Question
I'm a 29 year old male. Before I got Mono, I was a GREAT sleeper, never any problems. No one in my family ever had sleeping problems. I was also in good general health.
I got Mono January of 2008. My first blood test came back negative and I didn't even know I had it till April 2008. Meanwhile, all this time I was working like crazy and under a lot of stress, and didn't know why I felt horrible all the time. Worse, I was researching math, which would often keep me up thinking. At some point, I thought it would be cool to do it in my sleep as well, BAD IDEA. Mono was finally out of my system around Sept 2008. And it's fair to say that I had Mono real bad.
Anyways, I had a mild sleep disorder before July 2008 and around Aug/Sept 2008 I felt pretty good because my Mono was basically done. But the sleeping disorder kept getting slowly worse and worse. To the point where now I'm taking a break from school and work and just about everything stressful and it still seems to be getting worse. For a long time, I had good days and bad days. Now, mostly bad days. The most stressful thing in my life is not sleeping.
I used to wake up all the time. Just yank myself out of sleep and sit up like a bolt a few times a night, but I had mono, so I easily fell back to sleep. Maybe a mechanism I developed to keep myself doing work and not sleeping all day? Maybe a product of doing math in my sleep? And again, I had mono, so I could sleep through that. But now I don't have mono, and maybe these habits are still there?
Usually I wake up real early and can't get back to sleep. I often wake up thinking its 10am and I get all excited that it will be a good day and then check my clock and it's 6am and the can't get back to sleep. On a good day I'll wake up like 10 times and keep getting back to sleep. But clearly that's not good sleep.
Lately, I've been getting into this zone, where it's like I'm sleeping but I'm not actually sleeping, I'm just laying in bed half asleep because I'm so tired! That's scary. That's what happened last night and today my head feels like it's about 300lbs and is about to explode. The rest of me feels the same.
Or maybe its something totally different? Thanks in advance!
Answer
First of all usually with the mono all you do is sleep, its very well you still have it in your system, maybe the test is negative but mono can take very long to leave ones system, I would go back to the md and explain to him. Now when your daytime sleep is impeded due to lack of sleep its insomnia, however it also if you are always tired could be symptoms of narcolepsy. Im not an md but you might consider these options. Its likely the mono is still in your system, Ive heard it can take up to 6 months to leave ones system. Now for the problem of being unable to sleep at night. that one may be a little easier to solve. follow the tips below.You must go to bed and awaken the same time each day regardless of little or much
sleep you got the night before. This starts to reset your sleep clock
3 hours before bedtime stay away from
tea, coffee, caffeine, caramel colored soda like, coke,pepsi, ginger ale,
or root beer, chocolate and exercise .All these make for restless sleep.Do the following religiously for 4-6 weeks although some have seen changes in as little as 2 weeks.
Make sure room is quiet and dark. When you go to bed if you start to
twist and turn or if you wake up in the middle of the night and cant
go back to sleep, twist and turn for only 20 minutes, then get up, go
into a different room and read a book or magazine only! No computer!
When you start to doze immediately go back into the bedroom.This retrains
the brain into thinking that the bedroom is for restful sleep only. Do
this as many times as you awaken thru the night, it will lesson.
30 minutes before bedtime take a hot bath and immerse hands under the
water.Latest research states that the palms of the hand when immersed
in hot water send signals to the brain to relax. 15 minutes before bedtime\
drink a glass of warm milk. Milk when heated contains tryptophan, a
natural amino acid sleep inducer. Go to sleepnet.com click on disorders
insomnia for more tips. Feel free to email again , Karel Thirdly if the sleep doesnt get better go to sleepnet.com click on disorders narcolepsy, then you definitely need to go to a sleep center and get your sleep pattern monitored. But for now I might consider trying these. good luck, hang in there.karel also go to this website you will see that you always carry the mono virus and it could be reactivated again. also always check the blood you could need antibiotics again
http://health.yahoo.com/infectiousdisease-overview/infectious-mononucleosis-topi...
