To be or not to be...

Kevnar

I suffer from excessive daytime fatigue. Even after a full night's sleep I still find myself passing out at my desk. It's hell. On one hand you have the overwhelming desire to just lay down on the floor and die, and on the other hand you have the need to feed your family. I've been to doctors and had test after test after test, and for some reason every test I've had comes up perfectly normal. Now my doctor is starting to talk to me as though its all in my mind or something. How frustrating. So I spend everyday in an endless cycle of trying to stay awake, trying to focus on my work while the life is slowly strangled out of me until I pass out. At least that's how it feels. Getting more sleep doesn't help. Drinking more coffee doesn't help. Pills don't help. What's a boy to do? My head tingles like your foot when it has fallen asleep, my face feels numb, my back and ribs ache, my breathing is very shallow, and then I pass out. I don't have narcolepsy. I don't have diabetes. I don't have a thyroid or blood sugar problem. Everything keeps coming up normal. I don't know what the problem is. All I know is that sometimes I feel like being dead would be easier. Though I'm not suicidal. I enjoy life normally, when I'm not passing out from some strange strangulation. Life would be so much easier if I won the lottery and could just sleep all day everyday as much as I wanted, without having to worry about the bills getting paid, but since I'm wishing, I might as well wish for normal health. That way I could work without passing out and have a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day. In the meantime I'll simply fight it out. The only thing that seems to help is thinking. Mental activity seems to wake me up. Anything passive, or boring and the deadness in my head takes over. Clunk.... X|

"I'm not saying there should be a capital punishment for stupidity, but why don't we just take the safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself?" -xterm

ColinDavies

Please post more information as to your age/weight/height blood pressure/pulse rates/ family history / other illnesses - medications/ diet / daily and weekly activity cycle. And I'll give you a second diagnosis. :-) Otherwise you can email me. Regardz Colin J Davies

Sonork ID 100.9197:Colin

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Kevnar

Colin Davies, MD

"I'm not saying there should be a capital punishment for stupidity, but why don't we just take the safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself?" -xterm

Roger Wright

Wait until he sees your bill! That will get the old heart beating faster:-D Instead of marrying again, I think I'll just find a woman I don't like very much and give her a house...

Jeremy Falcon

Silver. Member No. 11300 wrote: Getting more sleep doesn't help. Sleeping too much will keep you tired, and kill you sooner. What age are you? If you are around 20 you don't need more than six hours of sleep unless you lift weights. If you sleep too much your body shuts down - just like a bear in hibernation. And, make sure your sleeping schedule is consistent to ensure you get a good night's sleep. Silver. Member No. 11300 wrote: Drinking more coffee doesn't help. And, it never will. What's your diet like? $20 says you're suffering from malnutrition. Eat some more good carbs (whole grain wheat, oats) during the day and don't ever skip breakfast. And, start taking a multivitamin, and if you smoke then quit. Silver. Member No. 11300 wrote: What's a boy to do? Exercise to increase blood flow and the amount of oxygen in your blood/brain. I bet you anything, after two solid months of a new lifestyle you'll start feeling tons better. So, is a little sweat a few times a week and eating healthy worth it? That's something only you can answer for yourself. Jeremy Falcon Imputek

ColinDavies

Roger Wright wrote: Wait until he sees your bill! That will get the old heart beating faster Nah I only invoice bronze CPians. Regardz Colin J Davies

Sonork ID 100.9197:Colin

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Christopher Duncan

I agree with Jeremy. You'll feel tired in the beginning after starting an exercise program, but eventually (fairly soon, actually) it will give you much more energy. Chistopher Duncan Author - The Career Programmer: Guerilla Tactics for an Imperfect World (Apress)

ColinDavies

Good general advice Jeremy. Yes sleeping extra won't help if you are suffering from CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) or cataplexy. Also getting some general blood tests will help (especially for Iron) and also an examination or trial for Apnea. Regardz Colin J Davies

Sonork ID 100.9197:Colin

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Chris Maunder

I assume doctors have ruled out sleep apnea? cheers, Chris Maunder "Sometimes everything is deep and philosophical and other times, well it's not so deep or philosophical" - Tom Archer, being philosophical.

Reno Tiko

Silver. Member No. 11300 wrote: I suffer from excessive daytime fatigue. I'm not familiar with that symptom -- does that mean you're able to stay up during nights but constantly fall asleep during the day? Or do you always feel sleepy regardless of the time?

