I've been battling with insomnia for many many years now.
I could very easily maintain a 36 hour day - stay up for 24hrs and really out of exhaustion, collaspse for 12 hours. I could do it for weeks at a time if allowed to, but then it puts you out of sync with the sun's cycle and I find that that affects my moods drastically.
Every now and then I would try to reset my cycle, by staying up through the exhaustion, and finally allowing myself to collaspe at around 8pm one night, most likely I would wake up at a "normal" time, and try to stick to it.
As a result, about every two weeks of messed up sleep cycle, I would have one week of a normal cycle and feeling fantastic, until eventually I would allow that cycle to slip again, or have my mind hijacked with thoughts on one night and could not sleep. For the past week plus I've been waking up at normal hours (8 or 9am), but last night, having stuff to worry about and having had quite an unpleasantly eventful day, I could not sleep until about 5 or 6am, and woke up at 2pm. I don't think I could sleep easily tonight, so I guess I'll just have to pull through and stay awake - that would mean over 30+ waking hours for me.
Doxylamine succinate (12.5mg, but with some bad hangovers) or two shots of scotch could *help* you sleep, though I can't sleep unless I allow myself to. There are times when you just don't feel like falling asleep because you've not lived a full day, and you feel somewhat unsatisfied. Perhaps it's an intrinsic fear of death.
I find that getting organised does help falling asleep. Also try to mentally prepare yourself for sleep. For most people I know, they have a time when they would feel sleepy (9pm to 11pm for example), and if they stay away beyond that time they would find it hard to fall asleep.
I do enjoy the long night which never seems to end (as long as i'm not trying to fall asleep). I also enjoy waking up very early in the moring and feeling rested!
25 Jun 2005, 6:09 pm
