Insomnia...

[TheGreyRonin]

Hmm. Interesting thought. Okay, here goes... I personally rarely sleep. As a child I slept nearly twelve hours a day, and so deeply I could be bruised before finally waking. I thrashed a lot in my sleep as well; once my mother had to pull my head out where it had gotten stuck between my bed and the wall. LOL At the age of twelve, a lot of things changed for me. My sleep pattern became erratic, going from long nights to short with no notice. After a month or so of this, it steadied down to six hours a night. Then five. Then four.... By the time I was fifteen, I slept an average of three hours a night, "average" because I often went two or three 24-hour periods in a row with no sleep. I grew used to this, and it has been my norm most of my life. One of the side effects of my seizures as an adult has been an answer to what causes my insomnia. It turns out that my brain is constantly in a low-level alpha state of sleep, and apparently doesn't realize it. When I get tired, it checks, sees it is already "asleep", and doesn't drop into the deeper levels of sleep. *shrugs* I'm used to it by now. For the record: My personal long waking period record is eight days, 23 hours, 47 minutes straight. Anyone else?

[Nicole]

Oh, wow. My longest waking period was about 48 hours (give or take, I didn't time it), but usually I get about 5 hours of sleep a night. Much more than that and I feel crappy all day.You are truly, truly insomniac. Has this affected you at all functioning-wise? Did you ever take anything (stimulant, sleep aid, etc.) to try and help you? Sorry for all the ?'s. You just have me so curious.

[TheGreyRonin]

Well, if I go more than 48 hours without, I'm meaner than usual. And if I pass 72 hours....I'm practically the walking dead. Like most medicines, sleep aids have no effect on me, or such weird side effects that insomnia is the lesser of two evils. (As I write this, it is about 1 AM here. I've had three hours of sleep in the past 57...)

[JojoA]

Grey-I'm going to assume you were diagnosed at a sleep disorder clinic. Is there nothing they can do to help you sleep? That's crazy! I sleep about 5 hours a night, but I'm constantly tired. I usually fall asleep every time I try to watch TV or just sit down for awhile with nothing to keep my hands busy. When I was on vacation I slept 7-8 hours a night and I felt great, but then it was back to my early morning job. (My alarm goes off at 4AM). I was up once for about 52 hours straight. I was 16 working the overnight shift at the nursing home and trying to hang out with my BF during the day. I fell asleep on the way home and totaled my dad's car. So I try not to do that. It hurt!

[Guest]

Wow, this is really some interesting stuff you're sharing with us here, Grey! Have the doctors ever linked your high body temp. with your seizures or unusual sleep cycles? I'll bet there's a link! Did the doctors find something going on with the pineal gland in the brain and the way you are producing melatonin? Or is something different happening in your hypothalamus as far as body temp and energy levels go? I'm sure having epilepsy you've gone through some brain scans and such. And thanks for letting us poke around in your health business by the way, I learn just as much from this kind of stuff as I do in my nursing classes

[TheGreyRonin]

*chuckles* I've been a guinea pig for years; what's another run to me? I'm not actually epileptic. Nobody seems to know WHAT I am, seizure-wise. Every test I've had run on me has shown either normal or wildly erratic results, so I've been stuck at Square One since the beginning. And I haven't had any tests done in any way for five years now except during my recent trip to California. Got tired of throwing away money for no answers. *shrugs*

[Guest]

While I am definatly dont have trouble sleeping, I also have absolutly no problem forcing myself to stay awake. The only problem is once I start, its hard to force my body to go to bed when I want it to. It seems that the longer I need to stay up, the more my body gets used to no sleep, and then decides it doesnt need it. I think the longest I have gone without sleep is around the 50 hour mark, and thats when I had about 3 term papers due in like 2 days. On a side note, I often find when I cannot sleep, changing where or how I sleep helps. Putting my head on the other side of the bed, at the foot, or moving on to the couch or the floor often helps me sleep better.Ronin, do other drugs that are supposed to be non-drowsy have any affect on you? I only ask because these, such as Claritin, keep me awake twice as long as they are supposed to. Sleep aids have absolutly no effect on me either. Yet other drugs, such as muscle relaxants or Benadryl put me in a state of mind simular to sleep walking... I just exist. Its a trance like state of mind, where I am useless for the most mundane task.Its interesting to hear about everyones sleep patterns, and how unique we each are.

