Why am I constantly sleepy?

Question

I'm only 20 years old and it seems like my parents who are 59 and 61 have more energy than me. Granted I don't really exercise a huge amount and don't take the trillions of pills they do, but I'm only 20! Why am I constantly sleepy? 95% of people my age are able to have "three girlfriends" (school, work, and female friend) and spend time with all of them. Me, all I have is school (and I'm only taking 12 credit hours at that). Even with only 12 credit hours I'm barely able to survive... I have three days of classes a week, M/W/F, and each day that I am at university (I commute to it from home)

I'm so exhausted that I'm able to sleep as long as 14 hours afterwards (so that I pretty much do nothing on tues and thurs). I don't think this is normal, even if I don't exercise or totally do things as healthy as I should.

I'm not really in bad health though... I am optimal weight and look decent, have had some ear problems lately but nothing else that I can think of.

I've had this problem for some time now, it's not really new. I guess I really started noticing it when I was around 18 and started college work at a community college. I pretty much slept whenever I wasn't doing homework or attending class then, as well.

Could it be stress and/or chronic minor depression? I will admit that I think I may have chronic minor depression... I've never felt like majorly majorly depressed but I do have some minor bouts because, well, quite frankly, being 20 and never having had a girlfriend is enough to make anyone get depressed lol

I'm also really stressed out over my life sciences course at university, since I'm a Christian and noone else is, I'm going to get grilled for my non-evolutionist views, definately not looking forward to that.

I'm pretty sure I can rule out sleep apnea and diabetes, I don't really have many of the symptoms for those. And I never have problems sleeping when I'm tired... I almost never randomly wake up in the middle of night, I sleep like a rock lol

I think I should also add that I am more able to stay awake if I'm doing something interesting (I think I tend to get bored easily or something)
Like when I was seriously addicted to video games (something I've recently tried to cut down on)

I could play for as long as 18 hours a day and survive on only 6 hours of sleep. That's because it was something stimulating and kept me awake. So it could be merely a factor that I'm just bored?

Do I need some other hobbies to fill in the hole of quitting video games full time (I still play them, just not hardcore, an hour or two a day now)

Answer 1

try limiting the hours you sleep to about 7 to 8 hours. i used to feel really drowsy all day long and wonder why everything feels so blurry and all. and try doing some exercise, that really helps. i did some swimming a while back and now i'm not so drowsy anymore.

try to sleep and wake up at regular hours.

also, i feel more tired when i sleep too much, i guess it's like recharging batteries: if you recharge for too long, the batteries start losing its contents

Answer 2

I am not sure of all your symptoms , but there are many illnesses that can cause yout to be sleepy all the time , if I were you I would see a Dr. I have an illness called Fibromyalgia which causes me to be extremely fatigued , but there are other symptoms , such as wide spread body pain (some people suffer with it more than others ) . Also the illness chronic fatigue syndrome, which is also known by a new name(ME) can cause these symptoms most of the time because both of these illnesses are caused by unknown problems it is hard to cure mainly you just treat the symptoms! Anyhow go see a Dr. and if at first they don't listen to you keep going to others until you find one who takes you seriously , I had to and it was terrible , because with my illness you look healthy and sometimes you have good days , so people who don't understand tend to think you are a hypochondriac! Good luck! Try the prohealth website or diagnosesupport.com and see if any of the symptoms or illnesse sound like you! In any case you can make a lot of friends there who understand!

Answer 3

you can develop sleep disorders at birth. so to say you are only twenty doesn't mean you can't have one. forst and foremost, you need to see a physician. check to see if you have adult onset diabetes. have an overnight oximetry done, to see if there is change in your oxygen saturations, or heart rate at night. have your iron ferritin levels checked. look into having a formal sleep study done can elimante the possiblity of many sleep disorders. the most common sleep disorder, is sleep disordered breathing, or sleep apnea. as we fall asleep we loose muscle tone, which allows our upper airway to be partially or completely blocked, by our tongue, soft tissue in the upper airway and uvula. we have continued effort to breathe, but we are not pulling in sufficient amounts of oxygen, which tells our brains to wake us up. if this is happening over and over throughout the night, it can cause overt fatigue and sleepiness. thats why i mentioned having an overnight oximetery. the second most common sleep disorder is periodic limb movements. with this, it causes us to wake, when we experience one of these leg jerks. again, this can cause overt fatigue and sleepiness. there are numerous sleep disorders, i would investigate this, as, your health will not be good very long, if you continue, not finding the core problem. check out the national sleep foundations website, the american academy of sleep medicines website and the association of polysomnographic technologists website for more info.

Answer 4

Being sleepy can be many things such as Diabities, depression, thyroid, many things, Also vitamin defiencies such as B-12 some people can not produce some vitamins or they will not maintain in their system. I have battled this and many test have been ran, thyroid, sjorns, ms, diabities, etc. My B-12 levels were low, also produced anxiety, irritablity. Please do go see your doctor though.Can be many medical things that you need to have checked out.

Answer 5

IF YOU figure out the REASON why tell me...
I sleep 12 plus hours and im still tired. I amm soo lazy. Its horrible with either work or school it doesnt matter. Its not normal and or right.




What is worse is my doctor tells me it is Normal and OK for me to sleep this much.... ughhh. so frustrating.

Answer 6

Im the same way but really it could be alot of things, Not eatting right maybe get ya a multi vitiman, depression ur unaware of...TO much sleep...

Answer 7

GO SEE YOUR DOCTOR, AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!!!
I typed this in all caps to get your attention, this is the best advice I can give you. More & more people are suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, please go have it checked out.