insomnia

[james438]

Hi,

out of curiosity does or has anyone here ever suffered from insomnia? Just curious on your experiences. For me tonight marks the end of my first week with it. I went to bed at 1am and woke up bright and cheery a short time later. I remember being a bit relieved that I slept through the night only to discover that the sun was not even close to coming up. I then thought that maybe the sun was about to come up so I braced myself to look at the clock, but it was only a little after 3am, so here I am again.

I don't want to try drugs unless I have to because then I'll start to thinking that I can't get to sleep unless I have them or Nyquil.

It is an interesting experience though. I can't get tired for longer than a few minutes at a time and I now have the whole night to figure out what to do with myself. I almost feel like starting a second job or something.

Nah, what I am really just wondering is if anyone else has had some similar experiences. For me I am just simply getting bored, so I'll start cleaning or shopping or reading till the sun gets up and then I'll figure out what to do with myself till nightfall again.

[djr33]

3am, checking in. The night is still young.

It depends for me. I find myself NOT sleeping quite often, but not always because I'm not tired-- sometimes got better things to do, sometimes got things I need to do.

At this point, afternoon naps are all that get me through the week. Up til 3am almost all nights (if not significantly later), and up around 6 or 7.

On the weekends, though, I do catch up.

[Twey]

I'm an infrequent sufferer. As djr33 says, some weeks I'll go without sleep for the whole week then just crash at the weekends. If you can manage without drugs, certainly don't use them.

[djr33]

If I really wanted to go to bed, I would, rather than taking pills that make me. But, I don't really want to, most of the time. I suppose once in a while I can't fall asleep, but that's usually because I have something running around in my brain. Not sure I'd want to turn that off with a pill.

The only trouble is if you can't control it. Not sleeping a lot and on weird schedules can be great-- you get more done, have more time, need less sleep (so your endurance is high, if the situation calls for it), can talk to people in various time zones on the internet, etc.
Problem comes around if you are so exhausted from this that you can't concentrate when need be, or you can't adjust to a schedule. If you are used to going to sleep at 6am every night and suddenly you get a job and need to wake up at 7:30am to get to the job by 8, that may be a problem. For some, they might just be able to handle an hour and a half of sleep; for others, it would be impossible; and for others, like me, you could just switch around the schedule fairly easily.
I find myself rotating, some. I'm certainly a night person, but recently I've been going to be (still late), then getting up early to get some things done before the real morning. Wake up at 6am, do homework, and that ends up working out well.
Anyway, especially in the summer, my schedule was fluctuating. I would wake up at odd times-- 3am, 6pm, etc., and sorta rotate through the day. I think that 28 or 30 hour days would be great for me. But, of course, not really possible.
Now I have an 8am class 5 days a week. A year ago, that would have been a huge challenge (I set up my schedule so I had my earliest classes at 11am, and it was hard to get up for these-- I've noticed that the "morning" for me is always a challenge to get up, even if it falls at 2pm, assuming the time I go to sleep matches, at least recently). But, now, I just find a way to work sleep into it, as I said, with naps throughout the day. That leads to odd sleep patterns, such as waking up at midnight, then staying up through class, and going to bed again after.

I've given up analyzing it.

[james438]

Well, I am a big fan of sleep and I am getting to miss it. I miss the dreams and the clearheadedness that comes after a good night's sleep. During the day or night I'll get really sleepy, but that passes after about an hour and I am never tired enough to fall asleep. On some days during this past week I would sleep for about 2 hours, but that would be it till the next day.

Ah, well. I am sure this will pass. It has only been a week after all. If it gets to be another week or I just stop sleeping entirely I might get to really worrying. I need to slow down and rest and dream. I would love to crash like you were talking about Twey . I am a college student like djr33, so I understand the variable class and study schedule that is involved from semester to semester.

[Twey]

djr33, yes. When I'm simply not sleeping for some practical reason, I've learnt to catch sleep wherever possible, such as five minutes on a train.

I miss the dreams and the clearheadedness that comes after a good night's sleep.

You're actually more likely to have/remember dreams if you've been getting less sleep, since you spend more time in REM sleep. I don't think I remember that feeling of clearheadedness :-\ Generally I undersleep and feel fuzzy or oversleep and feel fuzzy (and the latter gives me a headache, too).

[Ryan Fitton]

have you ever heard of "Insomnia" by the group Faithless? It is good

[Twey]

Yes, I listen to it when I'm trying to stay awake.

[james438]

Hi, Just wanted to let you know that I was able to get 8+ hours of sleep just now. I have midterms tomorrow, but I will do a makeup instead. I just had to get some sleep and I am very thankful/grateful to get it after having not been able to sleep for more than 2 hours a day for a week.

[djr33]

Ah, the ever pressing debate-- study or sleep, before tests.