My Precious Nap Time

I live with multiple diseases, all of which cause a lot of fatigue. I am someone who needs to nap almost daily. For me, I can't take a short nap, like 10 to 30 minutes; I need to nap a minimum of 2 hours. Anything less than that, and I feel even more fatigued, and I feel like I have drunk tons of coffee. Even back when I didn't have many health issues, I still needed to nap.

Suddenly unable to nap

A couple of weeks ago, I went to go down for my nap and after a couple of minutes, the familiar pressure started on my legs. This was followed by aches and the feeling of pins and needles. I had to move my legs; I couldn't keep them still.

I spent around 45 minutes trying to fall asleep, but my legs would just not quit. Finally, I gave up. This was a first. I was annoyed that I wasn't able to nap but thought it was just because of the active day I had.

The pain and frustration continues

Unfortunately, the next day when I went to nap, I ran into the same problem. This time, my restless legs syndrome (RLS) kicked in faster and I desperately tried to fall asleep. I went through my favorite meditation story, but my mind kept racing because of how bad my legs were hurting. I managed to only last half an hour before I jumped out of bed, frustrated that yet again I couldn't nap.

Is this my new normal?

This has continued on this entire time; my RLS acts up when I need to nap. There have only been 2 times that I successfully fell asleep before my RLS became too unbearable. I'm at the point where I think this may be my new normal, or at least for now. This means I have to figure out how to address this situation so that I can go back to napping.

I do not like feeling irritable

I have noticed a couple of times now that I was so fatigued that I was actually irritable and struggled not to take it out on my husband. Thankfully this only lasted for a couple of hours, but it is not a state I like to be in.

It reminded me of my high school days when my PMS made me ridiculously irritable and angry. There was even one day it was so bad that while I sat in the library working, I had a paper taped to my back warning people not to irritate me. I was super happy when starting birth control stopped my PMS and instead had me feeling joyful during my periods. After that, I haven't really had to deal with feeling very irritable. Until recently, that is.

Trying to get my nap routine back

For my sake and my husband's, I need to be able to get back the ability to nap. I think I will start trying to take one of my magnesium pills in the morning and then take the other one at night. I also know I need more potassium and mustard in my diet. My muscles start to cramp up when I don't get enough of those 2 things in my diet.