Sacked because I can’t stop sleeping

[desperateexhausted]

Posting here for traffic and NC because I’m ashamed and furious with myself.

So I haven’t been sacked but if I don’t get a handle on the problem I’m heading that way. I have a job with regular daytime hours (no horrible shift patterns, no very early starts or late finishes) and I can’t manage it.

A week of regular 9-6 work absolutely exhausts me to the point that I have in the past fallen asleep in my clothes the moment I got home, not eaten any dinner and slept through til the next morning several times a week. Some weekends I sleep for almost the entire 48 hours, emerging only to use the toilet or microwave a ready meal. I’ve had countless sick days (probably over 20) in the last year because I’m sometimes so tired that I can’t see straight, I feel nauseous and dizzy when I sit up and the fatigue is so overwhelming I feel like I’m being crushed.

I also sometimes (often) sleep through the morning and simply don’t turn up at work. I have two alarm clocks going off right next to my head and they don’t wake me, particularly if I’ve had a night of insomnia (which I also, somewhat ironically) suffer from. This has been going on since my teenage years (I’m now in my 30s) and affected every single job I’ve had - I’ve had probations extended, been sacked from freelance contracts, and now I’m on very thin ice at work. I’m outwardly a professional and successful person but I can barely hold down a job because I cannot stop sleeping and I’m at my wits end. Chronic fatigue has been mentioned by a previous doctor but wasn’t followed up for reasons beyond my control.

I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to live like this. I’m not exaggerating when I say it’s ruining my life and will ruin it even more if I lose my job (which, frankly, I deserve to). I don’t want special treatment from work, I know how ridiculous it sounds as a grown adult to say ‘sorry I slept through my alarm) 20 odd times a year. I would chop off a limb for an official diagnosis but every blood test I’ve had for the obvious possible reasons comes back completely clear (and I’ve had a lot of blood tests for this over the years).

Has anyone experienced similar and found a solution? It’s getting to the point that I’m terrified every time I go to bed on a weeknight that I won’t wake up when I need to, which in turn keeps me awake worrying, which then disrupts my sleep even further. Any advice would be very, very gratefully received.

So glad you’ve booked an appointment to see someone privately. You’ve been badly let down by your gp though. What you’re experiencing is not at all normal. One possibility is that your symptoms would fit with a condition called primary hyperparathyroidism. Ask your doctor to test calcium, vit D and parathyroid hormone in one blood draw. Despite the name, this is nothing to do with the thyroid - it affects the parathyroid glands. Ask your doctor for a printout of the results of your blood tests (you can also ask your GP for a printout of previous blood tests to see if these have been checked before). It’s hard when you’re tired to take control of managing your health. I bet you feel like holding down your job is literally all you can manage right now. Try to be proactive in getting to the bottom of this though. There must be something wrong and you just need to find out what.

Haven't read the full thread but I'm wondering if you've had your calcium, phosphate and parathyroid hormone levels checked? What is your magnesium and VitD level. My daughters VitD was only 19 a couple of months ago, her B12 was about 165 or so and she was also anaemic and her folate was low. She's a lot better now that she is supplementing. She was exhausted. She'd do something and have to take a nap. She has no thyroid as she had a TT last year and she vegetarian so that doesn't help either.

Look into b12 deficiency too if bloods haven't been done for this.

Otherwise, considering all the blood tests, M.E. I say this as a suffer myself and it took me a decade to get diagnosed.

Folk saying to motivate yourself are ridiculous. There's a serious health problem going on here, and you're right OP, it's not mental health. It sounds extremely like my experience of M.E and I get home from work and collapse from it. Folk have no idea, there's no 'thinking' your way out of m.e.

I hope you get the help you need. For your sake, I hope it's something other (and treatable) than M.E, but I strongly doubt it. I could have written this myself, and sadly I've deteriated since then.

And no, you don't deserve to lose your job OP.

You have a health problem here causing this, and it's extremely likely to fall under the Equality act.

Hi OP, have read just your posts. Am glad you have an appointment.

I just wanted to add that I have M.E (Post Viral Fatigue) and your symptoms are so like mine I could have written them. Even the light headedness and the nausea. Every single test I've ever had came back as normal and for months my GP was convinced I was depressed. But I knew I wasn't.

Also, husband has sleep apnoa. It was easy to diagnose, and once he started using a CPAP machine he felt a lot better. He wasn't overweight either.

By the way, OP, what are your dreams like? Are they very vivid, do you remember them on waking?

I start dreaming before I have fully fallen asleep, which is a sure sign of a sleeping disorder as you are dropping straight into the dream part of your sleep cycle rather than the restful deep sleep..... In other words, I seem to spend more of my asleep time dreaming, which is not as restful, so the quality of sleep I get is not as good so I need more.....

It’s awful to be fatigues all the time with no answers.

I’ve had a couple of days off work this year for sheer exhaustion and usually spend the weekend removing from the working week. In the past few weeks I’ve had a couple of work colleagues say I look really tired and ask if I’m okay.

I take anti depressants and have insomnia so just assumed my fatigue was related to this.

