Yawning nightmare

Sensor

Hello,

Just wondered if anyone can help me. Im constantly yawning, tired all the time. Cant think straight etc etc. So bad ive just started consuming energy drinks just to get me through the day

I started cycling and exercising and there is no difference. Even after one half hour session i yawned uncontrollably. I cycled six miles up and down hill and i dont feel any better.

Ive been tested for diabetes and actually wanted to find something wrong.

I often yawn in peoples faces when theyre talking to me and even do it to my boss who says "am i boring you?"

I can post my diet, which i have changed a lot of, but im not anywhere near perfect or terribly bad.

Sensor

Breakfast:

Low sugar cereal, currently rice crispies and berocca drink

Morning break:

Weightwatcher belgian choc slice (reduced fat + sugar)
Wheat biscuit + cup of tea with milk and NO sugar

Lunch

Vegetable broth with 50/50 loaf slice
Banana
1 Blue ribband choc biscuit (99calories)
Cup of tea with milk NO sugar

Dinner

Always fresh meat from butchers during the week. Mostly meat and oven chips or mash. Some veg (carrotts, beetroot)
Benecol cholestrol lowering yogurt drink

Im not big into veg as you can see but i take vitamins instead and try to eat as much as possible.

Any ideas why im so lethargic and feel so tired all the time?

thegreatiam

get some sleep?

Sensor wrote: »

I often yawn in peoples faces when theyre talking to me and even do it to my boss who says "am i boring you?"

and mind your manners

bada_bing

OP, i went though exactly the same thing as you about 5/4 years ago, it was so bad that some days i had to leave work in the afternoon and lie down in bed. I started to think that i would have to quit the job as i couldn't keep my eyes open. I was quite fit, going to the gym 4 times a week and playing tennis regularly. Anytime i went to the gym, i would start yawning so much after 10 mins and went home instead.
Went to the doctor loads of times and did every blood/allergy test you can think of. They tested my kidneys, glands, vitamin levels etc... I even changed my diet to eliminate dairy and then gluten, nothing really worked.
Then after a year it gradually eased and before i knew it i was back to my normal self. never found out what the cause was but i've met others who've been in that situation and have recovered after a year or two.

Sensor

Thanks for your reply. Hopefully it will go away.

Only other thing was wen i went to my mothers for sunday lunch, i had to lie down after. Even tho i ate brocolli, carrotts etc. I think its something to do with my food making me lethargic.

I dont think its to do with sugar, but i avoid it anyway. Maybe something else triggering a release of insulin making me so tired.

I actually feel better when i starve, after the hunger pangs have cleared.

Stench Blossoms

Sensor wrote: »

I dont think its to do with sugar, but i avoid it anyway. Maybe something else triggering a release of insulin making me so tired.

If your eating cereal and weight watchers belgian choc slices you are not avoiding sugar.

Sensor

Stench Blossoms wrote: »

If your eating cereal and weight watchers belgian choc slices you are not avoiding sugar.

Thanks for your reply blossoms. As i said i used to have a very very poor diet and ive tried to rectify things so compared to a snickers bar, a weight watchers belgian slice is low sugar for me!

Stench Blossoms

Ok but it's still not a good diet.

Replace the cereal with eggs or porridge.

Snack on small amounts of nuts.

SunnyDub1

Sensor wrote: »

Breakfast:

Low sugar cereal, currently rice crispies and berocca drink

No such thing as a low sugar cereal, especially not rice crispies Why not have some porridge or eggs. Have a black coffee instead of berocca

Morning break:

Weightwatcher belgian choc slice (reduced fat + sugar)
Wheat biscuit + cup of tea with milk and NO sugar

NO sugar The weigh watchers choc slice, wheat biscuit are laced in sugars. Don't always believe what you read. I can assure you that the "reduced fat & sugar" is nonsense. Try have a handful of nuts or greek yogurt or handful of berries

Lunch

Vegetable broth with 50/50 loaf slice
Banana
1 Blue ribband choc biscuit (99calories)
Cup of tea with milk NO sugar

That is not a lunch!! get some lean meat , fish and plenty of veg into you. Cut the carbs.

Dinner

Always fresh meat from butchers during the week. Mostly meat and oven chips or mash. Some veg (carrotts, beetroot)
Benecol cholestrol lowering yogurt drink

Meat = good. Oven chips = crap. Add more Veg , cut the carbs.

Im not big into veg as you can see but i take vitamins instead and try to eat as much as possible.

You need to be more adventraous. Veg = good

Eve

Any ideas why im so lethargic and feel so tired all the time?

Your diet is what has you tired all the time. If you are excersing you need good fats and high protein foods into you. Cut the carbs.

Agree to disagree with me if you like but anything that has "low fat" or "low sugars" probably has more fat, sugars then your average bar etc.

Sensor

Thanks for your reply and time analysing my nutrition sunnydub. Think ive maybe been a bit niave believing what the food producers says. Im going to start changing things in this weekend shop. Ill let yas know how it goes.

ebixa82

You have a very poor diet which is probably contributing.

Go to your GP and get a full blood test done to see if you are low in Iron or anything else which could atribute to your tiredness.

In the meantime go to your pharmacy and buy some high strength Ginseng, a natural energy booster.

