Constantly tired!

Lubs

Hi,

I'm constantly tired every day. Some days are slightly better than others, where I only need one nap in the day. However, most days I seem to need two naps during the day.

I wake up with energy, but by 10am I am desperate for a nap, and it's not just a 30 minute nap, I will sleep until 12.15pm. Then while I feel refreshed I am able to get on till early evening/late afternoon, then it's time for another nap. This one is shorter, but I'm still desperate for it and in deep sleep. I sleep from 3pm to 4pm, after this I can last until bedtime, which is about 8 pm for me. I do read to relax before sleeping at night and then I go to sleep at 9.30pm. This is a typical day.

When I met the consultant she said that it's due to the arthritis being active, and that I have fibromyalgia. Can they really cause all this fatigue?

As5567

This sounds very much like me, I do try to avoid taking a sleep during the day but sometimes its just not possible. Arthritis indeed can cause a lot of fatigue along with the medications we take. If you're also in pain during the night then you are not getting the same quality sleep as others, for example I typically wake up every 45-60 mins during the night and have to move position which is often painful. This type of disruption in the night can often mean that people never enter the deep sleep phase where our bodies are able to recover most.

I hope this is some help, there isn't anything that I have found to fix the tiredness side of things other than energy drinks......but they're not good for us so I'd not recommend them as a long term solution.

Lubs

Yes you are correct about not having a complete night's sleep without pain. What I find is that I'm in a lot of pain but I do manage to find a position to go to sleep in. I will be in such a deep sleep, but there is a constant pain, either in my feet or back, then I actually wake up, change position, and then go back to sleep. I keep doing this through out the night, so I guess it must make me tired in the day! I can actually hear my bones crack when this happens.

dreamdaisy

Yup, that's life with active arthritis and fibro, I have the pain equivalent of white noise 24/7 and the quality of my sleep is affected, I no longer manage any deep sleep at all. The docs solution is more drugs - I think not. I go to bed tired and wake up tired, I also have to wake to change position (I no longer move naturally in my sleep). I'm used to it now. DD

19smp59

I find constant tiredness one of the hardest things to cope with. My sleep is better since being on Amitriptyline but I still wake up during the night to turn over etc and I never feel refreshed in the morning! I have been known to fall asleep in work, once whilst taking minutes in a meeting! Not my best moment.

DaveOB

I was having real fatigue issues and my nurse tested me for vitamin d. Turns out I was very low which can cause fatigue and some joint pain and is not uncommon in psa sufferers. Since taking a high dose of vitamin d the fatigue is better, but not really noticed a difference for pain. Just an idea, but may be worth getting tested?

Lubs

Hi,

19 - I've been taken off amitripyline since I've been on sertraline which is an antidepressant. The GP and consultant had a very difficult time trying to prescribe the two at the same time due to the warning systems on the computers. Therefore I was slowly taken off amitripyline.

Dave -I must say that I've never considered vit D! I will ask for blood tests to be done so that I know if this is a problem. I'm not one for going out into the sun, as I burn very quickly and turn red, something not expected when of Asian heritage! I also hate the peeling skin, so I do tend to put on the 50 factor sun block when I know I'm going to be affected.

Today, I have had a total of three naps. I feel asleep at the usual times, but also had an additional nap at 6pm (30 minute nap). My husband said that I was fully asleep and making sounds (snoring), I do not snore. But I felt much better for it.

Goodnight all

dreamdaisy

Arthritis itself is tiring, Lubs. There's coping with the meds, the never-ending trips to the docs or the rheumatologist, the pain and the effort required at times to do even the basics. I think many of us suffer through lack of sleep, or decent-quality sleep, it may also be worth experimenting with a new mattress and / or pillows. DD

nonaproxin

Reading all your posts has made me realise that I am not "unique" in my situation...I have OA in back , feet ,and now lucky me...it's in my neck !!!.

I find that I am constantly tired and wake several times each night when I shift position...this along with just being in constant pain, it making me feel terrible, and of course I also have the "reactive depression" associated with it all....my wife often comments.." how can you just fall asleep like that all the time...and then the best comment of all ...no wonder you dont get a full nights sleep , when you sleep in the day ...
:roll:
I hate my condition..and the way it makes me feel each day..I feel useless after being very active all my life, and keeping fit. It came as a terrible shock , the realisation that I can no longer do anywhere near as much as I would like to do....at 56 years I feel almost consigned to the scrapheap....being unable to work is a major depressive addition to my problems...
I do battle on on the days I feel a little bit better...but the pay the price for it over the coming days and weeks...the Hospital say I am in a "boom and bust" cycle, and must learn to pace myself...if I paced myself any more I would be overtaken by a snail...
Eddy.

bubbadog

I also have what I call 'power naps' in the day a sort of 'siesta' usually around 2-3pm sometimes they will be roughly an hour then sometimes it can be 2-3 hours of sleep. I do wake up refreshed. But my sleep at night is broken up due to pain so I never really have a full nights sleep. I'm on amitriptyline which I take at night. I did ask my G.P why I'm so fatigued all day and she said partly medication partly fybro and Arthritis.