It just happens I’m currently seeing my GP about unexplained hair loss. After reading on Mumsnet about the link with low iron I insisted on being tested for iron levels. It seems crazy it isn’t included as part of the standard blood tests seeing as so many women have low levels. My tests are abnormal but frustratingly I couldn’t find out my ferritin levels over the phone. Iron deficiency and Haemochromatosis have some similar symptoms so my issues could be at either end of the scale! I suffer from heavy, clotty periods so low levels seem more likely.

The moral of the story is do your own research and keep advocating for yourself. It may be necessary to dramatise your symptoms a bit as GPs often don’t seem to take you seriously unless you’re being a bit dramatic about things.

OP, please tell the Dr today about any longterm or serious childhood illnesses if you had any, and any medication you were put on. Good luck, and please let us know how you got on.

This lady really helped a family member who had permanent tiredness. Worth a try OP, to go with your private GP appointment.
www.physichealth.uk/

I think you need to change your GP - there is obviously something wrong, and your current GP clearly isn't interested enough to do something about it.

I haven't read the whole thread, but this was my dad with sleep apnea. He had a sleep study, got a cpap machine, and it changed his life.

Friend of mine has narcolepsy. It's not like the movies where he falls asleep standing up, it's defined as:

"Narcolepsy is a chronic sleep disorder characterized by overwhelming daytime drowsiness and sudden attacks of sleep. People with narcolepsy often find it difficult to stay awake for long periods of time, regardless of the circumstances. Narcolepsy can cause serious disruptions in your daily routine."

Sounds a lot like what's going on here. My friend has pills to help him sleep, and pills to help him wake.

I suffer from chronic fatigue, so I feel you. Unless somebody has suffered it themselves I think it’s hard for them to understand. Push for a diagnosis OP. It turns out I have an autoimmune disease that was only picked up in a bone scan

There is a subset of respiratory physicians who specialise in sleep and sleep disorders. Might be worth seeing one privately rather than waiting

I would suggest a vit D test

Gp rarely put this on the form and even when they do.. it seems they don’t always get results back

Took me 5 years of asking and then only when I had major surgery did my vit D get tested

And it was very low and they put me on vit D prescription

Good luck OP, please do let us know how you get on.

I've just read this whole thread in one go because a friend of mine has similar symptoms to you (although not quite as severe from what she's told me) and I don't think sleep apnoea has ever been mentioned to her. It seems to fit her symptoms like a glove though so I'm going to refer her to your thread later today.

I hope you get a resolution to this!

Just checking if anyone has mention carbon monoxide? Do you have gas heating in the house? And detectors?

@SwanShaped

Just checking if anyone has mention carbon monoxide? Do you have gas heating in the house? And detectors?

This has been going on for 15 years and I’ve lived in several different properties over that time so I’m sure it isn’t that

Echo every else here, please do ask your GP for a referral to the sleep clinic. They will assess you and let you know if there's a problem.

Yea you need to get back to the doctor, but have your work not made any suggestions - like occupational health?

You really have to keep regular sleep habits- go to bed at the same (early) time a night every night, and get up at the same time every day. When you wake up on the weekend get up & leave the house- if you sleep excessively on a weekend then you will sleep poorly on subsequent days. Fill in the Epworth Sleep Scale (google it- screen for obstructive sleep apnoea) & if a high score ask for a sleep clinic referral. Slim people can have sleep apnoea, it's the relative size of your neck & shape of palate that does it.

I think those on here who say they would have sacked you for not accessing medical health need to consider what planet they are on.

Most people cannot access a GP easily. And even if you can, as the OP has shown, they don't always do anything. And also, even if you have private healthcare, you need to go via a GP. What people actually need isn't private hospital care, but private GP services because usually once you're in the NHS system, the care is very good, but you need to get past the obstructive GPs first (and indeed see them in the first place, especially now).

However, on the other side of the coin, if my job were at risk, I would definitely pay the fee to see a private GP and get something done about this or at least have it on record that I have a medical problem and am not just lazy. There are also people who can help privately - they usually deal with people who can't sleep, but may also be able to help with the opposite concern.

I am constantly amazed at the MNer who think you call your GP and get to see them the same day. In many practices you can't even get a phone call the same week!

My dB has narcolepsy.

Do you have any of the other symptoms, aside from the excessive daytime sleepiness?

Do you go weak when something is funny or cheeky, or in times of high emotion (cataplexy)?

Do you have sleep paralysis? Do you ever know your asleep but you're awake, or have a feeling of being pulled out bed or similar?

Hypnogogic hallucinations? (hearing jet engines, or similar).

The alarm bells for me are the insomnia combined with the excessive daytime sleepiness. My dB could sleep through any and every alarm clock, they could go off right next to his head for an hour or more.

The average diagnosis time is 10 years, but the minute he saw a GP and said I think I have narcolepsy, the GP referred him to a sleep clinic and it all went pretty quickly from there.

Incidentally, he had been tested for all of the usual deficiencies, lead poisoning, porphyria, and more. All negative.

In the mean time, get some vitamins. A good vitamin D and B12 at the very least.

Hope you get some answers soo. You can't live like this, you poor thing.

It could be a mixture. A sleep disorder and some sort of anaemia.

Has the GP never referred you to a sleep clinic? It would be good to find out what sort of quality sleep (if any) you're getting - you might not be getting the REM part?