Who needs sleep? Tell me what's that for

[venta]

I mentioned in passing a couple of days ago that I had a very poor night's sleep one day last week. I was stopping at a friend's house, and I retired to bed in a sleeping bag on an air mattress.

It was a pretty comfy air mattress, and I settled down... and didn't go to sleep. I continued to not-go-to-sleep more or less until it was time to get up again.

This happens to me very occasionally, and usually only for a section of the night. I've never described it as insomnia; from what other people tell me, insomnia is unpleasant. I always think of it as asomnia - an absence of, or indifference to, sleep[*]. I don't toss and turn, I don't worry about things, I'm not unhappy about my lack of sleep. I'm warm, comfortable, relaxed and quite happy. I'm just... not asleep. I'd liken it more to the relaxing feeling of waking up at a weekend and knowing you don't have to get up yet.

The day after I was a little tired - and very ready for my bed by the time I got there at about 11pm - but otherwise fine. If I actually get very little sleep of a night, I feel absolutely rubbish the next day. When organising a rapper bash a year or two ago I was up doing things until half past four, slept badly, and got up at half six to help with breakfast. I spent the whole of the following day feeling very queasy, and very grumpy. I think I had to have a little lie-down mid-afternoon.

And so, I'm curious... does having been in bed, resting, mean I'm fit to tackle the next day? Or is it that, in between lying awake, I fitted in some decent chunks of sleep I didn't notice? Or even that when I believed I was awake, I was in fact asleep... Wikipedia has quite an interesting page on Sleep state misperception.

How do insomniacs feel about being awake in the night? I've always understood it to be an unpleasant state, but is that "just" because of the worry that you need to be asleep in order to tackle the next day?

I assume that if - say - someone was unable to sleep because of pain, that wouldn't be classed as insomnia. So do people who regularly fail to sleep "just" fail to sleep, or do they feel that there is something keeping them awake? I know some people talk about racing thoughts when trying to sleep, but I'm unsure whether they count that as a cause or an effect.

And, of course... does anyone else ever experience what I call asomnia?

[*] I tried to ask Wikipedia what the exact definition of the "a-" prefix was. It didn't go well.

Comments

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

I get this, and insomnia, and inability to sleep through pain. I wish it meant that I could actually function on less sleep than most, but really it means that I get progressively more tired and then when I can sleep I sleep for a long time (last week I had a night where I was wide awake - and not at all tired - until 5am, dozed a little until 7am, then got up; the following night I slept from 11pm to 11am).

Insomnia is horrible. Asomnia is - meh, bit boring really, but inoffensive. Inability to sleep through pain is the worst because you are tired, you want to go to sleep - you even drift off from time to time - but you just can't get rid of the obstructions to sleep. However, having not slept at all for most of Friday and Saturday nights (pain), on Sunday night I slept for 6hrs quite comfortably and last night the same, even though the pain (on this occasion pleurisy) is actually worse than it was Fri & Sat. I assume that I am just that bit more tired, so I can sleep through the pain that was keeping me awake when I was less tired.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I actually regard asomnia as a rather pleasant state - but then I'm not lagging behind on sleep as it sounds you are.

For some reason I always regard pleurisy as a Victorian illness which people nowadays don't catch - I'm quite aware that it isn't, but I can't shake the association. It sounds most unpleasant and painful, though, so I hope you're feeling better soon.

If you don't mind me asking, what makes insomnia horrible? And how does it differ from just "not being asleep"?

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

It does sound rather Victorian, doesn't it? My mother had it a few years ago and I was surprised then that people "still got that". Now I know what it is and how it develops, I'm not in the least bit surprised. I think it probably goes undiagnosed quite a lot ("a chesty cough you can't shake off for weeks" might be pleurisy) because we self-medicate and don't bother GPs with it.

Insomnia, to me, is horrible because it's a fight. I've suffered since I was a small child being forced into sleep patterns that didn't suit me at all, so it's partly emotional. When I'm simply not tired enough to sleep, or just relaxed, that's fine. When I am so tired my eyes won't stay open long without watering, and my muscles are heavy, but there's no actual pain to keep me awake, then the only thing keeping me from sleep is my own brain. And the more I try to sleep the harder it fights me. That's why I call it horrible, because it feels like I am being sabotaged by myself. Being kept awake by pain is actually slightly easier from the mental/emotional POV, because at least I know why I am still awake (but it's still the worst because PAIN).

[venta.livejournal.com]

Ugh, I can see how that would be pretty frustrating :(

If you are tired, but need to get something done/finished/whatever, are you good at staying awake (on purpose) to do so? I was essaying a theory a while ago that most people are either good at sleeping (fall asleep easily, stay asleep, poor at staying awake when required) or good at waking (can stay awake for long periods, and can snap into wakefulness quickly, but also end up awake when they wish to be asleep). Do you think there's any mileage in that?

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

That's certainly true for me, yes. And for my dad, who doesn't have insomnia (and takes a lot of afternoon naps!) but can be awake at any hour he wants to be and be just as alert on a few hours sleep as he can on 8+. My mum is a sleeping person who, if she has to stay awake at an unusual time (e.g. catching an early flight), will doze off frequently and needs to be woken again. If it's dark outside, Mum needs to be asleep. She used to leave work at 3pm in winter, before she retired.

smallclanger is currently a sleeping person - once asleep he can be "woken" for coherent conversations but he doesn't remember them at all, and he could and would fall asleep in the middle of dinner or activities when smaller. Most small children do the "sleep anywhere anytime" thing, of course, but at his age I was definitely an awake person so I suspect he's taking after my mum.

[shermarama]

I'm not sure I fit in your theory. I've been reading with interest but not commenting on the rest of this thread because it's vanishingly uncommon for me to have trouble sleeping; I lie down, I go to sleep, I wake up however many hours it is later. But if I need to stay awake to do something in the middle of the night, I can do that, although I may need to have to make sure I get enough sleep the next night.