Sezeelson

What medicines do you regularly take?
If you take any opoids (tramadol, codeine, cocodomal etc) Then wean yourself off them making sure you take a break from them regularly. Since I changed my habits, my energy levels dramatically increased!

Blueberries also have a really good energy boosting effect, if you can afford it, try to eat two portions of them a day. They are a great source of vitamin K and C.

Try to eat foods rich in omega 3 fatty acids as these are natural anti-inflammatories and make sure you are getting plenty of iron in your diet

I've always been unbelievably fatigued but since making changes to my lifestyle I have noticed positive changes. Have a look into homeopathy, some great things to look into and try.

Lubs

Nano- I know what you mean about pacing yourself and feeling as though a snail can overtake you. Today I have just found it extremely difficult to wake up from a nap starting at 11am and finishing at 2.30 pm. Although in the morning before 8am I managed to complete all the household accounts and pay the bills on the internet! it is difficult to explain the amount of fatigue to people who do not have the illness, my mother is very healthy and cannot understand why her daughter aged 38 is sleeping all the time!

Sezeelson - I haven't been told by my GP or consultant to come off my pain meds. I suffer from really bad headaches when taking tramadol so they put me on slow release morphine and slowly built up my resistant to the amount I currently take (90-100mg). I surely understand that the morphine could be affecting me, however I have only been feeling the fatigue from September. Whereas I have been on the morphine for over a year. I will look into my diet and get some blueberries.

Thanks for the advice!

tkachev

I sleep late night to 6/7 am and then go back to bed and sleep like a log after the kids have gone to school for another 5/6 hours and still feel completely washed out. It is the only way I can cope with the evenings when I am needed. I feel it must be medication related as my pain isn't terrible like it used to be.

I'm lucky I do not work as I'd never be able to cope,

Elizabeth

Sezeelson

Yeah, it takes that long. I was on codeine for over 3 years and it was only in the last year that my body really started to suffer the effects. My doctor didn't tell me to come off my medication either and I still have tramadol but the doctors can't feel how you feel. The more active you are, the better condition you can keep your body thus, less pain. It's definitely worth a try but being on morphine over year it's likely your physically dependant on it (number 1 symptom of addiction and withdrawal is chronic fatigue).

Saturday is always my rest day - I keep this day completely free, with ready made meals and bottles of water. I only take paracetamol when i absolutely need it just to give my body a break from it all. I'm starting to create fresh fruit smoothies now too, trying to limit the chemicals in my body which do not good long term.

Lubs

Sezeelson,

Thanks for the advice, I think I will ask for the morphine in smaller doses so I can start to wean myself off it.

Today my husband took me out of the flat to the town centre, we live right in the middle, so not far at all to walk for a coffee. However, today was an up hill struggle to get there. I had to hold on to him to stop myself from toppling over. I just didn't have the energy to get there. We stopped at the first coffee shop and spoke about my energy levels. Don't get me wrong, before all this fatigue it was able to walk this distance in 2/3 minutes. Today it took me over 10.
Before all this I was teaching five days a week in a secondary school, full time, with the same amount of morphine. I was able to go into school at 7.20 am and leave at 5pm, but since being off sick this fatigue has taken a hold and I can't do anything. I feel completely useless.

dreamdaisy

You're not useless, Lubs, far from it. You are struggling to adjust to a new way of life which is so far removed from your old it must feel alien. Opoids are sleep-inducing for some and they don't take the pain away, they take you away from the pain by dulling everything which makes getting on with things so much harder. I empathise.

Reducing the morphine is a good start - I used to swig 50mls of oromorph (under medical supervision) before my knee aspirations and steroid injections because it made me a more 'co-operative' patient I was written off for a good few hours after too . It takes time to learn to live with the pain and to develop your coping strategies and mechanisms but you will. I wish you well. DD

salamander

Hi Lubs, I am suffering particularly badly with fatigue at the moment. Nothing I do changes that and my nurse says it is a sign of active disease and the body fighting itself. Though last time I felt this bad it turned out I had low iron levels, so it might be worth asking your gp to do a blood test to see if you need an iron supplement. For me, it's nothing to do with the quality of sleep as I do that very well and not much to do with pain since I've had some injections into joints. I'm waiting for some meds to kick in and hope it will improve then.

I think the main thing is not to beat yourself up about it. Talk to your doctors/nurses and see if there is anything they can offer to help (I am considering a steroid injection to tide me over until the meds start working.)