Sedated/drugged “episode” every morning

[JenTheHen]

Hi! I am wondering if anyone can relate to this “drugged feeling” or has any tips
I have general fatigue and I also have PEM I can link to specific activities. But there is a third thing that’s more mysterious. This is that most mornings I will have an “episode” lasting between 20 mins-3 hours where I feel as if I’ve been drugged/sedated/tranquilized. Everything goes foggy and mentally blurry, I can barely keep my eyes open but I never fall asleep. Unlike PEM which feels more physical to me this is like.a mental tranquilizer (in fact it would almost be relaxing if it happened before bed!) It is a different sensation from my other fatigue which has responded to pacing and some supplements. It is like being seized by an overwhelming sedation. It only ever happens in the morning, it’s more circadian than PEM.
here is what has been ruled out and tried:
Sleep study
Changing breakfast food and not eating breakfast food (blood sugar)
Adrenal and cortisol testing (normal)
Caffeine and no caffeine
Electrolyte loading
Can anyone relate? Thank you!

 

[Wishful]

I do get some episodes of feeling sedated, although they're usually from food reactions.

Have you tried changing your sleep time, and seeing whether the episodes correlate with time from waking or time of day? If it doesn't correlate with time of day, it's probably not circadian related.

There's more to food responses than blood sugar. I suggest a rotation diet: avoiding a food family (ie: wheat related grains, fruit from the rose family, mammal meat) for 5 days each. That might show up any responses to something in a food family. I found a list of food families somewhere, so an online search should find one. There are surprisingly few food families available in western grocery stores.

 

[Rufous McKinney]

This is that most mornings I will have an “episode” lasting between 20 mins-3 hours where I feel as if I’ve been drugged/sedated/tranquilized. Everything goes foggy and mentally blurry, I can barely keep my eyes open

thats how most morning's fee for mel....after I've unstuck my eyeballs...and try to look out and imagine, "Oh its a Lovely New Day." (for me, its around 9-10 am).

(I possess no test results)

As I sit on the toilet "coming to"....a few ideas from the evening before might surface, and anything activity oriented is mostly canceled. The assessment, the reading, the report- Do not Do the that Load of Wash today.

Postpone or cancel.

Just last week I decided maybe I do really have narcolepsy.

Sometimes I'll just be back falling asleep in my chair with a plate of breakfast balanced there.....

 

[bensmith]

Have this too, i think its related to food/histamines.

What helped lessen it for me was eating early when i wake up instead of fasting until noon, and eating certain foods.

 

[JenTheHen]

Thanks I’ll give this a try. Did you try any antihistamines for it? It’s such a dramatic “episode” it really differs from the rest of the fatigue, making it seem like there’s something going on there to target!

 

[JenTheHen]

thats how most morning's fee for mel....after I've unstuck my eyeballs...and try to look out and imagine, "Oh its a Lovely New Day." (for me, its around 9-10 am).

(I possess no test results)

As I sit on the toilet "coming to"....a few ideas from the evening before might surface, and anything activity oriented is mostly canceled. The assessment, the reading, the report- Do not Do the that Load of Wash today.

Postpone or cancel.

Just last week I decided maybe I do really have narcolepsy.

Sometimes I'll just be back falling asleep in my chair with a plate of breakfast balanced there.....

 

[JenTheHen]

Thank you! I thought it could be narcolepsy too but I never fall asleep during it. It’s also strange because I can wake up feeling OK and then it will hit as a discrete episode later in the morning. The doctor I’m seeing is a specialist in this but she said she more often hears people say they immediately feel this way upon waking. For me I get a false normal start to the day and then collapse very quickly with this. By afternoon I feel better, like clockwork.

 

[Pyrrhus]

Related discussion:

Is your worst fatigue in the morning too?
https://forums.phoenixrising.me/threads/is-your-worst-fatigue-in-the-morning-too.81272/

 

[Judee]

Mornings (or rather that first half of our days) do tend to be the worst for us people with ME unfortunately even to the point of feeling like you said, "drugged/sedated..."

 

[Tammy]

This symptom of feeling drugged/sedated in the a.m has finally improved for me. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being worst) it used to be a 10........................now it is a 3.

 

[YippeeKi YOW !!]

Hi! I am wondering if anyone can relate to this “drugged feeling” or has any tips

OMIGOD, YESSSSSS !!!

As @Judee noted, this isn't uncommon for ME. It's just flucking irritating and sometimes frightening, not to mention the difficulty of managing a day, already made tougher by ME, that I dont have the mental ability to engage with for anywhere from 30 mins to infinity ....

After having to eliminate coffee, due to severe reactivity, for several years, I was able to add it back in, first with decaf, then with decaf mixed with a tiny amount of real coffee, then gradually transitioning to all real coffee, but very weakly brewed. This has helped enormously.

But the problem still remains, and some days I'm just the equivalent of a log. Total fog,

What helped lessen it for me was eating early when i wake up instead of fasting until noon, and eating certain foods.

This has helped me, too.

About 3 years ago, I started the morning with what I called my electrolyte 'tea', which consisted primarily of potassium gluconate, sodium, a little magnesium and some stevia and Ceylon cinnamon to make it taste better.

Since then, it's expanded enormously to include desiccated liver, several herbs like ginger, cinnamon, and garlic, whey protein, and a whole raft of other stuff. It's like a full meal in a cup, with a vast amount of positive nutrients.

The earlier I drink this, the more quickly I can come out of the feeling of having been drugged and beaten in my sleep, at least ost days. Some days are more .... resistant. I just try to coast thru them ....

 

[YippeeKi YOW !!]

Just last week I decided maybe I do really have narcolepsy.

Believe me, if you had narcoplepsy, you'd not only know it, but you would have known it a long time ago.

Years ago, I had a friend who was truly narcoleptic, and it was hell. The seizures would hit without warning, and in the middle of a sentence, she'd be out like a light. Fortunately, she was an artist, and could structure her days around this. Less fortunately, she was treated with huge amounts of stimulants, including benzedrine, and the difficulties those created in her life were mammoth.

There's no cure for narcolepsy, at least there wasn't then.

Thanks I’ll give this a try. Did you try any antihistamines for it? It’s such a dramatic “episode” it really differs from the rest of the fatigue, making it seem like there’s something going on there to target!

Most antihistamines have the side effect of making me drowsy, and they never helped me with this crappy little issue. But we're all different, so the only way to know if they help, is to experiemnt with them and see if they help you. There are 2nd or 3rd generation antihistamines which eliminate the problems of drowsiness and sleepiness ...