Does one oversleep after a flare?

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DebMarPir

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Hi there… Maybe one of the pros out there can help. I had insomnia for about a decade straight. Now that my Mother is a home, my stress level and wakefulness is down a little (though I still didn’t fall asleep till 4am lol). Today, for the second time, I had a day where I slept the whole day. So instead of rising at 1pm and staying up, I rose long enough to eat and the went back to trying to do something and ended up sleeping till 7pm. This is so not normal, and it worries me. The other time this happened was maybe six weeks or so ago. Then I went on a bike ride, which triggered a flare. I ended up sleeping a whole extra day like this, then spend the next two days in bed when I had increased pain that triggered after. I have no idea why I would have slept longer. I am visiting my boyfriend two hours’ away, maybe getting ready and packing, but I have done this for the trip. I am hoping no increased pain coming tomorrow. I am kind of scared now. What the heck? My body is so screwed up. :( Thank you!
 
Hi DebMarPir,

I'm also a long-term insomnia sufferer, although it has improved as I've gotten older - I empathise immensely! I definitely get more exhausted when in a flare, because - although I'm in bed - I don't get restful sleep because lying still is so painful. That leaves me "waking up" feeling like I haven't slept at all, making getting out of bed seem very unappealing!

If you normally rise at 1pm, what time do you usually try to go to bed? The reason I ask is that if you're way out of whack with sun up and sun down, then your circadian rhythm is inevitably out of whack too. Normally, our brains release certain chemicals to signal our body to wake up and get going in the morning, and different ones to slow down and prepare to sleep in the evening. When this chemical cycle isn't working properly, poor quality sleep and insomnia will follow. This is very likely to make your fibro symptoms worse.

Forcing yourself to rise earlier in the day - even if it's just to move to the couch with daylight in the room - and then taking melatonin in the evening (this is the chemical that your brain should produce to initiate that slow down - it's an inexpensive supplement) might help your body clock reset, and you might start getting better quality sleep overall. If there's a reason why you need/want to be on an off-kilter schedule, or exposure to sunlight is a challenge, a SAD light during your peak awake hours might also help because our brains rely on sunlight as a guide. We're all different, and of course your schedule is your own, but just a thought anyway!

I hope your pain isn't worse today. I guess it could have been the packing and anticipation of a trip - or perhaps you had some particularly bad night's of sleep that you didn't pick up on, making you double-tired. Keep self observing, be extra kind to yourself, and fingers crossed you'll spot if there's any new pattern emerging. Try not to be scared - allowing yourself to feel stressed about your symptoms will only trigger them, so just tell yourself that if sleeping all day was what your body needed, then that's what it needed! If your pain does increase, trust that it will go down again soon, and be as self-compassionate as you can in the meantime. Whatever happens, I wish you the mojo to enjoy your trip!
 
Thanks so much. Pain no different today. Normally I go to bed around 12-2am and would rise earlier. But depending, I may lie there, fall asleep later and arise later. I think you missed what I was trying to explain, however. I slept. Then arose. Then slept after rising the whole day. I mean really slept, too tired to open my eyes after trying to do things. I woke up at 7pm and then was awake till quite late, then went to bed and slept well overnight. It disturbs me, though, that for no reason I slept an entire day! It wasn’t depression that made me sleep all day, I would have loved to spend it with my boyfriend. Well, every day is an adventure.

My insomnia is actually improving some in general. I find melatonin and a lot of natural supplements useless, maybe because my body is used to medications. Stress plays a big role in my sleep. Even Three pills of trazadone didn’t always let me sleep at times. I kind of gave up on them.

Somehow, my body demanded it.
 
Hey again - no, I think I caused the confusion by going off on a tangent!

I can understand your worry. I hope that it's just a random fluke, and not a sign of things to come. Although, if you're always over tired, your body deciding to enforce a catch-up might be a good thing! Stress is such a sleep killer, and such a tricky thing to manage. I wish you well - more of the adventures you want, rather than the ones you don't!
 
After a hole-y Monday night (6h sleep), Tuesday night rocketed to 11h, both with low dose (only) 2x1mcg(!) melatonin and high dose (4x300mg) passiflora, obviously nothing for you. After a long bike ride (30 miles) on Sunday didn't trigger a flare, that was I think due to the NAC, Ribose (& serrapeptase?) I'm experimenting with, plus a lot of magnesium.
So only slight similarities: I can only second Jemima's hope & well-wishes.
Praps support it by telling my story that once I'd found out that feverish-feelings meant tiredness, I started sleeping it off immediately, instead of cold showering/washing it away, which helped. But that was only 1-2h, not the whole day. But if my body needed it, I would. And I would, like you, be a bit worried, but hope it's a fluke....
 
I get so frustrated with the guesswork. Am also having consistent hand pain and pain walking, getting dressed and walking (lower back). If it is fibro I believe it is because fibro is taking minor arthritis and magnifying it big-time.
 
I get so frustrated with the guesswork.
Yeah! :rolleyes: - I de-stress that by just writing what happens down, incl. my ideas, then coming back to it in regular intervals during the days or once a week, once a month, or a stint of shorter or longer for a certain problem, scanning for patterns. Helps me put things into perspective, in relation to each other, prioritize what to work on (analyze) etc. Some patterns only become clear from a distance, some things are best helped by "radically accepting", at least them for the time being.
I wdnt say fibro directly magnified my pains, they added up more and more. But de-composing that, taking each symptom singly, and never being content with 'it being fibro', helped get them down.
With something consistent I first look if it really is never better, never worse, never more on one side. With single pains like hands, walking (in my case hands, elbows, knee, feet), getting dressed (in my case lower back & loins) I try arnica cream, try to identify the exact spots, try twisting them before, while and after moving, try to find a youtube physio-tutorial for them, and tell/ask my acupressurist (but the latter is hard long-term work, 4h/wk for one year now, but so much improvement....).
 
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