What's your sleep like?

[LizKat]

I get about 7 hours of sleep most nights. I used to make do on less fairly often, maybe 5 hours a night for most weeknights and 7 or 8 on weekends. That was while I was working in the city. Up in the sticks here I always wake very early, so that has gradually worn away my night owl tendencies, even though I still pull the occasional all nighter for the hell of it (and because I drank too much iced coffee). I feel way more wasted two days after I stay up too late now though. It does catch up to me in noticeable ways that seemed not the case when I was younger.

I can't imagine taking a nap during the day, I need it to be dark to sleep. So, I do have to try to make sure I don't drink a coffee in the evening. It affects me more now because I drink so little of it or maybe because of my age.

On dreaming: I don't often remember dreams, usually they seem a bit pointless... a couple times I have dreamed of being shot at point blank range, always came as a surprise to me, I was like what? why would you do this? and then I wake up annoyed because I don't recognize the character who killed me so I can't go find him and yell at him for disturbing my sleep. I have tried to turn those into lucid dreams but with no luck, best I can do is wake up when the stranger in the dreams shoots me.

Never the same stranger. Always in the home of someone else who in the dream seems to be someone I know, like maybe the tenant in the next apartment over, or once it was someone who was apparently a friend (unrecognized by me in real life after I woke up) and was apartment-sitting my place while I was away, and when I came back and we were just chatting, this guy wanders in from the kitchen as if he'd gone out there for a cuppa coffee and was rejoining us, only he hadn't been there before and he just raised a gun and shot me.

I woke up almost laughing that time because it just didn't make sense. It felt like someone fast-forwarded a boring movie to get to the denouement. In a way it made me think other boring dreams of mine could end up that way except no one usually bothers to fast-forward them so I wake up out of sorts that I was bored in a dream. I like the ones better where I'm just out walking in a meadow like the real one out back. I have those fairly often too, they don't really go anywhere but they must be my brain saying I got this, everything's cool. I try to treat them all like free entertainment. As the producer, I seem to lack ambition.

 

[Gutwrench]

I prefer not having to take ambien, but it’s been extremely helpful.

 

[Sackofnickels]

zQuil is my friend...

 

[themp]

Terrible... can't ever fall asleep until super late, which would be fine if I didn't have to get up early. Being a surgeon and on call doesn't help. Typically 4-6 hours a night, broken.
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Thread Revival

I heard an interview today on NPR with a sleep expert who manages a sleep clinic in San Diego and heard four interesting things:

• Melatonin as far as a pill is the best thing you can take, however, it just tells your body, it’s time to sleep. It’s not involved in the sleep itself. So it’s useful for recovering from jet lag.
• No sleeping pill gives you the restorative rest you get from natural sleep. Being knocked out does not equal healthy sleep.
• You can never recover the sleep you lose, it’s lost. Yes, you may sleep more to recover, but you will not recover the lost benefit because you lost sleep.
• Short on sleep equates to a shortened life. Any negative, medically related thing that is going on inside you is worsened by lack of sleep, and that includes age related dimensia.

In terms of point four, there's a sweet spot. Too much sleep is also associated with shortened life expectancy. If I remember correctly, I think 6-7 hours is the sweet spot, and this decreases as we get older.

 

[Ulenspiegel]

Terrible... can't ever fall asleep until super late....

Same here. For ages.

...I think 6-7 hours is the sweet spot, and this decreases as we get older.

I guess, I am getting old...

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Normally, I have little difficulty sleeping, and, when working abroad, one of the pleasures of my life is a nap shortly after finishing work for the day (unless I have some reports or stuff to look at in the evening, and, even then, I usually have a nap before dinner and addressing the reports).

Sleeping at night is rarely a problem, and these days, - unlike when I was younger - I don't often drink coffee in the evening.

However, having just finished a recent stint abroad of a year, I find that I am exhausted. These past few weeks, since my return, I have been sleeping eight to nine hours - soundly, straight through - most nights.

 

[SandboxGeneral]

I generally get about 7 to 8 hours each night. Anything less than that and I am most cranky and unproductive.

Naps are a regular occurrence on the weekends and sometimes after work. I love naps and always have!

