Can't Sleep and Hungry

Posted , 9 users are following.

Hi ladies- well it's 5am in the morning and I'm tired but cannot sleep - I feel very restless, hot (of course) and really hungry. I'm resisting the urge to raid the fridge!! Anyone else get hungry?

0 likes, 21 replies

21 Replies

  • Posted

    Hi Nicola I know what you mean I have been up since 5.30 am and hungry but when I eat I feel sick I was doing OK then these last few days it's like I have gone back to how I was a year ago when this all started

    Take care

    Paula

  • Posted

    Morning Nicola!

    Yes I too get those sensations...I'm not a big eater either so when I wake hungry, in the very early hours, just think perhaps hadn't eaten enough during day!

    I never put it down to peri!

    I love my food, like cooking but am a petite woman so can't seem to eat lots at a sitting, get full quickly...am a healthy eater too!

    Insomnia is the bane of my life!!!

    Have started many discussions or asked many questions on this forum on the insomnia problem...

    I always wake at 2 or 3 and 4 -5 am...if really can't doze and feel I have to get up, I usually eat an oatcake and a small mug of warm milk with a little honey. This usually satisfies my hunger pains...that strange hollow, emptiness in centre of stomach!

    Then try to doze off...next to a sound asleep husband!!!

    Luckily, I don't seem to suffer all the other debilitating symptoms most ladies seem to on this forum (never knew anything about peri prior to finding this forum and I'm 58!!!)

    As for sleep...tried soooo many natural remedies...now on to 5 htp...3rd night...may up dose to two caps!!!

    Good luck jx

  • Posted

    Yes... I'm always hot and sweaty around 5:00 sm, and usually hungry. By noon - I'm completely famished and devour my lunch like its my last. Sometimes still hungry for a snack about an hour or so later.
  • Posted

    Hi nicola

    Tell me about it. Back in November and December i was having a terrible time sleeping my moods were all over the place also my anxieties were up and down. 

    I went to my doctor and asked him to put me on Zoloft, Trazodione, Lamotrigine plus my Lorazepam and I am sleeping a lot better my moods have calmed down. I still get sick to my stomach but this is the safe route I took because HRTs are not meant for me since I am diabetic, have high blood pressure and low thyroid. I did try the HRTs and it raised my heart rate and my blood pressure to where I felt like I was going to pass out so i went a different roiute with the meds I am on and I am doing a lot better than i did in November and December 

    I still have to work on the anxiety issues i have coping skills to do that 

  • Posted

    Yes yes yes but instead of raising the fridge I keep nuts or I will keep fruit ice been watching also I keep a bottle of lemon water next to bed it helps
  • Posted

    Hi nicola,

    If you have been awake all night you are bound to be hungry.

    I try to eat something healthy like fruit if I can't sleep.

    I find that if I do sleep but wake again I don't feel as hungry as I do if I haven't managed to sleep at all.

  • Posted

    Hi. I've also have such a problem - I can't sleep and feel hungry, but when I eat I get sick and after I cannot even look at fridge...it's a horrible feeling
  • Posted

    the hunger is part of peri symptoms, and this in part is, why your at risk of putting the weight on, so dont raid the fridge, eat protien foods little and often, keeps you fuller for longer, resist all refined sugars as these will make you hungrier, so keep bag of nuts by your bed, it will stave the hunger, and drink plenty of water.
  • Posted

    hi nicola,

    i once did a google on 'hungry' - 'eating every two hours' and i came up with loads of pregnant ladies who were finding ways to hide their eating habits at work !!

    pregnant ladies also go through hormonal changes and yes, the morning sickness like we do.

    my stomach also growls noisily and i keep food by my bed. i have terrible morning sickess/nausea too. 

    • Posted

      I don't know about you ladies, but I did wonder a few times early peri could I be pregnant?

      Because I felt so sick often in the morning and also had aversions to certain foods.

    • Posted

      Awake and hungry at 3 am!

      Small milk and oatcake after waking husband too!

      Tried radio in earplugs!

