Insomnia: Struggling to Manage Fatigue

One of the worst symptoms of insomnia for me is fatigue. Dragging through each day and trying to get things done is hard when you don’t get enough sleep. Sometimes, I struggle managing the fatigue.

My struggles managing fatigue with insomnia

Adjusting to changing sleep schedules

I generally adjust to whatever amount of sleep I get after a short time. After a few days of getting 5 hours of sleep my mind and body usually adjust and learn to function as needed.

Changes in the amount of sleep I get mean I have to adjust again, and frequent changes make it impossible to adjust. At the moment, I am dealing with changes in my sleep schedule that prevent me from functioning properly.

Drop in productivity, impaired thinking, and pain

When I am struggling to manage fatigue, my productivity drastically drops. My ability to think is impaired, and that makes it harder to get my work done. It takes much longer to get anything done which means I must expend even more energy on simple tasks.

Add in any type of illness that causes fatigue or pain and your ability to function is degraded even more. I have an undiagnosed illness that zaps me of energy. I have muscle weakness and this makes it harder to get things done even on the best of days.

Finding solutions to help

Caffeine isn’t the solution for me. The crash that follows is not worth what little boost I get.

Some people suggest exercising or walking around, but I am not physically able to exercise enough to help. Unfortunately, I haven’t found anything that makes much difference.

Napping from hypersomnia

Some days I find myself nodding off due to hypersomnia, but I can’t stay asleep for more than a few minutes. It makes matter worse, not better. No matter how tired I am at the end of the day, it does not help me sleep. In fact, sometimes being too tired makes it harder for me to fall asleep.

Staying alert and focused is difficult

Since my sleep schedule is now lacking any type of schedule, I find it harder and harder to get through each day. As my body attempts to deal with a lack of rest, my mind struggles to stay focused. Getting even simple tasks done is a real chore.

I am limited in what I can physically do to help stay awake and alert, so I have tried loud music, sugary snacks, and stretching. None of this has any real effect, but it makes me feel like I am at least trying something. Still, I am struggling to get things done and failing more often than I would like. I am accustomed to having to pace myself because of my limitations, but this is extremely challenging.

Increasing worry over sleeplessness and lack of concentration

As the number of fairly sleepless nights starts to reach the double digits, I worry that I won’t be able to get anything done soon. I already have trouble concentrating. Fatigue has really slowed me down and is making it harder and harder to get through each day.

Something has to give.

Do you struggle managing fatigue? How has it affected your productivity? Have you found anything that helps you function better after not getting enough sleep? I would love to hear about your experience with the struggles of managing fatigue with insomnia - share in this forum, here.