Asthenia upon awakening / Persistent sleep intoxication
Good evening,
My sleep is not restorative, and this as far as I can remember (childhood).
I wake up constantly “muddy”, “in the pie”, “exploded”.
This state lasts on average in the 8 hours following my awakening, often fading when night falls.
Sometimes this is still present when I go to bed at night.
On a finer note, it’s a kind of unpleasant “gray” cotton/cloud feeling that takes over my whole head, a gritty feeling behind my eyes, which are otherwise puffy and swollen within hours of waking up. It is associated with photophobia +++, phonophobia and often headaches in headphones, and (rarely) when I wake up really badly, balance disorders (similar to drunkenness). Randomly depending on the day, the intensity of the hardness of this state varies. Sometimes it’s just unpleasant. Sometimes it’s hell on earth.
I consulted late in sleep medicine because throughout my adolescence, my general practitioner relied on fatigue related to growth and adolescence. Moreover, it was only quite late that I understood that my vision of “fatigue” was not the same as that of others.
I slept a lot as a teenager (around 10-11 a.m.), without that changing anything when I woke up. I tested a lot of bedtime/sleep time changes. Nothing plays on this state (although a more “painful” fatigue is added to it when I sleep little, or even more inertia than in the normal state if I sleep too much). The (intense) sport helps a little. Immerse myself in cold water (sea/lake), also a little too. Screens (telephone, TV, computer) as well as reading aggravate this condition. I limit them as much as possible.
Looking for ways to suffer less, I realized that this state disappeared when I took a short nap (20 min). I reorganized my life to be able to take a nap during the day (often one around noon, and one around 6 p.m.). It’s a solution that works but has constraints (social misunderstanding and related consequences, difficult at work, difficult to skip a nap now that I’ve gotten used to it, little flexibility if I have to change my pace of life (change of schedules etc).
I usually go to bed late (logical, when you only feel good in the evening), and I therefore have fairly short nights (6 a.m. to 7 a.m.), which my naps allow me to take (it’s a kind of polyphasic sleep). On weekends and holidays, it’s grass’mat and back to 9am-10am sleep. It doesn’t make me feel fresher though.
I consulted in sleep medicine, in two different centers (Paris and Montpellier).
Nothing abnormal on the polysomno.
Some have spoken of narcolepsy because I take a nap.
The others of phase shift because I go to bed late.
I have the feeling that neither of them really listened to what I was saying.
I am gradually turning away from them because I feel that they are powerless to give me more help.
I have had melatonin (prescription) for a few years which I take occasionally.
The effect on falling asleep (when I’m too off) is modest, and that doesn’t change the problem I’m presenting.
I recognize myself in the description of “sleep drunkenness” that is observed in some people suffering from idiopathic hypersomnia.
I have no psychiatric illness atcd, no sleep disorder within my family, no other health problem.
I am 29 years old, healthy, athletic, not overweight
I am writing this message in order to find out if other people recognize themselves in these symptoms, and if so what have you been offered? Did you find things that work?