buried under 8-12" of snow
Another insomniac here! Went to bed about midnight, never fell asleep. Gave it up at 4:30 am. And I have to go to work in a few hours.
I just finished Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls...just after 4 a.m.
It is what I would call literature. Lots of big themes.
Meh. I've been known to get only 6 hours over a 4 day period. I was exhausted but could not sleep. Finally my body just crashed out. I'm glad I've not had one of those recently.
This is scary when that happens. I once only slept about 1 1/2 hours in 4 days, then one day I blacked out and woke up on my bathroom floor with a headache and cup in my hand. So many questions come from that: Why did I have a cup in the bathroom? How did I get in the bathroom? My head hurt, did I slam to the floor or was I so out of it that I laid on my bathroom floor? and most important, did I turn into a werewolf and attack people?
Lately insomnia has gone for a weird twist; I used to go with little sleep (ie...2 1/2-3 hours a night), but lately I will fall asleep at 11pm, wake up at midnight, fall back to sleep at 2:30 wake up at 3, falll back asleep at 5 and wake up at 6. (times are not exact, just an example). This intermittant sleep is WAY worse! I would rather have 2 hours of solid sleep than 5 hours waking up so many times.
What's your longest stretch of no sleep?
After about 36 hours caffeine just keeps you from nodding off without actually perking you up. That was a strange 4 day period for me. I would literally zone out staring at the maestros at Tyson and my inspector would throw water on me and look at me like WTF are you doing? I finally crashed out for about 12 hours, luckily I was at home and I wasn't disturbed. I woke up with my coke spilled on my bed, my head on my book and my notes scattered about and the TV playing in the background. I got up with a huge headache and stumbled to the bathroom. I looked like shit. I was all pale and just looked exhausted. After a shower I felt better.
The other day I looked in the mirror and I have dark purple bags under my eyes. I think my insomnia may be catching up to me to the point that it's breaking me down. Tonight I may try to lay down a bit earlier.
Sleep deprivation does crazy sh*t to people. You feel weird, too. I actually thought I was hallucinating during that forty hr stretch without sleep. I may have been. When I've gone without sleep long enough, I've made myself hypomanic and I hallucinate. Talk about being in the Twilight Zone!
But, this was back in the day when taking care of myself wasn't high on my list of priorities. Now, I take the medication I'm prescribed and try to get 10 hrs of sleep. Most of the time, it works. But, I still have periods where I can't sleep no matter what I take or do.