Sounds impossible if you are one who has never experienced being extremely sleepy and for one reason or another not able to get some sleep. The drowsiness I feel every single day is what I call a type of torture. It's like being a prisoner who is being forced to stay awake for days at a time. Medications do not relieve this feeling, naps do not relieve it and even extra sleep does not change this feeling. The only time I am not fighting drowsiness is when I am completely asleep. It's just painful to my brain. I don't know of any other way to describe what it feels like. Seems no one can even imagine how this affects my life.
How do you describe what it feels like when asked?
Painful Narcolepsy
Started by
Sherrysleeps
, Aug 17 2011 03:01 PM
2 replies to this topic
#1
Sherrysleeps
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Posted 17 August 2011 - 03:01 PM
#2
TiredAgain
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Posted 17 August 2011 - 03:31 PM
I agree it is like torture trying to stay awake during a sleep episode, but it's not an all day thing for me. I always feel tired but the major sleep episodes usually happen to me in the morning and again in the afternoon. If I can't go to sleep like you said it's like torture and it will last a long time until I can lay down. Unless you have N you can't understand the feeling. I take Adderal and it seemed to help a little at first but it doesn't anymore. I'll take the pill around 7 am and while I'm driving to work I'll need to pull over or stay in my car when I get there to close my eyes by 8 am.
#3
Sherrysleeps
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Posted 17 August 2011 - 10:48 PM
Before getting on medication I would sleep for hours and hours. Of course sleep apnea was in the mix also so I have no clue how much was caused from that. Now I take ((250 mgs of Nuvigil)-doctor trying to get insurance approval for Nuvigil twice a day)) in the morning with 30 mgs of Adderall XR and a 20 mg Ritalin. Then I take 20 mgs of Ritalin 3 more times before 5 pm spaced about 2-3 hours apart. Still needing a nap in the afternoon. I don't sleep for hours on end but I do have to allow my brain to completely shut down (sleep) before I can manage the rest of the day awake. I am still drowsy after the nap until after 9pm. Then I am usually sleepy again within a couple of hours.
I even had extensive surgery recently in hopes of that helping my sleepiness or at least getting my sleep apnea under control enough to be able to be prescribed Xyrem at night. I still have to use my cpap and as far as the doctors know, always will.
I'm just tired of this feeling. I use to love to listen to music but rarely turn it on anymore because no matter what genre I'm still affected with drowsiness, can't read or watch tv without multitasking to keep my brain from shutting down. I feel like the batteries in my brain have to be recharged more often than the rest of the world. I wish I had an answer. I wish I could figure out something that would help.
I even had extensive surgery recently in hopes of that helping my sleepiness or at least getting my sleep apnea under control enough to be able to be prescribed Xyrem at night. I still have to use my cpap and as far as the doctors know, always will.
I'm just tired of this feeling. I use to love to listen to music but rarely turn it on anymore because no matter what genre I'm still affected with drowsiness, can't read or watch tv without multitasking to keep my brain from shutting down. I feel like the batteries in my brain have to be recharged more often than the rest of the world. I wish I had an answer. I wish I could figure out something that would help.
