Is it just me? My Fibromyalgia and Napping

Topics: Fibromyalgia and..., Is it just me?, My Network, Sleep

So, I take back what I said about naps.  I still have strong feel­ings of dis­like towards them.  They are vicious.  They are tempt­ing.  They team up with your insanely com­fort­able mat­tress to entice you into giv­ing them a shot.  But, as is true with so many mildly mis­lead­ing ad cam­paigns, hav­ing a lovely celebrity (or hand­some mat­tress) advo­cat­ing said prod­uct (or nap) lends absolutely no cred­i­bil­ity to their mes­sage.  (See, naps are smart.  They don’t use some stereo­typed “stu­pid middle-aged white male.”  That’s an adver­tis­ing stereo­type I abhor even more than the new Arby’s com­mer­cials.  Which, I sup­pose fall under the same umbrella.)

The truth is (in my case, and I know I’m an excep­tion) naps sim­ply, as is said, rob Peter to pay Paul.

My hus­band would argue this point.  He’s a firm believer in catch­ing up on sleep.  And it works for him.  Not me.  Not unlucky me.  (Actu­ally I’m very lucky.  I’ll take unluck when it comes to sleep in exchange for my other good luck.)  You see, my body seems to have estab­lished a quota for sleep.  I get a max­i­mum of eight hours in any 24 hour period.  And that’s only if I’ve earned it.  If I haven’t earned it I get hours try­ing to fall asleep.  Luck­ily, I have my first love, Amitripty­line to help out in these cases.  But 10mg at bed­time only enables me to get my body’s estab­lished quota.  No more.  So… when I get gullible and fall for a Sun­day After­noon Nap I’m outta luck.  Because for every hour I sleep dur­ing the day, I get to spend one more hour try­ing to sleep at night.

My Fibromyalgia and Napping

Last night was no excep­tion… I took a nearly three hour nap (unheard of for me, btw) so, log­i­cally, I spent nearly three hours in the fickle and frus­trat­ing land between con­scious­ness and sleep, I got a work­out each time I attempted to toss and turn (I told you my obliques were going to love this new mat­tress), and you got to lis­ten to me rant.

G’night fibro­folks!  Please let me know how you feel about naps.  Is it just me?

Existing Comments

    Comment by LadyLight on January 6, 2009 @ 9:44 pm

    I would love to nap but just can’t fall asleep! My mind is rac­ing so much that I take 3 meds to fall asleep & stay asleep.…..only get 6 or 7 hrs sleep a night. If I get more hrs, it’s a wel­comed ‘bonus’. Talk to your doc­tor about Ambien & Ambien CR.…I take both to shut off my brain & fall asleep along with Mir­taza­p­ine. I suf­fered a near col­lapse of my body 7 months ago with stress being the key fac­tor in mess­ing up my Fibro/CF. I’m still recov­er­ing & on dis­abil­ity right now. What a bum­mer!! Fibro was enough to deal with w/o all the extra sick­ness & pills!!!

    Comment by K8 on January 9, 2009 @ 8:01 am

    Thank you for the rec­om­men­da­tion. I’ve tried lots of stuff but it’s been Nearly a decade since I started Amitripty­line. It’s be good to learn about other options.

    Good luck with your recovery!

    Comment by Sarah on April 5, 2009 @ 8:47 am

    I shall be keep­ing an eye out for this blog in future. Great stuff!

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