Other insomniacs?

[WickeDay]

I was doing so well. Going to bed by 10, getting up by 10. I just never seem to be able to keep a schedule. It's like my body thinks I should be up at nightime and sleep all day. It's kindof depressing. I have excedrin pm, some other off-brand and ambien. I try to mix em up so I don't get addicted, but I just seem to have sleep problems that can't be cured.

[JMVandals]

Me too!!

Then you have your twice weekly attempts to "fix" your schedule by staying up all day after not sleeping the night before so you can sleep all night the next night.

That is something I did, then it sent my schedule even worse. I JUST woke up and luckily I have class at 5:45 tonight. I'm not normal either!

Damn nighttime sleepers

[joanneb1253]

I'm not too reversed but I love to go to bed around 2-3 AM and not get up before 8-9. Unfortunatelty I work for clock Nazis who want me at my desk by 8 AM sharp and I have an hour commute each way. Stinks.

My mother said when I was a baby I would stay up half the night and sleep half the day. A former partners feet would hit the floor at first light and be ready to go. He said there was something wrong with me. I asked the doc about this and he said everyone is different and everyones internal clock is different. My guy in my life now is like us so there no issues with sleep habits.

Ya gotta do what works for you. We are not freaks. But if you're like me and have to conform to others infelxable expectations, watch what you eat and drink as well as when you eat. Don't eat a lot before going to bed. It also helps to go to bed at the same time each day and get up at the same time. On weekends do the same thing. Not to our liking, but more of a survivor skill.

[CleverCynic]

guilty.

Hate mornings. I think I have a 28 hour day internally so if I didn't have any place to be for a week or so it would keep rotating later and later. Even if I get up at 7am some day I still stay up until 3am or so. Been lucky this semester though, don't have any classes until 1pm on 3 days and 11 on 2. I usually get up just in time to get ready and leave on all of them.

Morning people really piss me off..not because they are like that, but because they presume to make judgements about those not like that. My God if my grandpa ever caught me SLEEPING still at even 9am he would flip... that was 20 years ago when I was a teen! Oh the lectures...

[isislc]

Ok, I'm gonna make you guys completely sick. I'm a natural insomniac and there is nothing I can take that will make me sleep. I've tried every prescription sleep aid and nothing works. My doctors have even tried prescribing legal downers for me to get me to sleep but nothing. I can easily go through a 3 day stretch with no sleep and not have a problem with functioning, sleep 2 hrs then ready to go again. I know some people say that isn't good for you but that's the way my internal clock works.

Every day I sleep from 2-4 hrs period. I don't even need an alarm clock if I need to be up at a certain time, I naturally wake up on my own when I'm supposed to. I don't like to count on that ability all the time because that one time I don't wake up is the time I REALLY needed to be up so I set the alarm on my phone. If I sleep longer than that I get very sick and it usually involves things like puking and such. If I get tired at all, I take a 15-30 min nap, waking up all refreshed and all. I take 1-2 of those a day sometimes. That's why I work 3rd shift and they are happy with me being here. Cuz like last night, my boss and co-worker are out cold in their chairs so I man the Fort alone for a few hours while they get some Zzzzz's.

[CleverCynic]

Well you're actually the only true insomniac in here. I have no trouble sleeping 12 hour stretches if I can... just not at night.

[JMVandals]

Well you're actually the only true insomniac in here. I have no trouble sleeping 12 hour stretches if I can... just not at night.

heh, me too. I just have an erratic sleeping schedule that will have me be awake for 30 hours at times then sleep for a long time too.

My grades remain great and I don't miss classes so I don't see any issue with it

[TTigggers]

I'm one too can't ever get to bed before 2-3am then get up between 7-9.

If I am very tired and try to go to sleep sooner I end up being up all night long.

I can't stand it when people say you are wasting the day when you sleep late(they go to bed at 9 PM)

I get my urge to do things around 6 PM that's when I kick into gear.

Never did well getting up for school in the morn!