[TheGreyRonin]

I'm one of those people that only takes medicines of any kind as a last resort. About 85% or more of anything I take has absoultely no effect on me at all. The rest vary widely in effects. Tylenol makes me almost tipsy, for instance. I also build tolerances for things fast, and the effects are permanent. When I was younger I was involved in a few car accidents, and as a result I'm now immune to most forms of anaesthesia and prescription painkillers. Lucky for me I have a ridiculously high pain tolerance. LOLI find that within reason, the longer I'm awake the easier it is on me as well. That 72-hour mark seems to be my wall, though; Once I go zombie, only sleep will cure me. *chuckles* I'm also nocturnal against my will. I can fall asleep MUCH easier during the daytime, and when I have a few days off I have to drag myself back to a "normal" sleeping schedule.

[GSnicklegrove]

It is good to be careful with medicenes. Research clearly shows that some people metabolize medicenes in different ways, at different rates. Because of this, some medicenes have increased adverse effects on the liver. Tipsiness with Tylenol is an example of this. I am exactly the same way with medicenes. Also, medicenes are made for profit, not individuals in mind. Especially without a diagnosis (which occurs at a rate of about 60% of the time in disorders of the brain, nervous system or blood), a medicene is a shot in the dark. These are my own personal opinions based on my own health, research.As far as sleep clinics go, I think they are profitable, and help some people with the symptoms of their illnesses and disorders. Without undercovering exactly the problem, trusting others to uncover the solution is as rare as a white tiger. I know some specialists would have you think not so, but they are as victim to advertsing from industry as any one.Gertie

[Guest]

quote:Yet other drugs, such as muscle relaxants or Benadryl put me in a state of mind simular to sleep walking... I just exist. Its a trance like state of mind, where I am useless for the most mundane task. Finally! I am a sleepwalker myself and others cannot BELIEVE that I realize when I am doing it and I can recall that I had been sleepwalking when I wake up in the morning. I am one of those that can take hours to fall asleep, in when I am dead tired. Sometimes this only puts me in a half dreaming/half aware type state that leads to me sleep walking (I have done this since I was a toddler!). For example, I am able to carry on a half-nonsence conversation while I'm sleep walking, for example, in high school I remember my dad finding me wandering the house in the middle of the night and he asked if I was sleepwalking (Appearantly my parents can tell by my eyes if I am or not). I replied that it was time to go to school (lol) and he said okay, go to your bed and go to sleep now, and I did! That's the norm I guess. Normally I don't remember exactly what happens when I sleepwalk but I can recall that I had done it. It's hard to explain. That's kind of my version of insomnia. I think it has something to do with my panic disorder (that I have also had all of my life) as when I am particularly stressed out I tend to sleep walk more. I also get my panic attacks in the middle of the night rather during my waking hours like most. Since this is so normal I'm only putting the sleepwalking/insomnia with the panic disorder together now! lolThe nights when I don't sleep at all usually are followed by a day where I am super-energetic and will only sleep an hour or two the following night. And I just go go go until I finally pass out about the third day and sleep for 10 or more hours if I can. It's just this adrenaline rush.And lucky me, I can't take sleeping pills either because they induce panic attacks! But overall I think it's better to not take anything at all unless my quality of life has gone down the tubes. Grey, if you are normally functional and your life isn't seriously affected by not being treated/medicated I would just let it go, too. Our minds and bodies are such complicated and diverse machines that we all have some little quirks we learn to live with!

