Always tired - need the user manual for my body
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Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Nottingham UK
Posts: 241
Always tired - need the user manual for my body
In my teens and early twenties, I wasn't like this at all. I was a mornings person, used to wake up feeling refreshed , take the dogs for walk before mum and dad got up, did my best work in the morning, never felt the urge to sleep in the day, and was in bed not long after nine.
Leaving home for college changed a few things. Overcrowded shared houses meant i no longer had a guarantee of undistrubed sleep. Of course, there was a certain amount of living it up too. I ran a deficit, but the environment was so stimulating, the adrenaline mostly brushed this off.
Heading into my mid-twenties, i mostly found myself doing shift work. It feels like this changed me for good - no longer a 10pm - 6am sleeper, mornings were defintely a struggle now, but i found it hard to switch off after work and get to bed early enough. I always woke up feeling tired and that i'd not had enough sleep, but the sheer adrenaline of this exciting environment kept me going. I still had hobbies that i pursued on days off, used to mess around wtih electronics projects, stuff that took concentration and focus.
But the tiredness gradually got worse, year on year, now i'm 41. Work days require huge amounts of caffeine to get me going - three to five 500ml cans of energy drink (Relentless, Monster etc) chased down with 500ml bottles of Pepsi Max. I work a 4 days on, 4 days off pattern. I have to get up at 5.30am which probably contributes to the roughness of work days. Get home shortly before 8pm and it takes a little while for my brain to power down.
The night before i go back to work, i have trouble sleeping (sunday night blues) no matter how good my sleep hygeine has been the days before, so it's sometime from 11pm-12.30am that i'll go to bed. With each working day, that comes forward. After my last day of 4 at work, i basically come straight home and went straight to bed, an am asleep by 8pm. Of course, i now have a huge sleep debt. Woke up several times feeling restless last night but managed to push myself under for another couple. Woke up for good about 5am. That's as good of a night's sleep as I can ever expect and woke up feeling about as refreshed as i can ever expect to. Even so, woke up with a heavy dose of sleep inertia, such that driving or operating machinery would be dangerous, and by the time this wore off, i was getting sleepy again.
By 9am i nodded off and slept for another hour. On my days off i try to avoid or minimise caffeine consumption, but as a result i get an overwhelming urge to sleep during the day. This can turn into a 3 hour session if i let it. Of course, daytime sleeping will push back my bedtime with each day off. Each time my bedtime slips back, my waking time does a little too, but not as much as the bedtime slip. So, i get less sleep at night, and the urge to sleep in the day is intensified, thus the cycle continues.
When i've had time off, say 2weeks, i can eventually stabilise to an extent, with low caffeine consumption, no daytime sleeping and sensible bedtimes. At no point however, do i feel like i used to even 10 years ago.
On my standard 4 days off I struggle to concentrate on stuff. I roll out of bed with a head full of sleep inertia and mindlessly perform internet content consumption. As the fog clears, i might attempt a turn based strategy game. When i'm really starting to feel on the ball, i might log on and play an MMO, something which lacks the luxury of a pause button. But after an hour of that i'll be thinking of another nap... and it all repeats. My soldering iron sits unused in the corner. There's stuff i'd like to build...but i just can't summon the focus.
I just assumed that declining energy levels are a fact of getting older, if this keeps up, i'm not sure i want to get much older.
Leaving home for college changed a few things. Overcrowded shared houses meant i no longer had a guarantee of undistrubed sleep. Of course, there was a certain amount of living it up too. I ran a deficit, but the environment was so stimulating, the adrenaline mostly brushed this off.
Heading into my mid-twenties, i mostly found myself doing shift work. It feels like this changed me for good - no longer a 10pm - 6am sleeper, mornings were defintely a struggle now, but i found it hard to switch off after work and get to bed early enough. I always woke up feeling tired and that i'd not had enough sleep, but the sheer adrenaline of this exciting environment kept me going. I still had hobbies that i pursued on days off, used to mess around wtih electronics projects, stuff that took concentration and focus.
But the tiredness gradually got worse, year on year, now i'm 41. Work days require huge amounts of caffeine to get me going - three to five 500ml cans of energy drink (Relentless, Monster etc) chased down with 500ml bottles of Pepsi Max. I work a 4 days on, 4 days off pattern. I have to get up at 5.30am which probably contributes to the roughness of work days. Get home shortly before 8pm and it takes a little while for my brain to power down.
The night before i go back to work, i have trouble sleeping (sunday night blues) no matter how good my sleep hygeine has been the days before, so it's sometime from 11pm-12.30am that i'll go to bed. With each working day, that comes forward. After my last day of 4 at work, i basically come straight home and went straight to bed, an am asleep by 8pm. Of course, i now have a huge sleep debt. Woke up several times feeling restless last night but managed to push myself under for another couple. Woke up for good about 5am. That's as good of a night's sleep as I can ever expect and woke up feeling about as refreshed as i can ever expect to. Even so, woke up with a heavy dose of sleep inertia, such that driving or operating machinery would be dangerous, and by the time this wore off, i was getting sleepy again.
