Wake up feeling awful

[Louisa]

Hi All,

I have no problem falling asleep. I sleep at night, then wake feeling so awful for a couple of hours while my body tries to wake up.

Eating also sends me to sleep so after lunch, I fall asleep again which means another couple of hours feeling awful as my body tries to wake up again.

(I suffer with a lot of migraines and headaches too, I don't know whether these are somehow connected).

Does anyone know why sleeping makes me feel so awful ? I feel worse after sleeping than I do before going to sleep.

Thank You x

 

[alex3619]

There may be specific reasons for individuals but in general, for ME and CFS, this seems to be common and without adequate explanation. I do find this happens for me from time to time, and used to happen all the time, but I also find that lying down or sleeping for a very short time seems to be better than longer naps with this kind of symptom.

You might like to say a bit more about yourself, that might help others to give you advice. Like what are your diagnoses? What treatments are you on? Have you had a sleep study? Etc.

 

[purrsian]

Needing to sleep after eating can be due to too much blood going to your digestive system to deal with the food, then there's not enough elsewhere in your body. Do you find you become cold when you need to sleep after a meal? I have this quite often and I am often told to eat smaller or lighter meals (such as no carbs) but it doesn't seem to matter what/when I eat, I just have periods where this happens.

I do have POTS and suspected hypovolemia (low blood volume) so it doesn't take much for my system to get out of whack when blood pools. Migraines and headaches can be related to incorrect/poor blood flow in the head, so POTS or orthostatic intolerance may be something to investigate, especially if your headaches are worse upon standing. POTS also makes you feel worse in the morning, as your system has been without water overnight and therefore blood volume is lower. Even if you don't suspect orthostatic issues, it is always important to drink plenty of water to help our systems function more efficiently.

For me, my headaches are closely tied to all of my other symptoms. In fact, everything is closely tied together. When my fatigue is worse, so is my POTS, headaches, post-meal tiredness, temperature dysregulation issues, emotional sensitivity, weird fuzzy/full feeling in my head (this is constant but worse when everything else is), the list goes on lol I often struggle in the mornings, but it's worse if I haven't drunk enough water before bed, whenever I wake up and before I get up in morning (this is tied to my POTS). However, sometimes I wake up feeling pretty good and thing "today will be a good day" and then about half an hour to an hour later, I feel truly horrible. So...who knows

Are your headaches worse upon movement, standing, eating, taking certain medications, at a certain time of the day, etc? Have you found any particular thing that makes them better or worse? What part of your head is normally affected and are they specifically located or generalised? And as @alex3619 says, any other info about your condition can help.

 

[David Jackson]

Hi @Louisa, I heard one possible explanation for this once from my herbalist. I can't say if it is the case for you or not, but I was experiencing the same sort of thing at the time, and his advice really helped me out.

For me, he said my kidneys were not functioning good. The main function of the kidneys is to filter rubbish out of the body, especially when we are sleeping. If the kidneys are low, then you wake up feeling like trash, because not much filtration has gone on. One simple way to fix this is parsley tea - just boil some water and pour on some parsley sprigs and drink after 10 minutes has gone by. You need to keep taking it for a few weeks to get the max benefit from it.

Normally I wouldn't support giving out medical advice over a forum, but when we are talking about parsley tea, there is not too much harm that can come from it. Like alex3619 says above, feeling trashed when you wake up is pretty much standard in CFS, but in my experience, low kidney function is one possible explanation.

In addition, my herbalist also had me taking Dandelion root extract - or was it the leaf extract? I forget. One is good for the kidneys, the other the liver.

 

[alex3619]

I have had this reaction of needing to sleep after food when my blood pressure and blood sugar were perfect, as tested in hospital. I used to think it might be due to blood flow divergence to the gut, but for me at least the timing and the other issues do not support that. I think there are a number of different causes and we still don't know what they all are.

 

[taniaaust1]

waking up feeling like crap can indicate low blood volume. Those who have things like POTS can find going that long without fluids hard and may need to spend time rehydrating once they awake before they start to pick up. That too can cause one to feel tired after eatting as more blood goes to the digestive system.

