Complete change in sleep

[MaisyMay2]

Todays post is about my increase of need to sleep, and trying to identify why that is.

Long story short i suffered with quite bad insomnia at age 9 due to my anxiety. At night i tend to worry about all the things a person can worry about, then i would worry about the lack of sleep i was getting because of this and it turned into a vicious cycle. I have however always been a morning person. I have never been known to lay in bed and i'm the type of person who only really needs 6 hours of sleep to function, sometimes less! From a young age I've always gotten up around 5-6am.

Nowadays is a different story and i'm not sure for the reason. I now struggle to stay awake past 9pm (the other day i had to go for a lie down at 7pm! But in fairness i have been having extremely broken sleep) and I wake up at 8am, or should I say I usually wake up at 7:30 but just doze on and off for another half an hour because I can't be bothered to get up. And during the day I am shattered, I feel the need to nap and i've never been a nap type of person! I have 2 theories as to why this is..

My first thought was maybe this is because of my recent depression? I know it can make people feel tired and i'm usually quite alert. Then again i also hear it can cause people sleep difficulties whereas i'm sleeping way too much!

My second theory is a bit difficult to explain so i'll try my best. Ever since i was a child i have been a very anxious person, and with me if i know i have to do something the next day (eg go to school) i would worry at night because i knew i had to go to school. So I would worry throughout primary and secondary school about school and then when working i would always worry about work. Now when i worry i don't sleep very well. I would struggle getting to sleep but then i would wake up early and alert because of my anxious state and get on with my day. So in my life i have never experience a period of time where i would not have to worry about whats to come for the next day. Now I am unemployed that is a different kind of story. Of course i have worries - one in which i'm actually going to make another post about! One of the big ones is in fact being out of employment. But i'm not awake at night worrying about the next day as i have been for all my life! So perhaps i'm sleeping more because i'm no longer anxious for the morning so im not alert and nervous?

I don't know i'm sorry i've probably worded this really confusing. I just think it would help me if i could identify why i am tired all the time so i can try and fix it. I know the best person to ask would be a doctor but I just wondered what any of your opinions were and if you had any advice, thank you

[Hidden]

Hi depression can make you tired so maybe now you haven't got to get up for anything your body is trying to catch up on lost sleep? To be honest I wouldn't worry too much about it and just take the time you obviously need to rest and relax.

I do know there is lots of info on the Shaw Mind site about sleep so maybe this would help you? If not then I would see your doctor as maybe you need a change of meds or something.

Take care.

[MaisyMay2 in reply to Hidden]

Perhaps! It must be a lot of sleep it's catching up on!😂 i just have a fear of time passing and i really hate laying around during the day as i feel it's being very wasteful of my time but frankly i'm too tired to do anything anyway!

Thank you i'll look up sleep on their website. I'm not on any medication, but as i've recently moved i need to move to a new gp so maybe i should book an appointment with them to talk about it.

Thanks again and take care