[KittyCaller]

AH! Another anxiety/panic sufferer. I've been dealing with them for all my teen years, and even when I was really young, I was fairly shy and nervous. Got stomach aches before school in the morning, etc. I also tend to get a lot of anxiety/panic attacks at night, when trying to get to sleep. I think it's because I'm constantly trying to block out unwanted thoughts during the day, but they all want to come pouring out the minute I try to let my guard down. I actually love real sleep. The longest I've slept with no medicinal or medical reason was for 14 consecutive hours, I think. But I have definitely been known to talk in my sleep, and walk occasionally. My sister says she's come in my room early morning to borrow a tee-shirt, and caught me responding to something someone said on tv. (I usually have the tv or a dvd on when I'm trying to sleep) Once or twice a year I go through about a week where I just can't seem to fall asleep no matter what. I can sometimes catch a quick nap during the day, but come night, it's impossible. 'course I'm also a natural night owl, and the longest I've been able to stick with a "normal" schedule is a week. I just revert back to my odd hours, even if it makes me tired at first. Cindy, have you found that staying away from caffeine helps with the panic? I know now that caffeine with too little sleep is a VERY bad combo for me.

[Guest]

Someone else! KC, I've been the same way since I was very little. It's actually hereditary on my mom's side of the family. My mom said she knew when i was very very little that I was going to be like her and my grandma. Very jittery and nervous for no good reason. And I feel the same way about getting my panic attacks at night...usually I will be asleep for a bit and I'll wake up feeling like I'm having a heart attack! After college started it actually got so bad that I need a little bit of medication and it really helps a lot. Same with me, once I start to relax my body just lets go of all of the anxiety in the form of a panic attack. Mine have gotten so bad that I have actually passed out from them.Yes, I absolutely have to stay away from caffeine. I have been having heart palpitations for some yet-to-be-known reason and staying away from caffeine is a must for that. I rarely had more than one cup of coffee a day before I was restricted and almost never drank pop, but I have noticed a big difference from not drinking coffee anymore. I sleep so much more soundly than before and have not had an attack since april (even with a bit of medicine I'd get an attack about once a month). Even without some sort of anxiety problem, it's just terrible what stress can do to someone's health.

[TheGreyRonin]

I used to sleepwalk when I was younger, but rarely do anymore. (Not sleeping kind of has a bit to do with it. LOL) I still do maybe once every year or so. Out of the blue I'll actually get some rest, and someone will tell me I was wandering again. That, or I'll find my house...different than when I went to sleep.Scariest sleepwalk was about four months ago. I woke up to find blood from one end of my house to the other. Was mine; I apparently had a nosebleed while I was sleepwalking. No harm except ruined clothes, a lot of cleaning, and frazzled nerves on my end!

[Jedediah]

I usually sleep very well and don't sleepwalk but occasionally I wake up and cannot move. I'm always scared to death because this goes along with a really strong feeling that someone else is in the room and twice I even heard voices. I couldn't understand what was said, though. I never had any idea what was wrong until I came across it in a book by Carl Sagan where it was said that while you sleep your muscles are more or less paralyzed to prevent you from getting up and doing whatever you're dreaming at the time ect. Sometimes this paralysis is working overtime and causes what I described above. Sagan assumed that this was responsible for at least part of the "abducted by aliens"-stories we hear and I can imagine he's right. It's really scray, even with knowing what happens, but I found out that when I manage to twitch once, it all dissappears. I'd love to knwo what causes that "people in my room"-feeling, though.

[NewCrabber]

Jedediah, I have experienced that too and have also read about sleep paralysis. It was the worst feeling! What made it especially weird is that I dreamt that I left my body, I could see myself floating, and went into my roommates room, which was next to mine, went to the end of her bed, looked down, realized where I was and how I got there, felt tremendous fear and zipped back to my body and then I immediately and abruptly woke up. I couldn't move, I felt completely paralyzed, as though I was pinned under a ton of bricks or something. It was freaky to say the least, but that was the first and last time I've experienced it.When this occurs upon waking, it's called, hypnopompic or postdormtal form of sleep paralysis. According to what I read, hallucinations are sometimes present and in some of those cases, people feel someone else is in the room. I don't recall having read anything about hearing voices, but maybe that explains it. I also lurked around on an astral projection site a few times when thinking about that experience many years later. They'd have an entirely different explaination for my dream and your feeling and hearing someone in the room with you.