Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Support Group
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I wanted to ask if anyone else is like me. I have had PTSD, and am no longer in a state of trauma. However, my disability these days is the amount of sleep and 'down time' i need. I'm on psych drugs, but I don't think this is the reason.
I sleep till 1 or 2pm, about 10 or 11 hours sleep. When I finally get up, I feel tired and sluggish. But if I get up earlier, I'm too tired to get going.
Sometimes, like with work last week, I got up at 7.30am. Because I had to get to work,, I was able to push through the tiredness, and put in a whole days' work. At the end, I was very tired but very happy too.
Then, that night I got to bed by midnight, and wake the next day at 1pm. Back to square one!
If given half the chance, that's my sleeping pattern - from midnight or 1am to about 1pm.
I'm writing about this because it makes me miserable - and I can only work part time.
I was talking about it to my therapist, and she seemed to think I should be able to get up early no matter what. I felt like she didn't get it.
So, is this from PTSD? I feel I'm like this - partly the psych drugs - but because i went through several years of extreme stress. It just broke my system down somehow.
Before my mental breakdown in '87, i was not like this.
Interested in any feedback. It's hard too, not to feel like I'm just being lazy. And when people hear that I get up at 1pm, they are horrified.
I sleep till 1 or 2pm, about 10 or 11 hours sleep. When I finally get up, I feel tired and sluggish. But if I get up earlier, I'm too tired to get going.
Sometimes, like with work last week, I got up at 7.30am. Because I had to get to work,, I was able to push through the tiredness, and put in a whole days' work. At the end, I was very tired but very happy too.
Then, that night I got to bed by midnight, and wake the next day at 1pm. Back to square one!
If given half the chance, that's my sleeping pattern - from midnight or 1am to about 1pm.
I'm writing about this because it makes me miserable - and I can only work part time.
I was talking about it to my therapist, and she seemed to think I should be able to get up early no matter what. I felt like she didn't get it.
So, is this from PTSD? I feel I'm like this - partly the psych drugs - but because i went through several years of extreme stress. It just broke my system down somehow.
Before my mental breakdown in '87, i was not like this.
Interested in any feedback. It's hard too, not to feel like I'm just being lazy. And when people hear that I get up at 1pm, they are horrified.
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Lately I've been feeling scared and full of anxiety. I recently found a lump under my nipple. I hurt my back too. I'm in the process of moving. I'm run down. Everything is hard
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Just wanted to give a thank you to Mid, Arfie, Malibumark, Greeneyes, Mlro, Girlincalif, and Suncloudjd! You all always have such helpful tips and advice, but I always forget to write on my posts when I see you post, lol. I would lose my head if it wasn't attached to my body, lol. Thank you all so much! I'm starting to use my AI app as a sounding board again. I used to use it as that before...
If you have already ruled out medication side effects, then you would want to get CBC done to see if anything physical is wrong.
Of the two problems, sleeping too little is a bigger issue for me than sleeping too much, in terms of consequences.
Too little sleep can cause psychotic like symptoms.
I do sleep more when depressed.
-3rd possibility: -depression- These days everybody associates extra sleepiness w/ depression.
-Extension of the meds theory- some people have atypical side-effects. For the first year after I was put on a very low dose of an anti-anxiety med, I slept 14 hours a day (12 hours at night and a 2 hour nap during the day). I felt like I had sleeping sickness.Caffeine and trying to force myself to be active didn't help. After the first year, my non-conscious time gradual reduced to 9 hours total.
Sheer mental psychological exhaustion also should not be discounted. And the unconscious desire to be awake at night instead of the day can be related to ambivalence about one's life at present.. I often don't go to bed until 2, and though I would hypothetically like it to change (in the same way I'd like to exercise more, eat healthier) there is something about having the wee hours to myself and having fewer day time hours to deal with over rides that desire.
Have you considered finding a job where you could do afternoon evening work? It seems your therapist chastising you about not being an early bird is a little weird.
Also have you gone to a medical doc to make sure you don't have low thyroid, anemia, or some other condition that would be increasing your need for sleep?
Best of luck, night owl.
That was decades ago. Before the current med logics. I still have weird sleep patterns, but they are not a problem. Weird sleep for a weird person. THEY can think what they want about it. It is not theirs to manage.
The thing w/ med sensitivity is, that sometimes there just is a trade-off/compromise. If a dose is reduced too much to try and eliminate a side effect there may not be enough of the chemical in your system to do it's intended job. I chose to be sleeping beauty for a year rather than to feel as bad as I had been feeling. Relief is sometimes long over due and I just decided right then I would rather sleep than suffer. (BTW was also on a night time sleep med). I agree w/ arfie, sleep can be a great mental restorative.