      This is after 2 5htp caps...4 nights in.

      How long for 5 htp to work?

      Had this hungry sensation for three days now,,,will go...such change for me as don't usually have such an appetite!

      Oh just to sleep past 3am...

    • Posted

      Hi Jane,

      8 am haven't slept yet! I'm tired but now just as well stick with it and stay up for another zombie day.

      5htp did nothing, thirsty so soft drink at 330 am back to bed but then needed the loo at 430. Been up since then.

      When I kept getting hungry like that if I was still half sleepy I used to drink some milk and try again, sometimes helped me sleep.

    • Posted

      Hi Zig...yes me again and insomnia!

      It's the bane of my life!

      I bought some 5htp in H&B as was half price, thought may as well, so have been taking one 50mg since Sunday but two last night...nothing!

      Will persevere in taking two per night as supposed to help but , truly, I've had this severe insomnia for so long now that none of these remedies seem to help.

      I've not resorted to drugs, yet, but may have to think again...

      Really don't know what else to do?

      Have lots going on in life but I'm secure and happy...sold our home, now living with my mother, our new home sale collapsed so house hunting again and last week husband made redundant! But we are together and laugh lots!!!

      Bought a new luxury caravan and went away for weekend in it...fabulous fun...but still little sleep!

      Lots of sea air and walks. Good diet. 3-4 hours sleep if lucky!!!

      Now this hunger too...help!!! Jx

    • Posted

      Hi Jane,

      Hoping you fare better than I did. I don't know what stage you are in meno.

      I ended up trying everything. Zopiclone was the first offering some people get on with it OK but for me I could not stand the metallic taste that it gave me.i already was suffering with an awful somewhat metallic taste anyway. This was at the point (early peri) when I was getting some sleep just not enough maybe 3 or 4 am till 730. I had my daughter to get to school for 830. Thankfully I didn't have to work so a couple of times a week I'd go back to bed at 9 am and get a few more hours.

      It just kept getting later and later that I could get to sleep. I didn't have hot flushes so I didn't think it was meno related.

      As my daughter became old enough to get herself ready and walk I was then sleeping 6 am till midday.

      Then things got worse I wouldn't be asleep by the time she left for school, so quite often just pulled all nighters and then slept fine although didn't get off very easily even though I was done in.

      I got so depressed with it as well. At it's worst I was up 3 nights and then sleeping ridiculous hours 16 or more sometimes.

      The doctor tried me on Tamazepam they work but are so addictive they only give you 14 at a time to try and reset your body clock. They only worked for the days I took them.

      I ended up losing touch with reality (I have Bipolar anyway and everyone thought it was because of that)

      So I ended up in the mental health unit a few times depression (I think caused by lack of sleep).

      In the unit they gave me lorazepam every night which helps get you off to sleep and is not as long lasting as Tamazepam. It is still addictive all the ones ending in pam are benzodiazapines.

      They won't give this one usually out of a hospital setting as it is dangerous mixed with alcohol.

      I think I've tried everything legal and illegal to get some decent sleep.

      Even sleep with Tamazepam isn't greats as you wake feeling very hung over.

      So I save taking those if I'm heading for hospital usually if I've had very little sleep for a few weeks.

      Eventually I was just done in all the time because even when sleeping I was waking every hour or so and never felt like I had a refreshing sleep.

      My husband is a saint to put up with it.

      Anyway so I had become too generally tired to manage to stay awake all night and have a decent sleep the next day. I ended up a day sleeper. I tried every night gave up caffeine, gave up smoking tried sleep hygiene (basically going to bed and getting up the same time come what may). This just made me more tired and depressed.

      So after my periods ended nothing sleep wise changed and I had decided through research that I must have a circadian rhythm problem which are quite hard to correct I was gobsmacked when I tried HRT, mainly for libido and being so hot all the time.

