Fatigue Worse In The Evening

[Guest elyag]

Even on a good day my fatigue always gets worse in the evening. I start to feel this huge wave of fatigue at around 5.00 pm and it gets worse until I go to bed. It's at the point now where I struggle to make dinner. Does anyone else's fatigue get worse later in the day?

[Guest elyag]

Just wanted to add that I get everything for dinner ready during the day so that all I have to do is plop it in the oven or put it on the stove.

[ramakentesh]

It depends, but usually my fatigue is worst in the morning and between 11am and 2pm. I also can get total fatigue late in the day.

[Sophia3]

My fatigue is WORSE in the am when I wake up. I LITERALLY feel like I have the flu, hungover, achy (that could be my alpha delta sleep disorder that gives me little refreshing sleep on TOP of the ANS junk)

I literally have to drag myself out of bed and a coffee pot 4 steps from my bed.

Then I slow get with it to PUSH to get dressed and do anything. I get out for brief errands a few days a week. in the evening I am tired but often get a second wind.

I have to recline all day or lie flat to get anything done, or do dinner stuff the rare times I cook IN steps, as I am sure you do as well.

Just ONCE I would like to wake up refreshed instead of so bad, I feel I HONESTLY can't get out of the bed.

Most frustrating and after 19 years it's getting worse but my ANS doc says he thinks I have variations on a theme of some slow motion version of Shy Drager Syndrome...don't reach the definitive criteria (THANK GOD) but it explains the downhill slide. Unlike the normal version where you meet criteria and go downhill ala Johnny Cash.

do you feel your BEST when you wake up or do you wake up feeling horrible. I know we all have our windows of normal.

[ramakentesh]

I hope that it isnt declining into Shy Drager in your case Sophia. I know the feeling your are describing exactly. problem is if I drink coffee to counter it i feel worse later.

I guess they might not know enough about the different types of POTS to be certain whether some types tend to decline without eventually leading into something more systemic or severe.

[Shimoda]

My fatigue is much worse at night. Always has been.

I think its probably because by that point, I've spent up all my energy through the day. Makes sense if you think about it.

[twinmom]

YES! Some days it is all I can do to sit up while I eat dinner. I will go an lay down for about 30 minutes or so before it is time to get the kids ready for bed just so I have the energy to get through the rest of my evening. I hate it. Usually, I feel a little better just from laying down for a little while. I've wondered if laying down gets the blood back to the brain or what is going on. Often when I am feeling really bad if I just give in and lay down for a while I will receive a little "boost". Just gets my ego - at 34 with 2 small kids and an active family I don't like having to take these "breaks". Sorry, didn't mean to make this about me, I just wanted to say that YES, I'm right there with you. I'm not sure what causes it, though.

Donna

[potsgirl]

Sophia~

I am extremely fatigued in the morning, am more energetic in the afternoon (if you can call it that), and then do the same thing you do...Start heading downhill again around 5:00 pm. I don't even try to make plans to go out after 4:00 anymore. I'm in bed by 7 or 7:30, asleep by no later than 8:30. What time do you go to sleep? I'm usually up at 6 am. Ugh!

Jana

[Guest brianala]

My fatigue seems to cycle through the day. It's absolutely horrible first thing in the morning and in the afternoon/early evening.

About the only times I do not feel fatigued are around lunch time and late in the evening before bed. Go figure!

[Sophia3]

potsgirl

I have prolific insomnia since 1990. Asleep anywhere from 1.30 to occassionally 5 am.

If i could nap and rest at will, I would feel more rested. it's complicated. It seems to be more controlled when the sun shines for days as opposed to gloomy winters in midwest.

[persephone]

I always feel worse around 5 too. When I get bad, I can't do anything between 4 and 7.

[Guest elyag]

do you feel your BEST when you wake up or do you wake up feeling horrible. I know we all have our windows of normal.

Nope, I don't feel well when I first wake up either. I have to drag myself out of bed. Like you, I don't get that deep restorative sleep. If I'm not having a good day then I remain draggy until bed time. If it's a good day then I usually start to perk up after a cup of tea.

Re: Shy Drager...is your BP high when you lie down? I think read somewhere that's one of the way to tell if you have it or are headed there. When I first got sick my PCP told me she thought I had Shy Drager. Turns out she didn't know much about dysautonomia at the time and after she researched it, she realized she was wrong.

[potsgirl]

How in the world do you function on that amount of sleep? I usually get about 8-9 fragmented hours, and I'm still exhausted. I think I need to test for sleep apnea. Were you ever tested for that?

Jana

[Sophia3]

haven't check recently but for years have LOW BP when lying down..but some of the other neurological quirks I have...so maybe it was a poor description but I got what my doctor said.

True Shy Drager RARELY happens after years of POTS symptoms since I don't have the immediately BP drop when upright. I just have HR rising but sometimes BP spikes then settles down.

I read up again on SDS and forget now but I have MANY symptoms except the "key ones" thus my doctor saying VARIATIONS on a THEME.