[isislc]

I'll make you guys laugh. When I was in High School I always went to sleep by 12:30am then up by 3:30am every morning. Would do homework then, eat breakfast, go for a jog (was on track team), then got ready for school.

[stefdr]

On a 12 hour a day, 7 day a week work schedule, gotten used to it. When I'm at home on leave, I can stay up till almost 4 a.m, usually computer gaming (Total CoH/CoV fanatic) Sleep until about 10 to 10:30. I get by with about 6.5 to 7 hours of sleep at a time.

[TTigggers]

I'll make you guys laugh. When I was in High School I always went to sleep by 12:30am then up by 3:30am every morning. Would do homework then, eat breakfast, go for a jog (was on track team), then got ready for school.

You make me sick. LOL

I wish I could do that at times.

[Hedwig]

Well you're actually the only true insomniac in here. I have no trouble sleeping 12 hour stretches if I can... just not at night.

I'm the same way. But I have some good news for everyone here (I think).

I went to a program on sleep disorders one time. During the Q&A, I asked if there was evidence to prove that there was such a thing as a night person.

The doctor said there was, and proceeded to ask who felt like they worked better at 6 AM than 3 PM, etc. I don't remember all the times. I just remember that finally he got to a set of times where you were doing your best about 10 PM. I raised my hand, as did several others in the audience.

The doctor then proceeded to tell us that we were the youngsters in the group. He said as you get older, your body naturally moves to function earlier in the day. The longer it takes, the "younger" your body.

I wish my knees knew that!!

[CleverCynic]

Yeah that's a nice thought, hope its true.

But I think it has more to do with the lessening of sleep requirements as you age and your metabolism is done. Eventually you won't sleep more than 5 hours or so. I think mine will still be in the morning though!

[Hedwig]

Mine too.

My favorite slogan used to be "if God had wanted us to see the sunrise, he would have made it at noon."

Then I started an MBA (while working full time).

I realized that sunrises are great--but I was seeing them from the "wrong side."

I'd be at the computer and realize that it was daylight outside.

[brokeinok]

i'm both worlds.... there are times when i go for weeks on 2-3 hours of sleep per day then i'll have a HUGE crash and sleep straight through four alarm clocks. of course, like ili... that crash sleeping makes me sick to my stomach and gives me migraines. i'll actually avoid sleeping when i think i'm going to crash sleep just to avoid that. migraines are the absolute worst, even the ceiling fans blades cutting the air are too loud, ponytail holders can be excruciating. once it was so bad that i couldn't even function enough to get my hands working to get the pony tail holder out of my hair.

it's just the way i've always been sleep wise. i have a hard time regulating it and i've stopped trying. thankfully my main job offers some flexibility so i'll work an 18 hour day once a week or so to make up for the times when i'm only working a 6 hour day.

when i do sleep, i sleep like the dead, without the aid of chemical enhancement. i've slept through a smoke detector going off, a tornado that ripped the swimming pool out of the back yard, the neighbors house across the street on fire (street full of firetrucks and flashing lights). when i'm out, i'm out hard. that's something which i wish i could change now that i live alone, it makes me nervous.

my bf is a morning person and he just doesn't "get" the way i sleep. but he doesn't bug me about it. in fact, i've woke up a couple of times to find him sitting in the chair watching me sleep. he says it's cute, that i regress in age and look like a little kid...ahhh..... yeah, he got a reward for that one

[Hedwig]

when i do sleep, i sleep like the dead, without the aid of chemical enhancement. i've slept through a smoke detector going off, a tornado that ripped the swimming pool out of the back yard, the neighbors house across the street on fire (street full of firetrucks and flashing lights). when i'm out, i'm out hard. that's something which i wish i could change now that i live alone, it makes me nervous.

I'm pretty much like that, too, although now that I have a lot of pain I don't sleep as well.

I've slept through the fire trucks in the street several times.

But I've always heard the phone. I think because my subconscious associated the phone with an emergency.

So after I was divorced but before my current husband moved in, I used to have a morning-person friend call me every morning to wake me up.

