[demograph68]

It's 6:30 am and still no sleep. This sucks.

[Timo]

Originally posted by demograph68:
It's 6:30 am and still no sleep. This sucks.

At about 3:50 am I gave up, and decided to start my day. I got up, showered, had a yogurt, waited for the train while reading a novel. I came into the office and turned all the lights on, checked for a missing fax, made some coffee.

So now it's 6:30 am and I ran out of gas. I feel your pain.

[demograph68]

Originally posted by Timo:
At about 3:50 am I gave up, and decided to start my day. I got up, showered, had a yogurt, waited for the train while reading a novel. I came into the office and turned all the lights on, checked for a missing fax, made some coffee.

So now it's 6:30 am and I ran out of gas. I feel your pain.

Coffee is your friend. What work do you do?

[RobOnTheCape]

Ever try Ambien? Need a script, but man what a great sleep with no side effects at all. One minute your reading, and the next you're having trouble putting the words together.

I'll pop one every so often when I have those nights.

[effgee]

Originally posted by demograph68:
It's 6:30 am and still no sleep. This sucks.

I know the feeling - sucks big time. I frequently work late in my office (until 4am or so) and when I get to bed at a decent time once in a while I'm all fscked in the head and can't sleep, either. Listening to audio books (Harry Potter, for example - they rock) helps me chill and usually I'll pass out after half an hour or so.

If you're into "herbal remedies" a nice cup of "Amsterdam-style" tea will do the trick as well.

[juanvaldes]

5:09 and I am starting to think about sleep.

[IceEnclosure]

8:25 am and I've thought about sleep quite a bit.

It's the thought that counts.

[Timo]

Originally posted by demograph68:
Coffee is your friend. What work do you do?

I'm an architect. There's no heat on, so I'm tired and cold. I assume you're asleep (better).

[Randman]

Where did you find an audiobook of Harry Potter?

[demograph68]

Originally posted by Timo:
I'm an architect. There's no heat on, so I'm tired and cold. I assume you're asleep (better).

Nope.

[effgee]

Originally posted by Randman:
Where did you find an audiobook of Harry Potter?

Bertelsmann/Randomhouse/Listening Library ... overview here, read by Jim Dale. IIRC amazon sells all of them.

I'm by no means an audio book expert but out of the three or four handfulls I've listened to, Jim Dale is by far the most gifted reader. It's almost more fun than reading the books themselves. I got the first one for shits and giggles, was totally excited and bought the other four as well. The wife and I spent entire Sundays just sitting on the couch listening to them (e.g., the fifth book comes on 23 discs!)

Highly recommended and (imho) worth every last penny!

[Timo]

Originally posted by demograph68:
Nope.

Stayin' up, like me, eh? Race ya.

[SamuraiDL]

I believe the record is like 11 or 12 days straight no sleep, you guy should go for it. And update this thread on your progress, like hallucinations, and feelings throughout your sleep deprivation.

[demograph68]

Originally posted by SamuraiDL:
I believe the record is like 11 or 12 days straight no sleep, you guy should go for it. And update this thread on your progress, like hallucinations, and feelings throughout your sleep deprivation.

Ok. I'm feeling like going to bed.... need coffee... yeah. um... 11 days? Damn.

[TheIceMan]

I've been an insomniac since I was a kid. It's now 2:15am here in Saipan and I'm wide awake. Doesn't help that I love using my Powerbook to surf the web!

[demograph68]

Originally posted by TheIceMan:
I've been an insomniac since I was a kid. It's now 2:15am here in Saipan and I'm wide awake. Doesn't help that I love using my Powerbook to surf the web!

If I didn't have internet access, I'd have been asleep hours ago. Oh well.

[Disgruntled Head of C-3PO]

My friend is lucky if he gets an hour a night of sleep. He lays in bed for 7 hours a night for physical rest but actual sleep is about 30 min on average. Sometimes he goes 4 days without sleep. Scary thing is he is rather functional.

The doctors can't do anything for him, they gave him a sleeping pill that would knock out a horse and he didn't sleep a wink.

[SamuraiDL]

so how long demograph since you last slept?

[demograph68]

About 34 Hours. Then I went to bed today at around 1 pm.

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Originally posted by demograph68:
About 34 Hours. Then I went to bed today at around 1 pm.

