The Mysterious Case of Sleeplessness

Last week, I was exhausted.  I had trouble staying focused at work, I struggled through my exercise routine, and I found writing in the evenings to be a chore.  If that weren't enough, I couldn't sleep: I would be wide awake for quite some time -- despite the exhaustion -- and when I did actually fall asleep, I'd wake up before my alarm.  Needless to say, I was pretty miserable.

Eventually, I figured out what the problem was: my allergy medication.  I've been using my nasal spray continuously for over a month and I haven't had any problems before, so why now?  Well, I'm a bit embarrassed to say that I've been drinking an energy drink every morning for a few months.  While I've made my position on caffeine pretty clear, I still don't like the idea of being dependent on something (though perhaps I shouldn't think that way since I need medication to control my epilepsy).  Last week, I stopped having an energy drink in the morning, but I continued to use the nasal spray.  It turns out that the nasal spray's most common side effect is drowsiness.  Since I had been having caffeine around the same time I was using the spray, the drowsiness didn't really affect me.

In an attempt to stop being so tired without being reliant on caffeine, I didn't use my nasal spray on Monday.  I was much more focused than I had been the previous week, but by the end of the day, my eyes were so itchy that I could barely keep them open.  It was so bad that, as soon as I got home, I used the spray.  However, because of the new timing (evening instead of morning), I was able to use the side effect to my benefit: I became drowsy and slept through the night.

While it looks like the solution is to use the spray in the evening, rather than the morning, that doesn't work, either.  On Tuesday, I didn't use the spray before work and I was okay through lunchtime; afterwards, my nose started running continuously and my eyes started burning.  I brought the spray with me, so I used it and within an hour, I felt fine.

So, my plan is to use the spray twice a day (which, it turns out, is the recommended dose for adults; I had read the directions wrong and I was taking a child's dose) and, yes, consume an energy drink in the morning -- my drink of choice has less caffeine than a can of cola, so at least I'm not using a lot of caffeine.  I still would like to get away from relying on caffeine, but for now I'm thinking of it as a form of medication to counteract the side effects of my nasal spray.