I am the weird one with my sleep patterns.

Posted by Retep51 @peter51f, Mar 31 5:07pm

I have 3 phases of sleep that I experience. Each phase can last from a couple weeks to over a month. I am a 75 YO male. Anyone have this problem. My doctors are stumped. No meds have worked. I did sleep study and they did not find any big problems. Had MRI and EEG of the brain, no problems found.

Phase 1 My normal sleep. I go to sleep about 11PM and wake up around 6AM. I take nothing during this time. Maybe an hour nap in the afternoon. And I feel fine all day.

Phase 2 My no sleep time. I am not tired or sleepy until 2-3AM. I will wake up about 5 hours later and yes 4-5 AM and cannot fall back to sleep. I try to take a nap in the afternoon maybe 15-20 minutes. I tried a couple OTC products but they did not work that well and made me groggy all the next day. I had a prescription med and that helped only a little. I stopped that long ago.

Phase 3 My sleep all day. I get tired and very sleepy around 9PM. I will sleep to 9AM. Only get up to use the bathroom but will fall back asleep fast. I take my AM med and by 11 I take a 2 hour nap. In the afternoon around 4PM I take another 2 hour nap. By 9PM I am back in bed.

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lexsjx | @lexsjx | Mar 31 7:28pm

Oh my God, yes! It makes absolutely no sense. When I’m asked the typical questions “do you have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep?” And I always have to tell them “well, both. After sleeping well for a while, I’ll just not be able to do it anymore out of seemingly nowhere. Then I’ll crash for like a week of just constant sleep.” For reference, I’m a 29 year old female.

smmattocks | @smmattocks | Apr 2 8:54pm

Same here!! My sleep - I don't have a pattern. Most times I set me alarm for hour increments in the AM, rarely hear more than twice for the day.... I'll be watching TV and my eyes won't stay open. Get ready for bed after another 2 -3 hours....then lay there for at least 3 hours. And then in about 2 hours later...my fiance gets up for work. Those are my nights. I've never tried to take anything because I lately feel like I'm still adjusting to the meds I'm already on!!

taterjoy | @taterjoy | Apr 15 12:37am

I'm sorry your sleep patterns are unpredictable. Have you tried charting your activities, exposures, meal ingredients, exercise (type/time/etc), timing and type of light exposure? What you ingest and do--and exposures to a variety of light types/conditions--can affect your sleep length, quality, and pattern. Alcohol, caffeine, cheeses, spicey foods--and the timing of eating and drinking--can impact our sleep pattern and quality. As an example, here is some info about cheese and sleep: https://www.bing.com/search . Different types of light (led, blue, fluorescent, etc. can impact your sleep especially those you are exposed to when waking and when going to bed. A room that is not pitch black at night can impact your sleep and enzymes while you sleep. A variety of health conditions can impact sleep such as dementia, apnea, Parkinson's disease, congestive heart failure and others can impact sleep. I hope you might be able to pinpoint what is making your sleep quality changeable and enjoy more restful, consistent sleep.

Retep51 | @peter51f | Apr 15 11:18am

Thanks for the suggestion.

I did track what I eat. That was not it. Weather - not it. Only 1 cup of coffee when I wake, no alcohol, no spicy foods, room no lights but a hall light but not near my room. Not a lot of cheese either. I do drink a lot of water and crystal light but I drink that for years. I did ask all my doctors if the meds I take could have this effect, basically they all said unlikely since I have not changed any meds in over a year.
I did a sleep study and they found basically nothing wrong. Also a brain CT scan and nothing there. I took these tests for other reasons and I did ask my doctors anything there to effect sleep and all said no. I did take OTC sleep aids but they did not stop the patterns but made me groggy all the next day. Even the prescription sleep aides did not help. The melatonin helps me fall sleep quicker, even when I stopped taking melatoin that did not help either.

So I am still at a loss why I have these patters. Last week I started my sleep all day sleep pattern before that I was in normal sleep for about 3 weeks.

meri8181 | @meri8181 | Apr 15 12:01pm

I have sleep issues (not like described by above comments) but my son turned me onto to a device that projects onto the ceiling tv, YouTube, different sleep videos that help lull you off to sleep. With or without sound .
Can get for as low as $69 on Amazon.