Chronic Fatigue

http://theprojectbyjudy.wordpress.com/2013/11/01/another-link-shared-over-at-poppyposts/

Poppypost: Over on the right she has several links about Chronic Fatigue
http://poppyposts-blog.net/


10 suggestions for pacing yourself:

http://www.fatigueanswers.com/cfs.html

I lived with chronic fatigue before it was popular.  I was counseling before I knew why I suffered from chronic fatigue.  Before counseling, I would go to the doctor, they asked the usual battery of questions.  They asked me what time I went to bed, I would answer, "Around 11:00 PM."  Then they would ask me when I got up, my quick answer "Around 6:00 AM."  They would nod and make notes and tell me there was nothing wrong with me.  But I was exhausted.  Trying to wake up in the morning was brutal...staying awake almost impossible in the afternoon.  Then I was in counseling, KavinCoach asked the same questions that the doctors asked.  Then he asked, "How much of that time do you actually sleep?"  What?  My homework was to record the last time I saw the clock, how many times I woke up, and how much I actually slept.  I tracked it for weeks.  In 10 weeks I averaged 3 hours of sleep a night.  Folks, that is extreme sleep deprivation.  After years of counseling and a lot of re-education about sleeping I now average around 6 hours of sleep...that is still sleep deprived.  I hold still long enough I go to sleep.  To stay awake I keep on the move.  If I watch TV I am also working on my laptop.  Many a church meeting, concert, and other venues that require sitting quietly with me going to sleep.  Yes, sometimes I snore...hard to hide that.  I learned to pace myself.  I talked about my nightmares.  Amazingly getting them out of my head and into the light of day has finally rendered them almost useless.  If I have nightmares again, I know what I need to do to minimize their impact.  They lost their terror factor.  Now, just bad dreams that are annoying but not sleep destroying.  Learning to pace myself during the day helped me to treat myself kindly at night.  If chronic fatigue dogs your days, you may want to consider a sleep log and see if sleep is eluding your nights.