I can't stop sleeping!!!

July 13, 2009 11:21 AM

Why am I always soo tired??

For some reason the past 2,3 weeks or so it seems that I am always tired. I sleep normally for about 8 hours (I know, plenty of sleep) yet I am always needing a mid-day nap. Sometime I get so drowsy, I am tempted to just fall asleep while reading. As aside, I am not depressed or anything like that. I take a multi-vitamina and fish oil suppliment + I workout 4 times a week and I am pretty healthy. If the problem continues and gets more serious I will know doubt ask my doctor. But I am just wondering if you guys had any solutions or could give me some insight as to what is wrong with me.

posted by happydude123 to health & fitness (25 comments total)

IANYD, though perhaps you are anemic or don't get enough Vitamin D.
posted by heather-b at 11:29 AM on July 13

You mention your vitamin and workout regimens. How about your diet in general?

I don't mean "you're trying to lose weight" kind of diet -- I mean, what do you eat in general. Working out and taking multi-vitamins isn't going to be enough if all you eat are Twinkies and Cheetos.

If you eat a lot of junk food, try cutting that out for a while and see what happens. If you already eat heatlhy, though, and it still persists for much longer, then yeah, ask a doctor.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:35 AM on July 13

Taking any medications lately? More alcohol? Less caffeine? Eating a lot of pancakes for breakfast? Any allergies? Keeping hydrated?
posted by Sys Rq at 11:37 AM on July 13

If it's only been going on for two or three weeks, it might be due to some sort of virus. MedLinePlus suggests checking for carbon monoxide in your home.
posted by Ery at 11:38 AM on July 13

You're in college, right? So are you on summer break now? If you don't have a full-time job and you're not attending classes, I'd guess that's the culprit. Lots of free time makes for lots of naps, especially if you're used to a more active schedule during the school year.
posted by amro at 11:46 AM on July 13

Try a huge dose of B-12 daily for a week or two and see if it helps. You should be able to get 1000mcg sublingual tablets just about anywhere (mine come from Trader Joe's). I was seriously tired all the time for long enough to be problematic, and my GP tested my B-12 and found it low. I'm feeling much better since I've started taking the megadose B-12. Whether it was actually the cause of the fatigue or not, who knows (could have been any number of transient things), but I feel much better, and it's cheap and harmless.
posted by uncleozzy at 11:46 AM on July 13

Does it happen only in one place, like at a summer job? Maybe the room is too warm or there's an air conditioner or refrigerator sound lulling you to sleep.

8 hours is just an average sleep need - some people need more and maybe your body's trying to get you to catch up.
posted by lakeroon at 11:51 AM on July 13

I've had normal blood tests but found that on dry, high pollen-count days, I'm more prone to sleepiness. Even though I get 8-10 hours of sleep a night, I'm currently taking Provigil because it took a 2 liter of Mountain Dew, Dr. Pepper, or Surge to keep me awake and semi-functional for a full workday... which my doc said is a pretty good back-of-the-napkin diagnosis for narcolepsy. And it was making me hella fat.
posted by SpecialK at 11:51 AM on July 13

My wife has the same problem, only hers has been going on for years. She's got slight sleep apnea(just diagnosed), and she THOUGHT she was getting good sleep every night, but it turns out she's been waking herself 15-ish times in an hour. Seems unlikely that this is your problem if it's just been happening for a couple weeks, but if you exhaust every other option, consider a sleep study. They're unpleasant, but spending the rest of your life tired would suck to a much larger degree.
posted by specialnobodie at 12:02 PM on July 13 [2 favorites]

Having been through three of them, the sleep study process is not all that unpleasant, really. Certainly far more tolerable than a Colonoscopy.

Seriously, go to your doc and ask for a referral to a sleep study. You may have sleep apnea or some other sleep disorder.
posted by BigLankyBastard at 12:06 PM on July 13

consider a sleep study. They're unpleasant, but spending the rest of your life tired would suck to a much larger degree.

