Good Morning. I know this subject has been talked about many times but I am struggling at the moment from overwhelming tiredness. I am almost 5 months post stroke and wake
up each morning around 7am after 8 hours solid sleep but struggle not to go back to sleep. After breakfast I do exercises which consist of trying to do squats, leg exercises and hobbling around the house with my stick. After that I once again struggle to stay awake.
Today we are meeting friends for lunch for a couple of hours and when we get home that’s me finished for the day! I will immediately fall asleep and again find it virtually impossible to concentrate enough to read or watch tv before bed at around 10.
I understand about the brain healing etc - although I don’t think mine is doing a very good job! - but this amount of fatigue seems excessive. Anyone else suffer this way?
Hi there
I struggled with too little sleep in january. I am struggling fullstop.
If you’re that active and feel like another sleep I’d go for it and not worry one bit
that’s my point of view… good luck… Roland
I tend to follow a pattern where I do some physical activity, eg. supermarket trip on one day, then the day after I need to do some quiet activity, eg. browsing on this computer. If I try to do physical activity on two consecutive days then the fatigue really hits me.
I have learned how to find the right balance, eg. if I know I have a hospital appointment tomorrow then I will plan a very quiet day today.
8th months in I’ve learnt not fight the fatigue and I try to just roll with it. I now know I will have good days and then pay back days when I’m really fatigued. I won’t pretend its easy and I struggle both physically and emotionally when the fatigue occurs but I now understand this is the way it is, and the good days will return and I’ll feel almost like my old self again.
@Apple for the first 8 - 9 months my fatigue was like you describe. It has improved now though but thats because i think i’ve learnt to recognise when its coming on & rest before it hits.
You may also want to get your GP to do some blood tests to make sure there isn’t anything else contributing to your fatigue (thyroid, iron levels etc).
Hope it improves for you soon.
Ann
It could just be a deficiency in folic acid as it was with me at the time. Doctor prescribed a high dose of folic acid for a week or two and then I could continue with a daily dose of the over the counter strength from then on and I’ve continued to do so. I get them down at my local Morrisons supermarket.
It helped enormously but it did take a few weeks I think to really kick in because I was so low.
So see your doctor and get your bloods checked out, it’ll be the first thing they’ll want to do anyway.
There’s a lot of muscle loss after a stroke, and a lot of nutrients being burned out of you. And I should know because I lost over 2 stone of it and I was never overweight to begin with. I looked like a skeleton by last April…it was not a look 
But I’m over that hill now and back up to good weight once again.
But be assured a certain amount of fatigue is also part of the norm and it will get better over time.
Recovery is bit like a new born baby in many ways, that’s how I’ve always looked at it with every stage of my progression. We’re having to relearn functions just as a baby had to learn and it always comes in fits and starts just as it does for babies. Just think about how a baby first learns to walk, how they get walking from first try to roll over, then there’s the rocking back and forth on hands and knees before they even start to crawl or botty shuffle as one of mine did. It took a lot of energy out of them just as does with us stroke survivors and we need just as much rest/naps/full nights sleep as those babies do. Because that’s when our brain is most active with processing/re-programming trying to reconnect neurons or make new connections. For the babies its all about developing new connections/resetting temporary connections as mind and body grow. It takes an awful lot out of us.
Good luck and stay positive.
Thanks Emerald Eyes. Luckily I’m seeing my GP on Friday so will speak to him about it. Just fell asleep again! I find talking and listening to friends- which is something I love doing - causes fatigue!
Yes, I here where your coming from and hopefully it will just be that you need a boost in one nutrient or another. So stay positive and you will get through this 
I’ve never seen a baby run before it could walk, have you 
Thanks everyone. I know I’m impatient but my life seems to be slipping by with minimal improvement. Just finding it all very difficult!
Bore da @Apple, from my perspective, two years on rebuilding post stroke, I still have a relatively small window each day when my energy levels are sufficient enough for me to go about my daily business. For me, I have come to understand that the fatigue can be heightened if I am using cognitive processes that have been affected by my brain injury. So, as an example, if I am walking and thinking at the same time, this can be exhausting. Or, if I am looking for something, the act of searching is more exhausting than the task I had set using that particular thing. I have found that resetting the brain, emptying it, and discovering what cognitive process don’t cause fatigue and turning to them when fatigued all helps to manage this debilitating aspect of brain injury.
Good evening @Apple et al,
Just wanted to chip-in. Whilst each of our bodies are the same, I appreciate all things stroke related are different.
I had a TIA in December 2022 - and fatigue I was fully aware of. I learnt not to fight it and instead would sleep or just doze in front of the TV. Ergo, what my body wanted. “Roll with it” as was previously mentioned. And yes, just rest when you need it, make notes - and adjustments - and plan ahead too. It helps (albeit may be annoying!)
And expect the unexpected? I say this because - suddenly - in the last 5 days I’ve needed no midday sleep or rest. Odd?! Two of the days I’ve needed bed slightly sooner but that I can accept. Does my body have a switch I’ve accidentally flicked?!
Sorry, I overlooked the point. Rest, don’t fight and the body will reward.
Jonty.
