For most of my life, I've always been tired. Literally since birth lol. I can still vividly remember as a kid in school I would always yawn and sometimes even fall asleep for a short time (and not get caught haha). My mom had told me I snored as a child though she said she noticed it happens sometimes. I was constantly tired in my childhood that my mom would constantly tell me to take iron supplements cos I might be anemic that's why I didn't have energy even though we didn't take blood tests lol.
Anyway, recently with my ADHD diagnosis, I have connected those sleeping problems to that. There are times that I am full of energy but most of the time it's just tired or neutral I would say. With ADHD it makes sense that I am sleepy or tired when bored or have no motivation but if it's something I'm really interested in, I can stay up for a lot of hours just doing that one thing.
Since my ADHD and autism diagnosis, I have already changed some of my lifestyle and self care stuff to accommodate my sensitivities that come along with being auDHD. I could honestly say I'm not in the burnout anymore and have a lot of motivation to do stuff - which SHOULD give me energy now and also with the help of stimulants... but I AM STILL FCKING TIRED!
Apple watch to track my sleep
The reason why I got my apple watch back in 2021 was to track my sleep. This was when I had no idea about possible ADHD yet (which has sleeping disorders as one of the comorbidities). I think it was so interesting to track how I sleep in the night because I was constantly having lucid dreams and sleep paralysis to the point that I am not afraid of sleep paralysis anymore just cos I got used to it haha.
I am also aware that I wake up literally a minimum of 5 times per night, but can immediately go back to sleep anyway.
This is one of the results of my sleep that I randomly picked up from previous records that shows how many times I wake up and have REM (dreams). The watch records combination of stuff like heart rate, breathing, movements and stuff to analyze and come up with the sleep record.
As you can see, those red ones are my awake times in just one night. This is just my average night. No stress, no nothing. I have just been like this as far as I can remember although I have already noticed that it's getting worse now and it's bothering me more.
Apart from the constant waking ups in between, I am also having A LOT of dreams and sometimes I become lucid which is fun haha but most of the time it's just stressful AF. My dreams are sometimes running away from something. Which of course if you imagine, I'm supposed to be having a peaceful sleep but instead being stressed about whatever tf I'm dreaming about at the time, whether fighting something or running away from something... which happens almost every night by the way.
So when I wake up even after 8 hours of sleep, I'm really so tired and STRESSED haha.
Measuring heart rate with watch
One of the things I really like to measure is my heart rate both while sleeping and awake.
This is from another app that shows the heart rate in red. As I have mentioned before during sleep and when I dream, when there's a stressful dream, my heart rate spikes for obvious reasons haha. In this graph, it's not dramatic anymore because I'm taking a medication for my heart rate to go down and I wasn't able to find my previous screenshots before the medication but yeah it's quite crazy to see the heart rate spike when I knew I had a bad dream during that sleep.
This was last year when I would have a high heart rate alert FOR NO REASON. I think I was just eating and sitting down. Our heart rate normally goes up when we're digesting food but in my case it's too high that I went to the doctor for that.
The doctor gave me some tests in the lab and she also checked my apple watch recordings and confirmed that they are constantly high unnecessarily.
ALSO, that confirms that apple watch really is reliable because cardiologists trust the data from them. :D I assume other brands are similar as well.
These data are just my resting heart rate and I thought they were normal. :P They also go to 130 bpm+ when I'm walking. And also btw I'm not overweight, It's just that heart issues are in my family history.
Anyway, I am now taking maintenance medication to make my heart rate go down and will do so indefinitely - doctor didn't say when I should stop since she didn't diagnose me with anything, just that my heart is so reactive (could be my autism being sensitive) but yeah I can just go back to her once a year and take these everyday.
I really like taking these though because I don't feel my heartbeat beat so strong for no reason randomly in the day haha.
Apple watch upgrade to Series 10
Let's go back to Apple watch. I had the series 7 for a long time now and honestly have no issues with it whatsoever.
Since ADHD and autism is already gotten diagnosed and I have adjusted myself for self care, it still doesn't make sense to me why I would still feel so freaking tired. Depression and burnout is out of the table now, so what is it??
I have considered myself to possibly have narcolepsy and sleep apnea.
Narcolepsy
I have researched about this and honestly think this is possible for me as well because aside from it being linked to ADHD, it just fits my sleep issues.
First of all, excessive daytime sleepiness which I have mentioned. Burnout is out of the table so that is not the reason anymore. Regardless of the amount of sleep, I'm still so tired.
Second, sleep paralysis. Girl, I can tell you I have sleep paralysis 2x a week at one point and nowadays maybe once a month and I can see hallucinations and whatever during it but I am used to it now that I even enjoy it haha. That's also one of the symptoms.
