Anyone ever been to a sleep clinic? Want to find the root of my constant tiredness.

[Bumperlicious]

I am so tired all the time at the moment. It makes me very anxious about getting to sleep and waking up. Sometimes I am tired because I just haven't had enough sleep (with the baby, she is a year old now though) but even if I get 8 hours or more I don't feel refreshed. Even pre baby I had issues with sleep. Sometimes I find it hard to get to sleep, been through phases of waking in the night. If I am woken at night I find it really difficult to go back to sleep.

At the moment I feel that my life would be so much improved if I didn't feel tired all the time. It makes me irritable and anxious, and lethargic. I have a thyroid problem but that is being treated, but I am still tired. Whenever I go to my dr they say "well, having a baby is tiring" but this just doesn't feel normal! I thought I had PND for a while but I think it was just tiredness. Has anyone tried a sleep clinic? Are they any good? How do I get to go to one and how much do they cost? How can I get my dr to take this seriously?

no idea about sleep clinics. at the risk of you punching me in the face, have you tried exercise? not being patronising but i was v. like this until i took up running. i need to get physically tired to get quality sleep.

are you eating well? are you stress anxious about anything apart from being tired.

take care.

It's a difficult cycle to break when I am so tired, plus it is really difficult to find the time with the baby. That's sounds like I am making excuses and I actually used to be pretty fit before the baby but right now I am so tired I could cry

oh bumper, i know exactly how you feel, it is not an excuse it is just how you are atm.

you could try and get out for 10mins in teh evening or early morning and build up. if found going to a weekly class was good and almost like having a social life.

DH has been to the sleep clinic - because he snored a lot. As it turned out, he stopped breathing 87 times an hour, which meant he was waking up that many times. Is on CPAP now, and feels amazing on 5 hours sleep.

I think the sleep study was about 1k, and consultants appointments 150 quid each.

Can they up your thyroid meds ? I know some people don't feel really well in the 'normal' range, and need to be upped to feel right.

Two points:

How long have you had the thyroid problem for? I've been on thyroid replacement therapy for about 10 years, and it's really only in the last couple of years I've felt better, and that's when my blood test results are right at the top end of normal - I'm taking Armour thyroid prescribed by a private doctor and my GP HATES it but I'm not going back to how I used to feel. You have my total sympathy, it's awful.

Secondly, my sister has been to a sleep clinic to see if she had narcolepsy - she falls asleep all the time, doesn't dare drive for more than about 5 minutes, makes work really difficult and so on. She had to get a headset thing fitted and wear it for a normal 24 hours which tracked when she gets sleepy, and then she had to go into the clinic and spend a day there, being allowed to nap every two hours (I think?) which was to see how quickly she went to sleep if she had the chance. She also slept overnight in the clinic which checked for sleep apnoea - stopping breathing and waking up in the night without knowing about it. In fact all the tests came back inconclusive and she's just got a blanket diagnosis of "non-specific hypersomnia", which is really not helpful. I'm not sure what they're planning to do next, but there are more things they can try, I think. Anyway, you might have more luck with it, depending on what they think might be wrong - and my sister was referred through her GP, on the NHS, so cost not an issue.

Sorry for epic... hope it's some help!

I have been having tests at a 'sleep' clinic since January 2008. Tbh it's been a long haul since I first asked my GP for help in April 2007 (Yes April 2007!). My problem is not in going to sleep but in waking up every 5 minutes so I never reach deep sleep. I was first referred to a sleep clinic who rang me up the day before my appointment and said my referral had been 'rejected' (due to something the GP put in his referral letter), that clinic then refused to communicate with me or GP for so long we gave up. GP then referred me to Mental Health on the basis it was a stress issue (his idea not mine) - they saw me once and discharged me back to the GP who then decided I had a nasal problem and gave me steroids for a month (no change in sleeep, predictably). At this stage he admitted that sleep disorders were one of the two things the NHS did not do well (allergies is the other if you are interested). Finally he decided to refer me to another 'sleep' clinic (respiratology actually). They did the following tests

1 Blood, thyroid, chest xray and ECG
2 home sleep test wearing a pulseoxometer (sp?) on my finger to check oxygen in my blood.
3 home sleep test with a contraption around my chest, with wires going next to my nose, mouth etc (DH said I looked like a suicide bomber - hope that doesn't offend anyone). This checked I believe for instances of apnea- where you stop breathing.

Anyway to date I have not had the results of a single test in the last 6 months, despite promises to the contrary. In the meantime I have nearly lost my job through absences due to being completely exhausted.

Hope this doesn't put you of trying, you really have to be persistent. I have had sleep problems for years but various GPs have attributed it to stress, depression, lack of exercise (exercise actually makes it worse), poor sleep hygiene etc I believed evryone and tried what they said but nothing helped. I now get really annoyed if people mention herbal teas, exercise, relaxation etc. As if I wouldn't have already tried those things myself! (I know I'm unreasonable, people are only trying to help)
Sorry for another long post. Be persistent and good luck