I had just the opposite where sleep was concerned, I think my switch was stuck to on I think I must have function as a wind-up, as my drive diminished I just had to down tools and find a seat or bed and just close my eyes and wait…and wait…wait. I either fell asleep or felt rested enough to carry on or do something else.
The key was not to fight it or fret about it, it is what it is and I was sure it would change over time, just had to be patient
Hello from the Great White North …… otherwise known as Canada. I am a stroke survivor, seven years post stroke. Even now I still have days where my brain says that I just have a rest. In the early stages I slept around 12 to 20 hours per day. As time went on my need for sleep / rest diminished but ever so slowly. My wife, Sandy says that she didn’t see much improvement until approximately 12 months out. I found that reading or just concentrating to be very fatiguing. My internal clock became “screwed up” to the point where I was staying up most of the night and sleeping most of the day. All this to say that what you are feeling is a normal reaction to an abnormal situation. There is “light at the end of the tunnel”. One more thing, we are not all the same no matter what anyone tells you. What’s good for one is not necessarily good for the other. Keep your head up and continue to move forward.
Bore da @Edmitchell41a, I had a similar routine, I slept long hours and could even say that for about six months I was pretty much bed bound. It was only after twelve months that I could see my progress as a whole, adding up all those 1-2% improvements.
@Edmitchell41a welcome to the forum. Like you i found i was sleeping loads in the early days following my stroke. It was about 6 months before i saw any improvement in that. Improvements do come but sometimes we don’t realise until we look back.
I suffer with fatigue! I had a stroke in April 2020 and have had 4 TIA’s since. As I was thrombalised in the first instance I was lucky to be able to walk etc with left sided weakness! Now with physio I feel nearly back to what I was pre stroke! I went back to work 6 weeks after my initial stroke and although I felt tired I persevered until I had my first TIA in July 2020. After another 10 weeks off I went back and in the January 2021 I had my second TIA. I was very tired and knew I had to rest! My days became such that I had to pace my day so I would feel ok to go on walks, drive places etc. I was off work sick then until I had my third TIA in August 2021. I managed to go a year before a fourth TIA in August 2022! I was still having physio due to my left sidedness and I was determined to get myself fit again and most of the problem was being tired! I suffer from Sleep Apnea and although this is under control I still feel tired but I’ve managed to throw away my stick and enjoy walking and other activities!
This is the rub - physically I am nearly back to what I was pre stroke and I think I have no outward signs of having had a stroke. When I tell people they say “You’ve done well and you don’t look as if you’ve had a stroke” but I tell them it’s the tiredness and thinking pattern/behaviour I experience! I get very fidgety in some situations and I get to the point my brain says slow down and rest! I’m nearly 65 and as have been an academic and ex forces I know I took loads for granted pre stroke! I now cannot work and as I get my pension next year I am trying to become useful in my local community without committing too much! Feeling tired is my only bug bear and being careful in what I do to make sure I do not get over tired!
My problem is 2 years following stroke is not only fatigue (which I probably still have ) but also insomnia so very difficult to tell whether fatigue getting better or just shattered every day because of lack of sleep so frustrating .
Yaaay, someone else who’s got same problem as me…and my name’s Lorraine too
Sorry if I sound so excited but I’ve only really heard or read about the fatigue that comes with strokes. Mind you I’ve never really looked it up thoroughly as I’ve adapted to it so don’t see it as an issue.
2 years since my stroke and I’m tempted to say that things are no different but they are in way, as I do eventually sleep. I just don’t ever feel tired in the traditional way, but my brain knows when it needs to shut down and it does.
Took a while to figure a pattern for my sleep. I’d go to bed at a conventional time as us humans like to do, and then just lie in wait until I ended up with a headache and get back up again. Sometimes I’d meet my hubby in passing as he’s getting up just as I’m going back to bed to try again. I did eventually get into a pattern after staying up later and later 'til I eventually slept through once again. Re-establishing my sleeping pattern just as a baby has to.
I now go to bed at 2am and lay there 'til about 3am and get up at 10am but I do sleep…and I know this because I wake up in the morning But the only signs I get for being tired is the immense urge to down tools and do absolutely nothing. It’s a weird feeling I can’t quite describe adequately enough but it works for me 
I think I took the pressure off myself by not fighting the insomnia, accepting that it is what it is. I have the luxury of being retired with no dependants so to heck with convention, I take my sleep when my brain tells me to. But I can get up for early morning appointments when I need to, it’s just that my brain just doesn’t let me get those few hours back by going to bed that bit earlier 
I am now 15 months post stroke but still accepting that i have changed, constantly tired and fatigued. I tend to read a lot and use kindle and audable, a bit expensive but easy to use so it suits me and my wife. My problem is that when listening i fall asleap, reading i go to sleep when i need to shut my eyes. I always sleep after lunch for a couple of hours but wake up more tired. My quack has put me on vit D to help only been on it for 1 month so it hasn’t helped me yet I’m always hopeful. Keep yourself cheerful, “ALWAYS LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE”. BFN
What you describe is a common experience with fatigue post stroke.
I am 13 years down the road and still experience periods of tiredness during the day even after a good nights sleep.
Learn to go with the flow,and just accept that the new you sometimes needs to take a nap.
I found that timetabling my day with periods of activity ,interspersed with periods of rest, helped me to get through.
Good luck on your journey