Klaus Probst

Seems to me you need a challenging, engaging job. If it's not physical then it's in your head. ___________ Klaus [vbbox.com]

John Aldrich

That bears a large resemblance to something my brother in law has called mitral value prolapse. From what I understand it's a condition where one of the valves in the heart is closing too early. fairly treatyable with medication I believe.:~

It's good to see kids turning their minds to wholesum activities such as programming, instead of wasting their lives in the hedonistic disciplines of Sex, Drugs, & Rock & Roll... or Sex with Drugs, or Sex with Rocks while Rolling in Drugs, or whatever new-fangled perversions you little monsters have thought up now... [Shog9 on Kid Programmers]

ColinDavies

Chris Maunder wrote: I assume doctors have ruled out sleep apnea? The biggest problem with that is that it is quite difficult to detect, you basically have to admit a person for several nights and monitor their oxygen levels whilst the sleep. The other more simple way is just try out the remedy for it, as its darn unlikely to be predjudicial, and see if the effects go away. I suspect lots of folk suffer from it, and it has never been diagnosed for them. Regardz Colin J Davies

Sonork ID 100.9197:Colin

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Mr Morden

Someone else has mentioned this, but it could be sleep apnea. I've got it, this is my checklist. 1. Do you wake up feeling more tired than when you went to bed? The longer the nights sleep, the worse I felt. 2. Are you Overweight? 3. Do you snore? 4. Do you cough a lot in the morning, especially after a steamy shower? I found out when I asked my doctor after a bit of a scare one morning when I fell asleep at the wheel on the way to work. I was at the docs on a unrelated matter, but was scared enough to ask. She suggested sleep apnea and sent me to a specialist. I spend one night in hospital, and they prescribed treatment in the form of a CPAP machine. I was feeling 30000% better within a week.

ColinDavies

Mr Morden wrote: I was feeling 30000% better within a week. yeah, I have heard similar, some folk have even thought they were dying of cancer etc, but it was apnea. Mr Morden wrote: I spend one night in hospital, and they prescribed treatment in the form of a CPAP machine. Do you find it uncomfortable to use, or do the benefits far outweigh that factor. The moment I put any mask on, I feel a bit weird. Regardz Colin J Davies

Sonork ID 100.9197:Colin

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Mr Morden

Colin Davies wrote: yeah, I have heard similar, some folk have even thought they were dying of cancer etc, but it was apnea I had a (minor) breakdown. I honestly thought I was going insane. I was depressed most of the time, and lost interest in nearly every activity. Even after I started treatment it took a couple of years to recover. That was around 1996. Colin Davies wrote: Do you find it uncomfortable to use, or do the benefits far outweigh that factor. The moment I put any mask on, I feel a bit weird. Initially, yes. As for benefits vs discomfort, read what I wrote above. That will give you a good answer. :) I dont even notice it anymore. In fact, a couple of years ago my old mask broke and I tried sleeping without. Couldn't. At 2am, I was up jury rigging some electrical wire to keep it on. Put the mask on and was out like a light. If I was cured today, I reckon I'd need 'training' to sleep without it.

philip andrew

Oh great... lots of people have this problem. Here's two things that could be causing the problem (there are others!!!) Sleep Apenia - Do you snore at night, if so maybe you stop breathing as well and this can make you tierd as you are suffercating at night. The only way to find out is to have a test... SERIOUSLY LOOK AT THIS, its hard to tell if you have it. A lot of people have it. http://www.sleepnet.com/disorder.htm Allergys, dust mite or simular can block up the nose and make it hard to get air during the night. You have to get a allergy test... Philip

Lost User

Silver. Member No. 11300 wrote: I suffer from excessive daytime fatigue. Even after a full night's sleep I still find myself passing out at my desk. It's hell. On one hand you have the overwhelming desire to just lay down on the floor and die, and on the other hand you have the need to feed your family. I think that you will find that your sleep is not actually as deep or complete as you think. This is also happening to me over the past 5-6 years. I find that sometimes I hear every little thing goig on inside and outside of the house and invariably wake up feeling like shit. Other times when I hear nothing and don't remember waking up I fell great. I usually feel crap about 1-2:00PM. I spent 6 weeks a little while ago doing physical work for 8 to 10 hours a day. I found that I was so physically tired that I would get a great nights sleep. Up until about 6 years ago I would go to the gym 3-4 times a week and again I would get a great nights sleep even if it weas only 5-6 hours. Last week I saw an article on TV about imsomnia. It wasn't about people not being able to get to sleep at all but taking quite a while to get to sleep. They would also wake up quite often and take that same long period of time getting to sleep. This meant that at the end of the night they have actually only slept a couple of hours. The radical experimental treatment was to be woken up about 50 times a night for a few nights until you learned the ability to get to sleep quickly. This minimized the time spent getting to back to sleep after each awakening. Michael Martin Australia mjm68@tpg.com.au "In Summer, I like to dance naked on the roof to celebrate the event of the temperature finally falling below 40C (usually about midnight). But the neighbors have lately taken up the habit of staying up late. And looking up, at times, from their dreary, pointless lives..." - Roger Wright 15/05/2002

Trollslayer at work

Silver, I have some good news for you :) I had similar problems for several years due to severe stress. One of the difficult things is that the symptoms of long term stress vary a lot so you have to look at the pattern which matches up with what happened to me. The cure (not in one go, but a big improvement after one session) was Reiki healing. This might sound daft at first but as an engineer it works, not expensive and no side effects so worth trying. Reiki is about balancing the body's energy flow using chkra points etc.. I know it might sound odd without the high tech approach, but give it a try. At the time I could hardly walk for a month and within 2 days I can get round a large supermarket. Cost per session ? £15 or about $25 from the guy I went to. And one other thing - learn to let go a bit, thats what builds up the troubles Good luck Elaine :rose:

Kevnar

yup.

"I'm not saying there should be a capital punishment for stupidity, but why don't we just take the safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself?" -xterm