Question
I had a stroke about 6 months ago. I'm now being treated by a doctor but I seem to be sleepy much of the time. My doctor says there is nothing I can do, but that doesn't seem reasonable. What can I do?
— Caring.com community member
Answer
Expert James Castle is a neurologist at Stanford University and an expert on strokes.
I have found that fatigue can be a common problem after stroke. There are several reasons why you might be feeling sleepy:
- You could be suffering from sleep apnea (due to weakness in the muscles of your throat) and not getting a good night?s sleep;
- Your stroke could have damaged the parts of the brain involved in sleep/wake cycles;
- You could be uncomfortable in bed due to your disability;
- You could be depressed.
In my experience, sleepiness after a stroke sometimes occurs even when those reasons have been ruled out.
I would recommend a visit to a sleep specialist to examine the quality of your sleep -- there might be an easily fixable problem at work. If nothing is found, medications can be prescribed which make you feel more awake during the day. It also makes sense to have your primary doctor screen you for depression and run some basic tests to rule out an endocrine disease or infection.
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