I guess that would explain the dark circles around your eyes

[demograph68]

They're painting the walls outside my apartment door right now. I think I'm getting high. "LOOK AT THOSE COLORS!!!"

[SimpleLife]

Originally posted by demograph68:
They're painting the walls outside my apartment door right now. I think I'm getting high. "LOOK AT THOSE COLORS!!!"

hummm...

My record is 76 hours straight. Never saw any such things. But I remember quite clearly that on hour 75, I could not care less about the world.

I remember at some point that I was crying, almost from despair, but it did not last.

In the last few years, I often did 48-56 hours in a row; work was excruciatingly demanding and the stress level was just so high. I would bike 40-50 kilometers shots on top of that and still be unable to sleep.

My solution is just to take it slow, avoid driving, do as usual but less intense. Avoid alcohol, coffee, chocolate and eat fibers (they do trigger sleep because of digestion but ymmv). Don't take warm baths or showers because they trigger you to stay awake longer after the warmth effect. Also, heavy exercices before going to be raises your adrenaline levels so it may not be a solution at all.

Hope this helps!

Edit: when it is time to go to bed, if you have a partner, go sensual rather than the "other thing". Massages in a comfortable atmosphere can be very good. The "other thing" is good too.

[TubaMuffins]

Originally posted by SimpleLife:
...

Edit: when it is time to go to bed, if you have a partner, go sensual rather than the "other thing". Massages in a comfortable atmosphere can be very good. The "other thing" is good too.

Since my girl left to study abroad, i have had trouble sleeping, mostly because she always told me when to go to bed, so now I'm never sure when's a good time. I was up till 8am the other day then had to head off to work at noon, that was fun.

Also, my record was during Initiation Week at my frat. over 6 days, or 144 hours, I got a total of 7 hours of sleep, thats not an hour here and there either, those were mostly clumped together. Hallucinations followed very soon after the first few days. but the world is a different place at 6:30am when no one is awake except for the friendly folks at Starbucks.

[deej5871]

When I first saw the thread title I thought it would be about the Stephen King book (because of the other thread).

Anyway, whoever said Ambien is good, I'm not so sure. I mean, it'll get you to sleep, but drug-induced sleep isn't the best kind. You probably won't reach REM sleep (in other words, you won't dream), which can be very bad to your health. People can be getting tons of sleep and little to no REM sleep and the effects are about the same as having no sleep at all (or, at least, just as bad).

[Mafia]

Originally posted by deej5871:
When I first saw the thread title I thought it would be about the Stephen King book (because of the other thread).

Anyway, whoever said Ambien is good, I'm not so sure. I mean, it'll get you to sleep, but drug-induced sleep isn't the best kind. You probably won't reach REM sleep (in other words, you won't dream), which can be very bad to your health. People can be getting tons of sleep and little to no REM sleep and the effects are about the same as having no sleep at all (or, at least, just as bad).

blah blah blah
when i can't sleep it does the trick and i wake up refreshed.

[deej5871]

Originally posted by Mafia:
blah blah blah
when i can't sleep it does the trick and i wake up refreshed.

Well I'm happy for you. Whatever works...

It's just I've read a lot on the subject of sleep (but I'm not an expert by any means), and almost everything says REM and getting other forms of sleep are more important than just plain sleep, and most drugs put you out so you don't dream like you usually would (and should).

[rozwado1]

D68: you can beat the record by mixing old technology with new technology:

old:


new:

[demograph68]

That's cheating though.

[IceEnclosure]

Originally posted by demograph68:
That's cheating though.

funny, most of my friends are cheaters. not me.

I actually gave in around 11am this morning, woke up at 9pm with a fever of 101. crap.

I'm shivering.

[mdc]

i suffer small bouts of insomnia once in a while. i'll be awake at 6am, sitting around, then finally fall asleep, but i get about 7 hours sleep.

i was awake for about 36 hours once and i felt drunk. very strange.

[yukon]

Research sleep. Seriously. Learn all you can about it, what triggers it, what it's (probably) necessary for, what lowers the need to sleep, the seven habits of highly slumberous people . I did, and though it didn't cure what was wrong (a mild sleep disorder), I know how to cure it if my schedual changes drastically some day and I need to adapt to it.