The quality of my sleep has varied over time though. Up until recently I was not getting very good sleep. The fix it turned out was to implement a closed door policy. I had to keep the cats out of the bedroom because even though I'd be asleep all night they did things to me. I don't know what things usually, but they did things to me and it caused me to not sleep well and I'd be very tired a lot.

But since I started closing the bedroom door I've been getting pretty decent sleep at night.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

I generally get about 7 to 8 hours each night. Anything less than that and I am most cranky and unproductive.

Naps are a regular occurrence on the weekends and sometimes after work. I love naps and always have!

The quality of my sleep has varied over time though. Up until recently I was not getting very good sleep. The fix it turned out was to implement a closed door policy. I had to keep the cats out of the bedroom because even though I'd be asleep all night they did things to me. I don't know what things usually, but they did things to me and it caused me to not sleep well and I'd be very tired a lot.

But since I started closing the bedroom door I've been getting pretty decent sleep at night.

Yes, I can imagine with cats that a closed door policy at bedtime is best.

Same with dogs.

 

[Huntn]

Terrible... can't ever fall asleep until super late, which would be fine if I didn't have to get up early. Being a surgeon and on call doesn't help. Typically 4-6 hours a night, broken.
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In terms of point four, there's a sweet spot. Too much sleep is also associated with shortened life expectancy. If I remember correctly, I think 6-7 hours is the sweet spot, and this decreases as we get older.

Have you talked to a doctor about it? Seriously If you have a racing mind, one that finds it hard to disengage when it’s time to sleep, my wife takes a medicine that is supposed to help her turn off her brain at night, not a sedative though.

I am very lucky, when I lay down to sleep, unless I have something bothering me, my brain disengages almost immediately. Even with something bothering me, I still drift off.

 

[Lioness~]

Irregular sleep, as that is how my work is.

But I get my hours. Some weeks I get like 9-10/day and night in average.
Other weeks, I might snitt between 5 to 7 hrs.
I like that my Polar sport clock is reporting how much sleep I get.
But that isn't entirely true, as it's only telling me the longest sleeping period.
Most of the time anyway. But it seems like Polars's software is improving since I had a long discussion with a guy at Polar about this. Anyway, even if the report tells me 6 hrs, the diagram can show me that I might slept 4 hours before that. Then had minor break, where I might have 'dreamwalked' to the bathroom or something else, and back to sleep. So the whole sleep that day & night was 10 hrs.

Regardless if people say that you can't catch up on sleep, I know I can.
They can say whatever they want to say. People say a lot of things that doesn't rhyme with me
My experience is otherwise. What works for me, works for me.
I have an irregular, but a great sleep and good dreaming

 

[Huntn]

Irregular sleep, as that is how my work is.

But I get my hours. Some weeks I get like 9-10/day and night in average.
Other weeks, I might snitt between 5 to 7 hrs.
I like that my Polar sport clock is reporting how much sleep I get.
But that isn't entirely true, as it's only telling me the longest sleeping period.
Most of the time anyway. But it seems like Polars's software is improving since I had a long discussion with a guy at Polar about this. Anyway, even if the report tells me 6 hrs, the diagram can show me that I might slept 4 hours before that. Then had minor break, where I might have 'dreamwalked' to the bathroom or something else, and back to sleep. So the whole sleep that day & night was 10 hrs.

Regardless if people say that you can't catch up on sleep, I know I can.
They can say whatever they want to say. People say a lot of things that doesn't rhyme with me
My experience is otherwise. What works for me, works for me.
I have an irregular, but a great sleep and good dreaming

A specific point, the Sleep Institue expert made was that you can feel like you have recovered from loss of sleep, which you have, but you still lost something restorative in the process you can’t recover, by sleeping more later, no matter how good you feel.

 

[Lioness~]

A specific point, the Sleep Institue expert made was that you can feel like you have recovered from loss of sleep, which you have, but you still lost something restorative in the process you can’t recover, by sleeping more later, no matter how good you feel.

I don't care what they say, who they are. Any title doesn't make their truth per se more valuable. Sometimes it's the opposite. Particular experts is spreading untruths and breaks the evolvement of consciousness.
I've been up against professors in matters more important then this, and won
I don't have time to discuss that here though. I'm just saying.
So again, they can rant what **** they want. I trust my sources!
Which are not only my opinions, but other that I've discussed with as well.
Other factors are most probably involved in capacity of restoration, in sleep as well in other ways.