Third, constant waking up is also one of the symptoms.
Fourth, I can go to REM sleep almost immediately after falling asleep. Normally, REM stage (when you dream) should happen about 90 minutes after falling asleep but for me it is instant. Even when I nap for 5 minutes, I can experience dreams and remember them of course.
Also, I don't think cataplexy is something I have (sudden loss of muscle control) but there are times that if I feel so much emotions both happy or sad, I get really sleepy. I can party at a club and be so happy and start yawning.
Obstructive Sleep Apnea
I may also have sleep apnea which makes me stop breathing while sleeping. I can feel my body sometimes that I relax too much that I stop breathing (I don't know how I'm still aware of it to be honest but that's just how it is) and that could be the reason why I wake up so many times at night.
breathing weird.@acidyo has also noticed that I snore sometimes, I grind my teeth, and even had to wake me up sometimes due to me
Symptoms are sleepiness or fatigue in the daytime, frequent wakeup at night, snoring, grinding teeth while asleep, and night sweats.
Which of course you can be quite confused as well because both narcolepsy and sleep apnea are possible so I need a sleep study for that to be diagnosed.
WHICH IS WHY I UPGRADED MY WATCHHHHHHH
So literally the reason why I upgraded my watch is because the new series now have sleep apnea notifications which detects constant breathing disturbances during sleep.
You can only have it with series 9, 10, and the new Ultra.
I like it though, bigger screen, thinner, more features although not really a big upgrade from my previous one. I got it in silver aluminum but it comes with a blue sports strap which I think is stupid haha why not a white strap bro?????
But I can just buy new straps or protectors and other accessories so no problem for me.
To be very honest, this was an impulsive buy because I'm sooooo freaking tired of being tired and I want something like this data to present to my doctor so the consultation will be smooth and fast cos I tend to forget some details and I do know doctors like patients who are prepared haha.
Anyway...
As I got my new watch, I went to the Respiratory settings immediately to enable the sleep apnea notifications feature and the moment of truth...
IT'S NOT AVAILABLE IN MY COUNTRY YET!!!!!!!!
Literally just 3 minutes after setting it up that I found out that it's not FDA approved in my country yet hahahah.
That sucks big time... so now I have to wait for it to be approved and please please hopefully soon cos this is so helpful for us. T_T
I like the new watch though. It has new features that I like and can use so there's no regret for me buying it. I just have to sell my old one. :D Also I just did a workout when I took that picture that's why my heart rate is elevated.
So what now???
I have an appointment for my psychiatrist this week which is just like a checkup every 3 months just to see how I'm going and I'm gonna tell her about my sleep issues. I mean, she already knows about it but I just also said that I want to observe first if that's gonna get better with medications or if my daytime sleepiness is because of my burnout and stuff.
I want to have a sleep study done but I read that I need referrals for that. So I will just have to wait til my psychiatrist appointment and maybe she can give me advice on what to do or better yet if she can give my a referral for a sleep specialist.
Sleep disorders suck
At this point I wish I was just making this up and just looking for other disorders to add to the list hahah but really, I have been experiencing this my whole life. I just thought they were from ADHD, autism, and my PTSD. All my bloodwork was normal so it's not that either. I'm really just so physically tired that it of course affects me so much that I am just hopeless sometimes and I just wanna disappear and not exist anymore.
And yes of course workout helps too which I'm also doing slowly until I get used to it but even when I was active in muay thai back then, the issues only decreased. Symptoms lessen but yeah they are still there.
I know most Hivers don't like just reading about bad news and rant and stuff but I am grateful for those of you who read about my vents since I also treat this as my journal haha and it feels good writing about my struggles cos some people can relate and may be a point for them to realize what their problem might be too.
Sleep apnea is common and snoring while sleeping is common too but being tired 90% of the time during daytime despite having full 8 hours of sleep isn't normal. I wish I just didn't have a reason to write about this because at this point it just sounds like I'm whining too much about everything but that really is my reality right now. :<
I am overall hopeful though, as sleep apnea can be treated with CPAP machine that you use while you sleep and narcolepsy being treated with stimulants which I have now. But yeah, I need to get a sleep study done and I'm also interested in what they will see there haha. They'll probably be like bro just started dreaming literally 3 minutes after falling asleep it's crazzzzyyy.
Thank you for reading my long ass post.