      The first 8 nights I used the estrogen I was tired at around 11 PM (the first night it was such a shock I thought HRT was disagreeing with me because being tired at that time hadn't happened for years) I went to bed asleep by midnight and awake 830 am and felt perfectly refreshed and normal. That continued another 7 nights (the first 7 whole nights sleep in 13 years)

      Well I was bitterly disappointed that it was so short lived but now I have gone back to how I used to be getting a few hours some nights before waking early hours and having enough energy that if I'm not asleep by 8 am I can deal with a day up.

      I'm now have hope that it will get better and I'm certainly not as depressed.

      I think I'm going to give it a while longer and see if it improves any more, when I see my doctor I will see if I can try upping the dose and if that doesn't help maybe lowering it.

      If that fails I will see if I can try a patch as the delivery is more constant.

      Hunger I did have it awful and gained weight but that was getting a bit better before HRT

      and it's even less now I'm on it.

      I've never been a foodie so I was curious about the hunger thing my husband and daughter get "hangry" and really it's the only time I've every had that, often mine was coupled with a sick feeling like morning sickness though.

    • Posted

      Hi Zingangie

      I have chronic fatigue syndrome, I was born with it, so i have had it for 56 years, chronic syndrome, knocks your body clock out, which, in turn knocks your sleep pattern out, but it is not permanent damage to our clocks or, sleep pattern, its a temporary affect  the fatigue has on those systems, when your clock, and pattern is out, our brain thinks your body should be asleep during the day, and awake during the night.

      When our sleep pattern is out, and we try and get on with our daily routine, we cant because of the neurological symptoms we get.

      For example

      We may get electric shock type feelings in our head, or body, tinglings, or, jerks, these are called hynogenic jerking, these jerks are what happens, when were drifting off to sleep, we go sleepy, we feel like were going to fall, and we jerk out, that was happening to me during the day, and is a sign your clock is out, and i was that weak with fatigue, i couldnt lift my head off the bed, i felt the bed was holding me up, and if i sat in a chair, i had to slouch because i couldnt hold myself up in a chair, it made me feel incredibly ill, as if i had the flu, with chills.

      Were we go wrong with it is, because were extremely tired, with debilitating crashing fatigue, we feel, we must go to bed and sleep, this is right, however, in doing that were just putting our clock and sleep pattern out even more, i go to a chronic fatigue clinc, and this is what they taught me to put my clock back.

      You get up early same time every day..............you DONT sleep during the day, and when you rest, this also means, no tv, books, kindle, computer, as using cognative energy makes us fatigued also.

      you do gentle exercise, gentle walks, swimming, you plan your workload for the day, you take 30 min breaks between tasks, but DO NOT overexert causing a relapse, eat little and often, avoid caffine at all costs, and drink plenty of water, no alcohol, keep sugar balanced by avoiding refined sugar, otherwise you will over produce adrenaline causing stress and depression, making insomnia worse, the three go together when your fatigued, you will have no motivation, and be lethargic, it is not the depression doing this, its the lack of energy.

      Go to bed the same time every night, and if you wake, and how ever many times you wake, gulp half glass water, and then you should go off, do it every time you wake up until you get things back under control.   Once you wake, IF, you feel drowsy, with electric shock feelings in both your head and body, feeling  like, you just cannot wake up, as if you have just taken a sleeping pill, you have deconditioned yourself, which, means you have weakened your body, and you are starting to alter your body clock again, to avoid this must get up, DO NOT  continue sleeping how ever hard the pull is to sleep at this stage, get up, and you will find that when you get up, your body will feel better for it, it takes 2 weeks doing all this to reset the body clock, if you slip back, you do this again, and again, if its the menopause causing yours, it will eventually stop altogether, mine wont, its a constant battle, I had to give work up partly due to it in oct 12, but our energy levels are low after menopause, and whilst mine has got much, much better now im post, its never ever gone.

      The menopause COULD be whats causing your problems, so, trying the above should help it. especially if you dont have, or never have had chronic fatigue syndrome, if on the otherhand you have in the past had problems with CFS, then its the menopause causing a relapse, and thats whats happend with me, it has settled, but im not as good as i use to be.

      I use to see a homeopathists for it, and he helped me tremendously, but couldnt get shut of it for me once, menopause hit unfortunately.

