What's your crash time frame?

[alice111]

hey guys just wondering how long it can take you to crash?

Is it possible to take up to two weeks until feeling the effects?

What is the longest it takes you to recover?

 

[veganmua]

With me, it's usually the next day or the day after. Depending on the extent of the exertion it can last from a day up to a week.

 

[Sushi]

Next day for me.

 

[Murph]

two weeks to wear off. not to kick in. Longest timeline for a crash kicking in might be two days. usually less.

That said, sometimes I can do activities without a crash but it has a cumulative effects that seems to reduce the crash threshold. So a week of activities without a crash can be enough to mean that a seemingly low impact activity in week two could cause a crash. that might be sort of similar to what you're describing?

 

[Valentijn]

hey guys just wondering how long it can take you to crash?

Is it possible to take up to two weeks until feeling the effects?

About 24 hours for me.

If consistently pushing limits a little bit, such as might happen with GET, a delayed effect might be more likely. But definite over-exertion wouldn't trigger a crash two weeks later, if you're pacing appropriately during the interim.

 

[purrsian]

That said, sometimes I can do activities without a crash but it has a cumulative effects that seems to reduce the crash threshold. So a week of activities without a crash can be enough to mean that a seemingly low impact activity in week two could cause a crash.

+ 1 to this! One big day can crash me immediately, as in I get home and go straight to sleep because I've overdone it so much. Usually, if I didn't completely overdo it, a day out will cause me to crash the next day. But there is also a cumulative effect, which I think is because you aren't fully recovering after each activity. For example, if you think of the following where 0 is fully rested and 10 is initiating a crash. Fully rested you're 0, then you do something that exacerbates you to 5, then rest to recover. But if you don't fully rest, you might be only go down to a 1 or 2. So the next day you do another "5" activity, but now you've reached a 6 or a 7. Then the same amount of rest only gets you down to a 2 or 3. Continuing this can eventually lead to a crash, even though the activity that "caused" the crash was relatively small.

That said, it's super hard to figure out when you've actually rested enough to overcome the activity you did. Best thing is to try and read the "almost at a crash" signs and rest more. Easier said than done though!

 

[arewenearlythereyet]

24-48 hrs for me

 

[Invisible Woman]

Can be anywhere up to 3 days for me - if it's a single event that triggers it and assuming I have otherwise been pacing and managing carefully.

If it's lots of little, very minor over exertions, or if I haven't allowed enough recovery time from a single event, then it can be very difficult to work out what's going on.

 

[Mel9]

Next day for me.

At first it was 2 days after a run or any exercise and extremely painful and distressing. Now, 3 years later, I get PEM one day after a short walk, but I am merely 'too weak and ill to get out of bed ' which is so much more bearable. (i am getting much better on antibiotics for Borrelia.)

 

[soxfan]

Immediately that day after I have done too much but worse the following day...I only get them from too much mental exertion...which varies daily. Sometimes I am okay and other times it leaves me unable to even leave the house the following day.

It's still a mystery for me on why some days I can manage and others not at all...

 

[PatJ]

I can crash from several minutes to several hours after too much exertion. The amount of exertion determines how long the crash will be. The crash length and severity is much longer and more intense than the exertion that triggered it.

 

[MargUK]

I can sometimes feel the crash on the same day but it's usually the next day when I know if I'm really in trouble! It's hard to tell because it seems to vary week to week and the baseline changes so much. After a recent relapse I'm getting a lot better at pacing and spreading things out so that's helping.

 

[me/cfs 27931]

PEM onset takes 12-36 hours for me. Most typically right around 20-24 hours.

Edit: Recovery time is generally between 12 hours and 3 days.

 

[BruceInOz]

That said, sometimes I can do activities without a crash but it has a cumulative effects that seems to reduce the crash threshold. So a week of activities without a crash can be enough to mean that a seemingly low impact activity in week two could cause a crash.

This is definitely true for me too. I think the timing of my PEM is different for physical versus cognitive exertion. Physical exertion hits the next day, but cognitive exertion gets me almost immediately. Recovering from either depends on how much I overexerted but is usually at least a few days.

 

[purrsian]

This is definitely true for me too. I think the timing of my PEM is different for physical versus cognitive exertion. Physical exertion hits the next day, but cognitive exertion gets me almost immediately. Recovering from either depends on how much I overexerted but is usually at least a few days.

That's interesting, I'm the opposite! Physical exertion is more likely to hit quicker for me. Exception is after an exam, which involves the physical strain of getting there plus the one to two hours of mental strain doing the exam. After I finally get home, straight to bed to pass out. That's the only time cognitive exertion really crashes me, I guess because I usually stop cognitive exertion when it starts becoming too hard. I study in short bursts to reduce the effects. Physical exertion is harder for me to avoid crashes with, harder for me to judge I think. POTS is probably a factor in that, because it makes me feel horrible when I do things regardless of my CFS, so makes it harder to judge the effects of exertion on PEM.

 

[BruceInOz]

That's interesting, I'm the opposite! Physical exertion is more likely to hit quicker for me. Exception is after an exam, which involves the physical strain of getting there plus the one to two hours of mental strain doing the exam. After I finally get home, straight to bed to pass out. That's the only time cognitive exertion really crashes me, I guess because I usually stop cognitive exertion when it starts becoming too hard. I study in short bursts to reduce the effects. Physical exertion is harder for me to avoid crashes with, harder for me to judge I think. POTS is probably a factor in that, because it makes me feel horrible when I do things regardless of my CFS, so makes it harder to judge the effects of exertion on PEM.

While I find it easier to overdo it cognitively but I don't have POTS (or if I do it's fairly mild).

 

[Dechi]

24-48 hours. Mostly 48 hours.

 

[alice111]

Wow so interesting how most of you it's the next day! For me it's almost always at least 48 hours, and can even take up to five days!

Does anyone else have a sort of arc to their crash? So for example day one is bad, day 2 is worse, day 3 is absolute hell, then I start to come out of it.

 

[Dechi]

For me it's about the same intensity the whole time, except maybe the first 24 hours of it, 48 hours after the over exertion. I start to despair and think my life is ruined until one day I realize I am better !

 

[arewenearlythereyet]

For me it is like a sudden thing. I'm ok then the following day bam. I've had a couple of times when it has started in the evening and I go to bed and it's no different when I wake up, but normally I know as soon as I wake up that it's hit. Normally lasts for 2-3 days first 2 days full on rubbish then third day seems better for most symptoms but still low energy.