How is your sleep?

I know people are weary of taking homones which is completely understandable but I was given them by a friend of my personal trainer who is a bio-chemist. There's absolutely no side-effects from them and no harm can be done from taking them (but always check with your doctor if you're taking any other medication, just in case). As I said, melatonin is the chemical your brain produces once you've fallen asleep so taking it prior to going to bed simply causes you to want to sleep and then it keeps you that way.

And a number of studies indicate melatonin supplementation helps to reduce the age-related decline in hormone production from the thyroid and pituitary glands, among others, with animal models suggesting these effects are associated with an overall enhancement of health.

Whether they make any difference for you or not, it's probably worth a shot as they certainly will do you no harm.

Oh, how awful! Sleep disorders are among my worst fears, though if my current sleep patterns are anything to go by I doubt I'll ever have them.

I'm one of those that will sleep anytime and nearly everywhere. I only need privacy. I have a thing about people seeing me and looking at me while I sleep and thus I absolutely can't sleep on public transport like many people do, no matter how tired or sleepy I might be - I simply can't close my eyes and relax. But apart from that, no problem whatsoever. I could sleep the days away so easily...

Hope you finally get things back to a more normal situation - just thinking of how little you actually sleep and how difficult it is for your to go to sleep makes me feel very tired and fearsome.

It is also said to improve sex life

I sympathize with you. I've never been the type of person who could just fall asleep when my head hit the pillow like my brother can. He could sleep through a tornado and would have a few times if I hadn't been around to wake him up.

I'll e-mail the rest of what I was going to say.

I've started sleeping better recently, but I'm one of those people who, beyond having a hard time getting up can function quite normally on little sleep. I used to sleep poorly, but I guess it's something I grew out of.

I hope you can find a solution.

Adrian

I sleep like a rock - and I always have. I am quite high energy and I run all day (like the energiser bunny) and when I get the chance to turn off at night - I usually fall asleep instantly.

I have a good friend who sounds as if she had problems like you. She eventually started taking replacement hormones (she's about 55) and now she has no problems with sleep. It never occurred to me that hormones would affect sleep patterns but they sure helped her. Obviously you are a lot younger than she and it may have nothing to do with it.

If I were to give any advice I would suggest trying to talk with someone in the medical field that specializes in sleep problems. Explain your problems - including the drug tolerance - and see if there are decent solutions out there.

Kathleen

I actually have, on the referral of my doctor, taken part in a sleep study cause they thought I had obstructive sleep apnea. The study showed that my sleep was ''almost'' normal and my form of sleep apnea was too mild to consider medication and/or surgery (which I wouldn't have done anyway). Everybody I've talked to blames it on stress and tells me ''everyone has problems sleeping at times", though it doesn't seem so ''normal'' or infrequent to me.

I guess I will have to discuss it with my doctor at my next visit, once again, but he'll either take away the drugs I am taking now or prescribe more. Neither one I want. I just want to sleep without taking 'stuff' whatever that stuff is.

Oh, and I used to be a great sleeper. In fact, I always needed at least 9 hours to feel good. I never had problems falling asleep or staying asleep until about 5 years ago. ....

Good luck with doctors, Maria! I'm getting so frustrated. I keep seeing an endocrinologist who thinks there's "something" wrong with me, but can't quite narrow it down. All of my symptoms scream THYROID, but my levels are usually in the low-end of normal. I do have a nodule on my thyroid, but not big enough to worry with removing. He most recently wanted to refer me back to an oncologist for platelet counts, but my platelets give false low readings. I don't have platelet problems. I'd be bleeding out my eyeballs (literally) if my platelet count was as low as it registers. I had an apt. with the oncologist but I didn't keep it b/c I'd seen him the day before only to be told to come back in March. His nurse called and wanted to know why I didn't keep the apt. with the oncologist and I told her, "I don't have platelet symptoms and I can't seem to get any help for the symptoms I DO have, so what's the point?"

It occurred to me later, if my platelet count is falsely low could that be falsely elevating my other counts? Maybe my throid isn't "low normal" but actually low and thrown off by the platelet count? It makes sense mathematically that if one part of an equation is wrong the rest will be too, but I don't have a clue if it would affect bloodwork like that. Think about it... if you've got a sample of colored balls and all the red ones are stuck together, you'd get a higher representation of the green and blue and yellow ones in the sample than there actually are in the full population.

Grrrr.... tests can be wrong. I wish someone would treat my symptoms for a change instead of trying to treat my test results.

I hear ya, Becky.

Have you considered seeking a doctor who specializes in a more holistic approach?

I have long given up on regular vets for my pets as they are virtually useless unless you need a surgery. I see a holistic vet who cares about the overall well-being and will try to find the cause, not prescribe stuff for the symptoms.

I should do the same for myself. Instead, I avoid doctors like the plague. However, certain medication require one to see them every so often as they can only hand out prescriptions for a month at a time. I am not holding my breath on his help.

Everything is always either 'normal' or 'they don't know'. I can diagnose myself with that


When I was a kid, I had periodic episodes of not being able to breathe. It was very real and usually happened if I physically overexerted myself or if my sister hassled me. My Dad is very athletic and he had all these expectations and I had to compete in long distance running and various other sports from a very early age. I remember on multiple occasions coming into the finish line and falling over and gasping for air. He thought it was cool, cause that meant "I REALLY gave it all" *rolls eyes*. Finally, I made my mom to take me to a doctor. He was a ear, nose, throat doctor and examined me and found ... nothing. Surprise. He asked me questions as to when my shortness of breath occured and when he heard it also happened when my sister heckled me, he took my mom aside and told her it was all psychosomatic. We went home and that was the end of that discussion.

Many years and many scary episodes later, I was diagnosed with asthma and the asthma specialist who diagnosed me couldn't believe that he was the first to do so. He said I had the most classic symptoms and just couldn't fathom why anyone would blow this off as merely psychosomatic. The actual reason for seeing him was to get tested for allergies..... My family still dismisses my claims of having asthma (as they do for my son and my nephew).... [it's actually almost funny]

I'm also witness to tests being wrong at times. I had frequent attacks of asthma as a child and had those allergy tests when they try to find out what you're allergic to and might be causing the asthma. Well, I was diagnosed with allergy to chocolate and almonds and stuffed animals. Thus, I spent a chocolate-deprived year until I got tired and went back to it. I guess my parents can't have been too sure of the diagnosis since when I told them I had just eaten some chocolate and I was perfectly fine they were okay with it.

I have been taught by experience - though never by tests - that I'm highly allergic to cats and not so much to some fruits. What I was diagnosed is completely wrong