I just can't get no sleep tonight

[venta]

If asked to list things I'm good at, I'd put "sleeping" really near the top of the list. I can sleep anywhere, through anything, at very short notice. I'm crap at getting up, but boy can I sleep.

On Friday night I went to bed at an unusually late 2am, after a pleasant evening with davefish, lanfykins and hendybear. From under my duvet I could hear Hendybear and Lanfykins talking and laughing in the next room... as I failed to go to sleep til nearly 5. I should add that they weren't keeping me awake - I'm used to sleeping through the sounds of voices (and I'd have gone and asked them to shut up if it was a problem).

However, since I had an early morning on Saturday, I got very little sleep. The two nights since then I've fallen into bed quite tired (late on Saturday after a hen-night, and early last night because I was knackered) and gone to sleep, only to wake up somewhere around 5am. This is not good, and it's not like me. And I don't like it.

So I'm rather short on sleep at the moment, and feeling very flaky at work. My ravel'd sleeve has not been knit up. However, I observer that a surprising number of people seem to be claiming lack of sleep at present. Is there some kind of plague of insomnia hitting the nation ?

[Poll #1167128]

Comments

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

2, 3 and 4. Ticky boxes > radio buttons.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Not > , just different.

Dammit, I want simple explanations, not multi-rationale complex answers. Obviously not everything can be reduced to ticky boxes, but I think with things like insomnia people are inclined to quest for answers and tick all available boxes rather than trying to choose a main cause.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Besides, I don't believe you can be simultaneously ill and recovered from being ill!

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

Just finished having one thing wrong with me, think I'm coming down with something else! (Have you never had e.g. a cold followed by a stomach bug?)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Oh indeed I have, and you have my sympathy because that sort of thing can be really wearing. I just wouldn't describe myself as 'recovered' if I wasn't feeling back up to full health again.

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

I had sleep paralysis disorder and night terrors last night for the first time in a while last night - horrible fear that there was someone in the house or something in the room with me that had me waking up breathless from trying to scream a scream that wouldn't come out. Not sure what caused it but I hope to hell it was a one off. I used to suffer badly with this and it was pretty exhausting.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Urk, that sounds hideous. I hope it was a one-night-only special offer.

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

It's not fun, it's true. Apparently it's less fun for people sharing a bed with me, as I tend to yell and lash out when I snap out of the paralysis.

[kissifa.livejournal.com]

The reason I've put better than usual is because normally where I'd get up in the night, I don't now, and have been lazing in bed till mid-afternoon on weekends to make up for the sleep lost in the week. :)

My personal explanation is our eyes are getting tricked by the brighter light in the morning as spring progresses and summer approaches, and making us think it's later than it is!

[leathellin.livejournal.com]

Hayfever season just started getting fun for me (well here anyway). It takes me a little while to readjust to being a bit sniffly and sleeping well.
I woke up too early (5am) on Saturday morning but that was probably just a one off.

[mister-jack.livejournal.com]

I have to sleep funny 'cos of my collar bone. Hence substandard sleep. And I don't sleep well to start with.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Belated sympathy for your collar bone - I'm not very good at reading LJ so hadn't realised you'd snapped yourself into pieces.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Sleep disorder trying to decide whether it's time to go away for the year or not.

[ar-gemlad.livejournal.com]

It's the hour's difference that has thrown me. Last week wasn't too bad, but I realised that at the weekend I'd reverted to going to bed at Bed O'clock GMT, rather than BST.

[ringbark.livejournal.com]

Ah! There may be something in what you say.
And going to Belgium for the night before the clocks changed probably didn't help me much either.

[secretrebel.livejournal.com]

I have been sleeping worse than usual and blame:
a) The weather. I egenraly sleep badly when pressure changes
b) Myself. My snoring wakes up the boy who then wakes me up to stop me doing it
c) Shadow. For screaming in my ear at insane o'clock.

The weather is however the only factor that I may have in common with others.

[pm215]

Currently sleeping on the futon waiting for my mattress to dry out; it's not as comfortable so it's harder to get to sleep. My other usual insomnia trigger is an RSI flareup.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Is it tactless to enquire what happened to your mattress !?

[pm215]

The most recent rotation revealed some white marks (mould?) on the underside where it had been resting against the slats of the bed base. I have (on the recommendation of my mother) tried a scrub with detergent, and it is now drying out...

[j4.livejournal.com]

The really annoying thing is not that I've been getting less sleep than usual but that the quality of my sleep seems to get worse the more sleep I have: if I get to bed sensibly early, I either lie awake till 3 a.m., or sleep apparently soundly (even sleeping through all the delivery lorries etc.) but eventually get dragged into wakefulness feeling as though I've been bashed all over with the giant mallet of tiredness; if I don't get to sleep till 1 a.m. I seem to be less horribly knackered when I get woken up at 6 a.m. by the delivery lorries.

I have heard theories about sleep happening in 4-hour cycles or something, and there being bad points to be woken at, so e.g. 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep is actually better than 6 (but worse than 8?), but the whole thing is all a bit superstition-and-folk-wisdom.

[glittertigger]

I've been sleeping badly due to a shoulder injury. It's getting better slowly.

[ebee.livejournal.com]

Handy Local Mage has a great mp3 file he could send for a nighttime hypno to help sleep- its great and has got me through a lot- he's in this evening so imagine he could mail it to you..

[cuthbertcross.livejournal.com]

2 small sentient alarm clocks.
That cough and occasionally wander into the room to prod me.
And otherwise make intermittent noises that range from snuffling to air-raid-siren-impersonations.
Joy!