Try boosting your fluids...
......

another issue which can cause tiredness at those times is if you have sugar or insulin problems. Some can be hypoglycemic (low blood sugar) by the time they wake up in the morning ..but if they have issues with hyperinsulinemia too can get symptoms after eatting or when they get hungry due to too much insulin (sudden insulin spikes can also drop the blood sugar too).

So if it doesnt seem to be fluid related maybe try to have a 3hr glucose tollerance test with the insulin levels also tested. (if this test needs to be taken from a blood place to a lab if lab isnt on site, the sample should be transported on ice as the insulin degrades, some drs dont know this and the test ends up giving a incorrect insulin result if transported wrong).

 

[Skippa]

Bah was gonna post something similar about sleep but there is no point now

If I eat during the day then 10 mintues laters my eyelids droop, head gets really heavy and if I look in the mirror I have really dark black bags under my eyes.

I *have* to go lie down and yet despite the urge to sleep I have learned to try and lie down staying awake because if I do nod off then I too will take a couple of hours to come round afterwards feeling awful.

 

[SilverbladeTE]

I wake up so sore at times it feels like I've been beaten by a gang armed with pick shaft handles and I *KNOW* what that actually feels like (they lost, but it wasn't a fun fun experience I can tell you, lol)


I wonder if there's several causes to such severe muscle pain

#1
when we sleep our skin/outer body usually cools as body slows down draws heat in.
personally I find anything below 20 Celsius temperature makes me worse, actually I'm best at 25C+
so is the cooling part of this?

#2
since autopsies etc have shown inflammation and scarring where sensory nerves join the brain stem, i'ts obvious part of this illness is related to effects on the sensory nerves and/or parts of brain associated with them
I've had both prolonged low blood sugar and meningitis, there are some similarities especially with low blood sugar, with M.E.
At night, we move a fair bit, but we also get paralyzed by systems designed to stop us "falling out of a tree" or whatever when we have dreams
are the tensions/flexing when sleeping hammering the sensory nerves, causing feedback loops?
and it IS exercise, sometimes I've woke up with my leg tightened to hell like I'd been straining against somehting

#3
Dreams cause stress
I have VERY very vivid detailed dreams
had an awesome one other week where I was like Sean Connery from 1970s, in a New York that had been flooded by an apocalyptic event so it was kind of like New Orleans meets mad Max, lol
helping a bunch of Italian gypsies fight these bad guys, wow, it was FUN! Racing
through submerged streets in a souped up swamp skimmer with Jill St John (hey "Diamonds are Forever" and Redheads = schweet! as Cartman would say
But of course. those kind of imaginary escapades are stressful, they feel real...

and since our sleep is so bad maybe we get more dreams...etc another feedback loop?
M.E. does react ver badly to ANY form of stress, alas some weaselbums think that means just psychological, but psychological stress does put load on the body, just not nearly as bad as exercise or infection except in rare severe issues. (stress= LOAD/STRAIN)

#4
could it be pooling of toxins in sluggish blood flow of sleeping muscles?
be it lactic acid as some studies have linked ot M.E.
or, from an infectious agent? remember, the most deadly poisons known to Mankind are actually those from microorganisms: botulism and tetanus.
Quite a few infections produce nasty poisons
we still don't know the underlying cause of our illness, so it may be an infection like Lyme Disease that has still not been identified.
Even some viral illness produce toxins form their break down products.


or combination fo some of the above??

 

[caledonia]

Sounds familiar!

Can be any or all of the following:

Eating/digesting in general takes energy and also causes a relaxed feeling so if you're already tired or sleep deprived that can put you to sleep.
Adrenal fatigue causing mid afternoon crash.
Non refreshing sleep due to things like restless legs or sleep apnea. Causes you to wake up unrefreshed and also need a nap in the afternoon.
It's ME where you have the paralyzed feeling when you wake up and it takes a few hours to wear off.

 

[Rick Sanchez]

You have to remember that sleeping takes energy as well.

On my ''good days'' I often wake up feeling as if a couple people have been kicking me in the head.