Weird buildup to an unboxing post xD
Lol yeah I could have written it in a more organized way
I also later found out I had parasites as well, due to their nocturnal nature, they cause sleep disruption and its almost guaranteed everyone has parasites of some sort as microscopic ones are in our water, food, if you have pets or animals you most likely have parasites, you can pick up hook worms just by walking outside barefoot, etc. So I would highly suggest a parasite detox on top of the mouth piece!Reading this was kinda nuts for me as I felt like I was reading a direct reflection of my life struggles with my sleep disorders haha! It eventually got so bad that I fell asleep behind the wheel in my car and totaled my car, hitting a brick street light that collapsed into the street (thankfully not on top of my car cause I woulda died for sure). Started to self diagnose & consider myself narcoleptic at that point until later on after officially having a sleep study done, turns out the primary issue was sleep apnea which caused me to grind my teeth & stop breathing at night which would keep me in lighter stages of sleep & never get complete cycles. Eventually having terrible sleep quality due to the Apnea, starts to create other sleep disorder-like symptoms, turning into EDS, and eventually your body force-shutting down into narcoleptic symptoms. Unfortunately, I attempted the CPAP machine, but for me it made things even worse as I could NOT sleep with with some shit strapped to my face, along with the noise created, & worst of all the air injection drying out my airways & throat. The first thing that started to ever work for me was a tiny little tooth guard that the DENTIST suggested & molded for me, it goes over my front 2 teeth & prevents the rest of my teeth touching each-other at night whilst grinding (but still allows for the grinding motion), therefore reducing the sleep disruption caused by the grinding keeping you in lighter stages of sleep or completely waking. But it really didn't solve the root issue that was causing me to grind - your brain gets stressed out when receiving low oxygen and starts grinding and this mouth piece really helped change the game for me https://getquietlab.com/products/quietlab-plus-anti-snoring-mouthpiece
Damn that's so scary!!! I don't want that to happen ever, especially potentially harming others too. That sounds like me as well and I think sleep apnea might be a better possibility than narcolepsy. What you said was on point too.
I also recently went to the dentist and their comments were like "do you grind your teeth?" and I have a night guard now as well. But... the first time I wore my night guard, I had a dream of wearing a night guard and it was annoying me so bad that I was removing it in my dream but somehow can still feel it.. I eventually woke up and realized that I was grinding my teeth and also biting it so hard that it went to my dream haha.
Ahhh that sucks. I'm quite looking forward for a CPAP machine that may potentially finally give me a GOOD proper sleep cos i don't mind having stuff wrapped around my face but I didn't really realize having a dry mouth and throat would be an issue. :<
Honestly the way you described the brain being so stressed because of the low oxygen might just be the reason of my ever stressful dreams. My poor brain. 🤣 Glad you found what works for you. I also will have to look for a doctor maybe for that and see what they will say.
How did you do parasite detox?
If you wanna go the doctor route (personally try not to feed into the medical scamistry as much as possible), but you can always request a stool sample to test for parasites from your doctor. For me, I just did a bunch of research and found out about a Herb called Wormwood, you can purchase it as an extract tincture, so I tried this + I bought a bag of the herb dehydrated...just fyi Wormwood tastes absolutely horrible (I understand why it kills them 🤣), so I also purchased some empty capsules & I jam the herb or the extract inside the capsules to make my own "pills" so I don't have to taste it. I also learned that many de-wormer/ani-parasitic medications used by veterinarians on animals and pets are also safe for Humans (as long as you take the correct dosage based on weight), So about once a month I purchase Ivermectin Paste which seems to do the job a lot faster/more effectively than the herb does. Would definitely suggest DYOR to educate yourself on the topic of parasites & anti-parasitic options. I literally just finished my 3rd day ina row for my detox this month taking Ivermectin & already started having more improved sleep again. Generally its good to do at least a monthly detox as its easy to pick up more/they lay eggs inside our bodies so if you kill off the adults/larvae, the eggs just hatch later & survive.
I know this problem. I think it's not five times per night in my case, but when I wake up I can't go back to sleep easily again. What I do is to meditate. It makes me more calm and finally allows me to sleep again.
Oh that's a hard problem as well to not fall asleep easily. I guess I'm lucky in that sense cos if I need to pee or something I can just go right back to sleep. I did meditation before too but not for me haha. Good that it works for you!
Many of the kids with ADHD and ASD that we see at the clinic have problems with sleep patterns. We also have a little lad with developmental delays brought on by GLUT2 issues as a baby who will drop asleep at the drop of a hat during the day, even after a seemingly good night's sleep. This also leads to him being very up and down when trying to study. Keto diet allegedly helps with his issues.
As for watches. I need to buy one. I just got full health insurance and at 58, it's not cheap. However, if I link their app to a watch and allow them full data access, I'll get up to a 25% discount next year. I know my BP is spot on and resting heart rate is good but I don't want to know all this detail, tbh. I'll turn into a paranoid wreck!
