Natural Health & Fitness Forums

Hi Dr. 

I was wondering if you could help me figure out what is going on with my husband.  It's hard to explain, but at night around 8-9 he starts falling asleep and can't stop it no matter how hard he tries.  I looked up the symptoms for Narcolepsy, and it just doesn't seem to match up, but no matter how late we may sleep in on the weekends, the same thing happens.  We are newly weds, and it has really been damaging to our relationship that he falls asleep whenever I approach him.  It's not like he's "getting it on the side" or anything like that – and he says he is attracted to me and does want me – but it's like he doesn't have the energy.  For New Year's he got rid of pop and sweet tea from his diet and started exercising 2-3 times a week and that has helped his attitude a lot.  I know he's trying, but I just can't figure out how to get him to stop falling asleep!  I don't know if it's psychological, and he's just stressed about sex so he deals with the stress by escaping into sleep, or if there is some sort of hormonal or chemical imbalance or vitamin/mineral deficiency.  He says he'll see a dr. but I'm afraid they'll just give him drugs and I don't believe in taking meds.  Got any ideas?  I haven't had much luck googling "problems falling asleep early every night" – haha. (This also happens in the day, sometimes.  Pretty much when ever he lays down, so you see the problem – lol.)

Other things I've taken into consideration:  He worked the graveyard shift all through college, the back of his head was grazed by a bullet in the airforce (fell off a motorcycle and hit the same spot!), he works long hours at his engineering job and goes on a lot of business trips, doesn't eat enough vegetables(?)…maybe it's just still taking his body a while to adjust from all that.

I think my new chiropractor said it's possible to reset the hypothalamus.  Do you think that would help?

Sometimes I get so upset that if I had a syringe full of adrenaline at my disposal I'd stab him with it.  We're seriously desperate.  Anything you can think of would be helpful.

Thanks.

~KDCW

Thanks for your response.

He just turned 29 (I just turned 25).

Okay, so what is something he can do to help his adrenals and thyroid?  I really feel like with all the stress he's gone through in the last few years that he has to have worn his adrenal glands down pretty badly.   He used to work 11pm-7am then come home and sleep for a few hours, get up and go to school, do home work and errands, sleep for a couple more hours and then get up, go to work and do it all over again.  He did this up until right before we got married 8 months ago.  He says he thought his body would be functioning normally by now, but it's not. 

He doesn't get a second wind even if we go to bed at 6-7.  He either stays asleep till 6:00am or gets up to use his inhaler or something then goes straight back to bed.  (And yeah, if I let him, he usually wants to go to bed early unless there's something he needs to get done.)  If we're out late at someone's house he'll make it okay, but I can usually feel him or see him fading.

If it's something else, how do we figure out the root of the problem?

Yes, the military sends them.  He started having asthma like symptoms after getting shot.  I really don't understand how that triggered it, but… that's apparently what happened.

Thank you so very much for the information!!