Everyone can believe what the heck they want, too.

 

[Huntn]

I don't care what they say, who they are. Any title doesn't make their truth per se more valuable. Sometimes it's the opposite. Particular experts is spreading untruths and breaks the evolvement of consciousness.
I've been up against professors in matters more important then this, and won
I don't have time to discuss that here though. I'm just saying.
So again, they can rant what **** they want. I trust my sources!
Which are not only my opinions, but other that I've discussed with as well.
Other factors are most probably involved in capacity of restoration, in sleep as well in other ways.

Everyone can believe what the heck they want, too.

That’s fine, I don't begrude you an opinion as informed or uninformed as it might be. Not saying it is either. However the source of the info was not presented in the form of a rant and I tend to put more faith in dedicated, in-depth studies involving large numbers of people than how someone says they feel. This does not counter in any way, what the expert was saying research reveals. And no argument that you feel just fine.

 

[Lioness~]

That’s fine, I don't begrude you an opinion as informed or uninformed as it might be. Not saying it is either. However the source of the info was not presented in the form of a rant and I tend to put more faith in dedicated, in-depth studies involving large numbers of people than how someone says they feel. This does not counter in any way, what the expert was saying research reveals. And no argument that you feel just fine.

In-depth studies of a 'large number of people'? That is SO your interpretation.
What kind of people? Most likely the same kind of average people who wants some bucks to participate in it, and report what they get payed for.
The day when the leading minds on the planet participate in dumb-studies won't happen, guess why?
You can degrade, what I feel as much as you want. It just says more about you.
My perceptional levels are in a field you'll never touch. But be safe, listen to the average minds and live an average life. And have a nice sleep.

And by that I put you on the ignore list. You add nothing to my life, and your questions have no substance.

 

[Huntn]

In-depth studies of a 'large number of people'? That is SO your interpretation.
What kind of people? Most likely the same kind of average people who wants some bucks to participate in it, and report what they get payed for.
The day when the leading minds on the planet participate in dumb-studies won't happen, guess why?
You can degrade, what I feel as much as you want. It just says more about you.
My perceptional levels are in a field you'll never touch. But be safe, listen to the average minds and live an average life. And have a nice sleep.

And by that I put you on the ignore list. You add nothing to my life, and your questions have no substance.

I not fighting with you. Maybe your anger has to do with not enough sleep? The guy runs a sleep institute, it’s his life’s work. Unfortunately I don’t remember his name or the name of the Institute. He was interviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air. Please go about your business and please do ignore what this person has to say about sleep. I’m sure you are exempt from his findings.

 

[themp]

Have you talked to a doctor about it? Seriously If you have a racing mind, one that finds it hard to disengage when it’s time to sleep, my wife takes a medicine that is supposed to help her turn off her brain at night, not a sedative though.

I am very lucky, when I lay down to sleep, unless I have something bothering me, my brain disengages almost immediately. Even with something bothering me, I still drift off.

Haha, right. It’s more of a circadian rhythm delay and my natural clock not matching up with society’s norm, just a night owl. Unfortunately can’t take most medications to induce sleep as most could make you sleep through a call or cloud judgement, but melatonin seems to help. I’ve mostly just gotten used to it.
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I not fighting with you. Maybe your anger has to do with not enough sleep? The guy runs a sleep institute, it’s his life’s work. Unfortunately I don’t remember his name or the name of the Institute. He was interviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air. Please go about your business and please do ignore what this person has to say about sleep. I’m sure you are exempt from his findings.

Also both of you are correct... sleep debt is a real phenomenon where you do “make up for lost sleep” and offset the negative consequences of lost sleep (fatigue, decreased concentration, etc). However, as I think the sleep expert meant, you can’t get back the benefits (positive consequences, such as decreased disease risk, restorative effects) of sleep that never took place (“lost sleep”) because it never happened. Hard to verbalize what I mean, I guess you can’t completely pay off a sleep debt and get the long term benefits of a regular sleep cycle without having one. Not that it’s measurable, and who knows maybe 5 hours one night and 9 the next is just as good. All we know is that sleep is critical for your brain to remove toxins, oxygen free radicals, misfolded proteins, etc that build up in your neurons during the day. The rate of toxin buildup vs clearance for periods awake vs sleeping and where the optimal range is who knows. What is clear is in the long run if you don’t get enough sleep, on average, more toxins and misfolded proteins build up during wakeful hours than can be cleared during sleep, hence the risk of neurodegenerative disease.

