So sleepy!

Off-Topic Chat
21

Good grief, Jolt Cola? Didn't think you could get that over here....

Anyway - Exercise, eat right, drink a little more water. Sleep when you're tired, get up when you have to. If that means you're tired earlier the next night, guess what? sleep earlier the next night! I swear by Pepsi Max (avoiding the sugar) - don't guzzle full-on sugary drinks because they'll literally gang-rape your pancreas, and no-one wants that...

However, look at the time of my posts. Look at it! That's what caffeinated beverages do to your sleep cycle. You have been warned!

For alertness, try sucking on a mint - menthol is supposed to aid concentration (and digestion, too!) but without the nasty testosterone-pumping effects of caffeine.

Naps are also good.

22

Mr Monster wrote:

Anyway - Exercise, eat right, drink a little more water. Sleep when you're tired, get up when you have to. If that means you're tired earlier the next night, guess what? sleep earlier the next night! I swear by Pepsi Max (avoiding the sugar) - don't guzzle full-on sugary drinks because they'll literally gang-rape your pancreas, and no-one wants that...

Though diet fizzy drinks will rot your teeth quicker as they're very acidic.

Also you become desensitised to caffeine so you require more to feel an effect.

Adx

23

Caffeine has no effect on me whatsoever!

24

chipNroll wrote:

Caffeine has no effect on me whatsoever!

Me either! Annoying.

Mints are great though - I'm like a little old lady the number of mints I keep in my handbag for *just-can't-keep-my-eyes-open* moments!

Adx

25

Rather counter-intuitively morning wanks wake me up most of the time! Night wanks send me to sleep... Howza for pattern recognition or something or other.

26

Alicia D'amore wrote:

Though diet fizzy drinks will rot your teeth quicker as they're very acidic.

Much of a muchness - there's still phosphoric acid in regular coke, and acids in pretty much every soft drink including orange juice! The bubbles in fizzy drinks come from carbonic acid under pressure, which is why fizzy water tastes acidic even when there's nothing else in it - the acid breaks down to water and CO(2) when you release the pressure.

In fact, citric acid from orange juice is marginall worse for teeth, but phosphoric acid in the diet tends to cause a calcium deficiency in both teeth and bones.

Personally, I go for Irn Bru, but they don't sell it where I work, so it has to be the cola...

27

Alicia D'amore wrote:

I have chronic pain and fatigue which means I'm utterly exhausted most of the time.

[edit]

I don't advise trying caffeine or anything - sure you could take pro-plus, drink litres of coffee whatever but you'll just fuck up the next night's sleep and then rely on it the following day. Caffeine messes with your sleep!

Adx

i suffer from chronic fatigue issues too. ( dyspraxia carries the same fatigue rate as ME, but its often not recognised as a serious side effect of the disability which is annoying, i also have kidney function issues, and an underactive thyroid as well as dyslexia which carries a slight fatigue rate) I speak for myself here as it effects others differently.

I end up slurring my speech, spilling stuff over myself ( especially while eating or drinking) and loosing motor control so i struggle to write, hold cutlery and drop stuff). as Ad said it does affect memory and there is a "drunk" kind of feeling. for me personally it also means that when i get the dissyness i have to sit down or i fall down. for me it also affects muscle tone and results in a lot of body cramps and joint issues. strangley enough my skin also turns pallid and grey, and my eyes struggle to focus. at several times a year i am on maximum does of painkillers daily for at least a week at a time ( doctor monitered)

It annoys me that people simply do not understand that its a tiredeness you cannot recover from, and that while energy breeds energy in normal people that's simply not the case in people with chronic fatigue issues

As for caffine such as energy drinks they are not good for you. it's like running a car on fumes, it works but it will mess you up worse in the end.

28

Mr Monster wrote:

Good grief, Jolt Cola? Didn't think you could get that over here....

I used to get it in this tiny corner shop by the local theatre in Ireland. Haven't seen it since. External Media

29

sweetlove666 wrote:

Alicia D'amore wrote:

I have chronic pain and fatigue which means I'm utterly exhausted most of the time.

[edit]

I don't advise trying caffeine or anything - sure you could take pro-plus, drink litres of coffee whatever but you'll just fuck up the next night's sleep and then rely on it the following day. Caffeine messes with your sleep!

Adx

i suffer from chronic fatigue issues too. ( dyspraxia carries the same fatigue rate as ME, but its often not recognised as a serious side effect of the disability which is annoying, i also have kidney function issues, and an underactive thyroid as well as dyslexia which carries a slight fatigue rate) I speak for myself here as it effects others differently.

