Is this level of tiredness normal?

[pinguwings]

I am trying to work out if my tiredness levels are normal in my circumstances or possibly something I should talk to GP about. I have a history of low iron levels but have no other symptoms.

I have a one year old who has never slept through the night. She generally now sleeps through till about 4am and then comes in our bed and feeds/messes around/sometimes falls back to sleep till 5.30/6am. I also tend to wake whenever she stirs in the night but get back to sleep quickly after.

I work 30 hours a week. Two day shifts and one night shift. I am a nurse in an extremely emotionally demanding role.

I'm exhausted. I'm having to go to bed at 8.30 most nights. I'm finding my brain has turned to mush, I'll mix up words, I forget things. I'm terrified I'll make a mistake at work. My mood is all over the place. I'll be fine one minute then on the brink of tears the next. DH gets the brunt of my moods and I can be down right horrible to him at times.

Is it worth seeing the GP or should I be looking at just carrying on. Any coping strategies if so?

That sounds really tiring. Even though you are going back to sleep, you are still being disturbed during the night. Have you had your iron levels checked recently?

Definitely worth seeing the GP to check iron and other things like thyroid, B12 and vitamin D if they’re willing to.

I would get checked out. I was exactly the same- non sleeping toddler, nhs shift work, feeling dreadful. It turned out I needed thyroxine. I now feel much better despite the non sleeping toddler still not sleeping.

The brain fog thing sounds very familiar. I literally would mix up words or forget what I was talking about halfway through a sentence.

If you’ve been low on iron in the past you would probably benefit from supplementing. They did a study on women of childbearing age who weren’t anaemic but did feel tired all the time and quite a lot felt better after taking iron supplements.

Ask your GP. You need testing for b12, folate, vitamin D, ferritin and TFTs. Deficiencies seem to have similar symptoms to hypothyroid as well as being more common in people who are hypothyroid.

Thank you all so much, it's so useful to hear I'm not just going a bit crazy! I will try to get a GP appointment, feel a bit of a fraud but this has given me some encouragement.

Poor sleep habits + demanding job: yep recipe for exhaustion. Exhaustion means job becomes more demanding as harder to get on with it, the stress of it means sleep habits get worse. Add a little one and yes, totally normal but something you need to tackle as the longer you stick into this spiral, the worse it will be to get out of it.
No harm getting routine blood test done just in case but most likely you will need to learn to sleep well again.