    • Posted

      Hi Elaine,

      They did start looking into if it could be chronic fatigue. A very helpful and lovely new psychiatrist surprisingly said this has gone on for too long so let's look into it.

      I had some blood tests and they showed enlarged white blood cells (I had had them a few years and even though I was going to the doctor complaining of sleep problems and fatigue she had never picked up on it). He asked if I felt well when I had the test and booked another.

      Then they sent me for further tests. There are two parts one was fine the other was bad and I was tested for leukemia. Everything was fine. I now have to have this test once a year.

      At the appointment the blood doctor said normally people who have this problem are very tired. This has meant they are no longer looking at CF and nothing is happening except the yearly test to keep an eye on things.

      My problem with regards to the sleep is if I don't get enough I keep ending up in the mental health unit as it affects my Bipolar disorder so I can't seem to win.

      Recently I have been getting up if I haven't slept by 730 am spending the day up like a zombie then sleeping the following night going to bed early 7 to 8 and sleeping until 11 am. It's not ideal but at least I'm seeing some daylight.

    • Posted

      Yes you are extremely tired and weak with chronic fatigue, and you would know about it, and if it gets to that extent,  you know you have pushed things too far, and thats what happened with me, i pushed past my warning signs of just being tired because, thats all it normally is for me,  all you can do then is sleep, but its a strange sought of sleep dream filled, waking constantly feeling incredibly ill, and then when your awake in the morning, lots of things happen within your body and head during the day, very weird condition, i would come down stairs after getting up, and after making that trip down, i had to go straight back up, breathless, and exhausted, just from coming down the stairs, and each time i came down, i got a little bit further, on my first day  reaching the living room, i made it to the kitchen, i had a decaf coffee, and i shook that much due to weakness trying to hold the cup, and then bring it up to my mouth, so, i tried instead, to bring my head down to the cup, i was like a nodding dog, more went on the floor than down my throat.................ha,  and it lasted like that for 7 weeks to finally get down into the living room and stay down all day, makes you feel incredibly ill, hate it, i can cope with most things that my body throws at me, but i cant handle the ill feeling, it really does sap all your fight out of you, and i can well understand, that, when people are at end stage of life, they are ready to go, i never thought i was going to get better, and it only got that bad for me when i hit menopause, but i already had CF before it.

      To be honest, i was told that there was no reliable blood tests for CF, they just go on symptoms, and rule other things out with blood tests first, in UK  clinics, you have to pass a criteria of symptoms suffered over a period of time, and if you pass this, then you have CF.  The condition can be caused, or, made worse by many, many other illnesses, and doesnt have to be bacterial or viral related, mine isnt.   

      It is good that your getting some daylight time, and if you have found out what works best for you thats great, that is all you can do, good luck with that, sleep is everything,  i hope you find a way of keeping this away as much as possible, or, at least getting a handle on it, can totally relate to it affecting your bipolar as well bound too, how on earth do you cope then, feel for you,  menopause,  hormones, lack of sleep, definately i would have thought, would affect your condition.

      Good that there keeping check on your bloods for you as well, theres one positive at least.

    • Posted

      Well my fatigue has been bad but I don't think as bad as yours. Also it had improved on it's own a bit after post meno.

      I used to haul myself upstairs using the banisters and always make sure I was not forgetting anything so I would have to come back down and go up again as if I did that I needed to sit on the beda while to get over it.

      Hovering became a problem sometimes just standing a while.

      Now I can at least hover one room have a rest then do the next.

      At some point I took to sitting down to peel and chop/prepare, now find I choose to do it standing a lot of the time.

      At it's worst I'd put the kettle on for a drink before I went to the bathroom and make it on the way. I don't do that any more either.

    • Posted

      Yes ive also found since ive been post, my fatigue has improved immensely, ive done quite a bit of cleaning today at m y daughters house, feel pretty tired now, so, i will be careful over the weekend not to overdo it

      Your like me you have learnt to pace yourself, and thats the answer to solving fatigue.

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