I end up slurring my speech, spilling stuff over myself ( especially while eating or drinking) and loosing motor control so i struggle to write, hold cutlery and drop stuff). as Ad said it does affect memory and there is a "drunk" kind of feeling. for me personally it also means that when i get the dissyness i have to sit down or i fall down. for me it also affects muscle tone and results in a lot of body cramps and joint issues. strangley enough my skin also turns pallid and grey, and my eyes struggle to focus. at several times a year i am on maximum does of painkillers daily for at least a week at a time ( doctor monitered)

It annoys me that people simply do not understand that its a tiredeness you cannot recover from, and that while energy breeds energy in normal people that's simply not the case in people with chronic fatigue issues

As for caffine such as energy drinks they are not good for you. it's like running a car on fumes, it works but it will mess you up worse in the end.

I deal with the chronic pain aspects of my condition a hell of a lot better than the sleep deprivation and fatigue. I don't think very many people truly realise how debilitating sleep deprivation is. It's more than just a night or two of poor sleep, its months and months building up, getting more and more intense. It's the embarrassment of not being able to keep your eyes open in lectures and the embarrassment of forgetting simple things - whole chunks of sentences. Calling things by the wrong name. Saying things that make no sense but you just can't seem to get it to make sense. Completely addles your brain.

The pain that the lack of rest amplifies, the emotions that lack of sleep amplifies. The inability to be a "normal" teenager, you can't just spontaneously go out, you have to plan it, have an afternoon nap before a night out to make sure you're not exhausted at 10pm. The inability to sleep when you *do* go to bed because you're just too tired for sleep.

I'd rather deal with tendonitis, torn muscles and partially dislocated joints in every body part week on week than have to deal with the exhaustion it brings with it.

Adx

30

WandA wrote:

Rather counter-intuitively morning wanks wake me up most of the time! Night wanks send me to sleep... Howza for pattern recognition or something or other.

Me and my friends speak about this all the time. I guess every male uses this system!

31

I've got the same thing; CFS, sleep disturbance coupled with bouts of insomina and migraines that last for days at a time. Frankly, it stinks, even more so when nothing ever works. I get sick of trying treatments, allowing myself to hope that finally I have found "the" answer only to have it fail or worse, make me more ill than I was to start with.

Alicia, you're a student so perhaps you can give me some tips. In a fit of "i'm getting my life back dammit" I've signed up to do an OU science course. Its looking really interesting but I'm having such a hard time getting stuff to stick. I read something, I forget it, I read it again, I forget it again. And on it goes.

Given that you're facing the same difficulties what do you do to maximise the results of your study time?

32

Yoko wrote:

I've got the same thing; CFS, sleep disturbance coupled with bouts of insomina and migraines that last for days at a time. Frankly, it stinks, even more so when nothing ever works. I get sick of trying treatments, allowing myself to hope that finally I have found "the" answer only to have it fail or worse, make me more ill than I was to start with.

Alicia, you're a student so perhaps you can give me some tips. In a fit of "i'm getting my life back dammit" I've signed up to do an OU science course. Its looking really interesting but I'm having such a hard time getting stuff to stick. I read something, I forget it, I read it again, I forget it again. And on it goes.

Given that you're facing the same difficulties what do you do to maximise the results of your study time?

Unfortunately I don't successfully maximise my study time because I get very little of it. Annoyingly, when other deadlines crop up, work on making things "stick" gets left behind because my body won't let me do both. So unfortunately I only get to work on it right before the exam. And it's frustrating when nothing sticks though somehow I always manage to remember enough to get good grades in exams.

Having said that - the real key, for everyone studying but especially for fatigued people, is to keep on going over it. Grasp the basic understanding, write good, clear notes, produce diagrams for things that interact etc. (not sure which science course you're doing but for me, it's drawing out cell signalling pathways and naming all the proteins in the path, then listing all the proteins in a "dictionary" and writing down what type of protein they are etc.). Then for revision you can look at your diagrams - if you can explain every aspect great, if not, go to the dictionary to see if that triggers anything, then if needs be go back to your original notes. And keep on going. I think I was once told you should look at something every day for the first week, then 3 times a week then a few times a month and so on in order for it to stick properly.

Unfortunately that's all very time consuming and if you just don't have the energy to do all that it's a bummer.

I'm incredibly fortunate that whilst my memory is completely shot (used to be amazing too) I can still manage to pull my short term memory out of the bag just before exams but it only seems to work in incredibly high stress circumstances and its declining every time.

Adx

33

Thanks for the tips Alicia. That sounds like a good way of working, albeit time consuming as you say. Still, if thats what its going to take to give me a sense of achievement, then that's what I'll have to do.

Good luck to you with your studies