 

[LizKat]

I am very lucky, when I lay down to sleep, unless I have something bothering me, my brain disengages almost immediately. Even with something bothering me, I still drift off.

Not only am I like that, I have maybe two minutes to get myself upstairs when my brain signals it's time to go to sleep. Otherwise as they say, my "results may vary"... I am capable of leaving lights on downstairs that I'd usually turn off, or maybe toting upstairs whatever happens to be in my hand when my mental coach has turned into a pumpkin already: a coffee cup I meant to drop off in the kitchen before shutting the lights there, or the USB cable I may have detached from some device I was charging. It's pretty comical when I wake up in the morning and find I've carefully set some out-of-place item on the nightstand before shutting the light off up there. At least I do close that light: my brain seems to remember I need it dark to really fall asleep.

My siblings are all aware of my tendency to do a sudden fade. When I'm visiting them and staying overnight, once I stand up and say "Well I'm heading up" the joke is "don't distract her now, you'll find her sleeping on the stairway if there are more steps there than in her home."

Maybe it's some partly genetic thing. My mom's brother was always like that as he grew older. He could fall asleep while speaking in mid-sentence during a family gathering, after a certain hour of night. He'd be trying to remain a conventional host, engaging in casual conversation, but then his brain just kinda shrugged at some point I guess, and ran the rest of the shutdown.

On the other hand, as in my case now, he had cut way down on the amount of caffeine he consumed as he grew older, so that could be part of it too. When it's time to go to sleep, it's time to go to sleep. If we clear away all the possible biochemical obfuscation of normal sleep signals, I guess we'd all still be more attuned to circadian rhythms, and so generally early to rise and early to bed. Never could have sold me on that idea when I was in my 20s though, I must say.

 

[jeremysteele]

My sleep is awful. 3 hrs one night, 7 the next, with constant pain and migraines during the day. All my doctor says is "be less stressed", but all that does is stress me out more

Seriously though, my sleep patterns are terrible. Got one of those foam (not memory foam, that stuff is overrated!) pillows and sleep 90x better than the ones I was using before... so that's an improvement. 3 hrs of sleep with the new pillow feels better than 8 hrs with my old pillows, it's kind of awesome. Next up will be the mattress!

Of course with my birthday coming up I'm super stressed and barely sleeping at all. Some people get stressed around the holidays, but for me it has always been my birthday. I hate being reminded of my slowly expiring clock.

 

[Septembersrain]

I have a terrible insomnia. You could put a multitude of drugs into my system and I'll still be awake.

I do suffer from fibromyalgia with IBS and interstitial cystitis. I've got anxiety and depression. There are a few other health conditions too.

My sleep has become worse after my move. I'm also barely maintaining my weight after losing over 20 Lbs. It's frustrating.

 

[Lioness~]

Got one of those foam (not memory foam, that stuff is overrated!) pillows and sleep 90x better than the ones I was using before... so that's an improvement. 3 hrs of sleep with the new pillow feels better than 8 hrs with my old pillows, it's kind of awesome. Next up will be the mattress!

I recently bought a new and the thickest Memory Foam mattress I could find, it was not overrated for me.
Totally wonderful!
I was going to replace my pillows too. Thanks for reminding me, had almost forgot it
Putting in a reminder in Things immediately.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Not only am I like that, I have maybe two minutes to get myself upstairs when my brain signals it's time to go to sleep. Otherwise as they say, my "results may vary"... I am capable of leaving lights on downstairs that I'd usually turn off, or maybe toting upstairs whatever happens to be in my hand when my mental coach has turned into a pumpkin already: a coffee cup I meant to drop off in the kitchen before shutting the lights there, or the USB cable I may have detached from some device I was charging. It's pretty comical when I wake up in the morning and find I've carefully set some out-of-place item on the nightstand before shutting the light off up there. At least I do close that light: my brain seems to remember I need it dark to really fall asleep.

