Aspirin and sleepiness

[Turtles-all-the-way]

Hi,

Weird question but I started taking 75mg aspirin twice daily about a month ago (with haemo permission) as I found it controlled my ET symptoms better and I read that with ET you metabolise aspirin more quickly. Recently I've found I'm feeling really sleepy all the time and wondered whether it was the aspirin? I've read it can be a thing but never found anyone to verify it. Just curious. Thanks!

[hunter5582]

never heard of somnolence as a side effect of aspirin. Most common is GI irritations. MPNs can result in decreased energy levels/fatigue. If you are JAK2+ ET, then you may also experience insomnia as a result of increased load of inflammatory cytokines. Your drowsiness may be directly or indirectly related to your MON - or it could be something else entirely. Sometimes we have other stuff that had nothing to do with our MPNs. Hope you figure it out.

[Turtles-all-the-way in reply to hunter5582]

Thanks for the reply. I'm sure you're right, it's almost certainly not the aspirin at fault, it's more likely ET fatigue or something unrelated, I seem to be trying to find complicated answers to a probably simple problem!

[Borage]

In the detective novel, Artists in Crime, Ngaio Marsh has the villain drug someone’s coffee with aspirin so the person will sleep soundly, and the murderer can escape to commit the crime. The coffee is criticised as a bit bitter to excuse the taste.

There may be a grain of truth in it.

[Turtles-all-the-way in reply to Borage]

Haha, thanks! Now you've made me want to go and read the novel...

I suspect the more prosaic answer is the one hunter posited but your answer suggests it's not a totally crazy idea! Thanks for taking the time to reply!

[Osteomyelio]

Aspirin makes me sleepy because it lowers my sodium levels (causing fatigue)

[Hypothyro]

Aspirin should not cause drowsiness, but we’re all individual so impossible to say👍

[Osteomyelio]

Is it possible that the aspirin is reducing your platelets (assuming ET platelets are pathological or abnormal) and as the platelets die off they release something that triggers fatigue (similar to fatigue caused by ET itself)??? I say this because, when I take aspirin, I experience fatigue (my fatigue may be related to my sodium going lower due to aspirin)

[Hopetohelp]

Hi there, I am ET Jak2 and on 75mg aspirin too. Last blood test showed my potassium was a bit high. Apparently this can happen when taking aspirin regularly and high potassium can make you feel tired. worth checking your last test results x