Try (and it is super hard) to avoid ALL processed foods and limit alcohol. You would be helping the cause. I know it's hard but when I eat what God created and not chemical companies - trust me - they are impacting our lives
I am 75 and can not remember ever having a refreshing night of sleep. I have used a CPAP for a year but it did not help. I dream all night even during short naps. I saw a different sleep doctor recently and he diagnoswed this as EPIC dreaming (non REM dreaming). He said it is rare, little is known about it and there is no known treatment. He prescribed Modifinil, a stimulant to help with alertness (very expensive).
My primary care doctor prescribed Venlafaxine for chronic headaches. It did not help with headaches but did seem to supress or at least my memory of dreams. I have been on this for two weeks now. The next thing I plan to try is hypnosis.
Hi, I too have chronic fatigue that is not CFS and the docs don't know the cause. I am not a doc but have spent a lot of time trying to take good care of myself to be as functional as possible. I am trained as a scientist though, and have tried to find the best, most plausible, and safest treatments out there.
some quick tips from my experience:
-you say you don't have apnea but have you looked at the sleep study yourself? I ask because if you have sleep disturbances that are less than 10 seconds each, they are not considered to be apneas, and a cursory examination of your results will totally ignore them. Also, there are two 'scores' on a sleep study, the AHI and the RDI. One of them tracks breathing interruptions of less than 10 secs and one of them doesn't. So, check that out; based on what you see, you can decide whether to work on sleep quality or whether to work on other things. If you have breathing issues during sleep that are too short to be apnea then you may have UARS (upper airway resistance syndrome). If you wake up feeling not well rested, this is a distinct possibility.
- in a larger sense, what you have going on is a 'subclinical' issue; that is, because you aren't bad enough to show up on tests, many docs won't be helpful. After a lot of looking, I found a functional medicine MD who is willing to work with me as a team to optimize my health, and that has helped me out a lot. One quick example: TSH is the standard first test for thyroid stuff. optimal TSH is (if I recall) < 2.0 but if your TSH is less than something like 4 or 5, it's considered 'normal.' But 'normal' might not be good enough for you, you might need to get into the optimal range in order to be ok. I have found that applies to LOTS of things, like vitamin D levels, iron and ferritin, thyroid, testosterone, iodine, etc. When it comes to this kind of stuff I would start with vitamin D (should be 60 to 80), then look at iron/ferritin (ferritin should be 50 - 100).
- this is extra personal but have you considered nofap? Some people report it makes a big difference in their energy levels -- could be something to try as a one month experiment?
Hello, we appreciate your question. This study talks about sleep architecture and how enhancing what are called slow waves can help. It lists several medications used for this. Perhaps your doctor would look into this. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK19956/ / This basically focuses on stages 3 and 4 of sleep which might help with your problem. For those following the thread, this is a nice article about sleep architecture explaining it well. https://www.helpguide.org/harvard/biology-of-sleep-circadian-rhythms-sleep-stages.htm
Typically unrefreshing sleep and/or excessive daytime drowsiness is a red flag for apnea. Not saying you have this, but suggest discussing with your doc. If you do, then CPAP treatment usually fixes the problem.
Ugh, that's terrible. I've been plagued before by daytime sleepiness and drowsiness and also have been completely sleep deprived. I had to upend my life a bit to ensure I got enough sleep as I too was having cognitive difficulty. I was doing really bone head things like leaving kids in car ignition and walking into house to find the next day I had no juice in my battery of my car, or putting meat in a crock pot and not turning it on, etc. And I just couldn't think straight. Really a dark time for me and I'm sorry you are also going through that to some extent or the full extent now and on a regular basis!
I do have a sister in law that has atypical narcolepsy. She doesn't fall asleep in a moments time like the movies make it look like. Instead, she is always drowsy and wants to sleep and finds it hard to stay awake. And she gets 'out of it'. She was driving when drowsy and got pulled over for driving. They gave her a sobriety test she was acting so out of it! Anyway, she has medication she takes and it keeps her functioning during day light hours and then she goes to bed very early after work.
What I'm wondering is even if you are not diagnosed with narcolepsy, if you could be treated in a similar way with the same medications they use for someone like my sister in law. Worth asking!