Posted by spoc on June 24, 2004, at 13:26:21
In reply to Re: Sleep disorders » spoc, posted by Dinah on June 24, 2004, at 12:47:06
> That does sound like quite an experience!!!
>
> Did you ever get any help with your sleep disorder? I've been told that if I do indeed have a sleep disorder, fixing it (which is the rub, isn't it) will help everything from my migraines to my mood instability.
>
> Makes sense, but I'm not that hopeful since my psychiatrist thinks I can't tolerate narcolepsy drugs anyway.
>
> Have you had any luck?
<<<< You know, shortly after that I started working from home, and I have no family obligations or other things that demand that I learn to be on the same time most other people are. But that should *not* have passed as a solution to me all these years. I too have heard all kinds of things about what effects we suffer through improper sleep, even when we don't sense it. I was told I may never be going into certain stages of sleep at all. I tend to sleep only four hours or so whenever I do fall asleep, and I may think and sometimes hear that's fine, but I don't really know. And in any event, I think the fact that falling asleep to me means literally passing out from exhaustion -- I know no other way -- affects the quality that ensues thereafter.And I rarely take any meds for it, since it's so chronic, and since as it is I don't often *have* to be anywhere for which proper sleep hours would have been important, so why risk that can of peas.
Weird thing is that in the last year, I go through stages where I flip, falling *dead* asleep "accidentally" relatively early in the evening, and waking up for good at 3 or 4 AM. When all my life I used to be *going* to sleep at those times. This comes on very suddenly and not related to change in routine or mood. But it actually bothers me much less than my other, more typical pattern. And somehow I think it can be explained by how I just walked away from life and holed up awhile back, no exercise, no outdoors, few routines of any kind anymore really. I think one of the theories with DSPS sufferers is that they have no inner clock, so they can end up all over the place. I seem to remember that they said if you put a "normal" person in a cave with no light cues as to time of day, their bodies would still come to follow a normal 24 hour cycle, whereas the bodies of DSPS people wouldn't.
I also probably have a less overactive mind now, because I'm not in there plugging away and trying to figure things out and deal with things anymore.
But, whenever I get moving again, I know it will be back to the other side, falling asleep at 4 AM as I have since adolescence, unrelated to activity level in my life. I know I need to see someone again, my brain probably isn't getting what it needs from sleep. And at the times there is someone in my life who wishes I could sleep normal hours, or when I do need to stick to a normal schedule, it causes a lot of problems. You'll be my role model for taking action! : )
poster:spoc
thread:359740
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20040619/msgs/359821.html