Don't stay in bed, do something when you can't sleep. Something that doesn't need much thinking, but occupies you. Take at least a half hour break before bed, no TV/Computer, no working. No caffeine 3 hours before bed, some people say none in the afternoon even. There's more that can be done, things like playing half an hour of delta waves while you're in bed, might help....avoid medication if at all possible, it might be necessary in extreme cases, but it's a last resort, doctors prescribe pills for sleep disorders all too automatically.

Don't take warm baths or showers because they trigger you to stay awake longer after the warmth effect. Also, heavy exercices before going to be raises your adrenaline levels so it may not be a solution at all.

Thank you SimpleLife, I didn't know of the first one, that probably helps me (I'll test it out tonight). The second one, I've been told that a "quiet exercise", like walking or something slow and simple (maybe yoga?) can help one tire out, haven't tried that.

DisgruntledHeadofC3PO, all I could suggest that might help your friend...hmm....tell your friend to read more in bed. Books. Difficult ones. Shakespeare, philosophy, history, novels, essays on physics. Perhaps he could mentally tire himself. And if this doesn't work, at least he won't be laying in bed for 7 hours doing nothing, that can be incredibly frustrating. Maybe some ambient music while he's in bed (ambient as in Brian Eno). You mention doctors, has he been to a sleep clinic? If nothing else, study of him could provide humankind with a way to not require sleep, and if not then maybe the clinic can just help him ;-D.

[voyageur]

I've read it's hard to fall asleep if your feet are cold, and I know this is true for me (it's about the only thing that keeps me awake, luckily). And if you're in the Northeast US this week, you probably have popsicle toes! Maybe woolly socks, and a goose-down comforter are the answer.

Also, a good bout of aerobic excercise during the day can help, if you have time for it.
Sweet dreams!

[sek929]

Every year I go though boughts of Insomnia, sometimes lasting a week, sometimes 2.

I always, I mean always, have trouble falling asleep. Takes me on average of two hours of laying in bed to fall asleep, and thats if I am exhausted. My brain just doesn't like to turn off.

A couple summers ago I went 2 1/2 weeks with like 2 hours of sleep total, by the end I would laugh at almost anything, and coupled with my strict regiment of pot and booze I was quite mad. Then one day I fell asleep watching TV at 4 pm and slept till 10:30 pm the next night. It was surreal.

Some people (usually straightedge) will say that sleep deprivation is fun and better than any drug, they are stupid. Getting wasted on Tequila is fun, smoking a blunt is fun, not sleeping for 2 weeks is hell.

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Originally posted by yukon:

DisgruntledHeadofC3PO, all I could suggest that might help your friend...hmm....tell your friend to read more in bed. Books. Difficult ones. Shakespeare, philosophy, history, novels, essays on physics. Perhaps he could mentally tire himself. And if this doesn't work, at least he won't be laying in bed for 7 hours doing nothing, that can be incredibly frustrating. Maybe some ambient music while he's in bed (ambient as in Brian Eno). You mention doctors, has he been to a sleep clinic? If nothing else, study of him could provide humankind with a way to not require sleep, and if not then maybe the clinic can just help him ;-D.

He has had this problem since he hit puberty. He is 27 now and it is no better. He has gone to doctors and sleep clinics and in the end they just tell him that he is a classic insomniac and to take a sleeping pill. He doesn't want drugs but he tried them and they didn't even put him to sleep.

He is a full time drama and english teacher so he does plenty of the reading you mentioned.

I told him to try acupuncture and he is currently taking yoga for a year (which hasn't helped).

[nredman]

[Albert Pujols]

Most of my posts here are late at night/early in the morning.



Insomnia can ruin your life.

[yukon]

Insomnia sucks. The movie wasn't bad though, artistic.

DisgruntledSeveredHeadofLuke3PO....I suppose your friend only gets very limited sleep, which must be totally REM or something (lack of it would be fatal), but other phases of sleep actually do have functions, important ones at that. Since your friend has been to doctors and sleep clinics, and I do understand how unhelpful doctors can be, it might be a matter of finding the right doctor if the others are just dismissing it as standard insomnia.

