Brother apostate~most asurredly work best late night. Cannot wake up tho. It is almost like I am more awake late at night.
j-ex-W~ the "paralysis" part of this sounds a bit familiar. Not all the time but quite often when I wake, my whole body wont move. I physically have to be sat up. Moved around. I am going to look into my insurance and see if I have to get a referral for a sleep study. I know my brother got one for his apnea.
Sparkplug-I TOTALLY relate to what you are going through. I have suffered from excessive sleepiness since I was a preteen. It didn't matter if I slept 14 hours a night, I would still be dying to take a nap about 4 hours after waking up. I had a really hard time waking up. No matter how much sleep I got, I could not wake up. I have overslept for work; I would get up and turn off my alarm then go back to bed. I had no memory of doing that. To make it worse, I would often dream I was getting ready for work, so I thought I was! If someone called on the phone and I was asleep, I would answer and talk to them but be totally out of it. Later, I would have a very vague memory of talking on the phone, but I wouldn't know who it was or what they said. I don't know how many times I nearly fell asleep when driving, even if it was only a 15 minute drive.
WOW. That is it exactly. I make plans in my sleep, tell my kids they can do stuff. Fight and even make up total bull crap and harm relationships. Of course I don't remember it and half the time I have to ask lil questions to figure out why I am so lost. I let people down because I don't fulfill plans I made, I make it in tardy to work because no matter what I cannot wake until my body wakes. I miss things I wanted to do and I stress myself out thinking I will sleep though imnportant things I need to do. I often do the same as you mentioned and dream I have gotten up and dressed and am at eork before I realise I am sleeping. It soooo sucks.
Living this way is miserable. Believe me, I know. I suffered for many years with it; asked several doctors about it, and they would give the typical cop out answer: "Get some exercise, take a vitamin, blah blah blah". Or "What do you expect? You're a mom and wife and work full time. Of course you're tired!" They made me feel like I was just whiney and lazy. They had no idea how much of a struggle my life was because of this.
Yes it is absolutely horrid. and I have gotten all those lectures from my regular doctors. Because I do work so much and I do have a lot of stress and all of the above. But truly, I know this is more than just that. Sometimes if I can keep stress away and try to keep on a very strict schedule I can controle it some. But really, it is not much and has a mind of its own.
Finally, I found a doctor who actually listened to me and took me seriously. He ordered a sleep study. It wasn't 100% conclusive, but it was favoring narcolepsy or circadian rhythm disorder. (There is definitely some undiagnosed history of narcolepsy in my mom's family.) My doctor prescribed Provigil. It has been a life saver for me. When I started taking it, I actually felt like I was awake for the first time in 15 years. For once, I didn't wake up and have my first thought be: "How many hours until I can go back to bed?" I could actually wake up and not be in this foggy alternate universe of existance (although waking up is still very hard for me.)
Sparks-go see a neurologist! They specialize in sleep disorders. They'll have you fill out a questionnaire and probably order a sleep study. Make an appointment and go through with it. Your sleep behaviors are not normal, and you need to get help from a specialist. You will be surprised how much better you can feel if you get it treated.
Will do ASAP. Truly need to get this under control. I also get migraines when stressed so badly that I take preventive and post medicine. Well lately this oversleeping is stressing me so much that I am giving myself migraines right andleft. So lets see how much this sucks. I oversleep and am late to work. So I look bad at work, get written up. So then I get stressed and nerves kick in and I worry that I will not be able to take care of my kids, and that I migfht loose my job. So along comes a migraine. So damn huge I can feel it coming on. If I take medice fast enough I can prevent it...but if not, I am stuck with living hell for hours or days. Either way, the medicine can put me to sleep, or the pain is so bad I can puke. Either way I am sent home, or go home and that looks even worse to work. Looks like I canat handle shit, and a drama queen, freaking hypochondriac and all the other things that make one squirm and get looked down upon.
So I try again. But seeing I am more stressed out and embarrassed it is multiplied the next day. More stress harder to wake, worse headaches, and worse job conditions. I can't stand it.
