too. I'm in the Coast Range. kaemicha, I see you are also a writer. Cool. Do you write the great American novel while you can't sleep? :)
 
When I posted, last night, I was exhausted and guess I forgot to say that I'm not sleeping at night. I too, average about 2-3 hours then up then maybe back to sleep for 5 total.

How do you cope during the day, Phoenix? That's just not enough for me and now I'm not even able to nap.

I have been writing a novel but my thinking process isn't the best.

I usually sleep so much more and now I'm having trouble filling my days.

I understand that others don't need as much sleep but I do..uninterrupted sleep, please!
 

kaemicha said:
When I posted, last night, I was exhausted and guess I forgot to say that I'm not sleeping at night. I too, average about 2-3 hours then up then maybe back to sleep for 5 total.

How do you cope during the day, Phoenix? That's just not enough for me and now I'm not even able to nap.

I have been writing a novel but my thinking process isn't the best.

I usually sleep so much more and now I'm having trouble filling my days.

I understand that others don't need as much sleep but I do..uninterrupted sleep, please!
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By watching my diet and when I eat at certain times of the month I now can get 6 hours of sleep, once in a while 7. Then the next day I can be back to 2 hours. Some days are extremely difficult. The lack of sleep makes every little thing seem a lot worse. Sometimes I wake up every hour and a half to pee. So that doesn't help. Too much salt makes me sweat, like menopause did, and then I can't sleep because of that. Sometimes I eat too many potato chips which have too much salt. I can't nap during the day unless I'm ill. I don't get up during the night if I'm not sleeping. That just delays the sleeping that much longer.

I cope with great difficulty. I've learned to ignore it as best I can. I subscribe to a newsletter called Daily Dharma. It helps my mind let go of itself, so to speak. I practice being in the moment. It's called mindfulness. Yes, the mind is befuddled at times. My coping varies from day to day. Sometimes I'm extremely grouchy. Some days I don't give a rats behind. Some days I think all is wonderful, and that I've learned so much from all I've been through. And some days I want to flip the bird at everyone and everything. Lack of sleep is dehabilitating. I learned that it's apparently hereditary in my case. My paternal grandmother, paternal aunt, Dad's nephew and my sister had similar sleeping problems.

With the writing I go over and over and over and over things. The key to good writing is in the rewrite, ad infinitum, so that's what I do. With my writing I treat it like a job. Muddling along I've written ten and 3/4ths books. Right now I'm getting one ready to upload to Smashwords - making sure all the techincal issues are handled, so their system will accept it.

Some days it's one minute, one hour, at a time. I'm training myself to see the good moments, despite everything else. It's a work in progress. But I am determined to overcome this.
 
You are the very first person I've talked to in months who is going through exactly what I am going through and I'm sorry but I'm so relieved not to be alone.

I used to sleep late and my day wasn't long now it is now and I'm not comfortable going out much so I'm stuck here, in my head..it's not good.

I will check out the website you posted. Anything to help me through this! I'm having trouble eating, too..a real mess but I will come out of this. I have to!!

I have pains in my abdomen but no doctor is taking it seriously so now I'm wondering if it's just the tension or if it's real.

I don't like this, at all, but Phoenix, you made me feel better.

Oh, and on the book..I'm trying but my patience..you know. I'm so impatient that it's hard to concentrate.

Thank you so much for your honest input!

Michelle
 
Glad to be of comfort. It's always nice to know that someone else understands because of personal experience. I've been through a lot of hard times and have learned that I don't want anything but honesty. Everything else wastes my time. On the Internet, one has to be careful, but....

Here's a link to the website where you can sign up for their newsletter, Daily Dharma. It's a Buddhist site and I'm not Buddhist. But they have some helpful insights. http://tricycle.org/magazine/

I force myself to do things, even when I feel impatient. I force myself to concentrate too. Sometimes my writing is like I'm in the third grade and just learning to put words to the page. I do it anyway. The creativity can suck, but in the long haul, the stories come together. I work out my own issues in my stories.
 
I am following your advice. I've signed up for the newsletter, got on the treadmill and read the first part of my book that I've printed out and am trying to push myself to do more.

Thank you for all of your advice and support. It helps me more than you know. I may contact you again, if you don't mind. This is so very new for me and I need some guidance.