I'll suggest a few other ideas, I empathize with the guy. There's the "hemisync" type of method, some say that playing sound frequencies that match a specific brain pattern helps them (as the brain waves can sync to these frequencies), your friend might want to try something like that...there's "Brainwave Generator" that uses binaural beats, there's a demo on Windows, it has a preset for delta sleep AFAIK. There's hypnosis, autohypnosis might help. Related to auto-hypnosis, meditation could help, if anything it's a state of relaxation. The herbal remedy "Valerian" can induce sleep. Those are all sometimes-effective treatments that aren't as brute force as what's usually prescribed (except maybe the valerian, but it's "natural"), I don't like how doctors currently treat patients without knowing the circumstances of the illness or the lifestyle causing it, I'm not about to suggest harsh medications...Though I'm certain there's a pill and dosage that could make him fall sleep.

Anyone with trouble sleeping, I'd really advise checking out the known sleep disorders and their treatment. Sleep research picked up relativly recently, but the results of it are just starting to come in. Best of luck.

[Mafia]

Originally posted by yukon:
Insomnia sucks. The movie wasn't bad though, artistic.

DisgruntledSeveredHeadofLuke3PO....I suppose your friend only gets very limited sleep, which must be totally REM or something (lack of it would be fatal), but other phases of sleep actually do have functions, important ones at that. Since your friend has been to doctors and sleep clinics, and I do understand how unhelpful doctors can be, it might be a matter of finding the right doctor if the others are just dismissing it as standard insomnia.

I'll suggest a few other ideas, I empathize with the guy. There's the "hemisync" type of method, some say that playing sound frequencies that match a specific brain pattern helps them (as the brain waves can sync to these frequencies), your friend might want to try something like that...there's "Brainwave Generator" that uses binaural beats, there's a demo on Windows, it has a preset for delta sleep AFAIK. There's hypnosis, autohypnosis might help. Related to auto-hypnosis, meditation could help, if anything it's a state of relaxation. The herbal remedy "Valerian" can induce sleep. Those are all sometimes-effective treatments that aren't as brute force as what's usually prescribed (except maybe the valerian, but it's "natural"), I don't like how doctors currently treat patients without knowing the circumstances of the illness or the lifestyle causing it, I'm not about to suggest harsh medications...Though I'm certain there's a pill and dosage that could make him fall sleep.

Anyone with trouble sleeping, I'd really advise checking out the known sleep disorders and their treatment. Sleep research picked up relativly recently, but the results of it are just starting to come in. Best of luck.

its not that i have trouble sleeping. i kind of enjoy being by myself with no distractions. i usually stay up late working on projects that are not work or school related.

[Albert Pujols]

Argh, another sleepless night. Now I have to manage not to make a fool out of myself at school today. Like yesterday, when the teacher asked me a question and I stared at her for about a minute because I was 'sleeping' with my eyes open.

[Link]

Ironic, but here if it's too warm in my room, I just can't sleep... so guess what, my insomnia kicks in during the summer *smirks* I dunno why, but it happens.

[Albert Pujols]

I have bad sleep hygiene.

My computer, which also doubles as my TV, is a distraction. I usually end up watching TV or just spending time on my computer every night. I think I'm just going to shut it off for a week, see if that helps. Hopefully I can make it a week without my computer.

[andretan]

Me too.

Gotta set my iBook to auto sleep? Heh.

[SSharon]

Partly because of finals but I I have stayed awake all through the night 4 times in the past week. I can't write papers during the day so I usually start my work at midnight. I have horrible sleeping habits because of bad study habits, but I still think I have sleep issues. I finished the writing I wanted to do tonight an hour ago, but I am still awake and I just don't know why.

[Albert Pujols]

Same here, I used to do all my homework and papers at night because I couldn't do them during the day. Then I took naps during the day which messed me up.

[joltguy]

2 weeks ago I had a stint where I would would start working at around 10pm, work through until 6am. Then I'd drive home, sleep for 1 or 2 hours max, then be awake for the rest of the day taking care of my daughters. Start work @ 10pm, repeat. Did this for 4 days of a 5 day work week. By the end of it, everything was funny. That wasn't so bad. The real problem I had was that my joints started to ache fiercely and I felt like I was about 100 years old.

Anyway, I'd say I get an average of 3-4 hours sleep per night (sometimes less, sometimes more, sometimes none). I like to think I've conditioned my body to deal with it. I'm a dedicated father/husband, which means I *rarely* use my computer during the day. If I didn't burn the candle at both ends I'd never get the chance to feed my computer addiction. Simply stated:

Importance of computer time > Importance of sleep time

[Demonhood]

sleep is for people with nothing better to do at night.