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y arent i tired, it is 5 Am on est, and i have slept 3 hours in the past 48 hours.

What is this going to do?

i think it might be stress releated.

i am not a doctor but i would say you will probably start getting paranoid, space out, pass out and then if you dont get any sleep in a long time- die. Try getting into. Shut down your computer and try to sleep.

Pretend to sleep. It sounds stupid, but it is better than nothing.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

First practice good sleep hygiene: http://www.stanford.edu/~dement/howto.html http://www.sleepeducation.com/Hygiene.aspx

Next look into melatonin. It's an over the counter supplement sold with the vitamins at any pharmacy and the same hormone that tells your body it's time to sleep. It will make you sleepy. Too much melatonin though will cause nightmares and poor sleep so take only as much as needed right before bed.

Get more sun during the day. Sleep is regulated by light and dark cycles. Not enough light and your body never gets the right wake up signal so fails to recognize when it gets darker and is time to sleep. Go outside for at a least a few hours during the day. Not dark enough around bedtime and your body doesn't get a strong enough sleep signal. Turn off as many lights as possible a few hours before bed and when you go to bed make the room as dark as possible.

It takes about 1 week without sleep before you are at risk of suffering permanent damage or death. If you do not get any sleep for more than 3 days or continue to suffer poor sleep for 5-7 days see a doctor.

Avoid all caffiene. Exercise plenty daily.

Some nuts help you fall asleep easier (almonds?). Drink a glass of warm milk with honey before sleeping. The fact that your not tired makes it seem like you need to work your body more.

I would like to know you eating and drinking paterns, also are you getting any exercise and FRESH AIR. If there are any personal of health issues dont waste time see a doctor.

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Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
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im out tossing the baseball around for 3-4 hours a day.

other than that, i dont drink umm... i eat ok i guess, alittle too much fast food, but that is what i have always done.

umm...i starting to get back on tract. got about 6 hours last night. i think im excited to go back to school on wed.

don't surf net/game at night (revs you up)

don't watch tv/read in bed (get up, get tired, lie down to sleep)

exercise

have a shower to raise your body temp before bed (sends sleep messages to the brain)

Calla is onto something.... if you can't sleep don't do active things to fill in time (like go on computer which will stimulate your brain) even lying down without sleeping rests the body systems a little.


Glad you are getting back into a sleep pattern now. Glad it is excitement about going back to school not anxiety.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~ My fish blow kisses at me all day long ~~~

i think im on the computer to late. i always answer fish questions and one question leads to another and it builds up. i started at 11 and now its 2 am est.

late night comp usage is especially bad as it puts light directly into the eyes from the screen.

I tend to have a rather screwy sleep pattern in that I'm often tired in the middle of the day but then am awake late at night till I fall asleep reading. I've also been known to stay awake for days at a time.


Yep, sleep hygine is very important. It's not always followed in this society.

^_^

I don't sleep without medication. At all. Days go by before I more pass out than sleep for a few hours before doing it again. I did that for around 10years. Lack of sleep actually impairs brain function to the point that in highschool I got sent to a psychiatrist and diagnosed as autistic. At the time everyone agreed with it especially those who knew someone with autism and they gave me a diploma with only half my credits finished. Now that I'm getting sleep anyone I tell that to looks at me weird like they have no idea how I could have any type of mental disorder and people who have dealt with autism deny it greatly and ask what psychiatrist I went to so they can make sure to avoid dealing with them. Sleep has a huge impact on all aspects of your life especially your personality and mental ability.

All the little home remedies for sleep have no impact on me so I can only say they are suppose to work but the shower I kinda disagree with. When you go to sleep your body lowers in temperature. I turn the a/c down by at least 5 degrees in the evening to tell my body to sleep. Raising body temp is bad. 1 reason showers wake you up in the morning. It might help you relax though if your lack of sleep is anxiety or stress related.

Give yourself a bedtime, make sure you get to sleep at that time. Get all required (for school or your job) work done during the day so you don't have it hanging over your head. Shut off the computer... if you get really immersed in the computer or TV and don't check the time very often at night, set an alarm (cell phone alarm is great because you can set it to music that doesn't startle you more awake) for that time and commit to saving your work and shutting down.

It helps to have habits that you are used to doing right before bed so that you're ready to sleep - for example I always brush my teeth right before going to bed so I know when my teeth are clean and minty it's time to go to sleep... I have a hard time sleeping if I haven't brushed my teeth.