By 9am i nodded off and slept for another hour. On my days off i try to avoid or minimise caffeine consumption, but as a result i get an overwhelming urge to sleep during the day. This can turn into a 3 hour session if i let it. Of course, daytime sleeping will push back my bedtime with each day off. Each time my bedtime slips back, my waking time does a little too, but not as much as the bedtime slip. So, i get less sleep at night, and the urge to sleep in the day is intensified, thus the cycle continues.
When i've had time off, say 2weeks, i can eventually stabilise to an extent, with low caffeine consumption, no daytime sleeping and sensible bedtimes. At no point however, do i feel like i used to even 10 years ago.
On my standard 4 days off I struggle to concentrate on stuff. I roll out of bed with a head full of sleep inertia and mindlessly perform internet content consumption. As the fog clears, i might attempt a turn based strategy game. When i'm really starting to feel on the ball, i might log on and play an MMO, something which lacks the luxury of a pause button. But after an hour of that i'll be thinking of another nap... and it all repeats. My soldering iron sits unused in the corner. There's stuff i'd like to build...but i just can't summon the focus.
I just assumed that declining energy levels are a fact of getting older, if this keeps up, i'm not sure i want to get much older.
Member
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Colorado
Posts: 1,001
I hear ya. Twenties were 5 am workouts, hiking, fishing, climbing. All started before the sun came up. Now at 43 i drag ass all day long. Im hoping it was all my drinking and my energy will come back. Growing old aint for *ussies.
Member
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posts: 39
Liberator4eva, oh boy do I relate to what you say. I work 12 hr shifts as a nurse and I get up at 3:50 in the morning to be at work for 6:45. I also work 3-11 as my off shift which when I work that, I don't end up going to bed until most of the time, 3:00 am. So often times the the next day I have to work I'm switching back to getting up at 4:00, almost the same time I go to bed when I work 3-11 shift. It super plays with my circadian rhythm big time. So I sleep in till 11:30-12:00 on my days off. I don't know anyway around this except quitting my job?
Member
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: rapid city south dakota
Posts: 174
Now that im lately not drinking I have to take a nap to fill the time I use to drink now I sleep for sometimes 5 whole hours a day Double Barrel is right about the water also most people should be drinking a gal a day it fixes lots of stuff I drink about 3/4 gal of green tea and 1/4 gal water a day I feel alot better than I did befor.
Member
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: Perth WA
Posts: 6
When I drank (54 days!) it was coffee all day and alcohol all night, partly to come down so I could sleep/pass out. Hit repeat in the morning! Now I don't drink alcohol I drink less coffee but my major issue is fatigue that only slowly is starting to improve.
Apart from being a mildly addictive stimulant caffeine also is a diuretic (fluid and salt loss) and leaches out calcium from bones. Hence the good advice to drink lots of water.
Good description of binging on adrenaline, caffeine and stress and then coming down for four days...
If cutting out caffeine doesn't make you feel heaps better you should consider seeing a doctor for a general check up. 41 is way too young to be feeling like this...
Apart from being a mildly addictive stimulant caffeine also is a diuretic (fluid and salt loss) and leaches out calcium from bones. Hence the good advice to drink lots of water.
Good description of binging on adrenaline, caffeine and stress and then coming down for four days...
If cutting out caffeine doesn't make you feel heaps better you should consider seeing a doctor for a general check up. 41 is way too young to be feeling like this...
Member
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 25,373
How long has it been since you had a complete physical and blood work? There are organic reasons this could be happening.
I'd say cut back on caffeine and make sure to eat a balanced healthy diet with fruit, vegetables, dairy, protein, fat, and fiber. Poor nutrition can be a big factor.
I'd say cut back on caffeine and make sure to eat a balanced healthy diet with fruit, vegetables, dairy, protein, fat, and fiber. Poor nutrition can be a big factor.
Member
Join Date: Nov 2014
Posts: 47
i know this feeling, i work nights and have been drinking large amounts of non alcoholic drinks and much caffiene to keep me going.
but i have very cold hands and feet right now, the drink took that away because i drank lots of warming alcohol, and i know through experience that too much of any liquid is bad for me, it effects my kidneys, and i also get a bad back.(which in my previous shiatsu practice i know is linked to the kidneys and to Willpower)
no harm can come from a good diet, because i once found one that had me up at the crack of dawn with so much vitality that i didn't know what to do with it....but it is the backlog of the past, coupled with self love/acceptance that i need to deal with
look after your kidneys, and all your organs, for they run a lot of the show.
but i have very cold hands and feet right now, the drink took that away because i drank lots of warming alcohol, and i know through experience that too much of any liquid is bad for me, it effects my kidneys, and i also get a bad back.(which in my previous shiatsu practice i know is linked to the kidneys and to Willpower)
no harm can come from a good diet, because i once found one that had me up at the crack of dawn with so much vitality that i didn't know what to do with it....but it is the backlog of the past, coupled with self love/acceptance that i need to deal with
look after your kidneys, and all your organs, for they run a lot of the show.
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