Holy crap! Where did my time go? I swear I slept most of August. I think it’s mostly because of the heat. I got hot and then I start itching. Once the itching starts, I start to feel like my skin is burning… like someone poured acid over my skin. Then I get cooled down and I am just EXHAUSTED! I don’t mean “a little tired but coffee will keep me going.” I mean “Night ya’ll! See you when I wake up which will probably be two days from now!”
I spoke to the doctor about it. She is still new to me so she is still learning about me. She mentioned my medicines all can cause “drowsiness”, so I may just be tired. When she thinks of “tired” she thinks I am slogging along, drinking extra coffee, propping my eyelids open with toothpicks, and moving slowly through the house getting things done.
She pictures this…
But I am actually functioning more like this…
I started logging my sleep on my android phone using the sleepbot app to better explain this to my doctor. First, I have done this sleep thing for years, before moving to Montana, before sleep apnea, before all the medications, before anything drastic happened in my life. I’ve done this since I was 16 years old. Yep, I have done this for 23 years. I happened to get mono from my boyfriend. My mom knew something was wrong when she couldn’t wake me and keep me conscious. I slept for a week… or so. I don’t remember. It slowly got better and I went from 23 hours of sleep a day (not kidding) to a more normal sleep cycle of 10 hours sleep a day.
Well, I told the boys to not wake me during the last cycle and explained I was trying to document the erratic sleep cycles I have. So, My oldest son (who is an adult) took over and I just logged sleep. Here are some of the more impressive ones from my sleep log…
13 August: 14.4 hours of sleep.
14 August: 18.4 hours of sleep.
15 August: 14.1 hours of sleep.
Brace yourself…
16 August: 23.2 hours of sleep.
17 August: 15.1 hours
18 August: 3 hours. Yes, that is three. I am not missing a one.
19 August: No sleep
20 August: 25.8 hours asleep. TWENTY-FIVE!
21 August: 11.7 hours of sleep… not counting the 1.8 from the day before.
22 August: No Sleep.
23 August: 20.1 hours of sleep
24 August: 14 hours of sleep
25 August (my birthday): 7.1 hours of sleep.
It was that week of my birthday where I started coming out of the sleeping beauty phase and now I am sleeping more normal amounts of time again. Usually my sleep is between seven and ten hours. On days I take all my medication, it could be a 12 or 14 hour sleep day. Even without medicines, this has been my life for years. But the roller coaster sleeps that I get, it could be no sleep to three or four days of sleep. Although, I do set alarms to try to wake me. That doesn’t work though. AND I am a moody, starving, irritable person when I am awake. I try really hard to not be mean but I just can’t help it.
BUT, I don’t have chronic fatigue… says a long string of doctors I have gone to throughout the years.
This doctor though, believes I have Fibromyalgia. All of my symptoms suggest Fibromyalgia. Although, the sleeping beauty roller coaster ride I go through is a touch extreme. She is sending me to a Rheumatologist to make sure we didn’t miss anything. I like this doctor!
So, now that I am functioning more and awake, I will be updating more. I’ll try to remember to post if I am heading into a cycle so you guys don’t think I just fell off the planet. Sorry about that, Java.
Journal of a Crazy Woman 