I began looking for an answer to my increase in deep oblivious sleep about two years ago. Most of the time if I mention my oversleeping problem I am told something along the lines of, “Wow, that sounds nice!”
I wish it were.
On an average night I sleep anywhere from 10-15 hours a night. If I’ve had a particularly stressful week or done anything physically strenuous that could jump to 15-24. Literally sleeping days away gets old fast. So naturally, I talked to my doctor. She took some blood tests, signed me up for a sleep study, and when none of that showed anything she tried giving me sleeping pills and muscle relaxants to help me sleep “deeper”.
Well, that’s the problem really. I sleep so hard and fast I can usually barely check my email in bed without passing out. When it comes time to wake up I have anywhere from 5-10 alarms in various ringtones and at random intervals to “surprise” myself into waking.
So I was skeptical that the ambien would work but I tried it, and then another brand when I reported no change. Then my doctor seemingly forgot about my “little” sleep problem. She prescribed me medicine for various other problems and if I mentioned my sleep again she assumed that I had trouble sleeping (a more common problem I suppose) and shrugged it off when I reminded her I slept too much.
How can sleeping too much be a problem? Just don’t. Sleep less. Sleep better. Be less lazy. Yet anytime I searched the internet for solutions so that I could just sleep less all I found were various articles saying, “how sleeping too much can kill you” or “sleeping more than 9 hours a night, is bad for your health”. Certainly not encouraging. So I tried better sleep habits, and made myself wake up after 8 or 9 hours only to find myself out of gas and needing a nap in just a few hours.
Finally fed up, I began searching for my own answers. Something is wrong with me. I could not have graduated college much less with a degree in theatre and with honors if this had always been my state of being. Something had changed. I had to be sick somehow. This was a symptom and I was determined to find the cure.
Google and I teamed up and knocked out possibilities one by one. Narcolepsy: no. Ovarian cancer: nope. Some other cancer: nada. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: maybe…. not. Fibromyalgia: not it. Cushings disease: negative. Hypothyroidism… now that fits every one of my symptoms and then some!
I was ecstatic! This was it! My problem had a name and better yet it had a cure. One little cheap pill a day and I would regain years of my life that were heretofore lost to sleep. I asked my doctor for the tests that the internet told me I needed and they came back – normal. But then I remembered something from my hours of research into hypothyroidism: if you are low in the range you could be sub-clinically hypothyroid and still present with symptoms.
I pointed out to my doctor that I was on the low end of normal. She gave me a speech about how treating non-existing thyroid problems can do more harm than good and suggested an antidepressant. I haven’t gone back to see her since.
I saw another doctor recommended on a thyroid website. He ran every test under the sun and told me I’m low on iron and vitamin D. Great. Supplements I can do. When I told him I’d seen no improvement he suggested a muscle relaxant at night and a stimulant during the day. So much for him. I scoured the internet once more for a competent thyroid doctor and when I finally found him he took one look at my thyroid test results and confirmed what I had known for months. I walked out of his office lighter than I’d felt in years and with a natural desiccated prescription in my pocket.
I’m better. I sleep a little less and a stressful week doesn’t knock me off my feet anymore but I still sleep more than I should and more importantly more than I want. I’m selfish. After 3-4 years of excessive sleeping I want to sleep as little as possible to get my life back again. Maybe one day I can work a full work week again. Or go out more than once a weekend and not get burnt out on leaving the house.
This blog is not my success story or a weight loss journey. I’m sharing my story in the hopes to share how common sub-clinical hypothyroidism is and how it’s treated. I also hope to get advice from those who have been down this road before and know more than I do. Either way I hope this blog makes you feel less alone, and less broken. Together we can bend that little butterfly shaped gland to our will and feel like ourselves again.
Until next time,
Mary
Chronically Exhausted 