I go to bed at 10, wake up at 7;15. Why is that so hard?!?

[Whysoootired]

I think I go to bed and wake up at quite “normal” times. I get in bed at 10, it maybe takes me half an hour or so to fall asleep. Then I get up at 7:15.

But I am SO TIRED every morning and then really slump around mid afternoon every single day. I WFH and, if I have time, I often take a cat nap on the sofa for 30 mins! (Rarely have time for this though.) I don’t drink caffeine.

I eat well - lots of homemade food with fruit, veg, legumes etc, I take a multivitamin. I’m peri menopausal but take hrt (but, tbf, I’ve been like this most of my life).

Left to my own devices, I’d probably wake up at 9am. I wouldn’t be tired that day at all (this is what I do on the weekends sometimes).

That can’t be healthy, right?! (YABU - that’s normal, YANBU - that’s not right!)

Please help - why am I so tired?!

I definitely just get through it because I’m distracted / have to! But I am lethargic. I stop being tired in the evening, funnily enough. I’m wide awake then!

It’s funny you say this because my mother also used to call me an angel baby because of sleep! Slept through the night very quickly etc!

I love yoga and this is a great idea for a wind down! I will try and find.

And, like so many suggested, I am going to try and go to bed earlier. I went to bed at 9:30 last night, but one of my children was up until 10 (arg!) saying they couldn’t sleep: hungry etc (the usual sleep stalling tactics!) but i am going to persist!

And I am going to ring the GP this morning and request some full bloods. Its been years and years since I had things checked.

Also going to start on three (instead of four) pumps of oestrogel from this morning to see if that makes a difference too!

Thank you for all of these. I am reading each one carefully and taking note!

It wouldn’t harm to have some basic blood tests done at the docs. They usually do thyroid, full blood count and check for vitamin deficiencies. I had low vitamin D when I felt like this so have been taking supplements ever since.

I take progesterone 14 days a month (two tablets - utrogestan). It sends me to sleep those nights! Do you take one each night instead? I have considered asking my doctor about this!

Testosterone has been mentioned to me before, but I didn’t think I needed it yet but perhaps it’s worth considering again?

I sort of thing I do have ADHD?! I have a very busy and intrusive brain! But haven’t ever been diagnosed and don’t know what I’d do anyway. I have a lot of fixes in place to make sure I get a task done etc. I am also better when I’m outside using my body.

May I ask what you do to help it?

Re ADHD, I'm mid-40s and only discovered I had it a couple of years ago.
It explains a lot about me & my life, but especially the lack of energy compared to my peers. I have bursts of energy, so you would like I was the most energetic and dynamic person if you met me, but you don't see all the downtime I have to recover.
I had also created lots of strategies to cope and compensate but I still take ADHD meds - they help me with concentration so I'm not

I used to take it the same way as you but it really didn't suit me, I felt horrendous on the days without and it disrupted my sleep, so I take it daily now.
Testosterone drastically lowers for women, just like men, only men get a top up because they deserve it and we don't! Ha. It should be addressed just like estrogen and progesterone, and is privately. It depends where you live whether you will even get tests! Really poor but part of the battle and campaign to get the NHS to properly care for women during peri and meno years. Testosterone is just as important, it doesn't just impact libido, but brain function, energy and muscle tone... and more. My energy got so much better when I added it in.

This is exactly my pattern when unmedicated for ADHD.

Getting the medication right is a bitch because it makes it worse before it gets better, at least IME, but my energy levels were awful, I had such a zombie like dip in the afternoons, then come 7/8pm I'm awake again and alert until about 2am.

My natural pattern I think would be:

Wake up around 10
Laze in bed until 11ish
Get up, eat breakfast, do stuff until about 3pm
Afternoon nap/slump (probably wouldn't actually nap unless I'd got up earlier)
Drag self through dinner and kids' bedtime
Evening - yay - socialise until 2/3am then sleep.

Yes you should look into inattentive ADHD. And Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder is highly correlated with this as well, everyone has a chronotype (night owl/morning lark) but DSPD is like the extreme night owl.

You might do better with shift work for example or flexible working where you can avoid early mornings. But I do have to be careful to balance it, because if I give into my tendency to want to sleep late, then I don't get anything done before I hit the slump part of the day, which seems to be time-linked and not related to how much energy I've expended. Then the day is just a write off. So I try to get up by about 8/9am, unless I have a really good excuse (e.g. I'm currently sleeping in as much as I want because I'm fighting off a virus)

Without medication - getting up at 8/9am would make me want to nap in the early afternoon AND I'd be zombieish at 3/4.

With medication when the dose is settled, I don't need to nap in the afternoon, I still haven't totally kicked the slump. Hoping this higher dose will get that for me. However currently I'm still adjusting to it so I'm wired and I can't sleep properly at night and keep hyperfocusing on the computer instead of useful things (ooops!!)

Don't know if this will help but when I was a vegetarian, I'd be wiped by 3.30
Now I eat meat protein once day - such a difference

I would almost guarantee it's being a vegetarian. It is infinitely harder to get the nutrients the body needs from plant based food, esp at peri-meno age. Well raised beef and lamb, full fat grass fed butter, pasture raised eggs, bone broths etc.

OP perking up consistentluy in evenings would not be consistent with anything to do with diet, vit D, vit B12, thyroid or iron deficiency.

OP is getting a lot of activity done (dog walks, swim, fitness) even if she thinks she is lethargic.

OP is an "owl"

I'm jealous, I wish I could consistently sleep more than I'm getting.

@lljkk you might be on to something there.

Crazy idea, but maybe you’re getting too much sleep? I go to bed about 12.30/1am and up at 7am. I’m rarely tired. Maybe try staying up an hour later? Or getting up earlier?

@Whysoootired I am exactly the same as you and always have been. I need more sleep than your average person and I was also a good sleeper. I also get outdoors lots, get loads of exercise, eat healthily and on HRT. Sounds like a very similar lifestyle. I do eat meat, not loads but some so I don't think that's it.

I had post viral chronic fatigue syndrome (like long COVID) after glandular fever as a teen and it got even worse. I did recover from that and got back to how I was before but even that was a much more sleepy person than any of my peers.

Perimenopause has kicked off vestibular migraines for me which are making it even worse as a bad attack can completely wipe me out. Interestingly the thing that triggers them most is when my sleep is disturbed/cut short (thanks 5 year old who seems to need no sleep). When we were on holiday and slowed down a bit I could nap some days and that really helped, as did getting up when I felt ready. But there's no option to do that when you have kids, animals and a career and you want to try and stay healthy!

I have had everything tested, I am not lacking in iron, vitamin d, my thyroid is fine, I don't have diabetes etc etc

I'm interested in the testosterone and fascinated by ADHD, although I don't think I fit that.

I've just had my older child tested for coeliac, which I was told by the Dr causes lethargy, I didn't know this! He is more like me than the younger one, always a good sleeper etc so it will be interesting to see what his test result says. It's something I hadn't even thought about in terms of my tiredness. So that's another potential avenue.

You are not alone OP and it is really difficult to manage a lot of sleep in our culture. There might not be a cause or a reason, we might just need more sleep than your average person and that is very hard with busy lifestyles. I don't know what the answer is.

Good luck and update us if you find a magic cure!