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Anyone else here sleeping long periods of time, 11 hours+?

Messages
45
Location
Northern California
Lately I've been sleeping over 11 hours a night, it is getting in the way of functioning.

My husband died recently and I don't know if this hypersomnia is from grieving and depression from his death or from CFS. I don't call it unrefreshing sleep, but I feel horribly guilty from sleeping so much.

Just checking.

Hollie
 

Tia

Senior Member
Messages
247
Sorry to hear about the loss of your husband.
I've slept 15 hours a day since I was born. Am now depressed with anxiety as an adult but it made no difference to my sleep pattern. Still 15 hours..sometimes divided in three, (five hours sleep, five awake, five sleep and so forth) and on a real good day maybe just 10 or 12 hours, but mostly it's 15.
 

ukxmrv

Senior Member
Messages
4,413
Location
London
Hollie, so very sorry to hear about the death of your husband. You do not need to feel guilty about sleeping so much. It may be that the extra activities have caused you to need more sleep. I've done that after coping with arranging things - good and the horrible bad ones as well. Please be gentle with yourself and allow time for your body and emotions to improve. Please accept my condolences on the death of your husband.
 
Messages
13,774
edited: Pretty sure this post was just built on inaccuracies and confusion.
 
Last edited:

camas

Senior Member
Messages
702
Location
Oregon
Hollie,

I slept a lot after my husband died too. I found active grieving to be really energy consuming because my mind just couldn't seem to take a break. Even healthy people comment on how exhausted they are after the loss of a spouse. I didn't go the antidepressant route because I'm so chemically sensitive, but I know some people find it helpful. Sending hugs your way. :hug: :hug: :hug:
 
Messages
45
Location
Northern California
Thanks for the responses. I used to sleep long periods if I way overdid my energy expenditure, but only for short periods. I always chalked that up to my body trying to repair itself from CFS relapse.

Now I could just sleep all day every day. In checking with my widow support group I find there are many other widows with the same problem. So I guess it is a grieving thing.
 

L'engle

moogle
Messages
3,187
Location
Canada
Sorry to hear about your loss. I think if sleeping is helping you it is probably a good thing. I always need to rest for at least 10 hours a night, often 12-13. I feel much better if I do this. Resting less always feels worse, so I try to always rest more! If it makes you feel physically worse it is probably not healthy but if it doesn't then its probably good for you. Take care...:hug:
 

valentinelynx

Senior Member
Messages
1,310
Location
Tucson
12 hours sleep to feel OK

Always needed more sleep than most. When healthy needed 9.5 hours to not feel drowsy easily during day. Since becoming ill, though, easily need 12 hours before feel like getting up. Then I can be up for about 4 hours before urge to sleep again. Of course, I often can't get 12 hours of sleep, and I push myself to function with inevitable worsening of symptoms.
 

August59

Daughters High School Graduation
Messages
1,617
Location
Upstate SC, USA
I slept between 10 - 11 hours every night just trying to get some rest, but I have not been able to get any deep sleep in years. About a year ago I seemed to be getting some anxiety issues and had thyroid / testosterone issues which was easy enough to get worked out. About a month later in what appears to be a shift in my normal circadian ryhthum (not sure if that's the right term), but I become wide awake around 9:00 at night and can't go to sleep until 12:00 or 1:00am and need to sleep til 9:00am. I get up and do a few things and BAM it hits me and I have to go back to sleep at 10:30 and sleep till 1:30 and I feel better after this 3 hor nap than I do from a whole nights worth of sleep.
 
Messages
78
Experimenting with myself, I have learned that if I sleep more than 8 hours in a row I wake up more anxious and depressed and tired.
On the other hand the few times I have slept only 4-5 hours I woke up rested and without anxiety but was more tired in the evening.
I then realized that if instead of sleeping 12 hours, I set the clock alarm to wake after 6 hours (then I would drink some water, read something and maybe have a snack) then I would fall back to sleep and sleep another 6 hours (setting the alarm again) I would feel better when finally waking.

I found out then that sleep deprivation is used as a cure for insomnia and depression. The problem seems to be a REM phase that is too long.
REM, I learned, is as tiring for the sleeping body as rope jumping is for the awake body and even more for us with CFS. REM depletes the body of energy and doesn't allow deep sleep. In fact during the REM phase we overdream, the brain is bombarded with sounds and images and real restorative sleeps can occurs only outside of the REM phase. Your orientation response gets exhausted so in the morning you can't change your focus of attention but keeps ruminating about scenario that couldn't be solved in the over-dreaming phase, and this rumination, I read, it's what depressive thinking is all about.

In other words we're susceptible to PEM caused by over-dreaming because of a long REM phase as we're to PEM because of over-training.
Sleeping many hours in a row, more than the body actually needs to feel rested - and we PWC are not exception because more sleep doesn't mean faster recovery or feeling more rested - increases the length of the REM phase and make us tired and more anxious and depressed. After all dreaming is considered "fake rest" it's actually more tiring than many wake life physical activities. If you think about it, you'll probably remember a pattern of "dreaming weird" or "dreaming a lot of stuff" when you feel more tired and more depressed.

Another reason to avoid sleeping too many hours in a row is the circulatory system (expecially for those with POTS, NMH and OI) Changing position, activating the blood flow in the arms by moving them, taking 30 minutes from the sleep position and then go back to sleeping, is probably another reason why taking rests from sleeping makes you feel better.

Another reason again could be low blood sugar due to running out of glycogen, which is abondantly used in the REM phase, which it could be a good idea to wake up and have a snack before going back to sleep and preventing an excessive sleep lenght.

I wrote how I need to rest every 5 minutes when I do whatever activity.
It makes sense that the same is true of sleeping (not 5 minutes but we need "rest" from it as well) since it is an activity, one that uses lot of calories, body energy and brain power. Just wanted to share this info with you.