Due to your poor diet I would recommend Pharmaton as it contains vitamins and minerals as well as Ginseng.

seamus

First port of call is the doctor. As said above, there are a number of blood conditions which can cause chronic fatigue, so if you were only tested for diabetes, they may have missed something.

One thing you haven't mentioned is your sleep. Do you get too much or too little? Do you wake up feeling 'rested'? I use the inverted commas there because most of us wake up in a half-asleep daze, but will be at full strength and ready to go in about 30 mins. Whereas if you're not rested, you wake up and after an hour feel like you need to go back to bed again.

Consistently waking up feeling tired and not rested is more likely a medical condition than anything to do with your diet or exercise levels, so that's probably the first thing to look at.

Sensor

ebixa82 wrote: »

You have a very poor diet which is probably contributing.

Go to your GP and get a full blood test done to see if you are low in Iron or anything else which could atribute to your tiredness.

In the meantime go to your pharmacy and buy some high strength Ginseng, a natural energy booster.

Due to your poor diet I would recommend Pharmaton as it contains vitamins and minerals as well as Ginseng.

Hi ebixa. Im very wary about going to a doc because i dont want to be seen as wasting their time if it is my fault for a crap diet. My diet used to be much worse but ive replaced sugary fizzy drinks with fizzy water and some no added sugar concentrate. I also eat some chopped apple and grapes during the week.

The low iron thing may be a factor as you said but i eat grilled steak and mince every week??

I will look out for the ginseng, thanks for the tip.

Hanley

Sooo... the obvious Q, unless I've missed it - how many hours per night do you sleep?

Sensor

seamus wrote: »

First port of call is the doctor. As said above, there are a number of blood conditions which can cause chronic fatigue, so if you were only tested for diabetes, they may have missed something.

One thing you haven't mentioned is your sleep. Do you get too much or too little? Do you wake up feeling 'rested'? I use the inverted commas there because most of us wake up in a half-asleep daze, but will be at full strength and ready to go in about 30 mins. Whereas if you're not rested, you wake up and after an hour feel like you need to go back to bed again.

Consistently waking up feeling tired and not rested is more likely a medical condition than anything to do with your diet or exercise levels, so that's probably the first thing to look at.

Hi Seamus, i ALWAYS wake up in the morning feeling like i have a hangover. I take a pint of water some nights before bed to see if im getting dehydrated during the night, no different. Doesnt make a difference if i eat nothing at all after dinner, just have some water or eat chocolate and crisps, it doesnt change a thing. I get a normal 8 hours or just under a night.

Thats what is depressing me the most, i cant seem to do anything to change the tiredness.

seamus

Then there's something else at play. Your diet isn't great, but it's definitely not shockingly poor either. Unless you actually drink a bottle of wine before bed, you shouldn't wake up feeling bad.

You're paying your doctor for his time, so you can spend you entire session in his surgery singing 99 bottles of beer if you want, it's your time to waste. So don't feel like you shouldn't go to him with this.

If the doctor tells you to go home and get some sleep, then go get a second opinion. From what I can see, you eat OK (as in better than a lot of people), you get a small amount of exercise and sleep around 8 hours a night. Yet you wake up feeling like you've gone ten rounds, so there's something more here than can be fixed with a diet change.

thegreatiam

seriously, check your sleep patterns. are you getting a full nights rest?
most people need 7/8 hours or more of solid sleep.

it might be worth getting some kind of sleep regulator app or an alarm clock which uses light to wake you. these will help you to not interrupt your REM sleep cycles so you will feel more rested.
Try going to bed earlier, turn the tv off and dim the lights an hour before you go to bed, then read a book or take a bath. Then make sure your room is pitch black. Aim to get 8 hours minimum of solid sleep in if you can minimum. so get to bed earlier if you have to.

thegreatiam

i worked night for 15+ years and had terrible sleep patterns, was always tired even tho i sleped on my days off for 12-14 hours. what helped was blacking out my windows and using a light to wake me not an alarm, and going to bed earlier.

Sappa

Sensor wrote: »

Thanks for your reply. Hopefully it will go away.

Only other thing was wen i went to my mothers for sunday lunch, i had to lie down after. Even tho i ate brocolli, carrotts etc. I think its something to do with my food making me lethargic.

I dont think its to do with sugar, but i avoid it anyway. Maybe something else triggering a release of insulin making me so tired.

I actually feel better when i starve, after the hunger pangs have cleared.

Op I would say it's something to do with reactive hypoglycemia and on fasting days your insulin level drips dramatically.
A low gi diet might be worth s try,no processed foods or fizzy drinks.
Avoid alcohol completely,get into a very regular sleep pattern and cut back on all exercises for a week to allow your body a recovery,lastly eliminate caffeine from your diet and try to eat a lot of fish.

Sensor

Thanks for your advice everyone. I did go to the doctors about 6 months ago when she did the blood tests for diabetes. Maybe I should go back and get tested for hypoglycema. I deffinately do have some of the symptoms.

The other symptoms that i have are really poor short term memory to the point where it scares me sometimes and i have to write everything down or set reminders on my phone for 10 minutesd time etc.

Plus i have black rings round my eyes so bad that someone thought i had two black eyes. I got bigger framed glasses to cover this and wear them all the time, even tho i dont need to! Told the doc all this and she just said maybe i was a bit stressed at work. Dont see how, we're going through the least busiest time i can ever remember!