Calories/points/whatever you count: allowances and daytime sleeping?

  • What do you do with your daily allowances if you have a condition which means you take regular sleeps during the day? On most days I sleep in the afternoons for a couple of hours, so those are easy, but when I have had a particularly rough day sometimes I sleep through much more of the day. Particularly on Saturdays I sleep through the whole morning, and on Fridays sometimes I can sleep through the whole day! I'm not sure what I should do with my calorie allowances as normally I split it over 3 meals and 2 snacks, but if I am only awake for lunch and dinner then do I cram a whole day's allowance into 2 meals and one snack or should I make a pro rata reduction because I've missed part of the day?

    I can't stay awake, it's not that simple, even if I go out somewhere I can sleep - I can fall asleep in the hospital waiting room, in a shop, eating my tea, anywhere, so I have to have these sleeps when I need them.

    Anyone else with this sort of illness, maybe ME, FMS, EDS, etc. can tell me what they do with food allowances on these days?
  • ROSE ~ I don't have the disorders you mentioned, but I do have to put my legs up and rest them 2-3 times a day. I don't adjust my calories based on that though; actually, if you sleep a lot, you maybe shouldn't eat more, as sleeping doesn't use up as many calories as when you are awake and moving around. I think I read somewhere that we use up approximately 60? calories an hour sleeping; more or less depending on our size, sex, etc.

    We use up calories even when just sitting around and reading; but more when we get up and start moving around, of course. I would just eat when you are hungry when you wake up.