Posted by Kaira Smith on October 28, 2007 at 09:10:17:Dear anyone,
I am a thirteen year old girl with some sort of sleeping problem. I am five feet six inches tall and 120 pounds, with a BMI of 19.
I am quite active during the day and enjoy long-distance running and martial arts. I run two to four times a week, for up to an hour. I practice my martial arts up to three times a week for an hour each time. I also eat very well, with a well-balaced diet.
I also have JRA; Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis. I was diagnosed with it when I was about three months old, and it has gone into remission recently, so I came off my medication.
I took 4.5 mg of methotrexate per week, and 1 mg of folic acid in the morning. My doctor just took me off of it because it wasn't doing anything because my arthritis has gone into remission.
But after he took me off the medecine, I had troubles sleeping. I would go to bed at 9 pm (yes, you'd better beleive I went to bed at 9 pm), and woke up at 6:45 am the next morning, which is when I usually get up. After a few weeks of being off the medication, I noticed I was never as refreshed when I woke up. I would drag myself to school, and when I got home I would crash as soon as possible.
I would also wake up several times in the middle of the night for no reason, and have to roll over to get back to sleep. I would get up to eleven hours of sleep a night and feel like I only had seven.
My parents bought me a new matress recently in hopes that it would help. It hasn't helped much, really. It's a nice matress, though.
I understand that teenagers like myself need lots of sleep. But really, I should be able to function on at least ten hours. I can barely drag myself to school after eleven. I have found that I am more moody, and more irritable than normal.
My friends always find me as the optimist, bouncing around and trying to make everyone happy. But now I'm the one who needs cheering up. All I want to do during class is sleep, sometimes to the point where I drop my head on my desk and almost fall asleep, only to be woken by the poke of my friend (anonymous), or the rind of the recess bell. Some days are better than normal, and I smile because I'm feeling like myself again. But most days I'm too tired to consider being energetic.
What is up with me? Am I just becoming a normal teenager, or is this something else? Is it because of my medications? Am I depressed (I don't think so, but I think it's worth asking)?