I get to sleep really easily by reading a slow book. You could try textbooks, encyclopedia, or other reference type books. If I pick something like that up I can usually only read a couple pages before putting it down, turning out the light, and falling asleep.

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hi guys,
for years (since i was 7 or 8) ive had bad dreams enhanced by voilent/explosive nightmares, which at 7 years old really isnt good...im now 20 and still self-medicate (illegaly may i add, according to the british governement) to sleep.
Some things on here are really good factually, but its also a common known fact that lack of sleep can lead to depression..
One thing in particular i picked up on, is about having the same getup/go to bed time...for some people this is just not doable. As a chef, i could finish work at 9 or 12, or on weekends even later. So, if i finish work at 10.30 say, then starts my social life....what time should i be going to bed? and should i be waking up at 12:00pm if i have work at 2pm, or should i be up at 9.00am as if i was in work at 10am?
Tried loads of pescriptions, some work but make me feel ill in the morning and hung-over...
James

Probably depends on the individual but I didn't find a really strict bedtime to be useful and a strict wake up time entirely worthless. Much better to move the time I go to bed to match when I want to get up. A couple days different does not bother me. Ie if I stay up until 1-2am on a weekend and then try to go to bed at 11pm on the weekdays I do fine. More than a couple days and it alters the time I can fall asleep by an hour or 2 and it takes me 4 or 5 days to move it back to 11pm. When you have sleeping issues you can't change your sleep schedule very quickly. Best to go to bed based on how many hours of sleep you want to get and what time you have to get up and then try to keep it within an hour or 2 on most days. Takes some fine tuning but the only problem I really have now is that medication does not allow for very deep sleep so I need close to 10hours of sleep to feel rested and that's not always possible(much improvement over no sleep). I also can't take naps since unless I take meds I don't sleep and meds last at minimum 8hours so I end up feeling drugged for 8hours after taking it. If you feel hungover in the morning you probably didn't take the meds early enough to get them all out of your system by the time you wake up or you took too much. It's sometimes a fine line. I have lots of practice cutting pills into 1/4ths and 1/8ths so I can take an exact amount of something.

Last suggestion if your going to keep an odd sleep/wake cycle get blackout curtains and then go outside for at least a short while first thing when you get up and keep the rest of the house bright until you want to sleep. If not you won't sleep well after the sun comes up even if you don't completely wake up and since the bedroom is blacked out if you don't get some sun soon after waking you will have issues feeling awake and concentrating for part of the day. Made a huge difference when I put in the blackout curtains.

Most of my life I was a terrible sleeper often going without sleep or catching an hour here and there doctors had no clue as what to do. I was taking strong medications for years. Then at Gym one day we were
discussing carbs in meals/snacks, then the penny dropped very hard and quickly.
I basically have no carbs for an evening meal, no coffee after 3pm. I do not drink any soft drinks at all.
Then with in a week I started sleeping 6-8hours a night with out medications. I have done this for about 10 years now.

I was refering to Coke etc a young bloke I know had six red bull energy drinks one afternoon and he was off and up his tree for many hours.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info

Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
VOTE NOW VOTE NOW

Sometimes I think the human expectation of what is normal sleep is pretty flawed, basically its theorised that we developed to be more of less crepuscular, awake at dawn and dusk.We were vulnerable hunter gatherers, and for us to do well nutritionally and survive it basically required us to be awake around dawn and dusk, and a few times in between, so behaviourally, most of us are fighting a primal need to be awake according to occassion.Its normal for a human to sleep multiple times in a day, thusly to have the energy to cope with unexpected events at a moments notice. Its our employers and governments that recommend we stay up for 16 hours and sleep for 8 , its a way to maximise our productivity, and health agencies are pretty much forced to comply with that on grounds of financial realism, but it certainly isnt normal for the species. Thusly millions of insomniacs are created. I myself like to snooze occassionally, but I am flexible enough to stay awake for 8 hours or 48 when needs must.

It was only when depression made me unable to work that I realised I wasnt insomniac at all, but have to obey the whims of my own metabolism. Since depression I averaged 9 hours sleep a day, though there was no real pattern as to when I slept, but prior to severe depression I averaged only 3 hours sleep for more than a decade.