Ignorance is bliss, is my health motto ;-)
Best wishes, keep digging and get the answers you so need :-)
You work at a clinic? I didn't know that! I can't imagine trying to study while also being very sleepy. That sucks for him in addition to the other issue but hope he's doing better.
There are a lot of wayyy cheaper watches tho I can't vouch for how good they are. Maybe they just don't have the features that most people don't need anyway... but the basics like heart rate and stuff are there. That is quite suspicious haha giving discounts for full access of your health data. I wonder why. xD
I guess I'm quite opposite. I don't consider myself very health conscious to the point that I count my calories and stuff but I want to know basics with regards to my health since I was in hospitals constantly as a child. And I don't want that to happen again. There are a lot of things that we can do to prevent a big and expensive medical stuff in the future so I guess I'm just trying to avoid it as much as possible. I also hate taking medicines especially antibiotics because YUCK.
Thank you!
My wife's a paediatric OT and we built a clinic here on Koh Samui. Mostly kids with ASD and ADHD at various levels but also kids with CP, developmental and other assorted issues. Busy as hell, and I thought I'd moved to a tropical island for a quiet life ;-)
bat pa kasi kailangan matulog e. 🤣
True!! And why even 8 hours need??? Hahahah
😂
bakit kasi 24 hours lng per day. 😆
sleep paralysis must be scary like crap! i had a colleague he said once it happened to him and it was freaky, i can't image how can be for you getting it pretty often
It was so scary for me the first time especially there was a hallucination on top of it. 🤣 I didn't even want to sleep again after that. But yeah, at this point I still see hallucinations sometimes with my sleep paralysis and even physical sensations but I've educated myself and learned to chill and they're not real and the more I fight it or force to wake up, the more it becomes intense. So I just laugh at whatever demon looking I see. :D
Wow, without meaning to scare you, this is very bad. I'm not sure how old you are and what your constitution is like, but all the indicators point to the fact that you need to change something. In comparison, I look at my indicators as a 55 year old slightly overweight, they are way better, but also not great. I have a maximum of 3-4 awakenings during the night (usually 1 or 2) and they are all related to going to the toilet. My heart rate at rest during the day is 70-80 and during the night 60-65 beats per minute... and those are not good results either.
I'm only 28... Yeah it was tolerable but now I'm really starting to complain because I have the mental energy to do something but the physical energies don't match. I've conquered the nightmares mentally (not scared of them at all) but I didn't know I also need to change something physically.
My heart rate has also been bothering me for a long time cos it would be higher than 100 (rest) that I would feel the need to catch my breath. With all these, honestly I think the root cause is the poor sleep and if I don't do something for this my heart would suffer more.
I'm jealous you're getting a lot of deep sleep. My average deep is like an hour or two lol. Thanks for sharing your chart. I really won't have any idea on the severity of what I have if I didn't see a normal chart since most don't post it on the internet haha.
I wish you all the best in this fight for better health, you are young and your body can still fight bad habits. I hope you will solve it, when you reach my age you realize that it is the most important thing in life, not career, job and wealth.
!BEER
You have to consult a doctor to see your condition, you have a serious problem that will affect your life dear be careful take care your yourself, take more water and vegetables. But the is to see a doctor and have a whole check-up to verify what condition you have. The only thing I know trouble with sleeping is high sugar or stress. Anyway, how old are you? If you don't mind.
I will soon, maybe after what my psychiatrist will advice. Although... maybe the psychiatrist will just tell me to consult first instead of just recommending the sleep study immediately haha (I don't know if they can read the results anyway) so maybe I'll just go schedule one sooner. But yeah I can feel how it stresses my heart cos sometimes I can feel it beat hard (not just fast). I think I can say my sugar consumption is okay since I don't like too sweet anymore but yeah I drink a lot of water (fear of UTI hahah). I'm 28.
OMG, your so young still to have this problem, take it seriously please check with a doctor to make sure.
Sound like technology is killing you.
Yeah it has been since I was born cos I had a smartphone in the womb :D
I feel sorry for you LOL
Such a dumbass comment. Saying tech does all that yet having smartphones and literally on hive. Bruh
Eeh!?
You don't see the joke? Guess your knickers are all ruffled.
You do realize the start of your post outlined a joking aspect to a tech review right?
So yeah dumb ass comment... I guess my humor went over your humorous post...
Anyway... laters.
Sleep apnea can be really concerning :( and having a watch that helps monitor it must bring some peace of mind. I hope it gives you useful insights and helps improve your sleep health. Take care! :)