Postmodernist


Insomnia
April 11, 2008, 9:29 am
Filed under: Insomnia | Tags: , , , ,

This insanity inducing phenomenon which keeps me fatigued and unnaturally active via a sadistic fraternization, could be any of the following: (bah!! what!? lack of sleep makes me say these things…)

1. Delayed sleep-phase syndrome where it is common for people to fall asleep after midnight, sleep soundly, and then have trouble waking up in the morning. They won’t feel drowsy if they are able to keep to their sleeping routine (ie. 4am to Noon.)
C. This is not me, because I will stay up till 4am, go to sleep, then wake up naturally at 7am very, very tired all day. (And I don’t nap.)

2. Obstructive sleep apnea which is characterised by pauses in the breathing during sleep. The sleeping individual is unlikely to be aware of this, but indicators are loud snoring, restless sleep, and sleepiness during the day. If this is you, in a worst case scenario you will develop a severe form of congestive heart failure called corpulmonale.
C. I am thankful that I do not have this.

3. Insomnia means you have difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep. Consequently you wake up grumpy and will experience functional impairment when attempting trivial tasks, such as typing an email – ir ceoemes veru diffiecult.
C. Yes. But not so much “difficult” as “I jist cannae be bothered.”

4. Nocturnal polyuria is when you get up to pee, all night long – very disturbing to sleep.
C. Not my problem. Surely this only happens to bad people?

This is by no means a thoroughly explained or exhaustive list, but what I was looking for was evidence – cited or claimed – that sleep deprivation can kill you, and I did not come across any, so that is good.


5 Comments so far
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Well, it’s 12:30 in the morning here in the Midwest, and I’m up reading your very amusing post. In other words, I sympathize. I think I’ll sympathize even more tomorrow, when I’m exhausted because I’ve stayed awake all night, too scared to go to sleep lest I pause in my breathing and start corpulmonalating.

Comment by ordinaryswoon

it’s all about having a schedule. if you convince yourself that you have to go to bed regardless of whether or not you are tired then you’re body will get on a schedule of when it needs to sleep. i can pull this off quite wonderfully during the week, but then during the weekend it breaks down, because i can do whatever i want to. like read blogs and post comments at 4:45am.

Comment by dariusnabors

The rationale behind my post was not to scare fellow insomniacs into even less sleep but to shed some light on the issue… I’m sure you won’t start corpulmonalating!!

Re: schedules. Routines work for me only sometimes. As a general rule, I have no control over the situation.
A glass of red wine before bed is a routine that works more often than not ;)

Comment by natalieam

Unfortunately, I suffer from situation #2. I didn’t breathe for 40 seconds the other night, before I snorted really loud; and went back to my deafening snore.

Yep. I’m going to die.

Comment by sphorx

haha!
oh how we all hate you sleep deprivation! …at least it gives us something to talk about.

Comment by natalieam




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