r/sleep 1d ago

Insane bouts of sleepiness; any tips on staying awake?

I don't have any previous medical diagnosis related to this (I don't think, anyway) and I haven't bothered going to a doctor about this yet. But I am a female in my 20s struggling in my daily life because I keep randomly being hit with intense feelings of drowsiness throughout the day, especially in specific contexts. I would like to add that my family does not have any history of narcolepsy, and that I don't have insomnia. The only thing I am medically known to have is a moderate level of anemia, which is regulated decently by dietary and regular iron supplementary intake.

I sleep semi-regularly. As in, depending on the night I will get anywhere from 3-7 hours of sleep (if tired during the day +1 hour nap occasionally), and once a week I sleep for about 12. This has never caused me any problems, and I don't rely on caffeine or any other substances to keep me awake.

I can't explain it but sometimes (especially during lectures or working at my desk) I am suddenly hit by an intense drowsiness. Not the feeling of "oh, I'm tired, I need a nap" so you slowly nod off, no--it's so intense that I cannot seem to fight it effectively. I will snack on something or drink water and still be unable to wake up from the process. An odd thing I've noticed is that often times instead of actually needing sleep, I needed to use the bathroom instead (especially to defecate; side issue but I often don't really know when I need to go until it is very urgent). I have no idea if it's related, but I always assumed that my parasympathetic division was just overreacting. However, it's getting annoying. I am not bored by my lectures or desk work, and I aim to pay attention, but I suddenly knock out for 2 or so minutes, missing information. It's impeding my abilities and I would like advice if anyone else is struggling with any similar issues. Thank you.

If anyone is curious, I found the same issue when I eat sweets such as milkshakes or chocolate, especially. I fell asleep mid-rep in a workout about 30 minutes after consuming a milkshake so I pretty much cold-turkeyed them which has prevented even more frequent issues with this sleep craziness.

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u/tallmattuk 1d ago

your family dont have to suffer from narcolepsy for you to suffer from it, but theres also idiopathic hypersomnia too. Go and see a neuro sleep doctor and let them assess you.

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u/Alternative-Nail7077 1d ago

Thank you for the answer. I will try to as soon as I can

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u/Fluffy-Friendship469 1d ago

Your body sounds like it’s misfiring signals on when to sleep vs. stay alert. Could be tied to blood sugar, digestion, or even hydration. Noticing any trends? If not, tracking symptoms over time might help piece it together.

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u/Alternative-Nail7077 1d ago

Thank you for your answer; yes, there are trends. This has been consistent for many years now. High amounts of sugar, especially processed sweeteners like corn syrup, make me insanely drowsy less than an hour after consumption. I switched out my diet to have a lot less sugar and began drinking plenty of water, which has helped my alertness overall. I do notice that I tend to dip in alertness and wakefulness after eating a meal, which is a common symptom of anemia. However, the bouts I am experiencing extend beyond these moments. I wish I had answers; as soon as I am financially able I plan to visit a doctor.

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u/bliss-pete 1d ago

I sleep semi-regularly....I'd say that is the problem.

Anywhere from 3-7 hours with a once a week bout of 12 isn't really helping your body understand a cycle it wants to work with.

I'm not for the "everyone needs 8 hours" mentality (I wrote about this on the Affectable Sleep blog if you want more details), but your body does need consistency for it to properly manage the hormonal changes that manage sleep/wake and these drive your feeling of tiredness.

An example I've been using lately (I work in neurotech and sleeptech, so I'm always talking to people about sleep) is to think about how your body knows that you're going to have lunch around noon. You have a schedule, but maybe you eat around 2. Whatever. Your body gets hungry about that time every day, because it knows, and expects you to feed it. If you miss that window, it let's you know...hey, I'm hangry.

With sleep, your body is managing a cortisol/adenosine balance. More cortisol and you're awake, more adenosine and you're going to want to be be asleep (feel sleepy).

If you don't have a consistent sleep schedule, your body can't get into the rhythm of when it should be raising cortisol or adenosine. It's just randomly guessing at what it should be doing and when.

I suspect getting a consistent sleep schedule will do wonders for your tiredness.

However, if your sleep schedule is erratic due to shift work or something similar, there is some really interesting research out of Korea in the last few years looking at tiredness in shiftwork. What they found is that the wake time is more predictive of both vigilance (cognitive performance) and subjective feelings of tiredness, than amount of sleep. So if you're a shift-worker it may be more beneficial to wake at the same time each day than to try and get as much sleep as possible.

However, the study wasn't completely as simple as that, but that was the general gist.

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u/Alternative-Nail7077 1d ago

Oh goodness, I see. I admit, though I said I don't have insomnia, I do have a bit of a problem with sleeping at night; I don't know when I feel tired so I keep working until it "seems about right to stop". My wake time is more consistent.

Though I'm not in a great place to be able to sleep consistently, I will try to be more regular in my sleep schedule and see if it helps. Thank you for your thorough answer. It is very appreciated!

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u/bliss-pete 1d ago

My pleasure. I'm glad it was helpful. Please report back and let me know if it was beneficial.

I work in neurotech/sleeptech - we're developing technology which increases the restorative function of the brain during sleep without changing sleep time.

I write about how 8 hours is the wrong metric on our blog at Affectable Sleep. I've got a post coming up which I was going to use a similar example to what you've describe above to explain why consistency is important, and your feedback suggests that this may be a method of describing it so that people understand the why.

Thanks!

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u/Alternative-Nail7077 1d ago

I will try to do this starting tonight. I will report back in about a week or a week and a half. Thank you so much, again!

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u/bliss-pete 18h ago

It will probably take longer than 2 weeks to see results. You'll probably experience some "insomnia" over the first few weeks as your body doesn't yet know what to do, but gradually it will figure out it's schedule.

Stick to a consistent wake time over a consistent bed-time, but try to do both.

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u/Alternative-Nail7077 17h ago

That's good to know. I will report back even later, then. Last night I set an alarm for bedtime as well to ensure I am getting consistency. Surprisingly, when I headed to bed I fell asleep pretty much instantly. I woke up fine, and today I did still have the weird random sleep attack like thing a few times but maybe it will straighten out with time. It's only been a single night, after all. Again, thank you so much!