I have suffered from insomnia for as long as I can remember. Even as a small baby my Mom told me that it was the one thing about baby me that was a real pain. I simply wouldn't go to sleep from about the age of 2 onward.
I don't recall a great deal about my really early years but I do have memories of getting reprimanded by my mother for leaving my bedroom and going into the bathroom with a bunch of library books because I had lied awake in the bedroom for a very long time and while my brother who I shared the room with was sound asleep, I was wide awake. Hey, at least I was reading books and my Mom was very aware of my sleep issues, so she took it easy on me.
I struggle to get to sleep almost every night. It doesn't really matter what I have done in the rest of the day or what time I made myself wake up that morning, sleep just eludes me. I am forever envious of my dog Nadi, because she can put her head down almost anywhere and be sound asleep in just a few minutes.
I am the opposite. I will toss and turn and try various strategies to trick myself into sleeping. I have a ton of meditation techniques and breathing techniques and thing you do with your eyeballs that are supposed to trick your body into thinking you are asleep but none of it actually works. I can get past all of this by taking rather large sedatives like Ambien, but that seriously screws up my next day and I am super groggy all morning and then feel exhausted in the afternoon. I don’t think there is any real answer here. Some people have mentioned that I might have sleep apnea, but that would have been noticed when I was a child. I think I am just a little bit nuts and my body fights me as far as shutting down is concerned.
I do eventually get to sleep most night though although there are a few instances where I have just thrown in the towel and decided to stay up all night. Then I force myself to stay awake all that day and feel as though the next night’s slumber would come immediately but this is not the case. The last time I had an all-nighter and by the time I decided it was time to sleep I had been awake for nearly 40 hours. One would assume that it would be an immediate “lights out!” sort of situation there, but that also was not the case. I think I actually took a sleeping pill that night as well.
fluffy bed, tile floor... doesn't matter. It's always sleepy time for Nadi
I rarely have to get up for anything. I don't have a strict work schedule and am very fortunate that I can kind of make my own hours as far as work is concerned but today, I set an alarm because I had something I needed to do today. As is always the case, I kind of struggled to get to sleep the night before.
When my alarm went off I was deep in sleepy-land and reached over to my phone and saw that it was 6:50 AM and decided to delve into the wonderful world of snoozer button sleep.
Normally, it takes me an hour or many hours to get to sleep, but the grand total of snoozer button sleep is 10 minutes including the sleeping part. In that 10 minutes, of which I indulged 3 times this morning, I was able to fall asleep immediately and even get to dream sleep. I had 3 separate dreams in the span of 30 minutes.
It is so rare for me to experience sleep of this nature and it seems the only time it really comes is during snoozer button sleep. Why is it that I can get to sleep in under a minute during this time, but it takes me hours during normal times? I guess it is because I am already most of the way there.
I recall as a child and even a college student I would play the very risky snooze button sleep game, and often ended up suffering because of it. I can't imagine that 10 minutes of sleep is very beneficial for you, but it sure does feel great.
Whatever is going on in my head during that time, I wish it could be replicated at night time when it actually is time to go to sleep.
src
There is no real consensus that I can tell about snooze button sleep. I pulled up some articles about it and the first one is "snooze button sleep is bad for you" and the 2nd one was "hitting the snooze button is good for you." Hitting the snooze button for me, is like this amazing time warp of awesomeness because it is the only time that I can fall asleep right away. I am envious of people that don't struggle with sleep because outside of really rare situations like being terrible jet-lagged I have always struggled, and likely always will struggle with getting to sleep.
I suppose it is kind of a good thing that either by correct decisions or just dumb luck, that it is a rarity that I ever have to wake up at any particular time.
My mom used to have to sit outside my bedroom because I would keep getting up when I was supposed to be taking a nap. I used to have a pretty good internal clock. I would often wake up just before my alarm was set to go off. That's not the case anymore. I think a lot of that has to do with getting up at 4 in the morning. There ain't nothing that can prepare you for that!
I need to return to my super early mornings the likes of which I did in the past. It is so damn hot during the day this time of year it would make more sense to take advantage of the very early morning even if that lead to a nap in the afternoon. Seriously, it is insta-sweat hot here now.
That's probably the smart way to do it. I sweat at the drop of a hat, so I can only imagine how horrible it is. That's a great big no thank you from me.
sometimes I look at where I have chosen to spend my adult life (nothing has forced me to stay here) and wonder "what the hell is wrong with you?" I have never been a hot-weather kind of person and even when I was very athletic I always had a hyper-sweating sort of disorder. Seriously, I even once got a prescription to curb the sweating because I was getting embarrassed in public about it. So it really makes no sense that I choose to live in some of the hottest places on earth.
