Seismic Twitch

Yes, I got a question asked of me. Whoever it was didn’t leave their name. “Anonymous” asked, ” Do you have some condition that makes you sleep so much? seems you sleep alot even when you’re not studying. curious and nosy!”

I have a mood disorder called major depressive disorder, or clinical depression. One of the symptoms is to have sleep disturbance. Sometimes people will have different forms of insomnia and others will sleep enormous amounts without feeling rested. The latter is me. I also have a thyroid condition for which I take synthetic thyroid hormones as a replacement. Hypothyroidism, which is the condition of not producing enough hormone, causes fatigue. But that shouldn’t be an issue because at my last check up, my levels were just fine.

I take an antidepressant called Paxil. One of the many side effects of this particular medication is fatigue and sleepiness. Though the depression is reasonably well controlled by the medication, it’s still evident by some flattening of my mood, and certainly the accompanying anxiety is well controlled, I am still left with feeling tired most of the time.

Add onto that a natural circadian rhythm that my body likes of evenings, say from about 5 to about 3 am, and you have a very sleepy woman.

So there you have it. I do sleep a lot. Right now I know that part of it is the depression and me wanting to retreat from the world. I usually fight it so that I can attend to necessary tasks, but after I’m done finals I’m going to nap to my heart’s content. However, instead of being hidden away on my futon in my office/bedroom, I’ll do it on the couch, in front of the television where I can be “social,” or at least be a social napper, if there is such a thing.