Extreme tiredness

[Itstheprinciple]

I have been off work since 19th Dec (work in a school, but not a teacher). I have only just started to feel 'normal'. I am fed up of feeling so tired during term time. It is to the point of exhaustion. I get home and fall asleep on the sofa before I start cooking dinner, then I'm snoring on the sofa again by 9:30. In term time, my alarm goes off at 6am but in the holidays I naturally wake about 8am and I clearly need that sleep. I feel like I spend my time in term time like a zombie and I don't think I realised how awful I felt until the last couple of days when I have 2 been falling asleep in the day time or in the evening. I dread any plans to socialise in term time as I just know I'll feel so dreadful. I also get terrible restless legs in the evening when I'm tired so I know if I go anywhere it will be spoiled by my legs twitching.

I don't really know what I'm asking! Just wondering if this is normal? Is this just life and I have to get on with it? It's just so miserable.

I don't really know what I'm asking! Just wondering if this is normal? Is this just life and I have to get on with it? It's just so miserable

My DH is a Dr and had two car accidents last year due to extreme exhaustion. We have always been in bed by 9pm often earlier and are in our late 20’s/early 30’s 👍🏻

It’s certainly ‘normal’ in the NHS and there’s no sympathy/help offered.
I have friends working in other ‘professions’ accountancy, law, actuarial, teaching and again seems pretty common to be asleep by 9pm every night, unless they’re still working.

Some people seem to handle it better than others though and I’m not quite sure how!

Have you had your thyroid checked? If that is out of kilter it can cause extreme fatigue. Also I've heard many people rave about magnesium for restless legs, worth looking into it. Hope you are feeling better soon

I'm always tired. I go to sleep around 9pm-10pm and if left totally undisturbed I can easily sleep for 12-15 hours and still be back ready for bed by 9pm. Tbf I rarely get that amount of sleep, and like you I get restless legs which have a knack of ruining an early night.

I've been off work since 24th Dec & granted I've been fighting a cold I've slept in most mornings. Kind of dreading going back to my 6am alarm on monday.

I've had all the usual medical checks and all is fine, I'm just a tired person I think

I live like this too, though am an office worker so no decent break of any kind. I feel I'm sleeping away my evenings and wasting my life but if I don't sleep before 9.30pm I'm literally feeling sick with exhaustion the next day. I hate to say it but I think some people are more susceptible to tiredness

Have you ruled out deficiencies? Magnesium deficiency needs much more awareness as affects over 70% of people I think I read and can severely affect us. Also vitamin D levels are important ?.
Sorry you feel like this

(In my experience naturopaths can be worth trying as look for the root cause of things by looking at blood tests etc. and they picked up on allergies with me and also imbalanced gut flora too which can drag you down )

Maybe anaemia? Restless legs are a symptom of severe anaemia. Might be worth getting your iron levels checked.

I have to get up at 6am every day and I would struggle if I wasn’t in bed by 9.30pm. I live in a hot country where this sleep routine is fairly normal and I appreciate that it’s slightly harder in the UK where people tend to stay up later.

You also need to get your blood levels checked urgently - if you go on the BetterYou website or the Vitamin D council website they have tests you can do at home.

When I felt crushingly exhausted a few years ago, it turned out that I had extremely low vitamin D levels and this triggered my hypothyroidism.

I was like this a while ago and it was my Iron and magnesium levels were super low im on iron tablets now and i use a magnesium spray on a night after my shower and always get to bed by 8 or 9pm but some people do just need more sleep than others too even now i need about 9 or 10 to feel refreshed the next day

How old are you? I struggle with extreme tiredness which I never got when I had a very stressful job. I think it’s menopausal. I also get restless legs.

As mentioned by a pp, magnesium is a possible issue. I have got some magnesium spray oil which I use on my legs and have had some success.

Also, there is a pod cast called Feel Better Live More. Listen to the episode about sleep. It is really interesting and your issue may be about poor sleep quality.

I feel for you, it’s shit feeling so tired all the time.

It could be anemia- restless legs are a sign.

Coeliac?

Thanks everyone. I think a trip to the GP might be in order to rule out any deficiencies. But I think maybe I am just a tired person! It's hard to get to bed early every night as my DD has a club that runs until 10pm, sometimes 2 nights a week and I'm a school governor so some weeks there's evening meetings etc. My DH has evening committments with his job so it just seems rubbish going to bed before he's even home! My DD is 13 and such a night owl like DH so they are still raring to go and I'm fast asleep!

@Itstheprinciple you sound a very generous person with family and school governor, maybe it's time to put yourself first a little - cut the school governor and ask DH to do some of the ferrying child around for the later shifts?