Please don't anybody think that means I HAVE IT..just some weird things that mimic it (off balance sometimes, horrible visual graying/black out of vision) but I forget the other things.

But I can feel better after coffee sometimes...sometimes i get a second wind LATE at night before bedtime. Thus adding to the WIRED but very tired feeling.

[Radha]

yes mornings are a nightmare, every morning feel so so beaten up so exhausted, so hyper too......just miserable and takes hours to calm down

Radha

[mae]

Hi,

I have constant extreme fatigue I feel Very unrefreshed in the A.M 10-11am is when I wake and quite mentally alert and the more I stay upright the more brain fog I get along with weakness (like I can't lift anything over a few lbs) but I can grip very well. I stay up all day and by midnight my body feels like I will not survive (like I'm gonna die) and I crash into a deep sleep and the cycle repeats all over again the next day. I'm beginning to hate everyday because I know what to expect, I have to push myself all the time if not I'd would be bedridden and my kids would be neglected. How long can I really go on??....

This Extreme Fatigue has been daily for over a year!!!!!!I wish someone would help me

Mae

[heathmcev]

Same here. Unrestorative sleep. I try my best to get 7-9 hours of fragmented annoying sleep and wake feeling groggy and then drag all a.m. I make a point not to schedule anything until 10:30 or 11 if I can help it!

As for 5p fatigue... it comes in waves. I'm usually bad between 3-5... but can go a week being ok, and then suddenly have a few weeks when I can't do anything at all that time of day. I just sit and watch my family run around and try not to fall asleep (I'm afraid if I do nap it'll screw the fragile sleep schedule even more)

It must all have to do with circadian rhythms. And maybe we are all just much more susceptible to having our rhythms thrown off... made even worse by the sleep difficulties many of us seem to have. Add to that bad circulation, lightheadedness, tachycardia... you have a mess by 5pm

[summer]

I usually feel rotten for about an hour or two after I get up, but I get up early to get 3 kids off to school. Then I have the best part of my day for the rest of the morning. It's usually down hill from noon until I totally hit the couch by 2-3 pm. The next 5 or 6 hours are bad - right over supper time and the time I should be helping with homework, etc.

This is really hard, because I feel like it is the time I am needed the most. I often feel a little better by 7 or 8pm and get to enjoy some time with the kids, although it's not usually anything very active. I also have a lot of trouble with sleeping at night, but I have never been inclined to sleep in. Infact, I usually wake way too early. What a messed up schedule.

[potsgirl]

Mae~

I know exactly how you feel! I get up around 6-7 am after a restless night's sleep, and feel like a walking zombie until around 10 am or so. Then I make myself stay up, unless I'm really tired, and then I'll try to nap for 1/2 hour. But I don't understand how you can stay up so late. By 7 pm I'm utterly exhausted, and go up to bed to read for perhaps an hour until I can't stand it any longer and must go to sleep. You'd think we'd sleep well then, but I rarely sleep a solid chunk at a time. I feel like almost death by 7:30 or so at night, and I know every day seems like it'll be the same. I almost can't take it anymore...I start wondering why I'm even alive when I'm really down.

Hang in there with me. Does anyone know of anything that helps this all-consuming fatigue?

Jana

[tinkerbella]

yes mornings are a nightmare, every morning feel so so beaten up so exhausted, so hyper too......just miserable and takes hours to calm down

Radha

Radha,

You said it perfect for me mornings are a nightmare, only I don't get hyper. I lay there waiting till I think I can stand. Some days it takes hours before I can drag my self to the kitchen. I need to really setup a cooler by my bed with breakfast supplies. I now keep all my meds in bed with me and then stager out to do what has to be do next. My laptop is right beside with with an alarm on it and a back up alarm across the room for days that I have to up out at the door for the cab. It is so hard, I must shower the night before and sleep in clean clothes if going anywhere.

I push myself to do anything at all without losing my breathe. I quess I have to get rid of most of my belongings and simplify my life, which is very hard as I'm a collector. I have so much to do and I'm so fatigued. The mid to late afternoon the migraine starts and I must lay down and bed is my choice to be. I have been told to stay out of bed as much as possible so I won't sleep in the day as I have fragmented sleep at night. Sleep studies show I wake about 30 times a night and never really reach rem sleep. I refused the meds as when on them they make me fat and take away all my creativity, dull my mind. the past few days I have been so extra dizzy I can't do anything at all. had plans to crawl around my yard and garden this weekend. I ended up having friends drop over and feeding them and now I'm burnt out. Late night and wee mornings if I get out of bed is scary, falls need bathroom, famished and BP is low again.

My doc says, the high BP will come from lack of sleep. My lows are when I'm standing. I take my BP standing as that's what I''m most worried about, but now I'm going to do both sitting and standing. Sophie, I hope your not getting Shy-drager syndrome. I wish us all well, while searching for that magical potion that will make us all better so we can get back to living again.

[runningshoe]

Mornings are my best time. I am at my most tired in the late afternoon. I am sort of over charged - pots and jittery, for the rest of the evening. I have to lie down to shut off that feeling.