Thank you!
Michelle
 
kaemicha said:
I am following your advice. I've signed up for the newsletter, got on the treadmill and read the first part of my book that I've printed out and am trying to push myself to do more.

Thank you for all of your advice and support. It helps me more than you know. I may contact you again, if you don't mind. This is so very new for me and I need some guidance.

Thank you!
Michelle
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You're welcome. Writing is a discipline. It's 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration. I've found that when I write I can get myself out of whatever funk I'm in. That doesn't work every time, but over time it helps me tremendously. It functions as my therapist.

Life is a lot harder if we don't help each other. Feel free to send me a private message. I can send you my email address if you like.
 
I would love to exchange email addresses. I'm really new to this forum so let me see if I can find where to message you.

You are a Godsend!!
 
Victor said:
For the past 1-2 years I have become more and more tired in the afternoon and evening and my coffee does not fully
pick me up. Do you feel this way? I arise by 6 or 6:30 am because that is when I am ready--no good reason
and fall asleep by 9 or 930--again only because I am too sleepy to stay awake--and too bored to read or watch TV. I think it is all mental.

Last I checked my thyroid is okay--maybe it is lack of stimulation--no one to talk to and I leave the computer off in the evening.

I am a morning person. When I was young, I slept through the mornings and stayed up late.


Time for a nap.
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Victor I can relate, although I've never in my life been a morning person. I have no health problems that can cause fatigue, so I think my sleepiness may be due to depression.....although I have nothing to be depressed about. Just feel at loose ends much of the time........
 
Victor said:
For the past 1-2 years I have become more and more tired in the afternoon and evening and my coffee does not fully
pick me up. Do you feel this way? I arise by 6 or 6:30 am because that is when I am ready--no good reason
and fall asleep by 9 or 930--again only because I am too sleepy to stay awake--and too bored to read or watch TV. I think it is all mental.

Last I checked my thyroid is okay--maybe it is lack of stimulation--no one to talk to and I leave the computer off in the evening.

I am a morning person. When I was young, I slept through the mornings and stayed up late.


Time for a nap.
Click to expand...

Well Victor,

What you describes sounds kind of normal, to me. I'm 64, have energy for getting things done in the morning. By late afternoon I feel fatigued. I am working a full time job, and have 1+ hours commute each way, so perhaps in that respect our situations differ.

I often fall asleep after we have dinner, around 6:30~7PM. I wake up a few minutes before it's time to go to bed at 9PM. ;)
 
I remember Joseph Campbell, the myth guy, talking about how his body never seemed like him anymore. He was in his 80s at the time, I think, and his body was doing things that he did not consider to be him. I think that's what happens. When we are young, our bodies seem to be us, part of us. But as we are older they seem to betray us on a regular basis. So it's like we are two - one the physical and one the essence (the spirit within) of us. It can be hard for the essence to reconcile what the physical is doing to us. It feels like betrayal. We need true rest to be feeling one hundred percent. But we don't get it. The body often isolates us. We no longer have the energy to fully engage. And sometimes the social part of us needs that engagement. I think that's way many of us are here. To find others who can understand and relate to without having to expend energy we no longer have. That's why it's good when we can be kind and understanding to each other. Nothing else really matters.
 
tnthomas said:
Well Victor,

What you describes sounds kind of normal, to me. I'm 64, have energy for getting things done in the morning. By late afternoon I feel fatigued. I am working a full time job, and have 1+ hours commute each way, so perhaps in that respect our situations differ.

I often fall asleep after we have dinner, around 6:30~7PM. I wake up a few minutes before it's time to go to bed at 9PM. ;)
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I agree. I think everyone has their own inner clock and it seems to me like it changes over the years. I'm a night owl now, but I never used to be. I often get sleepy around 9:00, fall asleep on the sofa, and then wake up at 11:00, ready to go again. Some of it seems to have to do with eating. Eating a big meal or one high in simple carbs makes me sleepy after the initial sugar rush. Eating more complex carbs doesn't have that effect.

I remember the days days when I could stay out til midnight several nights a week, then get up for work at 6:00 AM and feel perfectly fine as long as I slept in on the weekends and caught up. Those days are gone. And that's ok with me.
 

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