Sometimes when the phone rang there would be four alarms going off, and I was sleeping throug them!!

[CleverCynic]

You guys are writing my biography. Alarms are useless to me. My wife and I have been married for 12 years and together 18... back in high school she would call me in the morning to wake me up, and if that didn't work, somehow she compelled her mother to drive by so she could physcially shake me.

now to this day she brings me coffee and keeps on me every 10 minutes to get up.

Those cheap batterized alarm clocks with the two big bells on top from walmart worked pretty well for a while, but I eventually grew immune to them as well, incorporating it into dreams like a phone was ringing or a firetruck was going by... it all made sense and gave no reason to wake up.

The kids have to get up at 6:30 every morning and get dressed for the bus... God Bless my wife... I couldn't imagine having that particular duty. Apparently the whole process is very noisy whatwith grumpy defiant morning wakeups be each day I'm completely oblivious to the whole process.

[JMVandals]

My biography also.

Those cheap batterized alarm clocks with the two big bells on top from walmart worked pretty well for a while, but I eventually grew immune to them as well, incorporating it into dreams like a phone was ringing or a firetruck was going by... it all made sense and gave no reason to wake up.

Its amazing to me how you incorporate the sounds, I always find it funny when I realize it.

I crash after days of limited sleep too. When I know I'm going to do it, I'll set an alarm on my TV (its a few years old, not sure if the new ones have alarms) and turn the volume up on a channel that is all static, it gets me up but pisses off my neighbors.

[stefdr]

Get the Screaming Meanie alarm. It wakes up the neighbors. Can be found at the bigger truck stops or online. And I still call them truck stops. Not travel centers, or travel plazas, or stopping centers. Its a truck stop. I was an OTR driver for over 12 years.

[CleverCynic]

TV thing wouldnt' work for me, I have to have it on to get to sleep to distract my mind from thinking about idle thoughts/stresses etc...

I do on occasion use Ambien or otc sominex. I used to be addicted to Nyquil every night, which wasn't good because that's a lot of tylenol. Before I knew better.

Probaby be easier if I drank more. I just haven't had a taste for it for a few years now, but a glass of wine certainly doesn't hurt. I also drink way too much caffeine during the day. I know there are some steps I could take... but I really don't want to drag-a$$ half the day either.

[CleverCynic]

keep in mind I'm in the Eastern Time zone and it's after 4am now. I got up at 9am yesterday, but like an a$$ I took a nap from 5pm until like 8:30.

[nimrod]

Weirdos.........

In bed by 10 - 10:30 PM - cheerfully SPRING outta bed by 4 AM. Otherwise yer just "burnin' daylight," ya know. Okay - so sometimes it's almost as late as 5 AM on Sundays.

Kindly forward your phone numbers to me so I can rattle yer cages at 4*

(*Well, 4:10 maybe - a guy's gotta make his coffee first)

[JMVandals]

I know weirdos!

OK, so I napped today too. About to get some sleep before class its 5am, my class is at 10:30 am, I'll go, come back and kill time on CIC and random internet sites before my nap around 3pm, to wake at 8pm to go on the usual friday bar run.

[chele444]

What gets me is my husband. The minute (and I mean minute) his head hits the pillow he is asleep. While I sit there awake for another 2 or more hours. Makes me wanna kick him. 'Cept when I do that he starts snoring!!

[J_Snow]

Since I quit smoking, caffeine and alcohol and started exercising I go to bed at 10 (or thereabouts), fall asleep and nothing, I mean nothing, wakes me up until at the earliest 5am but usually I wake up at around 6am.

I've never felt better. No more naps. I sleep thru the night and am very well rested when I get up. With the changes in diet I don't get the after lunch sleepies at all anymore.

I used to think I was an insomniac too-but once I started getting good quality sleep, there is nothing better! This improvement in the sleeping is also a great motivator for me to continue dieting and exercising. In fact today I've ventured out of the Elliptical comfort zone and started doing some abs/lower back exercises to build up those muscles. That way when the fat is burned away there will be some definition under there!