My siblings are all aware of my tendency to do a sudden fade. When I'm visiting them and staying overnight, once I stand up and say "Well I'm heading up" the joke is "don't distract her now, you'll find her sleeping on the stairway if there are more steps there than in her home."

Maybe it's some partly genetic thing. My mom's brother was always like that as he grew older. He could fall asleep while speaking in mid-sentence during a family gathering, after a certain hour of night. He'd be trying to remain a conventional host, engaging in casual conversation, but then his brain just kinda shrugged at some point I guess, and ran the rest of the shutdown.

On the other hand, as in my case now, he had cut way down on the amount of caffeine he consumed as he grew older, so that could be part of it too. When it's time to go to sleep, it's time to go to sleep. If we clear away all the possible biochemical obfuscation of normal sleep signals, I guess we'd all still be more attuned to circadian rhythms, and so generally early to rise and early to bed. Never could have sold me on that idea when I was in my 20s though, I must say.

I get some of this.

When I was younger, (and even now, occasionally, out for one of those dinners concluded with coffee and cognac, usually several and in congenial company) I consumed coffee at all hours, and was utterly nocturnal.

These days, I seldom (I won't yet say rarely) consume coffee after six or seven in the evening.

However, I still write well at night, - actually, most of my best writing is done in the evening & early morning hours - I am still not morning person, but I do cope a little better with them nowadays.

But, yes, I do now know that "sudden switch off syndrome". It is the one which flashes an abrupt fax message in your head - 'sleep ahead in around one minute'. It is the one which triggers my post work naps.

And yes, there have been nights where - a sudden and attack meant - that I thought that 40 winks on the sofa were required to give me the energy to subsequently climb the stairs to bed. Garfield, bless him - he understood it - and brilliantly described it as 'a nap attack'.

And yes, very occasionally, I do arrive in my bedroom - and only see in that morning, that I arrived there with something I had not planned to bring upstairs.

 

[Nhwhazup]

Retired for 3 months and now sleeping pattern is all screwed up. Sometimes tired by 9 or so, and other times still wide awaken at 11. Then wake up multiple times during the night. I think I need more brain activity during the day.

My prior job required constant problem solving, was stressful and required putting in 50-60 plus hours per week to keep up. Going from that to total retirement has been an adjustment - still working on it.

 

[Gutwrench]

I have a terrible insomnia. You could put a multitude of drugs into my system and I'll still be awake.

I do suffer from fibromyalgia with IBS and interstitial cystitis. I've got anxiety and depression. There are a few other health conditions too.

My sleep has become worse after my move. I'm also barely maintaining my weight after losing over 20 Lbs. It's frustrating.

I’d like to discuss fibro sometime if you wouldn’t mind.
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DreamControl

I wonder: while dreaming ... Can you control your dream ?

I manage quite often to stop a scary or stupid dream. Of course I wake up for few seconds.

How about you ?

I could, so it’s a yes from me.
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Have you guys ever fired a gun in your sleep? Whenever I do, the bullets come out real slow and they don't hurt anyone.

Kinda...I have/had a reoccurring shooting dream. It’s always about the same scenario...I’m being shot at or about to be shot at...I’m trying to control my emotion and get my first shot to count...unfortunately no matter how much I squeeze the trigger the hammer would just keep pulling back and never drop. Lol.

 

[Macky-Mac]

...

• Melatonin as far as a pill is the best thing you can take, however, it just tells your body, it’s time to sleep. It’s not involved in the sleep itself. So it’s useful for recovering from jet lag...

My doctor suggested I try melatonin and I've had good results with it. I fall asleep faster which leads to maybe an additional 30 minutes a night.

 

[Huntn]

I have a terrible insomnia. You could put a multitude of drugs into my system and I'll still be awake.

I do suffer from fibromyalgia with IBS and interstitial cystitis. I've got anxiety and depression. There are a few other health conditions too.

My sleep has become worse after my move. I'm also barely maintaining my weight after losing over 20 Lbs. It's frustrating.

Sorry you are dealing with this.