There is some talk around here about "acclimation" and normally this is voiced by people that haven't lived outside of their home country nearly as long as I have. I think it is a myth. You don't get used to it being this hot, you are either born with the correct genes to deal with it or you are not. I have Nordic/Germanic bloodlines, I was never going to be the right person for this climate :)
Yes, that sounds quite similar to me. I'm that white guy who is melting when the temp gets above about 85 every single time.
You would think staying up for 36 hours would get you to sleep because I become quite a zombie when I go too long without sleeping and eventually just crash out. I have done a 3 day work shift one time and literally slept for 36 hours afterwards. The snooze button trick never works because I never hear it when I am asleep because I sleep like a log. I know you battle and have tried all the tricks in the book to sleep and hopefully one day you find a technique that works.
I'm usually quite surprised when I am able to get to sleep quickly. It's not often that this happens to me though.
Insomnia is not a joke, when my insomnia attacks I keep tossing myself and go down to drink milk with turmeric just to sleep. It's kinda irritating listening to my husband snoring. Like, how could he snores easily while me can't😁. Turmeric and milk Either it helps me or I would stay awake till the sun come out. I tried eating black grapes at night because I read it would helps to have a good sleep and it's true. Hmm Nadi could nap easily but still can hear and sense immediately. Dog's have that kind strong senses.
yes that is true. Unless she is in a really deep sleep she will wake up immediately as soon as I move anywhere.
You have successfully spin my mind up thinking of the relativity of earth hours. May be we're all from different planets that you have a huge
jetstarship lag. Do you remember superman? I think that's the case happening to you.Since earthlings are all used to 23.9 earth hour a rotational solar day, perhaps your planet was Mars, requires 24.6 hours. 0.7 hours seems little, but adding it from the day your mom picked you up from that crater that she will NOT reveal to anyone, multiply it by the days you've spent on earth so far, let's just say if you're 50 this earth year, you're 12775 hours behind our time. Technically, after dividing the number of hours into 24 hours, and further simplify it into earth year, you're only 1.45 years behind. So, if you're 50, it's not surprised that you look 48.25 years old 😬
Why does it affect the sleep? I assume Mars citizens supposed to stay awake longer hours then earth people. So, you're already forcing yourself sleep 0.35 hours everyday. After 20 days on earth, you're already overslept by 7 hours sleeping cycle 🤪 after this many years, you're like overslept by 10 months already.
Nadi is from Jupiter. She only has 9.9 hours to complete a day. So, her power nap should probably be the full sleep of that Jupiter day. In Nadi's eyes, earth is going slow motion and before we realized she's 10 years old, she's actually 70.
If that ever make sense 🤪
that is some entertaining but still crazy, talk. Nadi is from China, and they are overworked there and thereby very ready for sleepy-time or as I say to her before I walk to the bedroom, well, sleepy time. She is always ready for this but it seems as though slumber is a priority for her at all times throughout the day. I keep hearing from fitness people that we need to prioritize sleeping and dogs seem to have that nailed.
If I slept every time that Nadi was tired, we wouldn't have food.
I don't envy you for this sleep issue. I have my own issue, although less problematic than yours and manageable, it's still an issue if you don't pay attention to it. My problem is light sleeping, which is why I can't rest properly.
I think I should set an alarm every day and just snooze it many times.
⋆ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘʟᴀᴄᴇ ғᴏʀ sᴏᴜᴛʜᴇᴀsᴛ ᴀsɪᴀɴ ᴄᴏɴᴛᴇɴᴛ ᴏɴ ʜɪᴠᴇ
⋆ sᴜʙsᴄʀɪʙᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ᴀsᴇᴀɴ ʜɪᴠᴇ ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴛʏ
⋆ ғᴏʟʟᴏᴡ ᴛʜᴇ ᴀsᴇᴀɴ ʜɪᴠᴇ ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴛʏ ᴠᴏᴛɪɴɢ ᴛʀᴀɪʟ
⋆ ᴅᴇʟᴇɢᴀᴛɪᴏɴ ʟɪɴᴋs 25 ʜᴘ⇾50 ʜᴘ⇾100 ʜᴘ⇾500 ʜᴘ⇾1,000 ʜᴘ