Sleeping when my body decided to make me sleep has also been massively beneficial. I think faster, better, and more profoundly, I calculate small variables more reliably. Ive been awake for disasters and responsive, from floods, to fights and crises. I do a job that takes someone else an hour in about ten minutes. Feel better for it too.

I think working makes you ill and even mentally slow.The rigid life leads to the rigid mind. End of story. Never was able to run on a society or industry clock.In my case, never was able to take the animal out of the man. Had to find a way to go with it. Oddly enough it takes you closer to nature directly too, Im often around when the dayshift of humanity isnt, thus meaning I get some great nature photography opportunities.

Gotta find a way that suits you. Some people can handle routine, others never can. Fighting to comply with expectation can destroy the body and mind. If you have to buck the system out of personal necessity there is no avoiding it. Conversely,there are people who literally dont know what to do with themselves outside of a routine, I guess its all about finding out how things influence you and how to cope with them. Never met an insomniac who didnt have a reason to be so. Its just a case of finding it.
Sleep is handled in different ways all over the world, many south americans, africans and europeans couldnt face a day without a midday snooze, their society allows for it. Others need a solid 10 hour nightly sleep. Other run on a 48 hour clock, others only stay awake to do something necessary for survival. The thing to take account of here, is does the society rule the man , or does the man do what he must.

Dont lose sleep over it

Sleeping when my body decided to make me sleep has also been massively beneficial. I think faster, better, and more profoundly, I calculate small variables more reliably.

But my body doesn't make me sleep. Irregardless of schedule and even when I can sleep whenever I want I don't sleep. When I have nothing going on and go to bed when I feel like it and wake up when I feel like it I don't sleep without meds. I don't just have a bad sleep schedule or poor internal clock. Whatever allows you to sleep when your tired doesn't work for me. Even if I go to bed feeling great and relaxed with no stress or anxiety and I'm extremely tired if I don't take anything I lay there for the next 12hours wishing I could sleep. 3 days later it's the same and by then you wouldn't think there'd be any external stimulus that would keep you awake so something beyond that has to be wrong with my ability to sleep. Now if I could just find a doctor who doesn't say my insomnia is caused by depression or anxiety when it's the other way around. Lack of sleep causes such problems and getting sleep makes them go away but noone knows what causes me not to sleep. I took every antidepressant and antianxiety med in existence before I finally demanded some ambien and lunesta from a doctor and finally started getting sleep.

Ever thought that it may be that your seratonon levels are too high or that possibly youve become hyperthyroid?

Might be worth having the ol' hormone levels analysed.

Actually high serotonin is quite likely in my opinion. Taking those meds that increase serotonin actually makes me nervous and shaky instead of supposedly be antianxiety. I had panic attacks after I started taking paxil. However try to convince any doctor of that. They get quite pissed when you self diagnose. Supposedly serotonin cannot get too high unless you take multiple medications that increase serotonin and then show signs of serotonin syndrome. I have none of the symptoms. Just complete insomnia so noone will even consider it.

Im thinking perhaps the first step of a cure is a change of doctor. Last time I checked self diagnosis was kind of an intrinsic right of being connected to a nervous system and having a sentient brain, much of a doctors analysis actually depends on a patients point of view especially as regards chemical imbalances or dare I say mental disturbances , abnormalities , and abnormal behaviour.

For the sake of a few tests its gotta be worth a go. I wouldnt stay with a doctor who dismisses things out of hand without the slightest willingness to test a theory or two. The medical proffession isnt quite so far out of the medieval period as we'd like to imagine, and some fields like behavioural psychology and sleep research are still very much in their infancy, and are more theory than proof, and so little is known as for there to have some open and frank discussion as a necessity.

People have sufferred illnesses , even mental conditions undiagnosed and untreated for most of their lives because of a failure to co-operate. I wouldnt miss out on a chance of better life quality, the avoidance of nervous breakdowns and serious physical accidents because some doctor is a little moody about their authority being challenged. People have killed themselves both directly and indirectly while waiting for a damn doctor to get their attitude together.

Insomnia can be a most severe condition.

Take no crap from a doctor about it. Go with someone willing to help and open to ideas. Its your head, your body, and no-one knows it better than you. When diagnoses are more clear cut fine, a doctor can be direct and point to point, even a little arrogance forgiven, but with this sort of condition, no such arrogance need be tolerated.