I would also suggest a sleep study to rule out apnea, and actually my experience with the study was not unpleasant at all. Except for all the wires stuck to my head (which was very interesting and not at all intrusive), it was like staying the night at a bland hotel.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 12:08 PM on July 13

When I lift weights or do similarly strenuous exercise and I don't eat enough protein, I get tired at weird times. I'll wake up after a good night's sleep and feel fine, but two hours later I'll feel like I didn't sleep at all. It comes and goes until I do eat some more meat.
posted by stavrogin at 12:14 PM on July 13

Good advice here, I just wanted to add that fatigue is a symptom of a variety of different types of communicable disease. You might have strep or mono, for example - no way to tell from the few details you give. If you're worried, a trip to the doctor is worth it.

Feel better!
posted by Citrus at 12:37 PM on July 13

It is summer, so you may not notice this as much based on your climate, but do you find yourself unable to stay warm? Do you often have dry itchy skin?

If so it could be hypothyroidism. I remember when I first got diagnosed I would sleep all the time no matter what else I was doing or eating.

IANAD.
posted by DetonatedManiac at 1:03 PM on July 13

Did you just start working out or drastically increase the amount you're working out? For the first few weeks afterward, you'll need more sleep so that your muscles can repair themselves and adapt to the new stresses you're putting on them.

I know that whenever I start working out again or change what kind of workouts I'm doing, I need extra sleep for a couple of weeks until my body adapts.
posted by burntflowers at 1:05 PM on July 13

This might sound strange, but could it be Lyme disease? Fatigue is a fairly common early symptom, and if you live someplace where the risk of contracting it is high? Might be worth discussing with that doctor you should go see, anyway.
posted by gnomeloaf at 2:02 PM on July 13

mono?
Lyme
Apnea?

If you otherwise feel fine apnea might be the cause. Allergies can increase this time of year and cause just enough trouble to push you into apnea. Sometimes just taking a sudaphedrine before bed can make all the difference.
posted by caddis at 2:10 PM on July 13

There are so many things that can cause sleepiness - my #1 culprit is seasonal allergies, and I still get surprised every spring when I can hardly keep my eyes open!

For a temporary fix, I find that a cup of coffee followed by a 15-20 minute nap gets me super-alert for the rest of the afternoon.
posted by muddgirl at 2:59 PM on July 13

[Dammit Jim, I am a programmer, not a doctor.]
My wife went in for a 50,000 mile checkup and the doc said she was vitamin D deficient.
She got a script and feels peppy now(!).
YMMV
[Heh. My Vitamin D was down too. I still feel like dirt.]
posted by Drasher at 3:39 PM on July 13

Are you eating enough? Are you underweight? When I start getting exhausted all the time, some more carbs and an extra 2 kilos normally fixes me up.
posted by Chrysalis at 3:57 PM on July 13

I used to have the same problem (and still do, occasionally), and sleep apnea was the culprit. I had no idea I suffered from it until my wife suggested going to a sleep study centre, and while trying to fall asleep with all the wires hooked up to me was not easy, the study revealed that I was (unconsciously) waking up more than 300 times (!) a night.
posted by The Card Cheat at 4:41 PM on July 13

+1 for gnomeloaf's guess of lyme's disease.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 6:05 PM on July 13

Go to bed before 10pm every night for two weeks and sleep in as long as you can, ideally past 8am. If you're still tired then invest in a bunch of tests but that usually fixes me right up.
posted by fshgrl at 6:34 PM on July 13

Are you possibly anemic? I didn't realize I was until I started taking an iron supplement (Floradix). Now that I know what it's like not to be low on iron, if I go off the Floradix for more than a couple of days I start to feel a bone-deep, pervasive fatigue that makes it difficult to keep functioning.
posted by Lexica at 8:26 PM on July 14

thanks for the help!
posted by happydude123 at 1:20 PM on July 15