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When I wake-up (i.e. hear the alarm clock and open my eyes) I experience severe muscle fatigue, that I am hardly able to force myself to move my arms and legs to get-up. I feel like my muscles were extremely weak at that moment, and I also feel pain in them. It feels so bad and weak, that half of the time I am not getting out of bed, and sleep another few hours, although I already had enough sleep, and it doesn't feel any better after the extra sleep - in fact it feels worse.

When I do finally manage to get out of bed, the muscle fatigue and pain magically goes away after 15-30 minutes, and during the day I feel completely normal, full of energy and fine.

It doesn't matter if its after a 2-hour nap or a long 8-hour sleep, its the same fatigue. And I am not feeling sleepy, drowsy or anything like that, I just feel my muscles are extremely weak. I am skinny, 60 kg, but slowly gaining weight, in fact I am tracking my food intake and making sure I get at least 2850 kcal each day, so I have enough energy source. And during the day I am not feeling the fatigue or energy-less, its just right after wake-up.

What might be the cause of this?

EDIT: more info:

I measured my blood pressure immediately after wake-up. It was 77/37 mmHg. And that is an average of 10 measurements taken in the 10 minutes after wake-up. That's somehow low, isn't it?

Not that my blood pressure normally during the day is too good, it is on average something around: 95/62 mmHg. After riding on bicycle for an hour it is about 103/64 mmHg.

Can that have something to do with my wake-up fatigue? What can I do to get my blood pressure to some normal levels?

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    Not an answer - but is it possible you could arrange to sleep somewhere else for a night or two (hotel, parent's house, friend's house, etc) to see if the symptoms persist? This ought to tell you if the problem is environmental or not. – Joshua Carmody May 24 '11 at 17:59
  • Well, first of all the symptoms are not equal each day - they vary in strength and some days I don't have them at all, so a single wake-up with no symptoms sleeping elsewhere won't prove anything. And I did observe the symptoms in other sleeping places too. It seems more related to weather then sleeping place - nice sunny weather - feels more OK, rainy feels bad. There was one day a few days ago when it rained heavily and the weather was terrible, and when I woke up I couldn't stand for the first minutes without holding the wall. – ria May 24 '11 at 20:57
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    Go to see a doctor about this – Nobody May 25 '11 at 10:35
  • I have similar symptoms. I am active, I play sport, I eat well, I take in lots of fluids and I'm otherwise healthy but every morning I wake up with such pain in my back, neck and shoulders. It is unbearable sometimes and makes me grouchy. The difference with me though is that the pain stays with me throughout the day, varying in intensity from dull to unbearable. Diet and exercise and baths are not the answer for me as I have tried all of them. I think you need to see a doctor. – user3651 Jun 11 '12 at 5:54
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    The question seems a little medical in nature. Do you think it could be something related to exercise (if you are doing any at all)? I'm not sure if this question belongs here or not. – Matt Chan Jul 25 '12 at 11:10
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*Thank you for posting this. I struggled with the SAME symptoms as you for years.

I recommend that you detox your body of toxins that have accumulated over time. Your body flushes out those toxins through your urine so drink as much water as you can handle. As you cleanse your body you may experience increased fatigue, moodiness, and in extreme cases, flu symptoms. This should only last a few days. One trick I use is to take Epsom Baths. I ALWAYS keep Epson Salt on hand.

Ensuring that those deep body aches will not return requires drinking plenty of water each day, detox friendly foods, stretching out your muscles, and excersize. All of these will also prevent pressure points or those knots in your muscles. Good Luck

  • Increase Water Consumption
  • Increase Physical Activity
  • Stretch Muscles
  • Epsom Baths
  • Detox-Friendly Diet

visit www.livestrong.com/article/72677-full-body-detox-diet/

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  • Are you bulimic? – Sarah May 26 '11 at 20:00
  • Welcome to the site @Sarah, thanks for the nice answer :-) – Ivo Flipse May 26 '11 at 20:33
  • not not bulimic. Before I was eating too little (probably about 1500 kcal) and too much canned food, etc. Since two weeks I changed my diet completely, I now eat mostly full grains, nuts, seeds and legumes, and I keep a dairy of all food intake so I make sure I get about 3000 kcal each day so I gain weight a bit (I am 60 kg at 175 cm). Did you also have such extremely low blood pressure? I guess I did drink too little fluid, so now I'll start to drink 3 liters each day. Do you think a niacin flush (for example a single 200mg dose of Vitamin B3) might be good? – ria May 26 '11 at 22:48
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Do you live in any sort of shared or communal housing (such as a college dorm)? The symptoms you describe are very similar to how I felt when I had mono. I'd do some basic research on it and if you feel it might fit, see a doctor. I made the mistake of trying to ignore it and ended up grappling with the disease for 13 months. Not fun.

I realize this is more of a medical answer than a nutrition and fitness one, but in this case the cause might be medical, so I hope I'll be forgiven for it.

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  • No, I live alone. The only cohabitants in the room is some mold. I had mononucleosis 5 years ago, so I should be immune to it now, and not get it again? And I don't have any sore throat - which I had 5 years ago. – ria May 20 '11 at 19:49
  • Yeah, my doctors left me with the impression that after I finally got rid of mono, I shouldn't have to worry about it again. I'm pretty dry on possible solutions in that case. Sorry. – tmesser May 20 '11 at 20:02
  • miernik, you say the only cohabitant in your room is mold? I have to wonder if mold is causing your problems. It is known that black mold is very bad for you. The mold would also be worse in the winter than in the summer. I had a chiropractor who had to move away from Seattle to San Diego to get away from the black mold that grows in Seattle because it was causing him such problems. If you see mold clean it up! – Matt Mar 4 '12 at 0:06
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I've experienced that due to diet throughout my life. When I was a kid I would always have difficulties waking up and would have incredible weakness in my hands - I couldn't snap the button of my pants together, I was that weak. My mother took me to an alternative allergist who put me on a specific diet, and very quickly I was able to wake up full of energy and without any weakness.

I recently had similar symptoms hit me after eating a particular cereal/granola mix. I woke up with a lot of joint pain and was fairly fatigued. I made sure not to eat that cereal again and a few days later I was fine again.

The thing is there's no way to really predict what's causing the problems, and it might even change. For a while I couldn't handle bread made from whole wheat flour or anything with brown rice. After switching to white bread and white rice, the situation reversed and I had to go back to whole wheat and brown. Since then I've just always had a habit of cycling my diet, so I don't stick consistently eating one thing for longer than 3 months.

Keeping a journal of what you eat, and trying taking certain foods out until you feel better is the only way you'd be able to figure it out by yourself. Seeing an allergist or nutritionist might also help, but that could be prohibitively expensive depending on where you live and what kind of insurance you have.

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